Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
2. In view of the Pre-Appeal Brief Request filed on July 29, 2029, PEOSECUTION IS HEREBY REOPENED. New grounds of rejection are set forth below.
To avoid abandonment of the application, appellant must exercise one of the following two options:
(1) file a reply under 37 CFR 1.111 (if this Office action is non-final) or a reply
under 37 CFR 1.113 (if this Office action is final); or,
(2) request reinstatement of the appeal.
If reinstatement of the appeal is requested, such request must be accompanied by a supplemental appeal brief, but no new amendments, affidavits (37 CFR 1.130, 1.131 or 1.132) or other evidence are permitted. See 37 CFR 1.193(b) (2).
3. In view of the new grounds of rejection presented below, the present
Office Action is made NON-FINAL.
Summary of claims
4. Claims 1-12 are pending,
Claims 13-16 are cancelled,
Claims 1, 8 are independent claims,
Claims 1-7 are rejected,
Claims 8-12 are allowed.
Remarks
5. Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed on 3/23/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-12 under 103 have been fully considered and are moot in view of new rejection ground(s).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
6. Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pelin Ersavas et al (US Publication 20130207771 A1, hereinafter Ersavas), and in view of Justin Koch et al (US Publication 20170032473 A1, hereinafter Koch).
As for independent claim 1, Ersavas discloses: An irrigation management system (Ersavas: Abstract, Methods and systems are provided for monitoring and controlling irrigation and climate conditions in landscapes (such as, e.g., municipal parks, gardens, and sports fields) and agricultural environments (such as, e.g., open agricultural fields, greenhouses, and other sites growing crops), comprising: an irrigation management application for use in monitoring and/or controlling irrigation of at least one irrigation area (Ersavas: Abstract, Methods and systems are provided for monitoring and controlling irrigation and climate conditions in landscapes (such as, e.g., municipal parks, gardens, and sports fields) and agricultural environments (such as, e.g., open agricultural fields, greenhouses, and other sites growing crops) including a plurality of irrigation stations (Ersavas: [0064], Station status displays the reading success percentage for the stations, their battery usage, and signals), wherein the irrigation management application is configured to be executed by an electronic device including a control circuit, and a memory, wherein the irrigation management application is stored in the memory, and wherein when executed by the control circuit (Ersavas: [0083], The remote monitoring and control processes described above may be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. The processes are preferably implemented in one or more computer programs executing on a programmable computer (which can be part of the central server system 4) including a processor, a storage medium readable by the processor (including, e.g., volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storage elements), and input and output devices), the irrigation management application is configured to: cause a user interface to be displayed on a display to a user, the user interface including a table of data including numeral values relating to one or more characteristics of an irrigation system, wherein the table includes rows and columns of the data including the numerical values (Ersavas: Figs. 13-15, a user interface including tables comprising rows and columns of the irrigation system data; Figs. 14, 15, 27, 32, 33, 38, 46, tables including rows and columns of data including the numerical values); and cause the user interface to be displayed such that numerical values of the data are displayed in multiple colors, each color indicating different ranges of the numerical values of the data (Ersavas: [0023], color indicators--e.g. blue for wet, red for dry and green for normal), [0069], In step (D3) clicking on the name displays the monitor in any kind of chart with all different risk level zones shown in different colors as shown in step (D4), exemplary FIG. 25. In both cases (charts and table data), disease or pest summary information is displayed on top of the page as it has the same capability on the dashboard. Disease monitors have risk level (severe, high, medium) color codes next to their names as shown in FIG. 24. Pest type monitors have the charts with the last stage zones colored as shown in exemplary FIG. 26.).
Ersavas discloses an automatic irrigation control system including a user interface including displaying data in multiple colors, but Ersavas does not expressly disclose multiple colors indicate different ranges of the values, in an analogous art of presenting data in tables, Koch discloses: cause the user interface to be displayed such that numerical values of the data are displayed in multiple colors, each color indicating different ranges of the numerical values of the data (Koch: Fig. 4 and [0030], A legend 420 relates a plurality of adjustment ranges to a color or pattern);
Ersavas and Koch are analogous arts because they are in the same field of endeavor, presenting data in tables. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill, in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of Ersavas using the teachings of Koch to include displaying data in different colors to indicate the range of the data. It would provide Ersavas’s system with enhanced capabilities of allowing user to easily aware the status of the event and data.
As for claim 2, Ersavas-Koch discloses: wherein at least two of the colors comprise different shades of one color (Koch: Fig. 4 and [0030], A legend 420 relates a plurality of adjustment ranges to a color or pattern).
As for claim 3, Ersavas-Koch discloses: wherein one of the at least two of the colors comprise a second color different than the one color, the second color to visually indicate a particular data value as an outlier value (Koch: Fig. 4 and [0030], A legend 420 relates a plurality of adjustment ranges to a color or pattern, for example, one color represents >10%, and another color represents <10%).
As for claim 4, Ersavas-Koch discloses: wherein a darker color indicates a higher range of the values of the data than a lighter color; or wherein a lighter color indicates a higher range of the values of the data than a darker color (Koch: Fig. 4 and [0030], A legend 420 relates a plurality of adjustment ranges to a color or pattern, for example, one color/pattern represents >10%, and another color/pattern represents <10%).
As for claim 5, Ersavas-Koch discloses: the multiple colors comprise a first color and a second color, wherein the first color indicates that the data value has been increased from a nominal value and the second color indicates that the data value has been decreased from the nominal value (Ersavas: [0023], color indicators--e.g. blue for wet, red for dry and green for normal); please note blue means data increase from the normal, red means data decrease from the normal value).
As for claim 6, Ersavas-Koch discloses: wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of an irrigation station run time, an irrigation station water usage, and an irrigation station alert occurrences; and wherein the values comprise at least one of run times, number of gallons used, number of inches of irrigation applied, number of watering passes applied, irrigation station voltage, irrigation station pressure, irrigation station flow, irrigation station age/date code, precipitation rate, and number of irrigation station alerts (Ersavas: [0058], This customized page includes user added charts, readings, events, alerts, field and sensor status windows. The current field status window (portlet) gives the user quick access to the most important data from the site such as temperature, humidity, degree days, dew point, and ET (Evapotranspiration) values along with the live forecast info for that site by its zip code as shown in step (B1), FIG. 13, and mobile screen view FIG. 15 are exemplary dashboard screen shots; [0064], Station status displays the reading success percentage for the stations, their battery usage, and signals).
As for claim 7, Ersavas-Koch discloses: wherein the characteristics comprise at least one of an irrigation station or area run time, an irrigation station or area water usage, a number of irrigation station or area watering passes, an irrigation station voltage, an irrigation station pressure, an irrigation flow, an irrigation flow rate, an irrigation component age, an irrigation station precipitation rate, and a number of irrigation station alerts (Ersavas: [0058], This customized page includes user added charts, readings, events, alerts, field and sensor status windows. The current field status window (portlet) gives the user quick access to the most important data from the site such as temperature, humidity, degree days, dew point, and ET (Evapotranspiration) values along with the live forecast info for that site by its zip code as shown in step (B1), FIG. 13, and mobile screen view FIG. 15 are exemplary dashboard screen shots; [0064], Station status displays the reading success percentage for the stations, their battery usage, and signals).
claims 13-16 cancelled
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Hua Lu whose telephone number is 571-270-1410 and fax number is 571-270-2410. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9:00 am to 6:00 pm EST. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Scott Baderman can be reached on 571-272-3644. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 703-273-8300.
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/Hua Lu/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2118
Prosecution Insights