DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to Applicant's response to application filed on 02 June 2023. Currently, claims 1-24 are pending. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-24 are clearly drawn to at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter recited in 35 U.S.C. 101 (method and systems). Claims 1-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more. Claims 1, 16 and 24 recite the abstract idea of generating a design model for the NZEB based at least in part on one or more requirements of a user, wherein the design model is for estimating energy consumption for the NZEB over a predetermined period of time, wherein the NZEB comprises one or more building elements and one or more air-ventilation elements, and wherein at least one of the one or more building elements comprises pre-cast concrete and selecting at least one characteristic for one or more building parameters of the one or more building elements such that the estimated energy consumption for the NZEB is within a predetermined range, wherein the one or more air-ventilation elements comprise at least one heat pump with a programmable thermostat for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), and the one or more building elements comprise one or more photovoltaic (PV) tiles and one or more organic PV (OPV) windows. The claims are directed to a type of designing a building based on building characteristics based on the building being a net-zero building. Under prong 1 of Step 2A, these claims are considered abstract because the claims are certain methods of organizing human activity including commercial interactions (including business relations). Applicant’s claims are organized human activity including commercial interactions because designing a model for a net-zero building is considered a business activity and that activity is organized by selection of building parameters. Under prong 2 of Step 2A, the judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims (the judicial exception and any additional elements individually or in combination such as a system with a design module operable to generate a design model and a system comprising a processor; and a memory comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor perform the steps) are not an improvement to a computer or a technology, the claims do not apply the judicial exception with a particular machine, the claims do not effect a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing nor do the claims apply the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment such that the claims as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception. These limitations at best are merely implementing an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea - see MPEP 2106.05(f). Under Step 2B, the claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements individually or in combination such as a system with a design module operable to generate a design model and a system comprising a processor; and a memory comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor perform the steps (as evidenced by para [0023], [0047] of applicant’s own specification) are well understood, routine and conventional in the field. Dependent claims 2-15, 17-23 also do not include additional elements that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application because the additional elements either individually or in combination are merely an extension of the abstract idea itself by further showing in the design model, varying airtightness and indoor environment quality of the NZEB, wherein varying the airtightness and the indoor environment quality of the NZEB comprises: sealing the one or more OPV windows, penetrations, and openings in the one or more building elements of the NZEB; and controlling a ventilation airflow design rate and run-time, and an infiltration rate in the NZEB and wherein the one or more building elements comprise walls including a plurality of materials, and wherein the method further comprises: arranging, in the design model, the plurality of materials in layers to improve an insulation of the walls and wherein the insulation of the walls is modeled in a range of R-13 to R-20 and modeling insulation of the walls to include hemp wool and wherein the one or more building elements comprise slab floors including a plurality of materials, and wherein the method further comprises: arranging, in the design model, the plurality of materials in layers to improve an insulation of the slab floors and wherein the insulation of the slab floors is modeled in a range of R-13 to R-17 and wherein the one or more building elements comprise a ceiling including a plurality of materials, and wherein the method further comprises: arranging, in the design model, the plurality of materials in layers to improve an insulation of the ceiling and wherein the insulation of the ceiling is modeled at approximately R-30 and wherein the one or more OPV windows are modeled to a U-value of 0.65 or less, and a solar heat gain co-efficient (SHGC) value of 0.26 or less and modeling the programmable thermostat based at least in part on the one or more requirements of the user and wherein the one or more building elements comprise ducts and air handlers in a conditioned space of the NZEB and modeling the at least one heat pump to include a runtime, positive pressure, filtered fresh air ventilation system used for the HVAC and using the one or more building elements and the one or more air-ventilation elements to build the NZEB, wherein using the one or more building elements and the one or more air-ventilation elements to build the NZEB comprises constructing the NZEB based at least in part on the user requirements and the selected at least one characteristic for the one or more building parameters and wherein the estimated energy consumption is zero or less.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-24 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101, set forth in this Office action.
The claims are allowable over the closest art such as Yin et al. (US 20110253126 A1), Sinha et al. (US 20220067851 A1), Ogedenbe et al. (US 20240266866 A1) and Luhr (US 20060026009 A1) does not teach in the context of designing and constructing a net-zero energy building, wherein the design model for estimating energy consumption includes building elements that comprise pre-cast concrete and where the building elements comprise one or more photovoltaic tiles and one or more organic photovoltaic windows.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yin et al. (US 2011/0253126 A1), a net zero energy building that includes roofing panels positioned on a roof of a building, the roofing panels being made of an array of horizontal elliptic glass vacuum tube solar collectors attached upon a reinforced light weight concrete panel; electricity generators; an insulated fluid storage tank; and a fluid circulation sub-system joined with the panels, generators, and tank
Sprajcar et al. (EP 3929790 A1), a system for the production of a building which comprises at least one building subunit where technical boundary conditions for the production of a building are first generated, in which a construction surface and country-specific building regulations are acquired and/or analyzed and a building plan is established via a client-server model based on the technical boundary conditions, wherein a server device generates a building specification optimized in terms of the technical boundary conditions by means of an harmony search algorithm
Shehadi “Net-Zero Energy Buildings: Principles and Applications”, a chapter on net-zero energy buildings design tools and applications that can help designers in the commercial and residential sectors design their buildings to be net-zero energy buildings including case studies with benefits and challenges will be presented to illustrate the different designs to achieve a net-zero energy building (NZEB)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUJAY KONERU whose telephone number is 571-270-3409. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Patricia Munson can be reached on 571- 270-5396. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SUJAY KONERU/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3624
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