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 . 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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Maston US 2014/0062725. Maston discloses a road inspection system (100/900) comprising:
A remote user interface (128/902) having a processor (132/904) including a memory (906), a communication component (126), a mapping component (122) a position component (124) and plurality of road managers (112).
Wherein the road managers can be vehicles (400) with at least one road condition sensor (405) such as an optical or IR cameral that can record at least characteristic of a roadway, segment of a roadway or various segments of multiple areas. The roadway characteristic including temperature, cracks, ruts, potholes traffic volume/traffic type. [0010-13, 0035-53, 65-0072, 0077-0080].
The Processor (132) being configured to receive road condition data including long/lat coordinates associated with the roads/road segments scanned by the at least one mobile road manager (112).
The Processor being configured to receive historical data related to said road characteristics of said various roads/segments scanned by said mobile road managers.
The Processor configured to predict an expected road characteristic data set and compare said predicted data set to said road characteristics of said various roads/segments scanned by said mobile road managers.
The processor (132) configured to determine route planning and “optimization of maintenance efforts can be improved based on data provided to the server component (132)” from the mobile road managers and historical road characteristic data. See [0062-0067].
With respect to claims 3, 4, 8, 9 Maston discloses the [0029-33] processor is configured to create an inspection operation state map indicating the inspection route and transmit said route to said road managers (112) using user device (410) and provide a display (128, 510/520) with map data including roads, terrain, elevation, structures. Wherein road condition data symbols and the inspection route can be overlaid onto the displayed map. [0082-0087].
With respect to claims 5, 6, 10-12 Maston discloses the memory (906) can cooperate with the position component and mapping component to create a road inspection route based on historical road condition data/traffic data. [0062-63, 66-68, 73-85].
With respect to claim 7 Maston discloses a computer recording medium (132) configured to cooperate with said road inspection system (100/900) to receive stored historical road condition data, receive real-time road condition data from a plurality of road managers (112) and use said data to determine a state of road wear, cracks potholes etc. for a plurality of road segments scanned by said road managers (112).
And determine a route for road repair machines to follow, such that an optimization of maintenance efforts can be improved. See [0062-0067].
Conclusion
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAYMOND W ADDIE whose telephone number is (571)272-6986. The examiner can normally be reached on m-f 7:30-12:30, then 6-9pm.
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/RAYMOND W ADDIE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3671 1/232026