DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 32-52 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 4/21/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 6 recites the limitation "the dynamically configurable modes" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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, 2, 4, 7-12, 14-17, 19, 22-27 and 29-31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park et al. U.S. PGPub 2020/0167148.
Regarding claims 1, 16 and 31, Park discloses a building automation system comprising: one or more on-premises equipment (e.g. gateways) located on-premises at a building (e.g. Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); and a cloud controller (e.g. building server/cloud platform) located outside of the building and coupled to the on-premises equipment via an external network (e.g. Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); wherein the on-premises equipment includes a communication interface (e.g. ¶141; Fig. 6) and the on-premises equipment automatically collects a plurality of collected data from the communication interface (e.g. ¶54-55, 67, 78, 94, 97, 102 and 199; Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); the on-premises equipment transmits the collected data to the cloud controller via the external network (e.g. ¶54-55, 67, 78, 94, 97, 102 and 199; Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); the cloud controller analyses the collected data in order to determine one or more components that are coupled to the on-premises equipment via the communication interface (e.g. ¶64, 105 and 207); the cloud controller further updates a building record stored in a data storage device to store a record of the one or more components determined to be coupled to the on-premises equipment (e.g. ¶54-55, 67, 78, 94, 97, 102 and 199; Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); the cloud controller further transmits one or more configuration data (e.g. configuration update) to the on-premises equipment according to the one or more components determined to be coupled to the on-premises equipment (e.g. ¶136, 138 and 140); and the on-premises equipment utilizes the configuration data to dynamically reconfigure the communication interface to enable the on-premises equipment to communicate with the one or more components (e.g. HVAC devices) determined to be coupled to the on-premises equipment and perform at least one of receiving information from the one or more components and sending information to the one or more components (e.g. ¶136, 138 and 140).
Regarding claims 2 and 17, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 1, wherein: the cloud controller further determines a type of the one or more components according to the collected data and generates the configuration data according to the type (e.g. ¶64, 105, 179 and 207); and the on-premises equipment dynamically reconfigures the communication interface by dynamically reconfiguring software running on the on-premises equipment according to the configuration data received from the cloud controller thereby enabling the on-premises equipment to communicate with the type of the one or more components (e.g. ¶136, 138 and 140).
Regarding claims 4 and 19, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 1, wherein: the communication interface is an input output port that has a plurality of dynamically configurable modes (e.g. console instructions) (e.g. ¶140-143; 170); and the on-premises equipment dynamically reconfigures the communication interface by dynamically configuring a mode of the input output port to be one of the dynamically configurable modes according to the configuration data received from the cloud controller (e.g. ¶140-143; 170).
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 1, wherein: the on-premises equipment includes a plurality of pieces of on-premises (e.g. Fig. 5A, #502a-502d); each piece of on-premises equipment includes a respective communication interface (e.g. ¶141; Fig. 6) and each piece of on-premises equipment automatically collects a plurality of respective collected data from the respective communication interface (e.g. ¶54-55, 67, 78, 94, 97, 102 and 199; Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); each piece of on-premises equipment transmits the respective collected data collected at that piece of on-premises equipment to the cloud controller via the external network (e.g. ¶54-55, 67, 78, 94, 97, 102 and 199; Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); the cloud controller analyses the respective collected data received from each piece of on-premises equipment in order to determine one or more respective components that are coupled to each piece of on-premises equipment (e.g. ¶64, 105 and 207); the cloud controller further updates the building record stored in the data storage device to store a record of the one or more respective components determined to be coupled to each piece of on-premises equipment (e.g. ¶54-55, 67, 78, 94, 97, 102 and 199; Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); the cloud controller further transmits one or more respective configuration data to each piece of on-premises equipment according to the one or more respective components determined to be coupled to that piece of on-premises equipment (e.g. ¶136, 138 and 140); and each piece of on-premises equipment utilizes the respective configuration data received from the cloud controller to dynamically reconfigure the respective communication interface of that piece of on-premises equipment to enable that piece of on-premises equipment to communicate with the one or more components determined to be coupled to that piece of on-premises equipment and perform at least one of receiving information from the one or more respective components and sending information to the one or more respective components coupled to that piece of on-premises equipment (e.g. ¶136, 138 and 140).
Regarding claims 8 and 23, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 1, wherein: the on-premises equipment sends information to a particular one of the components in order to a set a value on the particular one of the components (e.g. ¶51-53, 118, 174-175, 178, 181 and 193); a predetermined time period after setting the value on the particular one of the components, the on-premises equipment automatically receives information from the particular one of the components to check the value and determine whether there has been an undesired change of the value (e.g. ¶51-53, 118, 174-175, 178, 181 and 193); and in response to determining there has been an undesired change of the value, the on-premises equipment sends information to the particular one of the components in order to re-set the value (i.e. adjust) on the particular one of the components (e.g. ¶51-53, 118, 174-175, 178, 181 and 193).
Regarding claims 9 and 24, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 8, wherein: in response to determining there has been an undesired change of the value, the on-premises equipment further determines whether a threshold criteria has been met (e.g. ¶51-53, 118, 174-175, 178, 181 and 193); and in response to determining the threshold criteria has been met, the on-premises equipment sends an alarm message to the cloud controller (e.g. ¶118, 174, 181, 183, 198 and 216).
Regarding claims 10 and 25, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 1, wherein: the cloud controller receives a plurality of timestamped data from the on-premises equipment according to one or more sensors at the building (e.g. ¶67, 159 and 171); the cloud controller analyses the timestamped data in order to detect an occurrence of a condition (e.g. ¶67, 159 and 171); in response to detecting the occurrence of the condition, the cloud controller sends one or more instructions to the on-premises equipment to set a value on an actuator at the building (e.g. ¶51-53, 118, 174-175, 178, 181 and 193); and the on-premises equipment sets the value on the actuator at the building according to the instructions received from the cloud controller (e.g. ¶51-53, 118, 174-175, 178, 181 and 193).
Regarding claims 11 and 26, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 10, wherein the on-premises equipment sets the value on the actuator by sending instructions to an intermediate piece of on-premises equipment to which the actuator is coupled, the intermediate piece of on-premises equipment thereafter transmitting instructions to set the value on the actuator (e.g. ¶51-53, 118, 174-175, 178, 181 and 193; Fig. 5A).
Regarding claims 12 and 27, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 10, wherein the cloud controller includes a graphical front end user interface that allows a user to create the condition without requiring the user to write software (e.g. ¶89, 146 and 189).
Regarding claims 14 and 29, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 1, wherein: the on-premises equipment stores a plurality of sensor data according to one or more sensors at the building (e.g. ¶54-55, 67, 78, 94, 97, 102 and 199; Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B); when communications with the cloud controller are possible, the on-premises equipment sends the sensor data to the cloud controller via the external network (e.g. ¶136, 138 and 140); and when communications with the cloud controller are not possible, the on-premises equipment determines one or more local instructions stored at the on-premises equipment applicable to the sensor data, and sends one or more commands to one or more actuators at the building according to the one or more local instructions applicable to the sensor data (e.g. ¶136, 138 and 140).
Regarding claims 15 and 30, Park discloses the building automation system of claim 1, wherein the one or more components that are coupled to the communication interface of the on-premises equipment include a combination of sensor components and actuator components (e.g. Fig. 1-3, 5A and 5B).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5, 13, 18, 20, 21 and 28 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 6 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: Regarding claims 3 and 18, Park does not disclose a building automation system wherein the on-premises equipment dynamically reconfigures the communication interface by dynamically reconfiguring a voltage supply pin of the communication interface according to the configuration data received from the cloud controller thereby enabling the one or more components to receive the required supply voltage from the voltage supply pin.
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Park does not disclose a building automation system wherein the dynamically configurable modes at least include a voltage input mode, a voltage output mode, a current input mode, and a current output mode.
Regarding claims 6 and 21, Park does not disclose a building automation system wherein the dynamically configurable modes at least include a digital input mode and a resistance temperature detector mode.
Regarding claims 13 and 28, Park does not disclose a building automation system wherein, in response to detecting the occurrence of the condition, the cloud controller further sends one or more instructions to an external server located outside of the building via the external network to set a value on an external network actuator at the building, wherein the external network actuator is in communication with the external server via the external network.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES R KASENGE whose telephone number is (571)272-3743. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7:30am to 4pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kenneth Lo can be reached at (571) 272-9774. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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CK
June 18, 2026
/CHARLES R KASENGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2116
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