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 .
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 (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.
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, 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.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berg (US 20190156082) in view of Zhu (US 20140274179).
Regarding claim 1, A system for an automated inventory of several articles to be secured disposed in a business premises, each article being equipped with a removable antitheft electronic device, the system comprising: a detector at an exit of the business premises and a beacon disposed in the business premises, this beacon being provided with a wireless communication means, the antitheft electronic device comprising (“In a system using this second implementation of an EAS tag there is a gateway that will monitor and receive the broadcasts from multiple EAS tags. Such a gateway is shown in FIG. 5. The gateway is a computer that communicates with multiple radio transceivers 220. The radio transceivers are adapted to receive the broadcast data from multiple EAS tags 200. The radio transceivers are placed at different locations in. e.g. a retail store” Berg: paragraph 63; “The gateway can trigger the sound source 250 by transmitting an alarm start command 222 to an EAS tag to make a sound indicating an event like e.g. theft” Berg: paragraph 64)
- an energy source, (“a battery 230” Berg: paragraph 62)
- a memory capable of containing at least one information item relating to the article, (“an EAS tag comprises a processor 210” Berg: paragraph 62; “The broadcast data 221 contains an identification number of the transmitting EAS tag” Berg: paragraph 64; “In retail situation a barcode scanner 320 can be used to read barcodes of objects and link this barcode data to an identification number of an EAS tag” Berg: pargraph 65 – a processor will necessarily include memory in order to function; additionally in order for the broadcast data to include an identification number of the transmitting EAS tag, that number needs to be stored on the tag in memory and linking the tag identification number to the product number would be “relating to the article”)
- a removable fixing means capable of occupying two states relative to the article, a first state in which it is locked and not manually removable from the article and a state in which it is detached from the article, (“A retail object monitoring system with the possibility to lock and unlock EAS tags”, “The EAS tag is then unlocked using the unlock mechanism 430”, & “Then the EAS tag can be removed from the retail object and put aside for later use” Berg: paragraph 71)
- a wireless control and communication unit capable of emitting a signal comprising an information item relating to the article, this signal being intended to be read by the beacon, (“The broadcast data 221 contains an identification number of the transmitting EAS tag” Berg: paragraph 64)
wherein said antitheft electronic device comprises a control means of the energy source, this control means making it possible to switch the energy source between three modes: off, on standby or active based on an inventory frequency setpoint contained in the memory. (“It would be advantageous to be able to get a pulse rate of at least once a year to have possibility to have annual inventory control of the items stored and also limit the power consumption” & “It would in other embodiments be advantageous to have a first pulse rate of once a week to be able to perform inventory control once a week” Berg: paragraph 22; “It would be further advantageous to select a first pulse rate with a low rate to reduce the power consumption of the electronic device” Berg: paragraph 23; “The EAS tag will stay in the high pulse rate transmit mode until…the EAS tag is informed by the gateway to return to low rate broadcast mode” Berg: paragraph 68; “The change from the first pulse rate to the second pulse rate or from the second to the first pulse rate is triggered by events. These events can be any type of event like events triggered by the movement detection means, settings in software, timeout of an earlier event etc” Berg: paragraph 21; “The process of unlocking the EAS tag could comprise of marking the EAS tag as sold in the in an inventory database, disabling the EAS tag or in other way marking the EAS tag as sold. The EAS tag is then unlocked using the unlock mechanism 430. One way that the EAS tag can be disabled is to instruct the EAS tag that it should return to transmitting at a low pulse rate. Then the EAS tag can be removed from the retail object and put aside for later use.” Berg: paragraph 71 – “high pulse rate” e.g., once a week, would equate to an ‘on’ state, “low pulse rate” e.g., once a year, would equate to a ‘standby’ state, and the “disabled” tag would equate to an ‘off’ state)
The claimed a state sensor of the antitheft electronic device, this state sensor indicating a level of charge of the energy source, and/or a state of the fixing means, and this control means making it possible to switch the energy source between modes based on a state information item from the state sensor is not specifically disclosed by Berg. Zhu discloses a system for changing transmission power levels of a wireless communication device, such as an RFID, when battery levels are detected to be below a threshold (“Device 116a may have modules to provide near field communication (NFC), allowing it to communicate wirelessly with another device when the two devices are placed in very close proximity to each other. NFC technologies are an extension of the ISO 14443 proximity-card standard as a contactless card, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) standard” Zhu: paragraph 56 & “For example, here are some exemplary situations where transmission power of signals to one or more networks communicating with device 116a may be implemented: [0086] if the battery level of device 116a is detected to be below a certain threshold, then a reduction in transmission power to one or more networks communicating with device 116a may be implemented” Zhu: paragraph 85). Modifying Berg to include battery sensing and to modify the transmission power of the device (placing it in lower pulse rate transmission mode as described by Berg to “reduce power consumption” (Berg: paragraph 23)) would increase the overall utility of the device by allowing the battery life to be extended to a longer time period. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Berg according to Zhu.
Regarding claim 5, The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the antitheft devices retained on the articles to be secured each comprise a clock programmed to limit the number of control means of the energy source switching to active status for a same time period. (“In an embodiment of an electronic device the first pulse rate of transmission could be from hours to days, or days to weeks or weeks to years. It would be advantageous to be able to get a pulse rate of at least once a year to have possibility to have annual inventory control of the items stored and also limit the power consumption. It would further be advantageous to have a pulse rate of once a month to be able to track changes in stored or stocked items on a month to month basis. This would be beneficial when tracking changes of number of stored items on a seasonal basis. It would in other embodiments be advantageous to have a first pulse rate of once a week to be able to perform inventory control once a week” Berg: paragraph 22)
Regarding claim 6, The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a control means of the energy source comprises an accelerometer, a motion detector and/or a vibration detector in order to switch the energy source into the active mode when a value measured by the accelerometer exceeds a threshold. (“The movement detector 240 in this second implementation is a 3-axis accelerometer. e.g. LIS3DH” Berg: paragraph 62)
Regarding claim 7, the claim is interpreted and rejected as claim 1 stated above.
Regarding claim 8, The removable antitheft electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the control means of the energy source operates according to an inventory frequency setpoint contained in the memory, (“In an embodiment of an electronic device the first pulse rate of transmission could be from hours to days, or days to weeks or weeks to years. It would be advantageous to be able to get a pulse rate of at least once a year to have possibility to have annual inventory control of the items stored and also limit the power consumption. It would further be advantageous to have a pulse rate of once a month to be able to track changes in stored or stocked items on a month to month basis. This would be beneficial when tracking changes of number of stored items on a seasonal basis. It would in other embodiments be advantageous to have a first pulse rate of once a week to be able to perform inventory control once a week.” Berg: paragraph 22)
and in that the wireless control and communication unit is capable of emitting a signal comprising an information item relating to the article to be secured. (“The broadcast data 221 contains an identification number of the transmitting EAS tag” Berg: paragraph 64)
Regarding claim 9, The removable antitheft electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein said removable antitheft electronic device further comprises a detection means capable of being detected by a detector of a business premises, the detection means being, for example, passive, notably of radiofrequency or acousto-magnetic type. (“The gateway can trigger the sound source 250 by transmitting an alarm start command 222 to an EAS tag to make a sound indicating an event like e.g. theft” Berg: paragraph 68 & “an EAS tag comprises a processor 210, a battery 230, a sound source 250, a movement detector 240 and a radio transceiver 220” Berg: paragraph 62)
Regarding claim 10, The removable antitheft electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the wireless control and communication unit is powered by the energy source. (“a battery 230” Berg: paragraph 62)
Regarding claim 13, An assembly formed by an article to be secured and a removable antitheft electronic device retained on this article, the removable antitheft electronic device as claimed in claim 7, (“An electronic device (200) for monitoring of retail objects comprising at least one processing means (210), at least one communication means (220) for wireless transmission where transmissions are transmitted at a pulse rate, at least one movement detection means (240) for detecting events, wherein the pulse rate of transmission changes between different pulse rates of transmission based on events.” Berg: abstract)
the control means of the energy source making it possible to switch the mode of the energy source as a function of an inventory frequency setpoint contained in the memory of the device, the inventory frequency being a function of a threshold relating to a quality of said article (“It would be advantageous to be able to get a pulse rate of at least once a year to have possibility to have annual inventory control of the items stored and also limit the power consumption” & “It would in other embodiments be advantageous to have a first pulse rate of once a week to be able to perform inventory control once a week” Berg: paragraph 22; “It would be further advantageous to select a first pulse rate with a low rate to reduce the power consumption of the electronic device” Berg: paragraph 23; “The EAS tag will stay in the high pulse rate transmit mode until…the EAS tag is informed by the gateway to return to low rate broadcast mode” Berg: paragraph 68; “The change from the first pulse rate to the second pulse rate or from the second to the first pulse rate is triggered by events. These events can be any type of event like events triggered by the movement detection means, settings in software, timeout of an earlier event etc” Berg: paragraph 21; “The process of unlocking the EAS tag could comprise of marking the EAS tag as sold in the in an inventory database, disabling the EAS tag or in other way marking the EAS tag as sold. The EAS tag is then unlocked using the unlock mechanism 430. One way that the EAS tag can be disabled is to instruct the EAS tag that it should return to transmitting at a low pulse rate. Then the EAS tag can be removed from the retail object and put aside for later use.” Berg: paragraph 71 – “high pulse rate” e.g., once a week, would equate to an ‘on’ state, “low pulse rate” e.g., once a year, would equate to a ‘standby’ state, and the “disabled” tag would equate to an ‘off’ state)
Regarding claim 14, A method for associating an article to be secured and a removable antitheft device as claimed in claim 7, said method comprising the following steps:
- a fixing means of the device is brought into a locked state and retained in a way that cannot be removed manually on the article, (“In another embodiment an electronic device it can be a tag. The meaning of tag is understood as any electronic device attached to or embedded in an object for the purpose of monitoring said object.” Berg: paragraph 25)
- the control means of the energy source switches the energy source to active mode for a time t, the start of which begins at the end of the preceding step, (“Then the EAS tag can be removed from the retail object and put aside for later use” Berg: paragraph 71 – this is the ‘later use’; “FIG. 10 shows a system overview of implementation of a tag locking and unlocking system 400, where a retail object storage system 410, a locking system 430 for retail objects” Berg: paragraph 70)
- during this time t, an information item relating to the article is entered into the memory, (“In operation there are multiple EAS tags 200 that broadcast data 221. The broadcast data 221 can be received by one or more radio transceivers 220 of the gateway 300. The broadcast data 221 comprises an identification number of the transmitting EAS tag” & “The computer 310 has access to a database for storing data like the location of each EAS tag and other relevant data” Berg: paragraph 61)
- after this time t, the energy source is switched to standby mode. (“In an embodiment of an electronic device the first pulse rate of transmission could be from hours to days, or days to weeks or weeks to years. It would be advantageous to be able to get a pulse rate of at least once a year to have possibility to have annual inventory control of the items stored and also limit the power consumption. It would further be advantageous to have a pulse rate of once a month to be able to track changes in stored or stocked items on a month to month basis. This would be beneficial when tracking changes of number of stored items on a seasonal basis. It would in other embodiments be advantageous to have a first pulse rate of once a week to be able to perform inventory control once a week” Berg: paragraph 22)
Regarding claim 15, A method for dissociating an article to be secured and a removable antitheft device retained in a way that cannot be removed manually on this article, the device being as claimed in claim 7, wherein said method comprises the following steps: - freeing of the fixing means from the device to bring it into a detached state using an external tool, - the control means of the energy source switches the energy source to active mode for a time t, the start of which begins at the end of the preceding step, Submitted at Filing - during this time t, the wireless control and communication unit emits a signal comprising an information item relating to the article and to an identifier of the device,- after this time t, the energy source is switched to off or standby mode. (“FIG. 11 shows a system overview of a fourth system implementation of the retail object monitoring system, where the payment system and a third implementation of the retail object monitoring system is combined. A retail object monitoring system with the possibility to lock and unlock EAS tags comprises of a payment system 400, one or more EAS tags 200 and a gateway 300. An activated EAS tag 300 will upon detection of movement by the movement detector 240 change the rate of data broadcast from a low pulse rate to a high pulse rate. The gateway will then be able to track the movement of the EAS tag using multiple receivers 220 placed at different location in the monitored area. A customer can in this implementation with a valid payment using the payment system 420 make the payment system 420 inform the computer 310 in the tag locking and unlocking system 400 that a specific EAS tag should be unlocked. The process of unlocking the EAS tag could comprise of marking the EAS tag as sold in the in an inventory database, disabling the EAS tag or in other way marking the EAS tag as sold. The EAS tag is then unlocked using the unlock mechanism 430. One way that the EAS tag can be disabled is to instruct the EAS tag that it should return to transmitting at a low pulse rate. Then the EAS tag can be removed from the retail object and put aside for later use” Berg: paragraph 71)
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berg in view of Zhu and further in view of Fitch (US 20170285598).
Regarding claim 2, The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wireless control and communication unit is capable of emitting a signal comprising a state information item supplied by the state sensor is not specifically disclosed by Berg and Zhu. Fitch teaches an RFID tag that transmits a current battery level (“In wake mode the RFID tag transmits a unique tag identification number. The tag may additionally transmit a current battery level” Fitch: paragraph 33). Modifying Berg and Zhu to transmit the detected battery level would increase the overall utility of the system by providing the user with current battery levels of the RFID tags and allow the ability to know when battery levels are approaching levels that would require action. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Berg and Zhu according to Fitch.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berg in view of Zhu and further in view of Frabasile (US 20100060455).
Regarding claim 3, The system as claimed in claim 1, programming a frequency, a duration (“In an advantageous embodiment of an electronic device the pulse rate of transmission can change between at least a first pulse rate of transmission and at least a second pulse rate of transmission. The second pulse rate of transmission is higher than the first pulse rate of transmission” Berg: paragraph 21; “In an embodiment of an electronic device the first pulse rate of transmission could be from hours to days, or days to weeks or weeks to years. It would be advantageous to be able to get a pulse rate of at least once a year to have possibility to have annual inventory control of the items stored and also limit the power consumption. It would further be advantageous to have a pulse rate of once a month to be able to track changes in stored or stocked items on a month to month basis. This would be beneficial when tracking changes of number of stored items on a seasonal basis. It would in other embodiments be advantageous to have a first pulse rate of once a week to be able to perform inventory control once a week” Berg: paragraph 22)
The claimed wherein said system comprises a software platform for receiving the data collected by the beacon and programming a zoning of the reads of the beacon is not specifically disclosed by Berg and Zhu. Frabasile discloses an RFID surveillance system that teaches an application programming interface (API) for seamless integration with other computing systems and allowing for the creation of multiple zones for monitoring RFID tags (“The product software suite is advantageously provided with an Application Programming Interface (API) to standardize the integration of different RFID hardware components with the system, and the integration of the identification and surveillance system itself with a retailer's merchandise inventory system and point-of-sale system.” Frabasile: paragraph 84; “Creation of multiple unique zones with retail operations” Frabasile: paragraph 44). Modifying Berg and Zhu to include an API and multiple zones would increase the overall functionality of the system by providing a means to interface with the system for programming purposes and increase the capabilities of the system by providing means for monitoring and observing specific zones in an environment. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Berg and Zhu according to Frabasile.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berg in view of Zhu and further in view of Ekberg (US 20140173690).
Regarding claim 4, The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein an emission power of the wireless control and communication unit is a function of a distance detected between the device and the beacon is not specifically disclosed by Berg and Zhu. Ekberg discloses a security tracking system using RFID tags that teaches changes the transmission power level based on the distance between devices (“the device 371 may decrease its transmission power level if the distance to the device 373 is determined to be closer than a previous location point” Ekberg: paragraph 60). Modifying Berg and Zhu to alter transmission power based on distance would increase the battery life of the tags as the appropriate amount of power would be used as necessary. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Berg and Zhu according to Ekberg.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berg in view of Zhu and further in view of Cardwell (US 20150120534).
Regarding claim 11, The removable antitheft electronic device as claimed in claim 10, wherein the wireless control and communication unit operates according to the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol is not specifically disclosed by Berg and Zhu. Cardwell discloses a system for wirelessly tracking items to reduce threat that teaches using a plurality of different wireless communication protocols including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices (“A store may use wireless tracking devices (e.g., RFID tags, Bluetooth Low Energy devices, near-field communication ("NFC") tags, and the like) to track items and reduce theft” Cardwell: paragraph 16). Modifying Berg and Zhu to use BLE devices would increase the overall flexibility of the system by providing the user with additional ways for communicating between the devices and gateways. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Berg and Zhu according to Cardwell.
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berg in view of Zhu and further in view of Farrar (US 5005125).
Regarding claim 12, The removable antitheft electronic device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the state information item relates to the current locked or detached state of the fixing means, and/or the number of changes of state of said fixing means since its initialization up to the date of emission of the information item is not specifically disclosed by Berg and Zhu. Farrar discloses a surveillance and item tracking system that teaches detecting the unauthorized removal of the tag (“In the second Armed State inquiry, step 176 is practiced--? Has Pin Been Opened. If the answer to this inquiry is affirmative, a warning is provided to the consumer in step 178--Output Theft Warn Signal. A short time period is measured in step 180--? Has 415 ms. Period Expired. Four tenths of a second are thus provided to permit the consumer to discontinue further efforts at opening of the pin to remove the tag from the article. If the consumer discontinues the opening course of action, an affirmative answer will result from the inquiry of step 182--? Has Pin Been Closed, and line 184 will return the program to Step 160 above. Should the consumer continue in pin removal, advance is made to step 186--Place Tag in Theft State. Here, the tag alarm is turned on as is the tag retransmission” Farrar: column 6, lines 48 – 63 & figure 6A). Modifying Berg and Zhu to detect when the tag is removed would increase the overall security of the system by alerting the user to a potential theft. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Berg and Zhu according to Farrar.
Conclusion
Related Art:
US 20130150028 – battery level monitoring and sleep mode activation
US 20050083181 – multiple operating modes of an RFID system
US 4686513 – electronic surveillance system for preventing theft
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/TRAVIS R HUNNINGS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689