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 .
Priority
This application is a 371 of PCT/FI2022/050256 or 04/20/2022.
Claim Status
Claims 1-21 are pending. They comprise of 3 independent groups:
(1) System1: 1-10, and
(2) Method1: 11-20, and
(3) Sytem2: 21.
As of 10/20/23, system claim 1 is as followed:
1. (Original) A mobile user device for requesting access to a waste collection point, wherein the waste collection point comprises at least one waste container and at least one hatch connected to the at least one waste container, and wherein the mobile user device comprises:
[I] a memory unit configured to store processor-executable instructions and a user identifier (ID), the user ID being granted permanent or temporary access rights to the at least [III] one hatch connected to the at least [II] one waste container of the waste collection point; and
[IV] a processing unit coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processing unit is configured, when executing the processor-executable instructions, to:
(a) receive a user input, the user input comprising an indication of at least one waste container to be accessed among the at least one waste container of the waste collection point;
(b) detect when the mobile user device is in a vicinity of the waste collection point; and
(c) send at least one access request to an access control system to unlock or open the at least one hatch connected to the at least one waste container to be accessed, the at least one access request comprising the user ID and the indication of the at least one waste container to be accessed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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(a) 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.
On October 10, 2007, the Patent Office issued the "Examination Guidelines for Determining Obviousness Under 35 U.S.C. 103 in View of the Supreme Court Decision in KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc.," 73 Fed. Reg. 57,526 (2007) (hereinafter the Examination Guidelines). Section III is entitled "Rationales to support rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103." Within this section is the following quote from the Supreme Court: "rejections on obviousness grounds cannot be sustained by merely conclusory statements; instead there must be some articulated reasoning with some rational underpinning to support the legal conclusion of obviousness." KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727, 1741 (2007) (quoting In re Kahn, 441 F.3d 977, 988 (Fed. Cir. 2006)).
Under the Examination Guidelines, the following is a list of rationales that may be used to support a finding of obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103:
(a) combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results;
(b) simple substitution of one known element for another to obtain predictable results;
(c) Use of known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way;
(d) Applying a known technique to a known device (method, or product) ready for improvement to yield predictable results;
(e) "Obvious to try" choosing from a finite number of identified, predictable solutions, with a reasonable expectation of success;
(f) Known work in one field of endeavor may prompt variations of it for use in either the same field or a different one based on design incentives or other market forces if the variations would have been predictable to one of ordinary skill in the art; and
(g) Some teaching, suggestion, or motivation (TSM) in the prior art that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention.
Each rationale is resolved using the Graham factual inquiries.
Claims 1-2, 5-7, 9-10 (System1), and respective 11-12, 15-17 and 19-20 (method1) are rejected under 35 pre-AIA U.S.C. 103(a) as being un-patentable over:
Name Publication
(1) EP 3,522,122.
As for independent claim 1, and respective independent claim 11, EP 3,522,122 A1 discloses a mobile user device for requesting access to a waste collection point, wherein the waste collection point comprises at least one waste container and at least one hatch connected to the at least one waste container, and wherein the mobile user device comprises:
* A mobile user device, see par. [0010], [0011: the communication device … a smartphone.], [0014: the communication device/smartphone]}, for requesting access to a waste collection point {see [0001… controlling a user’s access to a garbage container]}, wherein the waste collection point comprises at least on waste container {see [0001], [0010], [0014]} and at least one hatch connected to the at least one waste container {see [0028 … lock device … has a limited receiving volume, … amount of garbage can be thrown into the container…]}
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[I] a memory unit configured to store processor-executable instructions and a user identifier (ID), the user ID being granted permanent or temporary access rights to the at least [III] one hatch connected to the at least [II] one waste container of the waste collection point; and
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[IV] a processing unit coupled to the memory unit, wherein the processing unit is configured, when executing the processor-executable instructions, to:
(a) receive a user input, the user input comprising an indication of at least one waste container to be accessed among the at least one waste container of the waste collection point;
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The user provides the input by bringing the smartphone close to the NFC interface of the waste collection point so that the identification of the at least one container is received by the smart phone.
(b) detect when the mobile user device is in a vicinity of the waste collection point; and
This step happens concomitantly with step (a) as the use of short range communication protocol such as NFC serves to indicate that the smartphone is in the immediate vicinity of the waste collection point, see [0009] and [0022].
(c) send at least one access request to an access control system to unlock or open the at least one hatch connected to the at least one waste container to be accessed, the at least one access request comprising the user ID and the indication of the at least one waste container to be accessed.
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EP 3,522,122 A1 fairly teaches the claimed invention except for explicitly discloses that the locking device (19) as a hatch, which is an opening of restricted size allowing for passage from one area to another area, however in view of the teaching on [0028] above, that the lock device has a limited receiving volume so that only a limited amount of garbage can be thrown into the container when it is opened once, it would have been obvious to call the lock device as a hatch since it has the same function.
Regarding dep. claim 2 (part of 1 above) and respective 12 (part of 11 above), which deals with a feature of the indication of the waste container, this is taught in [0057].
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Regarding dep. claims 5-6 (part of 1 above) and respective 15-16 (part of 11 above), which deals with well known short-range wireless communication unit and reading a near field communication tag, this is taught in [0009] and [0022], wherein
this step happens concomitantly with step (a) as the use of short range communication protocol such as NFC serves to indicate that the smartphone is in the immediate vicinity of the waste collection point.
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Regarding dep. claim 7 (part of 1 above) and respective 17 (part of 11 above), which deals with the performance of step (c ) using short-range wireless communications, this is taught in EP 3,522,122 A1 [0053:NFC] and [0053 … WLAN] implying “Internet.”
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Regarding dep. claim 9 (part of 1 above) and respective 19 (part of 11 above), which deals with the feature of receiving statistics from the access control system and the statistics being based on a number of times of the access features, this is taught in [0051] wherein statistics on the user’s previous use of the garbage container is analyzed. The collection of other user’s profile features such as number of times of requested access for a period of time would have been obvious if monitoring user’s access frequencies is important.
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Regarding dep. claim 10 (part of 1 /9 above) and respective 20 (part of 11 /19 above), which deals with an additional feature of sensing such as a sensor, this is taught in [0058-0059].
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Dependent claim(s) 3 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over (1) EP 3,522,122 A1 as applied to claims 1-2 and 11-12 above, and further in view of (2) SHAO, US 2019/0.060.767.
In a mobile device, SHAO is cited to use a mobile device comprising a touch screen having buttons provided thereon, and users perform task via the buttons of the touch screen, see Fig. 2, and
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to a skilled artisan to modify the waste collection system of EP 3,522,122 A1 to include use a mobile device comprising a touch screen having buttons provided thereon, and users perform task via the buttons of the touch screen as taught by SHAO for performing operation on the screen, see [0003] and [0026] and Fig. 2.
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Dependent claim(s) 4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over (1) EP 3,522,122 A1 as applied to claims 1-3 and 11-13 above, and further in view of (3) CN 112,265,759 A.
The teachings of EP 3,522,122 A1 is cited above.
In a similar garbage recycling bin management, CN 112,265,759 A is cited the use of a camera for reading (scanning) of a Quick Response (QR) code on the bucket or bin, see [0016].
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to a skilled artisan to modify the waste collection system of EP 3,522,122 A1 to include scanning device such as camera for scanning QR code on the container as taught by CN 112,265,759 A for identifying the container, see [0016].
Note that CN 112,265,759 A also teaches the management of the waste recycling bins using the latest Internet system or Internet of Things, see [0005].
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to a skilled artisan to modify the waste collection system of EP 3,522,122 A1 by carrying it out on the Internet as taught by CN 112,265,759 A for using the latest Internet of Things benefits as taught in [0005].
Dependent claim(s) 8 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over (1) EP 3,522,122 A1 as applied to claims 1-3 and 11-13 above, and further in view of (4) MITCHELL ET AL., US 2020/0.074.111.
The teachings of EP 3,522,122 A1 is cited above.
MITCHELL ET AL. is cited to teach the encryption of data or request for access with a cryptographic protocol for data safety, see [0101] and abstract “data safe.”
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to a skilled artisan to modify the waste collection system of EP 3,522,122 A1 by encryption of data or request for access with a cryptographic protocol as taught by MITCHELL ET AL. for communication safety.
Claim 21 (System1) is rejected under 35 pre-AIA U.S.C. 103(a) as being un-patentable over:
Name Publication
(1) EP 3,522,122.
As for independent claim 21, EP 3,522,122 A1 discloses an access control system for controlling access to a waste collection point,
{see [0001], [035], Fig. 1}
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wherein the waste collection point comprises at least one waste container and at least one hatch connected to the at least one waste container, and wherein the access control system comprises:
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[I] a memory unit configured to store processor-executable instructions and a database;
{see [0056 … The server (5)], implicit in server 5, and a database (8)}
and a processing unit coupled to the memory unit, wherein the database comprises user IDs that are granted permanent or temporary access rights to the at least one waste container of the waste collection point;
{see [0050… based on this assignment, releases or denies access to this garbage container..]}
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and wherein the processing unit is configured, when executing the processor-executable instructions, to:
(a) receive at least one access request from a mobile user device, the at least one access request comprising a user ID associated with the mobile user device and an indication of at least one waste container to be accessed among the at least one waste container of the waste collection point,
{see [0035], [0040] and [0057] below}
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[0040]
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(b) determine that the user ID is present in the database and is granted the permanent or temporary access rights to the at least one hatch connected to the at least one waste container to be accessed, and
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(c ) send a control signal to the waste collection point, the control signal instructing the waste collection point to unlock or open the at least one hatch connected to the at least one waste container to be accessed.
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EP 3,522,122 A1 fairly teaches the claimed invention except for explicitly discloses that the locking device (19) as a hatch, which is an opening of restricted size allowing for passage from one area to another area, however in view of the teaching on [0028] above, that the lock device has a limited receiving volume so that only a limited amount of garbage can be thrown into the container when it is opened once, it would have been obvious to call the lock device as a hatch since it has the same function.
No claims are allowed.
Relevant Prior Art
1) FR 3092097 discloses a waste collection container generally has a hatch to allow waste to be deposited. Theses hatches give access to the container. It would have been obvious to include the “access hatch” in EP 3,522,122 A1 as replacement for the “locking device (19)” to control access to the waste container.
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2) WO 2017/091056 discloses a waste container for collecting household waste comprising a waste container (1) … with a surface access hatch (7) . It would have been obvious to include the “access hatch” in EP 3,522,122 A1 as replacement for the “locking device (19)” to control access to the waste container.
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Tan "Dean" D NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6806. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 6:30 AM - 4:30 PM.
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/TAN D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3629