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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8, 13-14, and 18-20 are 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 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.
Claims 1, 2, 5, 16, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US Pub No. 2010/0171586) and Conner et al. (US Pub No. 2014/0144994).
Regarding claim 1, Park teaches an indicator ambient electromagnetic power harvesting (AEPH) device (See abstract), comprising:
an antenna (See abstract);
an AEPH circuit coupled to the antenna and configured to receive radio frequency (RF) signals (See abstract, [0038], and Fig. 1, 110- antenna);
a controller configured to receive electrical power from the AEPH circuit and an RF signal from the antenna (See abstract, [0038], and Fig. 1, 130- controller);
a physical indicator configured to be controlled by the controller (See abstract, [0026], [0037], and Fig. 1, 190- LED); and
an indicator control data (ICD) memory coupled to the controller (See abstract, Fig. 1, and [0037]-[0038]),
wherein the controller is configured to:
receive information from an RF signal received via the antenna, the information comprising interrogation data (See [0012] and [0063]);
compare data stored in the ICD memory with the interrogation data to generate comparison information (See [0012] and [0063]); and
cause the physical indicator to emit a physical signal, based on the comparison information (See [0012] and [0063]).
Park does not teach a substrate or is configured to receive radio frequency (RF) energy collected by the antenna and to convert the RF energy into electrical power
Conner teaches a substrate and configured to receive radio frequency (RF) energy collected by the antenna and to convert the RF energy into electrical power (See [0003]-[0004], Fig. 1, and abstract).
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed would have been motivated to modify Park’s devices to include Conner’s teachings for a lower cost RFID tag. Therefore, the invention as a whole would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
Regarding claim 2, Park teaches the physical indicator is a light-emitting device and the physical signal comprises light emitted by the light-emitting device (See abstract, Fig. 1, and [0067]).
Regarding claim 5, Park teaches the physical indicator is a light-emitting device comprising a plurality of emitters, the physical signal comprises light emitted by a selected number of emitters of the plurality of emitters, and the selected number is based on the comparison information (See abstract, Fig. 1, and [0067]).
Claim 16 is the method embodiment of claim 1 and is rejected with the same reasoning.
Claim 17 is the method embodiment of claim 1 and is rejected with the same reasoning.
Claims 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park and Conner as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Berlips et al. (US Pub No. 2020/0237032).
Regarding claim 3, Park does not teach a brightness of the light emitted by the light-emitting device is based on the comparison information.
Berlips teaches brightness of the light emitted by the LED is based on different conditions (See [0061]).
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed would have been motivated to modify Park’s device to include Berlips’ teachings in order to better emphasize more urgent alarms. Therefore, the invention as a whole would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
Regarding claim 4, Park teaches a color of the light emitted by the light-emitting device is based on the comparison information (See [0045]).
Claims 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park and Conner as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Paidimarri et al. (US Pub No. 2020/0265285).
Regarding claim 9, Park teaches an indicator ambient electromagnetic power harvesting (AEPH) device (See abstract), comprising:
an antenna (See abstract);
an AEPH circuit coupled to the antenna and configured to receive radio frequency (RF) signals (See abstract, [0038], and Fig. 1, 110- antenna);
a controller configured to receive electrical power from the AEPH circuit and an RF signal from the antenna (See abstract, [0038], and Fig. 1, 130- controller);
a physical indicator configured to be controlled by the controller (See abstract, [0026], [0037], and Fig. 1, 190- LED); and
an indicator control data (ICD) memory coupled to the controller (See abstract, Fig. 1, and [0037]-[0038]),
wherein the controller is configured to:
receive information from an RF signal received via the antenna, the information comprising interrogation data (See [0012] and [0063]);
compare data stored in the ICD memory with the interrogation data to generate comparison information (See [0012] and [0063]); and
cause the physical indicator to emit a physical signal, based on the comparison information (See [0012] and [0063]).
Park does not teach a substrate, a configuration to receive radio frequency (RF) energy collected by the antenna and to convert the RF energy into electrical power or a second antenna; a second AEPH circuit coupled to the second antenna and configured to receive second RF energy collected by the second antenna and convert the second RF energy into second electrical power.
Conner teaches a substrate and configured to receive radio frequency (RF) energy collected by the antenna and to convert the RF energy into electrical power (See [0003]-[0004], Fig. 1, and abstract).
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed would have been motivated to modify Park’s devices to include Conner’s teachings for a lower cost RFID tag. Therefore, the invention as a whole would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
Paidimarri teaches a second antenna on an RFID that is configured to receive second RF energy collected by the second antenna and convert the second RF energy into second electrical power (See abstract, Fig. 3-5, and [0040]-[0041]).
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed would have been motivated to modify Perk’s device to include Paidimarri’s teachings in order to “leverage the diversity to enhance a system operation” (Paidimarri, [0018]). Therefore, the invention as a whole would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
Regarding claim 10, Park does not teach the first RF energy is received in a first RF frequency range; and the second RF energy is received in a second RF frequency range.
Paidimarri teaches multiple antennas to handle multiple frequencies, a different frequency range for each of the multiple antennas (See [0005]).
Regarding claim 11, Park does not teach the second RF energy has a higher RF power level than the first RF energy.
Paidimarri teaches the second RF energy has a higher RF power level than the first RF energy (See [0061]).
Claims 12 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park and Conner as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kim (US Pub No. 2022/0129721).
Regarding claim 12, Park does not teach the physical indicator comprises an audio transducer and the physical signal comprises a sound emitted by the audio transducer.
Kim teaches the physical indicator comprises an audio transducer and the physical signal comprises a sound emitted by the audio transducer (See [0012] and [0052]).
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed would have been motivated to modify Park’s device to include Kim’s teachings in order to better emphasize more urgent alarms. Therefore, the invention as a whole would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
Regarding claim 15, Park teaches the physical indicator is a light-emitting device and the physical signal comprises light emitted by the light-emitting device (See abstract, Fig. 1, and [0067]).
Conclusion
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/THOMAS S MCCORMACK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686