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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-8, 10, 11, 13-20 are presented for examination.
Claims 1, 3, 4, 6-9, 10, 13-14 and 17-20 were amended.
This is a Non-Final Action.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/11/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 06/11/2025 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim objection with respect to claim 13 has been obviated due to current amendment to the claim.
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 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 of this title, 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, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 17 and 18 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thomsen et al. (US 2020/0012265) in view of Nguyen-Dang (US 2015/0341874) and Harrington et al. (US 2007/0290847) further in view of O’Neil (US 2007/0014314)
1. Thomsen teaches, A network comprising:
A first physical asset (Paragraph 54 & Fig 3 – teaches industrial devices are connected to physical machinery/assets, Thomsen);
a first network device (Paragraph 59, Fig 3 – teaches Industrial device 302 is a network device with communication capabilities, Thomsen) comprising: a first interface configured to plug into a wirelessly connect with the first physical asset to receive sensor data from the first physical asset to receive sensor data from the first physical asset (Paragraphs 54 and 59, Fig 3 – teaches interface connect industrial device to sensors/actuators of assets, Thomsen);
a first memory instantiated within the first network device with (Thomsen Paragraph 66, Fig 3 – teaches Memory 320 within industrial device, Thomsen):
a first data import service container configured to receive and organize the sensor data from the first physical asset via the first interface (Paragraphs 66-69, Fig 3 – teaches BIDT configuration component receives and organizes sensor data, Thomsen);
a first system status condition database configured to store sensor data received and organized by the first data import service container (Paragraph 55, Fig 3 – teaches database stored in memory maintains condition/state data, Thomsen); and
a second physical asset (Paragraph 59 – teaches multiple industrial assets/devices, Thomsen);
a third interface configured to plug into or wirelessly connect with the second physical asset to receive sensor data from the second physical asset (Paragraphs 54, 59 – teaches same as first device applied to second asset (interface connect industrial device to sensors/actuators of assets), Thomsen);
a second memory instantiated within the second network device and comprising (Paragraph 66 – teaches memory in second device, Thomsen):
a second data import service container configured to receive and organize the sensor data received from the second physical asset via the third physical interface (Paragraph 66-69 – teaches Same BIDT configuration component receives and organizes sensor data, Thomsen);
a second system status condition database configured to store sensor data received and organized by the second data import service container (Thomsen 55 – teaches database in second device, Thomsen); and Thomsen does not explicitly teach,
a destruction mesh network;
a second interface;
a first distribution service container, and
a first pod removably connected to the first physical asset and comprising the first interface, the second interface and the first memory; and
a fourth interface wirelessly connected to the second interface; and
a second distribution service container; and
a second portable pod removably connected to the second physical asset and comprising the third interface, the fourth interface and the second memory.
wherein the first distribution service container and the second distribution service container are collectively configured to synchronize sensor data stored by the first system status condition database and the second system status condition database.
Nguyen-Dang teaches.
a destruction mesh network (Paragraph 30, Fig 1 – teaches a network of interconnected nodes forming a distributed mesh topology (Fig 1), corresponding to a distributed mesh network, Nguyen-Dang);
a second interface (Paragraph 30, Fig 1 – teaches each node includes multiple interfaces for communication with other nodes, Nguyen-Dang);
a first distribution service container (Paragraph 35-43, Fig 1 – teaches nodes include logic to distribute data across the network, Nguyen-Dang);
a fourth interface wirelessly connected to the second interface (Paragraph 30, Fig 1 – teaches nodes communicate wirelessly with each other, Nguyen-Dang); and
a second distribution service container (Paragraph 35-43 – teaches each node includes distribution logic, Nguyen-Dang).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to modify the industrial device system of Thomsen to incorporate the mesh networking architecture of Nguyen-Dang in order to enable direct communication among multiple distributed devices rather than relying on centralized communication, thereby improving scalability, fault tolerance, and data sharing across device. Bother references are in the same field of networked systems for collecting and transmitting data, and Nguyen-Dang’s mesh connectivity would predictably enhance Thomsen’s system by allowing interconnected devices to communicate and distribute data more efficiently across the network.
Harrington teaches,
a first pod removably connected to the first physical asset and comprising the first interface, the second interface and the first memory (Paragraphs 27-33, Figs 1-4 (Housing/Modular unit, ODB connector, Install/de-install, Microcontroller and memory) teaches – Fig. 1 shows vehicle tag (self-contained housing), Connector plugs into vehicle ODB (interface). Designed to install/de-install (removable), includes microcontroller and memory – corresponds to portable pod with interface and memory connected to asset, Harrington); and
a second portable pod removably connected to the second physical asset and comprising the third interface, the fourth interface and the second memory (Paragraphs 27-33, Figs 1-4 (Housing/Modular unit, ODB connector, Install/de-install, Microcontroller and memory) teaches – Fig. 1 shows vehicle tag (self-contained housing), Connector plugs into vehicle ODB (interface). Designed to install/de-install (removable), includes microcontroller and memory – corresponds to portable pod with interface and memory connected to asset, Harrington).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the removable vehicle telemetry module of Harrington into the distributed system of Thomsen as modified by Nguyen-Dang in order to provide a modular, easily installable and replaceable unit for interfacing with physical assets and collecting sensor data. Such integration would allow flexible deployment and maintenance of network nodes across multiple assets while leveraging Nguyen-Dang’s mesh networking to enable communication among the nodes. Because Harrington, Thomsen and Nguyen-Dang are all directed to networked systems for acquiring and transmitting data from physical devices, combining these teachings would have yielded predictable results in improving scalability, serviceability and deployment efficiency of distributed data collection systems.
O’Neal teaches
wherein the first distribution service container and the second distribution service container are collectively configured to synchronize sensor data stored by the first system status condition database and the second system status condition database (Paragraph 5 - teaches peer-to-peer synchronization between devices databases, corresponding to collective synchronization between first and second distribution service container, O’Neal).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to incorporate the peer-to-peer synchronization technique of O’Neil into the distributed mesh network system of Thomsen as modified by Nguyen-Dang and Harrington in order to enable synchronization of data across multiple network device without reliance on a centralized server. O’Neil teaches efficient synchronization of data between device-resident databases, which would predictably enhance the combined system by ensuring consistent data across the removable modular node (Harrington) deployed on physical assets within the mesh network (Nguyen-Dang). Between all references are directed to networked data acquisition and communication systems, their combination would have been yielded predictable improvements in data consistency, reliability and system robustness.
The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington and O’Neil teach, The distributed mesh network of claim 1, wherein the first memory is further instantiated with an adaptation schema container connected to the first data import service container (Fig 3:320 storing “BIDTs” and BIDT configuration component 308 – showing interaction between BIDT configuration component 308 and system components (e.g. publishing component 310, 320) – the interconnected components within the industrial device, where configuration components operate with the data handling components, corresponding to being connected to the data import functionality, Thomsen), wherein an adaptation schema stored in the adaptation schema container is configured to instruct the first data import service container on a format for the organization of the data from the vendor (Fig 7 shows BIDT configuration 706 and Tag Database 702 with structured data type and metadata fields, further showing structured tag database entries (e.g., STATE, RATE, EVENT, ODOMETER with associated metadata) – disclosing BIDT configuration defines data types and associated metadata fields, which dictate how incoming data is structured and stored, corresponding to the instructing the format of organization of incoming data, Thomsen).
3. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington and O’Neil teach, The distributed mesh network of claim 1, wherein the first memory is further instantiated with further comprising a condition data transform service container connected to the first system status condition database (Paragraph 72 & 74 - teaches presentation/transform component stored in device memory that retrieves data from the database and transforms it for presentation, similar to a condition data transform service container connected to the status condition database, Thomsen), wherein the first network device condition data transform service container comprises a third open fifth interface for plug-in connection or wireless connection to a user interface device (Paragraphs 72 & 75 - teaches that the industrial/gateway device has an interface for user device via either plug-in wireless connection (fifth network interface), Thomsen).
5. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington and O’Neil teach, The distributed mesh network of claim 3, wherein the user interface device comprises:
a monitoring and maintenance container connected to the third open fifth interface (Paragraph 80 – teaches a predictive-monitoring component operating on collected data, Thomsen), wherein the monitoring and maintenance container is configured to perform at least one of health monitoring, prognostics, and/or machine learning on the sensor data organized by the saved in the memory of the first system status condition database (Paragraphs 80 – teaches predictive analysis (health monitoring/prognostics).. the machine learning is consistent with predictive analysis based on analytic consistent with ML approach , Thomsen); and
a user display in communication with the monitoring and maintenance container (Paragraph 80 – teaches display/presentation layer connected to the monitoring component, Thomsen).
7. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington and O’Neil teach, The distributed mesh network of claim 1, wherein the first interface is connected to a vendor provided data adapter which is connected to the first physical asset, and wherein the first data import service container is configured to receive and organize data from the vendor provided data adapter (Figs 3: 308, 320 and 9: 904, 906 – teaches an industrial device having I/) interface (094) that connect to a controlled asset or process (906), where the interface functions as an intermediary between the device and the asset. The device further includes components (e.g. , BIDT configuration component 308 and memory 320) configured to receive and organize incoming data from the asset via the interface. Accordingly, the I/O interface corresponds to a vendor-provided data adapter connected to the physical the physical asset, and the data handling components correspond to a data import service container receiving and organizing data from the adapter, Thomsen).
Claim 10 is similar to the combination of claims 1 and 2 hence rejected similarly.
11. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, O’Neil and Maturana teach, The method of claim 10, further comprising:
processing, by the second data deliver platform device, the first data through at least one of health monitoring and diagnostics applications at the remote node (Paragraph 80 - teaches that predictive analysis (a form of diagnostics/health monitoring) is performed on storage data. A second device with access to the synchronized database can process the first device’s data, Thomsen).
Claim 13 is similar to the combination of claims 3 and 5 hence rejected similarly.
Claim 17 is similar to claim 1 hence rejected similarly.
Claim 17 incorporates further limitations:
a third interface connecting the first device to a user interface; (Paragraph 72 & 75 – teaches that a device includes an interface to connect with a user interface device, satisfying the requirement of a third interface, Thomsen)
a first distribution service container comprising a first synchronization module; (Paragraph 20 – teaches a synchronization engine/module within devices that carries out database synchronization corresponding to a synchronization module within the distribution service container , O’Neil) and
a condition data transformation service container configured to retrieve data from the system status condition database and provide retrieved data to the user interface via the third interface. (Paragraph 72-74 – teaches a presentation/transform component that retrieves data from a database and transform it for user-facing display (i.e. data transformation service container), Thomsen)
18. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington and O’Neil teach, The system of claim 17 further comprising:
a third network device comprising:
a monitoring and maintenance container configured to communicate with the third interface (Paragraph 78-80 - teaches a monitoring component that communicates with the device through an interface, Thomsen), wherein the monitoring and maintenance container is configured to perform at least one of health monitoring, prognostics, and machine learning on the data saved in the memory of the first system status condition database (Paragraph 80 – teaches predictive analysis (health monitoring/prognostics using saved sensor data, Thomsen); and
a user display in communication with the monitoring and maintenance container(Paragraph 80 – teaches generating a data display connected to the monitoring container, Thomsen).
Claims 4, 19 and 20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thomsen et al. (US 2020/0012265) in view of Nguyen-Dang (US 2015/0341874) and Harrington et al. (US 2007/0290847) further in view of O’Neil (US 2007/0014314) further in view of Levac et al. (US 10,761,825)
All the limitations of claim 3 are taught above.
4. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington, O’Neal does not explicitly teach or disclose, wherein the first memory is further instantiated with a third-party troubleshooting plugin connected to the fifth interface, wherein the third-party troubleshooting plugin enables the user interface device to access the data saved in the memory of the first system status condition database via the fifth interface.
However, Levac teaches, wherein the first memory is further instantiated with a third-party troubleshooting plugin connected to the fifth nterface (Col 2: lines 23-29 - teaches plugin distribution where third-party plugins can be connected into the system), wherein the third-party troubleshooting plugin enables the user interface device to access the data saved in the memory of the first system status condition database via the fifth interface (Abstract - teaches the plugins can access monitored data from memory and make it available via user interfaces).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to modify Thomsen’s invention to incorporate teachings of Levac as taught by Levac because both Levac and Thomsen are in the same field of endeavor of distributed computing for monitoring and managing system status data and would enable Thomsen’s invention to allow third-party troubleshooting and flexible UI access to monitored industrial data.
All the limitations of claim 17 are taught above.
19. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, O’Neal and Levac teach, herein the first interface, the second interface, and the third interface share the same application programming interface. (Col 3: last paragraph, Col 4: lines 1-3 – teaches that multiple components communicate using a shared API contract (i.e. multiple interfaces share the same API), Levac)
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to modify Thomsen’s invention to incorporate teachings of Levac as taught by Levac because both Levac and Thomsen are in the same field of endeavor of distributed computing for monitoring and managing system status data and would enable Thomsen’s invention to allow third-party troubleshooting and flexible UI access to monitored industrial data.
20. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington, O’Neal and Levac teach, The system of claim 19, wherein the first interface, the second interface, and the third interface each comprise at least one of a plug, a port, a wireless receiver, and a wireless transmitter. (Col 3: lines 28 – 37 – teaches that devices use communication interfaces that may include wired plugs/ports and wireless receivers/transmitters (e.g. WiFi, Bluetooth), Levac).
Claim 6, 8 and 14-16 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thomsen et al. (US 2020/0012265) in view of Nguyen-Dang (US 2015/0341874) and Harrington et al. (US 2007/0290847) further in view of O’Neil (US 2007/0014314) further in view of Tu et al. (US 9,836,049)
All the limitations of claim 3 are taught above.
6. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington, O’Neal do not explicitly teach,
wherein the first network device further comprises a sixth interface for connecting the first network device to the second network device or a third network device, and the first memory is further instantiated with:
a third distribution service container connected to the first data import service container of the first network device wherein the third distribution service container is configured to receive data from the second network device or the third network device, and wherein the distribution service container of the first network device is configured to send data from the first system status condition database of the first network device to the second network device.
However, Tu teaches,
wherein the first network device further comprises a sixth interface for connecting the first network device to the second network device or a third network device (Col 7: lines 23 – 26 – teaches a relay drone (first device) maintains multiple communication interfaces to connect simultaneously with a base station (second device) and a working drone (third device)), and
the first memory is further instantiated with: a third distribution service container connected to the first data import service container of the first network device ( Col 22: lines 50-54; Col 23: lines 4-7 & 16-19 – teaches relay functionality that both receive and redistributes control/data signals) wherein the third distribution service container is configured to receive data from the second network device or the third network device (Col 23: lines 9-19 - teaches that a relay drone receives data from another device (working drone or another relay drone)), and wherein the distribution service container of the first network device is configured to send data from the first system status condition database of the first network device to the second network device (Col 23: lines 16-17 & 26-30 - teaches that the relay drone transmits data it has received/stored to another device (the base station)).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to modify Thomsen’s invention to incorporate teachings of Tu as taught by Tu because both Tu and Thomsen are in the same field of endeavor of distributed data acquisition and communication by combining Tu with Thomsen, would allow Thomsen to extend connectivity and ensure a robust data distribution across devices in Thomsen’s mesh.
All the limitations of claim 1 are taught above.
8. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington, O’Neal do not explicitly teach, wherein the first distribution service container of the first network device is also connected to the first data import service container of the first network device, wherein the first distribution service container of the first network device is configured to direct data from the second network device and/or a third network device into the first data import service container of the first network device via the second interface, and wherein the first distribution service container of the first network device is configured to send data from the first system status condition database of the first network device to the second network device and/or the third network device via the second interface.
However Tu teaches,
wherein the first distribution service container of the first network device is also connected to the first data import service container of the first network device (Col 7: lines 23-26 – teaches a relay drone with multiple communication links for both receiving and retransmitting, Tu), wherein the first distribution service container of the first network device is configured to direct data from the second network device and/or a third network device into the first data import service container of the first network device via the second interface ( Col 23: lines 4-15 – teaches the relay drone can receive data signals from other devices (working drones or another relay), Tu), and wherein the first distribution service container of the first network device is configured to send data from the first system status condition database of the first network device to the second device and/or the third network device via the second interface (Col 23: lines 26-30 - teaches transmitting data received/stored at the relay drone to another device (base station) , Tu).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains to modify Thomsen’s invention to incorporate teachings of Tu as taught by Tu because both Tu and Thomsen are in the same field of endeavor of distributed data acquisition and communication by combining Tu with Thomsen, would allow Thomsen to extend connectivity and ensure a robust data distribution across devices in Thomsen’s mesh.
Claim 14 is similar to the combination of claims 1, 6 and 8 hence rejected similarly.
15. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dang, Harrington, O’Neal and Tu teach, The method of claim 14, further comprising:
transferring the data wirelessly from the relay device to a remote device at a remote location, wherein the remote location is different from the relay location and the location of the physical asset (Col 7: lines 23-26 – teaches relay drones transmitting data wirelessly to a base station (remote device) at a different location, corresponding to transfer relay to remote, Tu);
clearing the data from a memory of the relay device after the data is transferred wirelessly from the relay device to the remote device (Col 26: lines 49-53 – teaches volatile memory for temporary storage of data during operations, which is inherently cleared once transfer is completed or the system cycles, Tu); and
processing the data through at least one of health monitoring and diagnostics applications at the remote device (Paragraph 80 – teaches processing stored data using predictive/diagnostic analysis applications at a computing device, Thomsen).
16. The combination of Thomsen, Nguyen-Dan, O’Neil and Tu teach, The method of claim 15, wherein the relay device is a third data delivery platform device carried by one of an aerial drone, a ground vehicle, an aerial vehicle, a ship, a space satellite, a computer in a fixed facility, a person with portable communication equipment, or any other system or object used for electronic data communication (Background – teaches that relay drones may take the form of aerial drones, vehicles, boats/ships, submarines or spacecraft, Tu).
Conclusion
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/AMRESH SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2159
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