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
This action is responsive to applicant’s amendment of 12/17/2025. Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 15-20 are rejected. Claims 1-14 are withdrawn from consideration.
Priority
Applicant’s claim of priority to application IN202341028561 filed 4/19/2023 in India is acknowledged.
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.
Claim(s) 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yenni et al. ‘570 (US20150088570) in view of Kennedy (US20240182289) wherein Yenni et al. teaches:
(re: cl 15) A system in a touchless lavatory, comprising:
a sensor (¶27; #151, #153-faucet);
a consumable (¶62-Water from faucet; ¶125-soap, water faucet; ¶139-toilet paper, paper towels);
a processor (¶49-microprocessor);
and a memory operatively coupled to the processor (¶75), the memory comprising instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
receive a signal from the sensor (¶70, 100-flash memory used in updating execution program code);
track the use of the consumable (¶132-cosumables tracked; ¶75-keeps running total of activations);
And send a warning in response to a prediction that the consumable is close to depleted (¶110-alarm when threshold exceeded and adjust based upon error; ¶135-can predict items found out…alarm predicting need for service ).
Yenni et al. ‘570 suggests:
a motor (¶8-“water control and dispensing consumables through either manual operation, or automatic operation using infrared sensors or other sensors that detect the presence of users, of faucets on sinks, water closets, urinals and other consumables dispensers”-motor needed for paper rolls and implied for other products using solenoid being interpreted as a linear motor).
Kennedy teaches what Yenni et al. ‘570 lacks or merely suggests of:
A motor (¶36- motor uses counted to measure amount product used);
the processor coupled to the motor and the sensor (¶57-“processor in the form of a microcontroller (MCU) (500) is configured to monitor inputs from sensors which detect voltage pulses from machine motors”-processor #500 coupled to sensors ; ¶59-motor & processor-“MCU (500) may use this elapsed time to calculate a consumption rate of a product used to prepare beverages. For example, the aforementioned counter may be indicative of a number of motor or switch activations, each corresponding to consumption of a unit quantity of a particular product”).
operate the motor in response to the signal (¶36-voltage applied to motor to dispense product-applied voltage is a signal ; ¶52-consumer presses a button which actuates a motor ; ¶59-motor or switch actuations corresponding to dispensing ; ¶60-operates motor in response to a reset signal; ¶59-may measure time of actuations as an integral of dispensing usage);
the tracking the use of the consumable is based on a number of times the motor is operated (¶8- “a counter for determining a number or elapsed time of dispensing machine activations”);
determine a prediction of a number of uses of the consumable by: retrieving a supply count of the consumable (¶45-the control computer (20) may comprise a processor and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the control computer (20) to receive product level data and/or usage data, and other operational data from each of the plurality of monitoring devices; ¶48-predicted when run out);
retrieving a per use prediction of the consumable (¶36-The dispensing rate of the mechanism is known, and thus the length of time it is in use provides a measure of product dispensed.”);
and calculating the number of uses of the consumable based on the supply count of the consumable and the per use prediction of the consumable (¶48-scheduling algorithm used to predict per use consumption rate and determine use and replenishing schedule);
operate a counter initially set at the number of uses each time the motor is operated (¶57-imcremented counter-incrementing a counter to threshold vs. decrementing a counter to threshold are recognized equivalent functions);
the depleted warning is sent based on the counter being beyond a threshold (¶59-notifies when threshold reached).
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 to have a motor in the lavatory product dispenser to feed tissue paper or paper towels “to perform well understood mechanical tasks“ (¶35) as taught by Kennedy.
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 to couple the motor to the processor to use the motor to track quantity usage (¶59-“ product consumption rates “; ¶61-“product consumption rates “) as taught by Kennedy and adjust product feed rates as one of ordinary skill in the rt would recognize.
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 to track the use of the consumable based on a number of times the motor is operated to determine how much product has been dispensed based on motor operating time and quantity of cycles as taught by Kennedy.
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 to determine a prediction of a number of uses of the consumable by: retrieving a supply count of the consumable to determine when the product will need be refilled as taught by Kennedy.
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 to calculate the number of uses of the consumable based on the supply count of the consumable and the per use prediction of the consumable to determine the rate of consumption of the dispensate as taught by Kennedy.
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 to operate a counter initially set at the number of uses each time the motor is operated
to track the quantity of dispensate used as taught by Kennedy and the substituting of an incrementing counter with a decrementing counter would have been would have been recognized as functional equivalents by one of ordinary skill in the art.
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 to trigger the depletion warning premised upon a counter threshold being reached
to notify an operator to refill the depleting dispensate as taught by Kennedy.
Yenni et al. ‘570 further teaches:
(re: cl 16) wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to: receive a first feedback status indicating that the warning is early, late, or accurate (¶135-detects if the trigger is within an acceptable gaussian distribution);
and update the prediction a first amount in response to the first feedback status (¶135-learn to preplan early depletion trigger; ¶136- recalibrate based upon learning).
(re: cl 17) wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the processor to: receive a second feedback status requesting an update to the prediction;
And update the prediction a second amount in response to the second feedback status, the second amount being greater than the first amount (¶137-“This additional "aggressiveness" might be obtained by adjusting some or all thresholds downward by an amount, such as, for example, 10%.”-makes a more aggressive adjustment if patron calls are made to suggesting a greater threshold of an early depletion than the automated replenish trigger threshold).
Yenni et al. ‘570 further suggests:
(re: cl 18) wherein the prediction is increased by 10% to 20% in response to the first feedback status indicating the warning is early and the prediction is decreased by 5% to 15% in response to the first feedback status indicating the warning is late (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to obtain these ranges as they require only routine measurement and experimentation).
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 increase the prediction by 10-20% responsive to a first feedback status indicating the warning is early and prediction decreased by 5-15% responsive to the first feedback status indicating the warning is late as they require only routine measurement and experimentation.
Yenni et al. ‘570 further suggests:
(re: cl 19) wherein the prediction is increased by 2% to 10% in response to the first feedback status indicating the warning is early and the prediction is decreased by 2% to 10% in response to the first feedback status indicating the warning is late (It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to obtain these ranges as they require only routine measurement and experimentation).
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 the claimed invention pertains, to modify Yenni et al. ‘570 so the prediction is increased by 2-10% responsive to the first feedback status indicating the warning is early and the prediction is decreased by 2-10% responsive to the first feedback status indicating the warning is late as they require only routine measurement and experimentation.
Yenni et al. ‘570 further teaches:
(re: cl 20) further comprising a user interface configured to display the warning (¶52-web page based remote display).
Response to Amendments/Arguments
Applicant’s amendment was effective in overcoming the indefiniteness rejections under 35 USC 112(b).
Applicant’s amendment was effective in overcoming the previous rejection evidenced by Yenni et al. ‘570 in view of Goerg et al.. However, except for the substitution of the equivalent incrementing a counter to a threshold in leu of decrementing a counter to a threshold, Kennedy teaches the newly amended elements as well as the elements in the previous rejection relying upon the elements taught by Goerg et al..
Kennedy teaches: A motor (¶36- motor uses counted to measure amount used);
the processor coupled to the motor and the sensor (¶57-“processor in the form of a microcontroller (MCU) (500) is configured to monitor inputs from sensors which detect voltage pulses from machine motors” -processor #500 coupled to sensors ; ¶59-motor & processor-“MCU (500) may use this elapsed time to calculate a consumption rate of a product used to prepare beverages. For example, the aforementioned counter may be indicative of a number of motor or switch activations, each corresponding to consumption of a unit quantity of a particular product”);
operate the motor in response to the signal (¶36-voltage applied to motor to dispense product-applied voltage is a signal ; ¶52-consumer presses a button which actuates a motor ; ¶59-motor or switch actuations corresponding to dispensing ; ¶60-operates motor in response to a reset signal; ¶59-may measure time of actuations as an integral of dispensing usage);
based on a number of times the motor is operated (¶8- a counter for determining a number or elapsed time of dispensing machine activations);
determine a prediction of a number of uses of the consumable by: retrieving a supply count of the consumable (¶45-the control computer (20) may comprise a processor and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the control computer (20) to receive product level data and/or usage data, and other operational data from each of the plurality of monitoring devices; ¶48-predicted when it will run out);
retrieving a per use prediction of the consumable (¶36-The dispensing rate of the mechanism is known, and thus the length of time it is in use provides a measure of product dispensed.”);
and calculating the number of uses of the consumable based on the supply count of the consumable and the per use prediction of the consumable (¶48-scheduling algorithm used to predict per use consumption rate and determine use and replenishing schedule);
operate a counter initially set at the number of uses each time the motor is operated (¶57-imcremented counter to threshold); and
the depleted warning is sent based on the counter being beyond a threshold (¶59-notifies when the threshold is reached).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's
disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL E BUTLER whose telephone number is (571)272-6937.
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/M.E.B/Examiner, Art Unit 3655
/JACOB S. SCOTT/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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