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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
35 U.S.C. 101 requires that a claimed invention must fall within one of the four eligible categories of invention (i.e. process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter) and must not be directed to subject matter encompassing a judicially recognized exception as interpreted by the courts. MPEP 2106. The four eligible categories of invention include: (1) process which is an act, or a series of acts or steps, (2) machine which is an concrete thing, consisting of parts, or of certain devices and combination of devices, (3) manufacture which is an article produced from raw or prepared materials by giving to these materials new forms, qualities, properties, or combinations, whether by hand labor or by machinery, and (4) composition of matter which is all compositions of two or more substances and all composite articles, whether they be the results of chemical union, or of mechanical mixture, or whether they be gases, fluids, powders or solids. MPEP 2106(I).
Claims 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as not falling within one of the four statutory categories of invention because the broadest reasonable interpretation of the instant claims in light of the specification encompasses transitory signals ([0042]-[0045] of the specification states that the “data storage device 124 can include one or more different types of data storage devices, such as, for example, one or more rotating disks drives, one or more solid state drives (SSDs), and/or any other type of data storage device. The data storage device 124 in some non-limiting examples includes a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) array. In some non-limiting examples, the data storage device(s) provide a shared data store accessible by two or more hosts in a cluster. For example, the data storage device may include a hard disk, a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), a flash memory drive, a storage area network (SAN), or other data storage device. In other examples, the data storage device 124 includes a database, such as, but not limited to, the database 220 in FIG. 2 below… the data storage device 124 includes a remote data storage accessed by the computing device via the network 112, such as a remote data storage device, a data storage in a remote data center, or a cloud storage” (emphasis added), indicating that the storage device, media, etc. may include transitory signals).
Transitory signals are not within one of the four statutory categories (i.e. non-statutory subject matter). See MPEP 2106(I). Claims directed toward a non-transitory computer readable medium may qualify as a manufacture and make the claim patent-eligible subject matter. MPEP 2106(I). Therefore, amending the claims to recite a “non-transitory computer-readable medium” would resolve this issue.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-14 are allowed.
Claims 15-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101 set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art of record teaches that it was known at the time the application was filed to monitor and manage pallet/inventory storage shelves using acquired images (US 2020/0286032 A1 and US 11,798,064 B1).
The prior art further teaches using vertical elements of the image features and item ID’s, e.g., SKU, barcode, etc. to determine vertical rack of shelves and the inventory status ().
However, the prior art, alone or in combination, does not appear to teach or suggest filtering the set of adjacent items from the plurality of items identified in the image, wherein the set of adjacent items are located within an adjacent compartment in the plurality of compartments and mapping a set of target items within the plurality of items remaining after filtering to a location of the target compartment, the set of target items mapped to the location of the target compartment in an item-to-location mapping table.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SOO J SHIN whose telephone number is (571)272-9753. The examiner can normally be reached M-F; 10-6.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Bella can be reached at (571)272-7778. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Soo Shin/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2667 571-272-9753
soo.shin@uspto.gov