DETAILED ACTION
The following is a Non-Final Office action in response to communications received 1/26/26. Claim(s) 9, 13, 16, and 17 has(have) been amended. Claims 14 and 15 have been canceled. Therefore, claim(s) 1-13 and 16-20 is(are) pending and addressed below.
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.
Claims 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
As per claim(s) 17-20, they are rejected because the applicant has provided evidence that the applicant intends the term "computer-readable storage medium" to include non-statutory matter. The applicant describes a computer-readable storage medium as including open ended language and thus it is reasonable to interpret it to include all possible mediums, including non-statutory mediums (a non-transitory computer-readable medium (also can be referred to as a non-transitory processor-readable medium) having instructions or computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The computer-readable medium (or processor-readable medium) is non-transitory in the sense that it does not include transitory propagating signals per se (e.g., a propagating electromagnetic wave carrying information on a transmission medium such as space or a cable). The media and computer code (also can be referred to as code) may be those designed and constructed for the specific purpose or purposes. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable media include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical storage media such as Compact Disc/Digital Video Discs (CD/DVDs), Compact Disc-Read Only Memories (CD-ROMs), and holographic devices; magneto-optical storage media such as optical disks; carrier wave signal processing modules; and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and execute program code, such as Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Read- Only Memory (ROM) and Random-Access Memory (RAM) devices, [0105]). The words "storage", "tangible", and/or "recording" are insufficient to convey only statutory embodiments to one of ordinary skill in the art absent an explicit and deliberate limiting definition or clear differentiation between storage media and transitory media in the disclosure. As such, the claim(s) is/are drawn to a form of energy. Energy is not one of the four categories of invention and therefore this/these claim(s) is/are not statutory. Energy is not a series of steps or acts and thus is not a process. Energy is not a physical article or object and as such is not a machine or manufacture. Energy is not a combination of substances and therefore not a composition of matter.
The examiner notes that while the specification states that a computer readable storage medium is not to be construed as a transitory signal per se (The computer-readable medium (or processor-readable medium) is non-transitory in the sense that it does not include transitory propagating signals per se (e.g., a propagating electromagnetic wave carrying information on a transmission medium such as space or a cable)), the use of open-ended language in the description of the medium (see above), the use of the phrase “per se” and “e.g.” in listing the types of signals not to be construed as, and because such a listing cannot cover every conceivable non-statutory embodiment, the statement alone is insufficient to overcome this rejection.
Since the specification describes "a non-transitory, processor-readable medium" as comprising both transitory and non-transitory media, the claim encompasses both and is therefore non-statutory.
The examiner suggests amending the specification so as to not redefine as including open-ended embodiments in the "non-transitory processor-readable medium" The examiner suggests simply removing the term “non-transitory” from the specification so as to not redefine the term.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-13 and 16 are allowed.
Prior art was not found that explicitly teaches or fairly suggests “determining, at a processor and based on (1) an amount of sensor data stored at a storage device of a sensor and (2) an uptime of the sensor, that the storage device has a performance deficiency” in combination with “identifying a condition associated with the performance deficiency via the processor, in response to determining that the storage device has the performance deficiency, and based on at least one of a set of error logs associated with the sensor or a set of performance metrics associated with the sensor, the condition (1) including a filesystem data structure error and (2) not including a MultiMediaCard (MMC) error”, and “in response to receiving the signal: identifying a reconfiguration based on the condition, the reconfiguration including a reformatted partition of the storage device, and causing the reconfiguration to be implemented at the storage device”, as outlined in independent claim 1.
Prior art was not found that explicitly teaches or fairly suggests “send a first signal to a first remote compute device indicating (1) an amount associated with the sensor data stored at the storage device, and (2) an uptime of the sensor, the first remote compute device configured to identify a performance deficiency of the storage device based on the amount and the uptime, the performance deficiency including one of (i) a MultiMediaCard (MMC) command to the storage device that failed or (ii) the storage device not storing previously recorded sensor data” in combination with “in response to receiving a second signal from the first remote compute device and after the first remote compute device has identified the performance deficiency, send the sensor data to a second remote compute device” and “after sending at least a predefined amount of the sensor data to the second remote compute device, reconfigure the storage device based on the performance deficiency by one of (a) reformatting at least one of a partition at the storage device or a filesystem at the storage device in response to a reboot, and rebooting the storage device, (b) rewriting a partition table at the storage device, and rebooting the storage device, or (c) deleting at least one data file from the storage device”, as outlined in independent claim 9.
The remaining claims, not specifically mentioned, are allowed because they are dependent upon one of the claims mentioned above.
These limitations are considered allowable only in combination with all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSHUA P LOTTICH whose telephone number is (571)270-3738. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri, 9:00am - 5:30pm.
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/JOSHUA P LOTTICH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2113
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