DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1 – 10, 15 and 18 - 20 have been presented for examination. Claims 1 – 10, 15, 18 and 20 are currently amended. Claims 11 – 14 and 16 – 17 are cancelled.
This office action is in response to submission of the amendments on 06/18/2025.
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 .
Response to Claim Objections
Applicant has cancelled claim 13. Therefore, the claim objection is moot.
Response to Double Patenting
Applicant’s amendments overcome the double patenting rejection. Therefore, it is withdrawn.
Response to 35 U.S.C. 101 Rejections
Applicant’s amendments overcome the 101 rejection. Therefore, it is withdrawn. Specifically, the instant claims do not recite an abstract idea.
Response to 35 U.S.C. 103 Rejections
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered. However, the Office does not consider them to be persuasive.
Applicant argues: “For example, the method of claim 1 recites a local user (e.g. site engineer) physically installing a gateway device at a local site … As noted in the present application, the local user may be a laborer not familiar with the operating protocol of the building control system of the site or familiar with the various network devices located at site (e.g., device types, capabilities, configuration settings, etc.). (see, for example, [0033] of the application as-filed) …
The remote user may be, for example, a system integrator that is a higher end engineer that is familiar with the operating protocol of the building control system of the site and familiar with the various network devices located at site (e.g., device types, capabilities, configuration settings, etc.). The present application states that the remote user ( e.g. system integrator) need not visit the local site, but rather may stay at the remote location and remotely connect to and configure the building control systems and gateway devices of multiple sites in rapid succession. For example, the remote user (e.g. system integrator) may use the remotely located device to establish and use a gateway system that extracts and publishes point data that can be utilized by a rule-based model mechanism to onboard the various components of the various facilities into the gateway system. (see, for example, [0036]-[0036] of the application as-filed). Neither Bovet nor Wacker, taken alone or in combination, can be seen to disclose such a method, or the benefits achieved by the claimed method.” (bold and underline emphasis added)
In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., the capabilities of the local/remote user, or the specific benefits achieved by the claimed method) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993). Examiner respectfully notes that Wacker et al. (US 2017/0207957) explicitly teaches that an onsite user (i.e. local user) need not be familiar with the network configuration in order to install/register a gateway (see emphasis above). Further, Applicant explicitly argues that the benefits to the remote user depend directly from performing desired actions remotely (see emphasis above). Bovet et al. “A Web-of-Things Gateway for KNX Networks” teaches remotely performing actions on a gateway connected to a building control system. Therefore, Wacker explicitly contemplates the argued benefits to a local user, and Bovet directly realizes the argued benefits to a remote user.
Applicant further argues that neither Bover or Wacker, either alone or in combination, teaches the amended claim. Examiner respectfully disagrees since Wacker explicitly teaches an installer directly setting up a gateway device in a building control system without knowledge of network devices or being control experts (see Paragraph 72 “The installer is not necessarily dependent on any IT knowledge to setup the device. The installer might only need to ask for a free Ethernet port to get the device to talk to a company cloud. After successfully obtaining an IP address, the gateway may automatically connect to the company cloud to identify itself without user intervention”, and Paragraph 15 “The contractors are not necessarily controls experts or building operators.”). Further, Bovet teaches remotely accessing a gateway connected to a gateway using a web page (see Page 5, Left DNS servers provide resolution of a domain name to its IP address and therefore need to be publicly accessible, where a domain name would get resolved to an IP address for remotely communicating to the gateway “By calling http://ground.leso.epfl.ch, the DNS server redirects the request to the gateway”). Therefore, Wacker in view of Bovet teaches the amended claim 1.
Applicant argues: “Claim 1 further recites … Neither Bovet nor Wacker, taken alone or in combination, can be seen to disclose these recited features, particular in combination with the other elements of claim 1 … Nor would there appear to be any motivation or other reason to modify Bovet or Wacker to arrive at the particular method recited in claim 1”
Applicant presents a conclusory statement that the amendment features are not taught by Bovet nor Wacker, and that there is no motivation to combine. Wacker in view of Bovet teaches the amended claim 1 (see Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103).
Applicant argues: “For similar and other reasons, claim 2, which depends from claim 1 and includes significant additional distinguishing features, is also believed to be clearly patentable over Bovet, Wacker and Lee. … For similar reasons to those detailed above with respect to claim 1, claim 18 is believed to be clearly patentable over Bovet, Wacker and Lee. For similar and other reasons, claims 19-20, which depend from claim 18 and include significant additional distinguishing features, are also believed to be clearly patentable over Bovet, Wacker and Lee”
Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive based on the preceding remarks.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 (and similarly 18) is objected to because of the following informalities: it recites “connecting the gateway device an intermediary network” which appears to be missing “via”. This is the interpretation for examination purpose. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities: it recites “wherein the central database in the cloud” which appears to be missing “is”. This is the interpretation for examination purpose. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3 – 10 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wacker et al. (US 2017/0207957) (henceforth “Wacker (957)”) in view of Bovet et al. “A Web-of-Things Gateway for KNX Networks” (henceforth “Bovet (Web)”). Wacker (957) and Bovet (Web) are analogous art because they solve the same problem of modeling a building control system, and because they are from the same field of building control systems.
With regard to claim 1, Wacker (957) teaches a method for adding a building control system at a site to a building management system that manages one or more control settings and/or operations of the building control system of the site, the method comprising: (Paragraph 59 “When a thermostat/controller or gateway is physically replaced in a building, the installer may be provided with simple tools/workflows that allow the installer to indicate to the system that is collecting and logging the data that the new controller is in fact a replacement and therefore the data collected by the old and the new controllers really belong to the same HVAC equipment.”, and Paragraph 81 notification system (one or more operations of the building control system) is maintained based on discovered controllers “To recap, a notification system may incorporate a sensor that detects one or more events of equipment, and a report mechanism that provides an alert of the one or more events. The event may indicate a crossing of a threshold. The crossing of the threshold may be a value exceeding a pre-determined bound.”)
physically installing a gateway device at the site by a local user, including connecting the gateway device to the building control system via a local network, and (Paragraph 59 a gateway is physically replaced in a building by an installer (physically installing by a local user) “When a thermostat/controller or gateway is physically replaced in a building, the installer may be provided with simple tools/workflows that allow the installer to indicate to the system that is collecting and logging the data that the new controller is in fact a replacement and therefore the data collected by the old and the new controllers really belong to the same HVAC equipment.”, and Paragraph 205 the gateway has some communication to the controllers (connecting via a local network) “The system may further incorporate a cloud gateway device. The cloud gateway device may discover virtually all controllers. Configuration data about the specific HVAC equipment may be read from the controllers using pre-defined templates that are present in the cloud gateway device.”)
connecting the gateway device an intermediary network that allows the gateway device to communicate with a remote management application running on a remotely located device; (Paragraph 72 and Figure 9 gateway automatically connects to a cloud application (a remote management application), where another network would exist to allow communication with the cloud (an intermediary network) “After successfully obtaining an IP address, the gateway may automatically connect to the company cloud to identify itself without user intervention.”
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, and Paragraph 35 “The approach may be implemented … in remote or cloud based systems that have access to operational data of the building controls.”)
after the gateway device is physically installed at the site by the local user, receiving input from a cloud user via the remote management application to connect the remotely located device to the gateway device via the intermediary network; (Paragraph 60 a cloud user interface allows operations on the gateway which can be performed after installation to update information “An LCBS cloud user interface (UI) may provide a "Replace" menu option for a gateway/controller. When the menu option is invoked for a controller, the user may be allowed to select/point to items in the controller list that refer to the old controller and the new controller. Once this is done, the cloud system may automatically remap internal point identification (ID) references and also automatically copy historical data from the old controller to the new controller to ensure continuity in the time-series data for the given HVAC equipment.”)
receiving input from the cloud user via the remote management application to register the gateway device with a selected central database; (Figure 9 gateway is linked to an specific account and in a database via a web ui of the cloud application (receiving input from the cloud user via remote management application)
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the gateway device traversing via the local network the building control system of the site, and extracting site details regarding the building control system of the site, (Figure 6 gateway connects and reads from all the controllers in the building
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including contextual details associated with components and points of the building control system of the site; (Paragraph 52 “For a fixed-function controller, the configuration data may include descriptions of the types of HVAC equipment and HVAC equipment subsystems, for example, a type of cooling, a number of compressors, whether an economizer is present, and so on”)
the gateway device automatically extracting point data of the building control system of the site based at least in part on the extracted site details; (Figure 8 operational data from controllers is used in algorithms, after ensuring an accuracy of the controller configuration (based at least in part on the extracted site details)
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, and Paragraph 59 new controller data is mapped to old controller data (based at least in part on the extracted site detail) “When a thermostat/controller or gateway is physically replaced in a building, the installer may be provided with simple tools/workflows that allow the installer to indicate to the system that is collecting and logging the data that the new controller is in fact a replacement and therefore the data collected by the old and the new controllers really belong to the same HVAC equipment.”)
the gateway device publishing at least some of the extracted point data (Paragraph 30 “The gateway may publish a data model of the information that it has access to, and an available update resolution (if one reads it faster than this, the process that generates will not have done so and one will get the same value as the last one read).”, and Figure 8 analytics algorithms are hosted on the cloud
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to the selected central database to which the gateway device is registered; and (Paragraph 61 operational data is stored in a generic database, and the database used to register the gateway is also a generic database, where said generic databases being the same database would have wholly predictable results “A controller ID and operational data may be automatically mapped to, for example, instances of HVAC equipment in the database used by an analytics infrastructure.”, and Paragraph 29 Paragraph 29 operational data is stored in a generic database on the cloud “Each subscription may have a different message and a destination, or a common destination ( e.g., a cloud) directed to different services within the destination.”)
the building management system controlling one or more control settings and/or operations of the building control system of the site based at least in part on one or more of the extracted point data published to the selected central database. (Paragraph 81 notification system to operators of faults (one or more operations of the building control system) is maintained based on discovered controllers “To recap, a notification system may incorporate a sensor that detects one or more events of equipment, and a report mechanism that provides an alert of the one or more events. The event may indicate a crossing of a threshold. The crossing of the threshold may be a value exceeding a pre-determined bound.”, and Paragraph 59 proper data mapping of controller data for analytics is maintained even when controllers are replaced)
Wacker (957) does not appear to explicitly disclose: receiving input from a remote user via the remote management application to connect the remotely located device to the gateway device via the intermediary network;
However, Bovet (Web) teaches:
receiving input from a remote user via a remote management application to connect a remotely located device to a gateway device via an intermediary network; (Page 5, Left DNS servers provide resolution of a domain name to its IP address and therefore need to be accessible, where a domain name would get resolved to an IP address and thereby allowing remote communication the gateway “By calling http://ground.leso.epfl.ch, the DNS server redirects the request to the gateway”, and Page 2, Right “So, we first need to be able to identify and address those resources in a simple way before we can interact with them. This is realized by using URLs in the same way as for retrieving Web pages on servers”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the gateway for a building management system disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to access a gateway through a web interface (Bovet (Web) Page 5, Left).
With regard to claim 3, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 1, and further teaches wherein:
the gateway device extracting contextual details associated with components and points of the building control system of the site based at least in part on one or more tags associated with one or more of the components of the building control system of the site. (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3 datapoints are stored based on the datapoint description (extract contextual details) which comprises a the url encoded location of the component and a type (based on one or more tags)
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It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the tagging of control system data disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to store building controller data (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3).
With regard to claim 4, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 3, and further teaches wherein the gateway device:
allowing one or more of the tags to be configured by the user of the remotely located device across the intermediary network via the remote management application. (Bovet (Web) Figure 6 and Page 7, Left datapoint types are defined in an xml file (to configure one or more tags) which can be loaded as part of a ETS project archive through a web interface (allow a user of a remotely located device across the network) “As shown in figure 5, ETS exports projects in an archive composed of multiple XML files. The knx master.xml file contains the description of all the DP types”
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It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the tagging of control system data disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to store building controller data (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3).
With regard to claim 5, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 3, and further teaches: wherein the gateway device:
allows one or more of the tags to be configured by the remote user of the remotely located device across the intermediary network via the remote management application before the gateway device extracts site details regarding the building control system, including contextual details associated with components and points of the building control system of the site. (Bovet (Web) Figure 6 and Page 7, Left datapoint types are defined in an xml file (to configure one or more tags) which is initially uploaded as part of a ETS project archive (before the gateway device extracts site details) through a web interface (allow a user of a remotely located device across the network) “As shown in figure 5, ETS exports projects in an archive composed of multiple XML files. The knx master.xml file contains the description of all the DP types”
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It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the tagging of control system data disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to store building controller data (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3).
With regard to claim 6, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 3, and further teaches:
wherein the one or more tags include a tag that conveys an instance or type parameter of a corresponding one of the one or more of the components. (Bovet (Web) Figure 6 and Page 7, Left datapoint types are defined in an xml file (to configure one or more tags) which is uploaded as part of a ETS project archive through a web interface (allow a user of a remotely located device across the network) “As shown in figure 5, ETS exports projects in an archive composed of multiple XML files. The knx master.xml file contains the description of all the DP types”
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It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the tagging of control system data disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to store building controller data (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3).
With regard to claim 7, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 3, and further teaches:
wherein the one or more tags include a tag that conveys a location or characteristic of a corresponding one of the one or more of the components. (Bovet (Web) Listing 3 datapoints are stored based on the datapoint description which comprises a the url encoded location of the component and a type (based on one or more tags)
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It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the tagging of control system data disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to store building controller data (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3).
With regard to claim 8, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 3, and further teaches:
wherein the one or more tags include a tag that identifies whether a corresponding one of the one or more of the components is to be included. (Wacker (957) Paragraph 29 - 30 the gateway has access to all the device data and publishes a data model, and can provide only a specified subset of the data to other applications “specify a subset group of synchronized data objects that the applications need, and at what rate … The gateway may publish a data model of the information that it has access to.”, and Figure 7
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With regard to claim 9, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 3, and further teaches:
wherein the one or more tags include a tag that defines a relationship of a corresponding one of the one or more of the components with another one of the one or more of the components of the building control system of the site. (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3 datapoints are stored based on the datapoint description which comprises a the url encoded location of the component referenced to a room and a type (based on one or more tags), where the same room could have other components (defines a relationship with another one or more components)
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It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the tagging of control system data disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to store building controller data (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3).
With regard to claim 10, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 3, and further teaches: wherein the gateway device:
receiving a notification of a reconfiguration in the building control system of the site; (Wacker (957) Paragraph 60 a user specifies a replaced controller in the building “An LCBS cloud user interface (UI) may provide a "Replace" menu option for a gateway/controller ... Once this is done, the cloud system may automatically remap internal point identification (ID) references and also automatically copy historical data from the old controller to the new controller to ensure continuity in the time-series data for the given HVAC equipment”)
traversing via the local network the reconfigured building control system of the site, and extracting site details regarding the reconfigured building control system, including contextual details associated with components and points of the reconfigured building control system of the site; extracting updated point data of the reconfigured building control system based at least in part on the extracted site details; and publishing at least some of the extracted updated point data via the intermediary network to the central database to which the gateway device is registered. (Wacker (957) Paragraph 60 a data model is remapped (traversing and extracting site details regarding reconfigured) in response to changing out specific controllers (including contextual details associated with), where any previous steps such could be predictably repeated in view of the updates (extracting updated point data based at least in part on the extracted site details, and publishing) “An LCBS cloud user interface (UI) may provide a "Replace" menu option for a gateway/controller ... Once this is done, the cloud system may automatically remap internal point identification (ID) references and also automatically copy historical data from the old controller to the new controller to ensure continuity in the time-series data for the given HVAC equipment”)
With regard to claim 15, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 1, and further teaches:
wherein the selected central database is in a cloud computing environment accessible by the gateway device over the intermediary network. (Wacker (957) Paragraph 53 and Figure 9 local gateway sends data to the cloud, where the file database of Bovet (Web) could desirably be implemented as a cloud database “When the LCBS gateway detects the thermostats/controllers installed in a building, it may automatically read the configuration details from these controllers and send the information to the cloud”
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Claims 2 and 18 - 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web), and further in view of Lee et al. “A Smart Gateway Framework for IOT Services” (henceforth “Lee”). Wacker (957) and Bovet (Web) and Lee are analogous art because they solve the same problem of modeling a building control system, and because they are from the same field of building control systems.
With regard to claim 18, Wacker (957) teaches a method for adding a building control system at a site to a building management system that manages one or more control settings and/or operations of the building control system of the site, the method comprising:(Paragraph 59 “When a thermostat/controller or gateway is physically replaced in a building, the installer may be provided with simple tools/workflows that allow the installer to indicate to the system that is collecting and logging the data that the new controller is in fact a replacement and therefore the data collected by the old and the new controllers really belong to the same HVAC equipment.”, and Paragraph 81 notification system (one or more operations of the building control system) is maintained based on discovered controllers “To recap, a notification system may incorporate a sensor that detects one or more events of equipment, and a report mechanism that provides an alert of the one or more events. The event may indicate a crossing of a threshold. The crossing of the threshold may be a value exceeding a pre-determined bound.”)
physically installing a gateway device at the site by a local user, including connecting the gateway device to the building control system via a local network, and (Paragraph 59 a gateway is physically replaced in a building by an installer (physically installing by a local user) “When a thermostat/controller or gateway is physically replaced in a building, the installer may be provided with simple tools/workflows that allow the installer to indicate to the system that is collecting and logging the data that the new controller is in fact a replacement and therefore the data collected by the old and the new controllers really belong to the same HVAC equipment.”, and Paragraph 205 the gateway has some communication to the controllers (connecting via a local network) “The system may further incorporate a cloud gateway device. The cloud gateway device may discover virtually all controllers. Configuration data about the specific HVAC equipment may be read from the controllers using pre-defined templates that are present in the cloud gateway device.”)
connecting the gateway device an intermediary network that allows the gateway device to communicate with a remote management application running on a remotely located device; (Paragraph 72 and Figure 9 gateway automatically connects to a cloud application (a remote management application), where another network would exist to allow communication with the cloud (an intermediary network) “After successfully obtaining an IP address, the gateway may automatically connect to the company cloud to identify itself without user intervention.”
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, and Paragraph 35 “The approach may be implemented … in remote or cloud based systems that have access to operational data of the building controls.”)
receiving site specific information from the local user, and saving the received site specific information at a site component in the local network; (Paragraph 32 a system operator defines/assigns poll profile information, where information that is defined/assigned needs to be saved in order to be later utilized in the polling (saving at a site component) “After symbol 34, as noted by arrow 37, a system operator may predefine gateway 31 poll profiles 33 by allocating tagged data, as indicated by dashed arrow 36 to different user roles, and may assign an appropriate rate, as indicated by dashed arrow 38,”)
after the gateway device is physically installed at the site by the local user, receiving input from a cloud user via the remote management application to remotely connect the remotely located device to the gateway device via the intermediary network; (Paragraph 60 a cloud user interface allows operations on the gateway which can be performed after installation to update information “An LCBS cloud user interface (UI) may provide a "Replace" menu option for a gateway/controller. When the menu option is invoked for a controller, the user may be allowed to select/point to items in the controller list that refer to the old controller and the new controller. Once this is done, the cloud system may automatically remap internal point identification (ID) references and also automatically copy historical data from the old controller to the new controller to ensure continuity in the time-series data for the given HVAC equipment.”)
the gateway device traversing via a local network the building control system of the site, and extracting site details regarding the building control system of the site, (Figure 6 gateway connects and reads from all the controllers in the building
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including contextual details associated with components and points of the building control system of the site; (Paragraph 52 “For a fixed-function controller, the configuration data may include descriptions of the types of HVAC equipment and HVAC equipment subsystems, for example, a type of cooling, a number of compressors, whether an economizer is present, and so on”)
the gateway device automatically extracting point data of the building control system of the site based at least in part on the extracted site details; (Figure 8 operational data from controllers is used in algorithms, after ensuring an accuracy of the controller configuration (based at least in part on the extracted site details)
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, and Paragraph 59 new controller data is mapped to old controller data (based at least in part on the extracted site detail) “When a thermostat/controller or gateway is physically replaced in a building, the installer may be provided with simple tools/workflows that allow the installer to indicate to the system that is collecting and logging the data that the new controller is in fact a replacement and therefore the data collected by the old and the new controllers really belong to the same HVAC equipment.”)
the gateway device publishing at least some of the extracted point data (Paragraph 30 “The gateway may publish a data model of the information that it has access to, and an available update resolution (if one reads it faster than this, the process that generates will not have done so and one will get the same value as the last one read).”, and Figure 8 analytics algorithms are hosted on the cloud
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to a central database, wherein the central database in the cloud and accessible via the intermediary network; and (Figure 9 gateway is linked to an specific account and in a database via a web ui of the cloud application
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, and Paragraph 35 the database can be implemented remotely and have communication with building data (via an intermediary network) “The approach may be implemented … in remote or cloud based systems that have access to operational data of the building controls.”)
the gateway device automatically updating the published extracted point data within the central database at a programmed time interval, wherein the programmed time interval is user programmable (Wacker (957) Figure 2 poll rate for subscriptions is specified by an operator
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, and Paragraph 248 the gateway is connected to the web and has an accessible IP address “When the gateway is powered up and connected to a net port, the gateway may automatically acquire an IP address. After acquiring an IP address, the gateway may automatically connect to a designated cloud and identify itself. The gateway may be shipped with a registration code”)
the building management system controlling one or more control settings and/or operations of the building control system of the site based at least in part on one or more of the extracted point data published to the selected central database. (Paragraph 81 notification system to operators of faults (one or more operations of the building control system) is maintained based on discovered controllers “To recap, a notification system may incorporate a sensor that detects one or more events of equipment, and a report mechanism that provides an alert of the one or more events. The event may indicate a crossing of a threshold. The crossing of the threshold may be a value exceeding a pre-determined bound.”, and Paragraph 59 proper data mapping of controller data for analytics is maintained even when controllers are replaced)
Wacker (957) does not appear to explicitly disclose: receiving input from a remote user via the remote management application to connect the remotely located device to the gateway device via the intermediary network;
However, Bovet (Web) teaches:
receiving input from a remote user via a remote management application to connect a remotely located device to a gateway device via an intermediary network; (Page 5, Left DNS servers provide resolution of a domain name to its IP address and therefore need to be accessible, where a domain name would get resolved to an IP address and thereby allowing remote communication the gateway “By calling http://ground.leso.epfl.ch, the DNS server redirects the request to the gateway”, and Page 2, Right “So, we first need to be able to identify and address those resources in a simple way before we can interact with them. This is realized by using URLs in the same way as for retrieving Web pages on servers”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the gateway for a building management system disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to access a gateway through a web interface (Bovet (Web) Page 5, Left).
Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) does not appear to explicitly disclose: that the updating a programming interval is from a remotely located device across the intermediary network via the remote management application.
However, Lee teaches:
wherein a programmable time interval is programmable from a remotely located device across an intermediary network via a remote management application. (Lee Page 111, Right gateway is configurable through a web interface “The HTTP Server is to provide uniform and easy access to all the functionality provided by the framework. On startup, the HTTP Server opens up a listen port and then awaits HTTP requests from the cloud”, and Page 110, Right the configuration includes a time-based updating of building control devices “The Rule Manager is the brain of the smart IoT gateway framework. It evaluates the registered rules periodically or based on event occurrence. If a rule has been satisfied, the corresponding action can be taken place”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway for a building management system disclosed by Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) with the programmable gateway comprise time-based updating of device data disclosed by Lee. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to desirably configure a gateway (Lee Page 111, Right).
With regard to claim 2, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) teaches all the elements of the parent claim 1, and further teaches wherein:
the gateway device automatically updating the published extracted point data within the selected central database at a programmable time interval, (Wacker (957) Figure 2 poll rate for subscriptions is specified by an operator
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, and Paragraph 248 the gateway is connected to the web and has an accessible IP address “When the gateway is powered up and connected to a net port, the gateway may automatically acquire an IP address. After acquiring an IP address, the gateway may automatically connect to a designated cloud and identify itself. The gateway may be shipped with a registration code”)
Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) does not appear to explicitly disclose: wherein the programmable time interval is programmable from the remotely located device across the intermediary network via the remote management application.
However, Lee teaches:
wherein a programmable time interval is programmable from a remotely located device across an intermediary network via a remote management application. (Lee Page 111, Right gateway is configurable through a web interface “The HTTP Server is to provide uniform and easy access to all the functionality provided by the framework. On startup, the HTTP Server opens up a listen port and then awaits HTTP requests from the cloud”, and Page 110, Right the configuration includes a time-based updating of building control devices “The Rule Manager is the brain of the smart IoT gateway framework. It evaluates the registered rules periodically or based on event occurrence. If a rule has been satisfied, the corresponding action can be taken place”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway for a building management system disclosed by Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web) with the programmable gateway comprise time-based updating of device data disclosed by Lee. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to desirably configure a gateway (Lee Page 111, Right).
With regard to claim 19, Wacker (957) in view of Bovet (Web), and further in view of Lee teaches all the elements of the parent claim 18, and further teaches:
extracting contextual details associated with components and points of the building control system of the site based at least in part on one or more tags associated with one or more of the components of the building control system of the site. (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3 datapoints are stored based on the datapoint description (extract contextual details) which comprises a the url encoded location of the component and a type (based on one or more tags)
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It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the tagging of control system data disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to store building controller data (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3).
With regard to claim 20, Wacker (957) and Bovet (Web), and further in view of Lee teaches all the elements of the parent claim 19, and further teaches wherein the one or more tags include one or more of:
a tag that conveys an instance or type parameter of a corresponding one of the one or more of the components; (Bovet (Web) Figure 6 and Page 7, Left datapoint types are defined in an xml file (to configure one or more tags) which is uploaded as part of a ETS project archive through a web interface (allow a user of a remotely located device across the network) “As shown in figure 5, ETS exports projects in an archive composed of multiple XML files. The knx master.xml file contains the description of all the DP types”
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a tag that conveys a location or characteristic of a corresponding one of the one or more of the components; (Bovet (Web) Listing 3 datapoints are stored based on the datapoint description which comprises a the url encoded location of the component and a type (based on one or more tags)
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a tag that identifies whether a corresponding one of the one or more of the components is to be included; and (Wacker (957) Paragraph 29 - 30 the gateway has access to all the device data and publishes a data model, and can provide only a specified subset of the data to other applications “specify a subset group of synchronized data objects that the applications need, and at what rate … The gateway may publish a data model of the information that it has access to.”, and Figure 7
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a tag that defines a relationship of a corresponding one of the one or more of the components with another one of the one or more of the components. (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3 datapoints are stored based on the datapoint description which comprises a the url encoded location of the component referenced to a room and a type (based on one or more tags), where the same room could have other components (defines a relationship with another one or more components)
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It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the cloud registered gateway and controller discovery and published data model disclosed by Wacker (957) with the tagging of control system data disclosed by Bovet (Web). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to allow a user to store building controller data (Bovet (Web) Listing 2 and 3).
Examiner General Comments
With regard to the prior art rejection(s), any cited portion of the relied upon reference(s), either to specific areas or as direct language, is intended to be interpreted in the context of the reference(s) as a whole, as would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner. The entire reference is considered to provide disclosure relating to the claimed invention. The claims & only the claims form the metes & bounds of the invention. Office personnel are to give the claims their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the supporting disclosure. Unclaimed limitations appearing in the specification are not read into the claim. Prior art was referenced using terminology familiar to one of ordinary skill in the art. Such an approach is broad in concept and can be either explicit or implicit in meaning. Examiner's Notes are provided with the cited references to assist the applicant to better understand how the examiner interprets the applied prior art. Such comments are entirely consistent with the intent and spirit of compact prosecution.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALFRED H. WECHSELBERGER whose telephone number is (571)272-8988. The examiner can normally be reached M - F, 10am to 6pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Emerson Puente can be reached on 571-272-3652. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALFRED H. WECHSELBERGER/ExaminerArt Unit 2187
/EMERSON C PUENTE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2187
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