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 .
This Office Action is responsive to: Amendment filed 24 Feb. 2026
Claims 1-20 are pending in this case. Claims 1 and 19 are independent claims
Applicant’s Response
In Applicant’s Response dated 24 Feb. 2026, Applicant amended claims 1 and 19; added new claim 20; argued against all rejections previously set forth in the Office Action dated 03 Dec. 2025.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Davidson et al. (Pub. No.: US 2022/0121845 A1) (hereinafter “Davidson”) in view of Maze (Pub. No.: US 2010/0325102 A1), further in view of Andrushenko et al. (Pub. No.: US 2005/0165524 A1; Filed: Jan. 27, 2004)(hereinafter “Andrushenko”).
Regarding independent claim 1, Davidson disclose a method for creating and using a digital record of an aircraft engine logbook, comprising:
scanning existing logbooks for aircraft engines into a digital file of a computer system (0006; 0014; 0047-0048);
converting each digital file into an editable format that uses optical character recognition (OCR) (0006; 0014; 0047-0048);
segregating each editable digital file according to a document type as determined by a pattern template (0011; 0016; 0018; 0020);
checking each segregated digital file for accuracy and editing any errors in the segregated digital file (0012; 0017-0018; 0038);
storing the checked and corrected digital files in a electronic database (0084);
converting the segregated digital files into an electronic spreadsheet format that lists the document type (0006; 0018; 0025; 0078-0079);
verifying the spreadsheet listing of the segregated digital files for correct formatting (0015; 0018-0019); and
providing the verified spreadsheet listing of the segregated digital files to an end user (0015; 0018-0019).
Davidson does not expressly disclose tagging each editable digital file with a conventional name that is electronically read from the editable digital file.
Maze teach tagging each editable digital file with a conventional name that is electronically read from the editable digital file (0062; 0073).
Therefore before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Maze with Davidson for the benefit of managing electronic document capture, review, analysis, and production according to one or more categorization schema (0002).
Davidson in view of Maze does not expressly disclose collects aircraft engine maintenance data from trusted sources;
checks each segregated digital file against the collected aircraft engine maintenance data for accuracy and editing any errors in the segregated digital file.
Sinex teach Davidson in view of Maze does not expressly disclose collects aircraft engine maintenance data from trusted sources (0014; 0042-0046; 0049);
checks each segregated digital file against the collected aircraft engine maintenance data for accuracy and editing any errors in the segregated digital file (0035; 0097; 0099; 0100).
Therefore before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Sinex with Davidson in view of Maze for the benefit of dynamically managing, in real-time, aircraft maintenance requirements (0013).
Regarding dependent claim 2, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 1, where the existing logbooks are non-standardized logbooks (0018, 0035; 0061-0062).
Regarding dependent claim 3, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 1, where checking each segregated digital file for accuracy is done externally to the computer system (0012; 0017-0018; 0038).
Regarding dependent claim 4, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 3, where checking each segregated digital file for accuracy is done manually (0012).
Regarding dependent claim 5, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 3, where checking each segregated digital file for accuracy is done manually by an initial user (0012).
Regarding dependent claim 6, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 1, where verifying the spreadsheet listing of the segregated digital files for correct formatting is done externally to the computer system (0049; 0084).
Regarding dependent claim 7, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 6, where verifying the spreadsheet listing of the segregated digital files for correct formatting is done manually (0038).
Regarding dependent claim 8, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 6, where verifying the spreadsheet listing of the segregated digital files for correct formatting is done manually by an initial user (0038).
Regarding dependent claim 9, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 1, where checking each segregated digital file for accuracy is automatically done by a quality engine that is part of the computer system (0087).
Regarding dependent claim 10, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 9, where quality engine functions as a rule based engine (0006; 0035).
Regarding dependent claim 11, Davidson in view of Maze disclose the method of Claim 9, where quality engine functions as an artificial intelligence (AI) based engine (0071).
Regarding dependent claim 12, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 1, where each segregated digital file for is checked for accuracy by identifying missing data (0014; 0018).
Regarding dependent claim 13, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 1, where each segregated digital file for is checked for accuracy by identifying potentially inaccurate data (0012; 0017-0018; 0038).
Regarding dependent claim 14, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 13, where the identified potentially inaccurate data is highlighted in a data field in the segregated digital file (0012).
Regarding dependent claim 15, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 14, where a correction is automatically suggested for the highlighted data field in the segregated digital file (0012).
Regarding dependent claim 16, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 1, where each segregated digital file is automatically given a confidence score for accuracy by a rank engine that is part of the computer system (0054-0056).
Regarding dependent claim 17, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 16, where an alert is generated if the confidence score for the accuracy of a segregated digital file is below a pre-defined limit (0054-0056).
Regarding dependent claim 18, Davidson disclose the method of Claim 1, further comprising:
receiving a document request from a user for access to digital files in the electronic database (0006; 0033; 0084);
retrieving segregated digital files from the database according to the document request from an end user (0006; 0033; 0084); and
providing the segregated digital files to the user in response to the document request (0006; 0033; 0084).
Regarding independent claim 19, Davidson disclose a system for creating and using a digital record of an aircraft engine logbook, comprising:
an electronic scanner that scans existing logbooks for aircraft engines into a digital file of a computer system (0006; 0014; 0047-0048);
a computer system that includes a microprocessor that, converts each digital file into an editable format that uses optical character recognition (OCR) (0006; 0014; 0047-0048),
segregates each editable digital file according to a document type as determined by a pattern template (0011; 0016; 0018; 0020);
checks each segregated digital file for accuracy and editing any errors in the segregated digital file (0012; 0017-0018; 0038),
converts the segregated digital files into an electronic spreadsheet format that lists the document type (0006; 0018; 0025; 0078-0079),
verifies the spreadsheet listing of the segregated digital files for correct formatting (0015; 0018-0019), and
provides the verified spreadsheet listing of the segregated digital files to an end user (0015; 0018-0019); and
an electronic database that stores the checked and corrected digital files (0084).
Davidson does not expressly disclose tagging each editable digital file with a conventional name that is electronically read from the editable digital file.
Maze teach tags each editable digital file with a conventional name that is electronically read from the editable digital file (0062; 0073).
Therefore before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Maze with Davidson for the benefit of managing electronic document capture, review, analysis, and production according to one or more categorization schema (0002).
Davidson in view of Maze does not expressly disclose collects aircraft engine maintenance data from trusted sources;
checks each segregated digital file against the collected aircraft engine maintenance data for accuracy and editing any errors in the segregated digital file.
Sinex teach Davidson in view of Maze does not expressly disclose collects aircraft engine maintenance data from trusted sources (0014; 0042-0046; 0049);
checks each segregated digital file against the collected aircraft engine maintenance data for accuracy and editing any errors in the segregated digital file (0035; 0097; 0099; 0100).
Therefore before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Sinex with Davidson in view of Maze for the benefit of dynamically managing, in real-time, aircraft maintenance requirements (0013).
Regarding dependent claim 20, Davidson in view of Maze, further in view of Sinex disclose the system of claim 19, wherein the trusted sources include standard engine configuration information, inventory data, and parts information (0010; 0105).
NOTE
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments 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.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 extension fee 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 JAMES J DEBROW whose telephone number is (571)272-5768. The examiner can normally be reached on 09:00 - 06:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Bashore can be reached on 571-272-4088. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/James J Debrow/
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2174
571-272-5768
Prosecution Insights