DETAILED ACTION
Acknowledgements
This Non-Final Office Action is in reply to Applicant’s original application filed September 8, 2023.
Claims 1-21 are currently pending.
Claims 1-21 have been examined.
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 Objections
Claims 1, 8, 14 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1, 5th line: There is no antecedent basis for “shoe”. It should be “worn article”.
Claim 8, 3rd line: There is no antecedent basis for “worn article of footwear”. It should be “worn article”.
Claim 14, 3rd line: There is no antecedent basis for “worn article of footwear”. It should be “worn article”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10,11, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madhusudhan (US 20230070389 A1) in view of Cruz (US 20160174807 A1) in view of Ghere (US 20230182948 A1).
Regarding claim 1
Madhusudhan teaches:
A method of retail engagement comprising:
[…] adorning the outer surface of the article with one or more adornments, the one or more adornments being selected by the user. {[0058] “The system includes a digital file creation module 204 configured to initiate a camera of the user device and guide a user to create a digital file”; [0059] “The NFC creation module 206 uses digital files and associated metadata to create the NFT. The associated metadata includes a unique identity”; [0076] “In an embodiment, the physical asset 402 may have a QR code [adornment] or NFC tag attached with it to provide its unique identity.”; [0048] “An NFT is minted from digital assets that represent both tangible and intangible commodities, such as art, GIFs, films, sports highlights, Collectibles, virtual avatars, video game skins, designer shoes [article], or music.”}
Madhusudhan does not teach, however Cruz teaches:
receiving a worn article from a user in a retail establishment, the worn article including dirt or debris on an outer surface of the article; {[0012] “This specification generally describes a footwear cleaning device that removes debris, e.g., dirt or dust, from a shoe, boot, or other piece of footwear inserted into the device using”}
robotically cleaning the worn article to at least partially remove the dirt or debris on the outer surface, wherein the cleaning comprises contacting the shoe with a rotating brush, and wherein at least one of the worn article or the rotating brush is robotically manipulated to cause the contacting; and {abstract “Various apparatus for cleaning footwear are described. One footwear cleaning apparatus includes a box having an open top surface for receiving a piece of footwear; and a plurality of brushes arrayed within the box and positioned substantially parallel to a bottom surface of the box, wherein the plurality of brushes includes at least one first brush configured to contact a first side surface of the piece of footwear, at least one second brush configured to contact a different, second side surface of the piece of footwear, and at least one third brush configured to contact a bottom surface of the piece of footwear, and wherein the at least one first brush and the at least one second brush are configured to, when actuated, rotate towards a center of the box about an axis that is substantially parallel to the bottom surface of the box.”; [0003] “Each of the plurality of brushes can be connected to a respective gear from a plurality of gears, wherein at least one of the plurality of gears is connected to a motor, and wherein the actuating control is configured to actuate the motor in response to receiving the actuating input.”}
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the cleaning of Cruz to the NFT validation and tagging method of Madhusudhan because the steps of Madhusudhan, such as tagging the item, taking a picture of it, etc., would be easier performed on a clean item.
Madhusudhan in view of Cruz does not teach, however Ghere teaches:
robotically adorning the outer surface of the article with one or more adornments, the one or more adornments being selected by the user. {[0005] “printing an adhesive label with the label information; and receiving the adhesive label on a suction pad or vacuum device attached to a movable end of a robot arm having a plurality of rotatable joints. The method also includes measuring height of the item; determining a first labeling position for the item, the first labeling position determined from the measured height of the item; positioning the robot arm with suction pad or vacuum device at the first labeling position and releasing the adhesive label from the suction pad or vacuum device;”; [0003] “existing units generally lack the ability to be used in-line and with containers and/or pallets of varying sizes and shapes without human intervention.”}
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the adhesive label and robot arm of Ghere to perform the QR code tagging of Madhusudhan in view of Cruz so that it can be applied to “varying sizes and shapes without human intervention”.
Regarding claim 2
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein the selected adornment includes a digital identifier; the method further comprising: {[0076] “In an embodiment, the physical asset 402 may have a QR code [adornment] or NFC tag attached with it to provide its unique identity [digital identifier].”; [0048] “An NFT is minted from digital assets that represent both tangible and intangible commodities, such as art, GIFs, films, sports highlights, Collectibles, virtual avatars, video game skins, designer shoes [article], or music.”}
receiving the digital identifier from the user; {[0011] “On receiving a request to create the NFT, the system initiates the camera module of the user device to create a media file of the physical asset, reads a unique identity of the physical asset, associates the unique identification with the media file, and creates an NFT using an NFT standard from the media file. The system uses blockchain resources for minting the NFT. The system may help store the NFT in a wallet associated with the creator and allow transferring of the NFT from one owner to another.”}
following the receipt of the digital identifier from the user, transferring or instructing the transfer of a digital collectable to an account or digital wallet of the user. {[0011] “On receiving a request to create the NFT, the system initiates the camera module of the user device to create a media file of the physical asset, reads a unique identity [digital identifier] of the physical asset, associates the unique identification with the media file, and creates an NFT using an NFT standard from the media file. The system uses blockchain resources for minting the NFT. The system may help store the NFT in a wallet associated with the creator and allow transferring of the NFT from one owner to another.”}
Regarding claims 3 and 16
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 2, wherein the digital collectable includes a digital image or model of the worn article. {[0076] “the system can take a raw image or video of the physical asset, create NFT from the raw image or video”}
Regarding claims 5 and 17
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 2, wherein the digital collectable includes a digital image or model of the chosen adornment. {[0076] “the system can take a raw image or video of the physical asset, create NFT from the raw image or video”}
Regarding claim 7
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 2, wherein the digital collectable is cryptographically secured to a digital blockchain ledger as a nonfungible token. {[0011] “On receiving a request to create the NFT, the system initiates the camera module of the user device to create a media file of the physical asset, reads a unique identity of the physical asset, associates the unique identification with the media file, and creates an NFT using an NFT standard from the media file. The system uses blockchain resources for minting the NFT. The system may help store the NFT in a wallet associated with the creator and allow transferring of the NFT from one owner to another. The system maintains transaction reports in the blockchain ledger.”}
Regarding claims 10 and 19
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein the article is an article of footwear. {[0048] “Each NFT contains a digital signature that prevents NFTs from being traded to one another. An NFT is minted from digital assets that represent both tangible and intangible commodities, such as art, GIFs, films, sports highlights, Collectibles, virtual avatars, video game skins, designer shoes [footwear], or music.”}
Regarding claims 11 and 20
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein the article is an article of clothing. {[0048] “Each NFT contains a digital signature that prevents NFTs from being traded to one another. An NFT is minted from digital assets that represent both tangible and intangible commodities, such as art, GIFs, films, sports highlights, Collectibles, virtual avatars, video game skins, designer shoes [clothing], or music.”}
Regarding claim 13
Madhusudhan teaches:
A method of distributing a cryptographically secured digital collectable, the method comprising:
[…] adorning the outer surface of the article with one or more adornments, the one or more adornments being selected by the user and including a digital identifier; {[0058] “The system includes a digital file creation module 204 configured to initiate a camera of the user device and guide a user to create a digital file”; [0059] “The NFC creation module 206 uses digital files and associated metadata to create the NFT. The associated metadata includes a unique identity [digital identifier]”; [0076] “In an embodiment, the physical asset 402 may have a QR code [adornment] or NFC tag attached with it to provide its unique identity.”; [0048] “An NFT is minted from digital assets that represent both tangible and intangible commodities, such as art, GIFs, films, sports highlights, Collectibles, virtual avatars, video game skins, designer shoes [article], or music.”}
wherein the selected adornment includes a digital identifier;
This limitation is duplicative of the previous limitation.
subsequent to the adorning, receiving the digital identifier from the user; {Abstract “The system displays a set of information associated with the physical asset and initiates a tag reader of a first user device to read an identifier attached with the physical asset.”}
following the receipt of the digital identifier from the user, transferring, or instructing the transfer of a cryptographically secured digital collectable to an account or digital wallet of the user. {[0011] “On receiving a request to create the NFT, the system initiates the camera module of the user device to create a media file of the physical asset, reads a unique identity of the physical asset, associates the unique identification with the media file, and creates an NFT using an NFT standard from the media file. The system uses blockchain resources for minting the NFT. The system may help store [transfer] the NFT in a wallet associated with the creator and allow transferring of the NFT from one owner to another. The system maintains transaction reports in the blockchain ledger.”}
Madhusudhan does not teach, however Cruz teaches:
receiving a worn article from a user in a retail establishment;
See same limitation in claim 1.
Madhusudhan in view of Cruz does not teach, however Ghere teaches:
robotically adorning the outer surface of the article with one or more adornments, the one or more adornments being selected by the user and including a digital identifier;
See similar limitation in claim 1.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Righetti (US 20220392158 A1).
Regarding claim 4
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 3, further comprising imaging the worn article to generate the digital image or model, wherein the imaging comprises: {[0011] “On receiving a request to create the NFT, the system initiates the camera module of the user device to create a media file of the physical asset, reads a unique identity of the physical asset, associates the unique identification with the media file, and creates an NFT using an NFT standard from the media file.”; [0063] “Module 210 may guide the user to make an image of the physical asset from different angles and compare the same with the digital file created at the time of creating the NFT. If the image taken by the buyer matches the images used for creating NFT, the system can verify the authenticity of the physical asset.”}
imaging the worn article with a visual camera to determine a visual appearance of the article. {[0011] “On receiving a request to create the NFT, the system initiates the camera module of the user device to create a media file of the physical asset, reads a unique identity of the physical asset, associates the unique identification with the media file, and creates an NFT using an NFT standard from the media file.”}
Madhusudhan in view of Cruz does not teach, however Righetti teaches:
imaging the worn article with a LiDAR system to determine a physical structure of the article; {[0025] “According to the embodiment of the present invention, wherein the ToF cameral includes a 3D scanning module with a LiDAR system for capturing a plurality of digital images of the object and generating respective point cloud for the object.”; [0062] “Furthermore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is moreover possible to perform measurements of distances between points and to obtain the real distance calculated by working on the 3D model of the object. It is also possible to calculate the relative heights of the points. The 3D model of the object can also offer the perspective and orthogonal vision, which allows the operations of zoom, pan, rotation and shift to be performed.”}
Since Madhusudhan teaches the purpose of including an image in the NFT is to assist in authenticating that a physical object corresponds to it ([0063]), it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the 3D model of Righetti to the NFT of Madhusudhan because the model is measurable and would therefore aid a user in verifying that a physical object is the authentic physical object represented by the NFT.
Claims 6, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere as applied to claims 2 and 13 above, and further in view of Andon (US 20200273048 A1).
Regarding claims 6 and 18
Madhusudhan in view of Cruz does not teach, however Andon teaches:
The method of claim 2, wherein following the receipt of the digital identifier from the user, the method comprises:
presenting a plurality of available digital collectables to the user; {[0210] “directing an application or an internet browser running on the computing device to a virtual storefront display comprising a plurality of different displayed cryptographic digital assets;”}
receiving a selection from the user of a desired digital collectable from the plurality of available digital collectables; and {[0210] “receiving an indication of a selection of one of the plurality of different displayed cryptographic digital assets;”}
wherein transferring or instructing the transfer of the digital collectable to the account or digital wallet of the user includes transferring or instructing the transfer of the desired digital collectable to the account or digital wallet of the user. {[0009] “For instance, a first Ethereum Request for Comments (ERC) 721 or ERC1155 token may be granted to authenticate and transact a physical shoe, and a second ERC721/ERC1155 token may be granted to access, breed, and transact a digital shoe.”}
Both Madhusudhan and Andon teach an NFT which is linked to and used to authenticate a physical object. Andon further teaches granting a second token (a digital shoe) selected by the user. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the second token of Andon to the authentication NFT of Madhusudan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere because it is prima facie obvious to combine two compositions each of which is taught by the prior art to be useful for the same purpose, in order to form a third composition to be used for the very same purpose. See MPEP 2144.06 Art Recognized Equivalence for the Same Purpose.
Claims 8, 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere as applied to claims 1 and 13 above, and further in view of Davidson (US 20220245696 A1).
Regarding claims 8 and 14
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 1, further comprising:
imaging the worn article to generate a digital image or model of the worn article; {[0011] “On receiving a request to create the NFT, the system initiates the camera module of the user device to create a media file of the physical asset, reads a unique identity of the physical asset, associates the unique identification with the media file, and creates an NFT using an NFT standard from the media file.”}
Madhusudhan in view of Cruz does not teach, however Davidson teaches:
presenting the digital image or model of the worn article of footwear to a user via a user interface device; {Figure 3A and 3B}
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media_image1.png
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receiving, from the user via the user interface device, an indication of a placement location for the one or more adornments on the dimensional model; {[0049] “According to the present invention, a physical article of merchandise 705 may be created with input from a user specifying one or more photos [adornments] (such as a first photo and a second photo) and a physical placement of the one or more photos on the physical article 705.”}
receiving, from the user via the user interface device, a selection of a chosen adornment from a selection of available adornments; and {[0049] “According to the present invention, a physical article of merchandise 705 may be created with input from a user specifying one or more photos [adornments] (such as a first photo and a second photo) and a physical placement of the one or more photos on the physical article 705.”; [0004] “Sometimes, a user must either select an image from a pre-populated list of images the website owner has the rights to use, or upload his own”}
controlling a robotic applicator to apply the chosen adornment to a location on the article that corresponds to the placement location on the digital image or model. {[0008] “Embodiments may also include associate Cartesian Coordinates with specified segregated spatial areas of the first digital photo received from the image capture device and designating an area to apply the first digital photo to the article of merchandise.”}
Davidson teaches applying a digital photo to an article, but not by controlling a robotic applicator. However, this is merely broadly providing a mechanical means to do the applying, and is therefore obvious. See MPEP 2144.04 III. AUTOMATING A MANUAL ACTIVITY “broadly providing an automatic or mechanical means to replace a manual activity which accomplished the same result is not sufficient to distinguish over the prior art.”
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply the user interface of Davidson to the tagging a unique ID / QR code of Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere so that the tagging is applied where the user desires.
Claims 9, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere in view of Davidson as applied to claims 8 and 14 above, and further in view of Righetti.
Regarding claims 9 and 15
Madhusudhan teaches:
The method of claim 8, wherein the imaging comprises:
imaging the worn article with a visual camera to determine a visual appearance of the article; and {[0011] “On receiving a request to create the NFT, the system initiates the camera module of the user device to create a media file of the physical asset, reads a unique identity of the physical asset, associates the unique identification with the media file, and creates an NFT using an NFT standard from the media file.”}
Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Davidson does not teach, however Righetti teaches:
imaging the worn article with a LiDAR system to determine a physical structure of the article; {[0025] “According to the embodiment of the present invention, wherein the ToF cameral includes a 3D scanning module with a LiDAR system for capturing a plurality of digital images of the object and generating respective point cloud for the object.”; [0062] “Furthermore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is moreover possible to perform measurements of distances between points and to obtain the real distance calculated by working on the 3D model of the object. It is also possible to calculate the relative heights of the points. The 3D model of the object can also offer the perspective and orthogonal vision, which allows the operations of zoom, pan, rotation and shift to be performed.”}
merging the physical structure with the visual appearance to generate the digital image or model. {Abstract “The present invention relates to a 3D (three-dimensional) modelling method and system. The 3D modelling method comprises capturing a plurality of digital images of an object, producing respective point cloud for the object, interpreting the plurality of digital images and the point cloud of the object to obtain a data information associated with the object, and generating a 3D model of the object based on [merging] the plurality of digital images, the point cloud, and the data information.”}
Since Madhusudhan teaches the purpose of including an image in the NFT is to assist in authenticating that a physical object corresponds to it ([0063]), it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the 3D model of Righetti to the NFT of Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Davidson because the model is measurable and would therefore aid a user in verifying that a physical object is the authentic physical object represented by the NFT.
Claims 12, 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere as applied to claims 1 and 13 above, and further in view of Matsunaga (US 20190055043 A1).
Regarding claims 12 and 21
Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere does not teach, however Matsunaga teaches:
The method of claim 1, further comprising fusing the adornment to the article via the application of thermal energy or ultraviolet light. {Abstract “The present invention bonds a label to an adherend with a heat-sensitive adhesive layer disposed therebetween, by sufficiently activating the heat-sensitive adhesive layer.”; [0008] “The shrinkable adhesion label is thermally shrunk by heating, and thus can be applied substantially along the outer surface of an adherend in various stereoscopic shapes such as a three-dimensional curved surface. Such a label can be used to provide a package having preferable appearance.”}
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to replace the adhesive label taught by Madhusudhan in view of Cruz in view of Ghere with the shrinkable, heat-sensitive adhesive label of Matsunaga in order to allow it to be applied to three-dimensional curved surfaces.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and is listed in the enclosed PTO-892.
Constantinou (US 20180303203 A1) teaches:
[0098] “The following specific examples are given to illustrate the attachment between the UV radiation curable material and the textile of the Upper in the article of footwear, formed according to the teachings of the present disclosure, as well as the bond strength formed there between, and should not be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled-in-the-art, in light of the present disclosure, will appreciate that many changes can be made in the specific embodiments which are disclosed herein and still obtain alike or similar result without departing from or exceeding the spirit or scope of the disclosure. One skilled in the art will further understand that any properties reported herein represent properties that are routinely measured and can be obtained by multiple different methods. The methods described herein represent one such method and other methods may be utilized without exceeding the scope of the present disclosure.”
Gagne-Keats (US 20230237483 A1) teaches:
Abstract “The technology relates to linking virtual assets and physical assets through non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a metaverse. As such, the invention anchors a metaverse to the real world. The metaverse can limit ownership or rendering of certain virtual assets in the metaverse to only those who actually own physical assets. For example, the metaverse can limit a virtual representation of a car in the metaverse to those who own the real car. The linkage between the virtual and real assets can be verified in the metaverse based on NFTs stored on a blockchain. As such, only those who actually own a physical asset in the real world are associated with the virtual asset (or related representation) in the metaverse.”
Gold (US 20190076000 A1) teaches:
Abstract “A shoe sole cleaning device may include a fluid reservoir having an inner chamber, a trough fluidly coupled to the fluid reservoir, a brush having bristles and operably connected to an axial shaft, the brush disposed partially within or above the trough, and a motor operably connected to the axial shaft and configured to cause the brush to rotate about the axial shaft.”
Kline (US 20200382653 A1) teaches:
Abstract “A personalized souvenir producing interactive kiosk system and method of producing a personalized souvenir using the personalized souvenir producing interactive kiosk system. The system includes a vending machine-like kiosk configured to communicate with a user's electronic device, such as a smartphone, to accept an upload of a user-selected digital image. The kiosk then creates a personalized souvenir in the form of a refrigerator magnet using the digital image and printing the digital image on a section of magnetic sheeting.”
Siedleczka (US 20230237471 A1) teaches:
[0050] “In some embodiments, the processor 46 of the engagement computer server system 12 receives the request for generating the DNV QR code 44 from the user's mobile device 14 including a user's wallet address associated with the user, an NFT smart contract address, and a NFT token ID associated with the user owned NFT. The engagement computer server system 12 then verifies ownership of the user owned NFT by querying the NFT blockchain system 18 identified by the NFT smart contract address and NFT token ID to identify a current wallet address associated with the NFT token ID. The engagement computer server system 12 then generates the DNV QR code 44 upon determining the current wallet address matches the user's wallet address and transmits the generated DNV QR code 44 to the user's mobile device 14.”
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/S.M.D./Examiner, Art Unit 3698
/PATRICK MCATEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3698