DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-6, 9, 10, and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a(1) as being anticipated by Puleston et al. (US 2010/0134257).
Referring to Claim 1, Puleston teaches an electronic system comprising an electronic device and a reader, the electronic device including:
a non-volatile memory (see paragraph 101 which shows non-volatile memory 162 as part of RFID tag 102 as shown in fig. 1A);
a first wireless communication device (see 108 of fig. 1A); and
a first component configured to:
receive at least one signal from a sensor (see RFID tag 102 of fig. 1A receiving signals from sensors 138A); and
convert the signal into first digital data, wherein when the electronic device receives the signal the first component converts the signal into the first digital data (see paragraph 101 which shows the data processing unit 132 of tag 102 as digital and paragraph 79 which shows the process of converting data into digital data) and stores the first digital data into the non-volatile memory (see paragraph 101 which shows storing digital data in non-volatile memory), and wherein the first wireless communication device is configured to send the first digital data to the reader (see fig. 2 which shows tag 102 sending data to reader 140), and
wherein the reader includes:
a second wireless communication device (see antenna of reader 140 in fig. 2); and
a second component configured to implement a digital filtering, wherein the second wireless communication device is configured to receive the first digital data and the second component is configured to apply the digital filtering to the first digital data (see paragraph 353 which shows the reader performing a filtering operation on digital data sent from the tag).
Claim 17 has similar limitations to what is taught in claim 1.
Referring to Claim 2, Puleston also teaches the electronic device including the sensor (see paragraph 106 which shows sensors connected to communications facility 134A of the tag 102).
Referring to Claim 3, Puleston also teaches the non-volatile memory is an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)-type memory (see paragraph 114 which shows EEPROM memory).
Referring to Claim 4, Puleston also teaches the electronic device communicating with the sensor using at least one communication channel (see paragraph 106 which shows sensors communicating with communications facility 134A of the tag 102).
Referring to Claim 5, Puleston also teaches the electronic device communicating with the sensor using at least two communication channels (see fig. 1A which shows sensors 138A communicating with tag 102 by communicating with comm facilities 134A and 134B which implies the use of two communications channels for two separate facilities).
Referring to Claim 6, Puleston also teaches the first component including at least one first analog conversion circuit configured to convert the signal to second analog data (see analog block 302 in fig. 1A and paragraph 209 which shows digital to analog conversion).
Referring to Claim 9, Puleston also teaches the first and second wireless communication devices configured to communicate using near-field communication (see paragraph 110 which shows near-field communication).
Referring to Claim 10, Puleston also teaches the electronic device including a battery (see paragraph 89 which shows a battery as a power source for the tag).
Referring to Claim 18, Puleston also teaches transmission, by the wireless communication device, of the first data to the reader started before reception of the signal from the sensor (see paragraph 57 which shows signals received from sensors stored in memory and paragraph 353 which shows the reader and tag communications independent of the communications between the tag and sensors which implies the ability of the tag to transmit data to the reader before receiving data from sensors further noting that the reader and tag communications independent of the communications between the tag and sensors is mentioned because it is technically impossible for a signal which is not received from a sensor and converted to be transmitted to a reader).
Referring to Claim 19, Puleston also teaches the reader powering the electronic device during near-field communication (see paragraph 87 which shows nodes harvesting power from the reader and paragraph 110 which shows near-field communication).
Referring to Claim 20, Puleston also teaches the reader powering the electronic device during near-field communication (see paragraph 87 which shows nodes harvesting power from the reader and paragraph 110 which shows near-field communication), and wherein the transmitting of the first data to the reader is only used to supply energy to the reader until the transmission of the first data (see paragraph 110 which shows near-field communication where it is known in the art for near-field signals to contain energy further noting that it is technically impossible to transmit data until transmission of the same data), and the reader initiating transmission of the first data by sending a control signal to the electronic device using wireless communication (see paragraph 353 which shows the reader sending a command to the tag to send information).
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.
Claim(s) 7 and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Puleston in view of Shelton (WO 2019/186501).
Referring to Claim 7, Puleston does not teach the first component including at least two first analog conversion circuits configured to convert the signal to second analog data. Shelton teaches the first component including at least two first analog conversion circuits configured to convert the signal to second analog data (see fig. 58 which shows the component using two DAC circuits 818 and 834). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to provide the teachings of Shelton to the device of Puleston in order to make the device more efficient by enabling the device to handle higher amounts of data.
Referring to Claim 8, Puleston also teaches the first component including an analog-to-digital converter circuit configured to convert the second analog data to the first digital data (see paragraph 95 which shows an ADC converting information in the tag to digital data).
Claim(s) 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Puleston in view of Muchkaev (US 2009/0267746).
Referring to Claim 21, Puleston does not teach the digital filtering including one or more of smoothing, antialiasing function, a bandpass filtering, or sampling rate adaptation function. Muchkaey teaches the digital filtering including one or more of smoothing, antialiasing function, a bandpass filtering, or sampling rate adaptation function (see reader 50 in fig. 4a with bandpass filter 54). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to provide the teachings of Muchkaey to the device of Puleston in order to improve the signal quality of received short range signals.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11 and 13-16 are allowed.
Regarding Claim 11, Puleston and Shelton do not teach wherein when the electronic device receives the signal the first component converts the signal into the first digital data and stores the first digital data in the non-volatile memory, and wherein the first wireless communication device is configured to send the first digital data to a reader; and wherein the first component includes: at least one first analog conversion circuit configured to convert the signal to second analog data; a multiplexer configured to receive the second analog data and to supply multiplexed analog data; and an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert the multiplexed analog data to the first digital data.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 6/11/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding Claims 1 and 17, the applicant argued that Puleston does not teach applying digital filtering to the first digital data, further arguing that Puleston does not teach filtering of sensor derived data, but instead to redundant tag identification reads. Paragraph 353 of Puleston states the filtering of the received signal by the reader done to reduce the numerous and redundant reads of the same RFID tag. This is simply explaining the result of the filtering of the received signal. Firstly, nothing in the claim states what the result of the filtering is. Secondly, this result does not in any way state that a sensor derived signal is not the signal being filtered. It should be inherent that any signal transmitted from the tag to the reader involves a sensor reading in some shape or form. In addition, the antenna also acts as a sensor since in paragraph 353, the antenna detects/senses the carrier wave of the reader which initiates communication between the tag and reader. This shows multiple ways in which the tag and reader of Puleston read on the limitations of the claim as currently written.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 21 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 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.
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/EUGENE YUN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648
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