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 .
Claims 1-16 are presented for examination.
Priority
The Applicants’ claim for priority based upon European Patent Application EP23151270.8 filed on January 12, 2023 is duly noted by the examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 4, 2024 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to for a grammatical error. The claim should start with “A”. Appropriate corrections are required.
Claims 2-16 are objected to for a grammatical error. The claims should start with “The”. Appropriate corrections are required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 4, and 6-13 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The most similar art of record, Zavis [U.S. Patent Publication 2014/0210631], discloses a cable with an LED connection indicator where the cable assembly contains a sensing element made of a PE material that converts mechanical strain into an electrical signal, and an electronic circuit to amplify the electrical signal and transmit it to an external recording device (DAQ Instrument) (paragraph 0048 and figure 2). However, no art of record discloses the at least one signal conductor includes a second signal conductor which is part of the cable arrangement and electrically connected to the first signal conductor, the second signal conductor is configured and disposed to transmit the measurement signal, the at least one signal conductor includes a third signal conductor which is part of the amplifier arrangement and which is electrically connected to the first signal conductor and configured and disposed to transmit the measurement signal in the form of polarization charges to the inverting input, the at least one signal conductor includes a third signal conductor which is part of the amplifier arrangement and which is electrically connected to the first signal conductor and configured and disposed to transmit the measurement signal in the form of the electrical voltage to the non-inverting input, the electrical generator circuit is electrically connected to the third signal conductor and configured to feed the high-frequency electrical signals generated by the electrical generator circuit of the RFID write and read device into the third signal conductor
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 5, 14, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over De Oliveira et al. [U.S. Patent Publication 2021/0334486] in view of Usami [U.S. Patent Publication 2016/0356635]
With regard to claim 1, De Oliveira et al. meets the limitations of:
measuring device for measuring a physical quantity, the measuring device comprising: a sensor arrangement configured to generate a measurement signal [circuitry on an RFID device used for measuring data via the use of a sensor (paragraphs 0047 and 0050)]
wherein the sensor arrangement includes an RFID transponder in which data are permanently stored and an RFID write and wherein the amplifier arrangement includes read device that is configured to write data to the RFID transponder and read RFID data from the RFID transponder [a programmable read only memory used for storing data (paragraph 0050)]
an amplifier arrangement configured to amplify the measurement signal into a measured value [an amplifier used to increase the voltage of the signal generated by the signal generator (paragraph 0075)]
at least one signal conductor configured and disposed to transmit the measurement signal to the amplifier arrangement for amplification by the amplifier arrangement to generate the measured value, wherein the at least one signal conductor is configured to transmit data between the RFID transponder and the RFID write and read device of the amplifier arrangement [an amplifier used to increase the voltage of the signal generated by the signal generator prior to it being transmitted to an RFID tag (paragraphs 0023, 0075, and 0076)]
wherein the RFID transponder is capacitively coupled to the RFID write and read device via the at least one signal conductor and wherein the RFID write and read device includes an electrical generator circuit [an amplifier/signal conditioner for converting the signal representing the load modulation into a form suitable to processed by a processor, where the processor may include one or more of a decoder, demodulator, and additional control circuitry for extracting the data transmitted from the RFID tag, such as error detection/correction circuitry (paragraph 0076)]
wherein the electrical generator circuit is configured and disposed to feed high-frequency electrical signals into the at least one signal conductor signal conductor; and wherein the electrical generator circuit is configured to modulate the data for transmission via the at least one signal conductor onto the high-frequency electrical signals [generated signals, generated by a signal generator, modulated onto high frequency signals for transmission (paragraphs 0014. 0049, 0050, and 0075)]
However, De Oliveira et al. fails to disclose of a measurement signal under the effect of the physical quantity to be measured. In the field of measuring devices, Usami teaches:
a measurement signal under the effect of the physical quantity to be measured [the measuring of various physical quantities or chemical quantities by assembling a sensor such as a gas sensor, an ultrasound sensor, a humidity sensor, a moisture sensor, a temperature sensor, an optical sensor, a radiation sensor, a magnetic sensor, a pressure sensor, a pH sensor, a turbidity sensor, an altitude sensor, or an acceleration sensor in a wireless tag, an IC tag, an RFID, or the like (paragraph 0003)]
It would be obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the elements of De Oliveira et al. and Usami to create an RFID tag device with measuring abilities where the device stores, measures, and transmits measurements of physical quantities to provide a user with data regarding a monitored area or object while the measuring device is small enough to fit into small spaces and not occupy a large amount of space wherein the motivation to combine is to create a capacitively couple electronic device (De Oliveira et al., paragraph 0001).
With regard to claim 2, De Oliveira et al. meets the limitations of:
the at least one signal conductor includes a first signal conductor which is part of the sensor arrangement and is the at least one signal conductor that is configured and disposed to transmit the measurement signal [electrodes couple with those of an RFID tag when the RFID reader and the RFID tag are appropriately positioned with respect to one another to form capacitors for transmitting the reader signal where the voltage is sensed (paragraph 0070)]
wherein the sensor arrangement includes a sensor coupling capacitance that is configured to capacitively couple the RFID transponder to the first signal conductor [electrodes couple with those of an RFID tag when the RFID reader and the RFID tag are appropriately positioned with respect to one another to form capacitors for transmitting the reader signal where the capacitors are connected to a signal generator where the voltage is sensed (paragraph 0070 and figure 7, items 702, 704, and 708)]
With regard to claim 5, De Oliveira et al. meets the limitations of:
the at least one signal conductor includes a third signal conductor which is part of the amplifier arrangement and which is configured and disposed to transmit the measurement signal [multiple conductors between an amplifier, signal generator, impedance device, and inductor (paragraphs 0070, 0074, and 0076 as well as figure 9, items 708, 902, 706, and 712)]
the amplifier arrangement includes an amplifier coupling capacitance (34) via which the RFID write and read device (33) is capacitively coupled to the third signal conductor [electrodes arranged between RFID devices which form capacitors that are connected to conductors via electrical circuitry components (figure 9, items 702, 704, 114, and 116)]
With regard to claim 14, De Oliveira et al. meets the limitations of:
an evaluation arrangement; wherein the RFID write and read device includes at least one data conductor configured to transmit sensor-specific data and/or cable-specific data [electrodes couple with those of an RFID tag when the RFID reader and the RFID tag are appropriately positioned with respect to one another to form capacitors for transmitting the reader signal where the voltage is sensed (paragraph 0070)]
the evaluation arrangement includes at least one additional data conductor [electrodes couple with those of an RFID tag when the RFID reader and the RFID tag are appropriately positioned with respect to one another to form capacitors for transmitting the reader signal where the voltage is sensed where the capacitors are in electrical communication with the signal generator (paragraph 0070)]
the additional data conductor is electrically connected to the data conductor and configured to receive sensor-specific data and/or cable-specific data via the at least one additional data conductor [electrodes couple with those of an RFID tag when the RFID reader and the RFID tag are appropriately positioned with respect to one another to form capacitors for transmitting the reader signal where the voltage is sensed where the capacitors are in electrical communication with the signal generator (paragraph 0070)]
With regard to claim 15, De Oliveira et al. meets the limitation of:
data element concerning at least one measuring range [circuitry on an RFID device used for measuring data via the use of a sensor (paragraphs 0047 and 0050)]
However, De Oliveira et al. fails to disclose of the sensor arrangement measures the physical quantity. In the field of measuring devices, Usami teaches:
the sensor arrangement measures the physical quantity [the measuring of various physical quantities or chemical quantities by assembling a sensor such as a gas sensor, an ultrasound sensor, a humidity sensor, a moisture sensor, a temperature sensor, an optical sensor, a radiation sensor, a magnetic sensor, a pressure sensor, a pH sensor, a turbidity sensor, an altitude sensor, or an acceleration sensor in a wireless tag, an IC tag, an RFID, or the like (paragraph 0003)]
It would be obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the elements of De Oliveira et al. and Usami to create an RFID tag device with measuring abilities where the device stores, measures, and transmits measurements of physical quantities to provide a user with data regarding a monitored area or object while the measuring device is small enough to fit into small spaces and not occupy a large amount of space wherein the motivation to combine is to create a capacitively couple electronic device (De Oliveira et al., paragraph 0001).
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over De Oliveira et al. [U.S. Patent Publication 2021/0334486] in view of Zavis [U.S. Patent Publication 2014/0210631]
With regard to claim 16, De Oliveira et al. meets the limitation of:
a data element concerning the capacitance [the value of a capacitance being determined when a high frequency signal is to be transmitted (paragraph 0074)
However, De Oliveira et al. fails to disclose of a cable arrangement. In the field of electronic devices, Zavis teaches:
a cable arrangement [a cable assembly coupled to a connector (paragraph 0037)]
It would be obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective to combine the elements of De Oliveira et al. and Zavis to create an electronic device used for measuring where the capacitance component is measured for a cable to determine if the capacitance will affect the signals transmitted across the cable wherein the motivation to combine is to create a capacitively couple electronic device (De Oliveira et al., paragraph 0001).
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent Publication 2009/0278685 to Potyrailo et al. discloses method and systems for calibration of RFID sensors.
U.S. Patent Publication 2011/0012736 to Potyrailo et al. discloses methods and systems for sensing upon radiation exposure.
U.S. Patent Publication 2011/0101996 to Potyrailo discloses a method and system for performance enhancement of resonant sensors.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAMESHANAND MAHASE whose telephone number is (571) 270-7223. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday- Friday 8:00AM - 5:00PM. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta Goins can be reached on 571-272-2957. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/PAMESHANAND MAHASE/Examiner, Art Unit 2689
/DAVETTA W GOINS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2689