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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because:
Eligibility Step 1 (MPEP 2106. 3, subsection II): The claims, after reviewing the entire application disclosure, considered as a whole, are determined to be directed to one of the statutory category (processes, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter): A method/apparatus/system.
Eligibility Step 2A (MPEP 2106. 4, subsection II):
Prong One: The claim recites the sequence of partitioning to generate partitioned areas for setting up clusters. This step sequence as analyzed can “practically be performed in the Human Mind” with/without sketching on paper. As stated in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2), III. Mental Processes, “A claim that encompasses a Human Performing the step(s) mentally with or without a physical aid recites a mental process”; as a result, the claim recites a mental process that falls within at least one of the abstract idea groupings (MPEP 2106.04(a) Abstract Ideas: The enumerated groupings of abstract ideas: Mathematical concepts, Certain methods of organizing human activity, Mental processes). As a result, the claims recite a judicial exception.
Prong Two: The additional steps/actions/elements recited in the claims:
- generating sea surface temperature data – obtaining information (MPEP 2106.05(g));
- sorting out cold pool candidate groups (Insignificant post solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g))
When viewed in combination of as a whole, the recited additional steps/actions/elements do no more than add insignificant extra-solution to the judicial exception. As a result, these additional steps/actions/elements do not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. These claims are therefore directed to an abstract idea.
Eligibility Step 2B (MPEP 2106. 5: Whether a claim amounts to significantly more):
The additional steps/actions/elements recited in the claims, acquiring temperature data and sorting out cold pool, are well known in the field as addressed in the rejection below, do not add an inventive concept to the claim because they do is no more than adding insignificant pre-solution and post-solution activities to the judicial exception.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential steps, such omission amounting to a gap between the steps. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted steps are:
The claims recite the step/element of “sorting out cold pool candidate group and detecting a cold pool” without a clear connection with the other steps/elements in the claim body. As a result, the scope of the claims cannot be fully determined at this stage of the prosecution.
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) 1-3 and 6-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim et al. (A Study on the Distribution of Cold Water Occurrence using K-means Clustering – cited in IDS dated 12/26/2024).
Regarding to claims 1 and 6:
Kim et al. discloses a cold pool detection method, comprising:
collecting and generating sea surface temperature data in a target area (Abstract: Sea water temperature was collected from 2016-2018 in South Sea of Korea);
partitioning the target area and generating partitioned areas (FIG. 1 shows two partitioned areas corresponding to two buoys: Yangpo Buoy and Gori Buoy);
setting up clusters of each partitioned area (FIG. 5 shows the K-means clustering for the areas); and
sorting out cold pool candidate groups and detecting a cold pool (Abstract: K-means clustering is used to classify the cold water or a region with cold water).
Regarding to claims 2-3, 7-8: wherein the setting up of the clusters of each partitioned area comprises: setting clustering values for setting the clusters of each partitioned area; and setting the number of the clusters of each partitioned area, and wherein the clustering values are sea surface temperatures at 1 km resolution (FIG. 2).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5 and 9-10 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.
Regarding to claims 4 and 9:The primary reasons for the indication of the allowability of the claims is the inclusions therein, in combination as currently claimed, of the limitation that wherein the sorting out of the cold pool candidate groups and the detecting of the cold pool comprises sorting out a primary candidate group from the partitioned areas partitioned from the partitioning of the target area and the generating of the partitioned areas; and sorting out a secondary candidate group from the primary candidate group, the sorting out of the primary candidate group classifies any partitioned area into the primary candidate group in a case where an overall standard deviation of the partitioned area is 0.6°C or more, and the sorting out of the secondary candidate group classifies the partitioned area into the second candidate group in a case where among each of the clusters in the partitioned area classified into the primary candidate group, a value obtained by subtracting an average temperature of each cluster having a lowest temperature from an average temperature of each cluster having a highest temperature is 2°C or more is neither disclosed nor taught by the cited prior art of record, alone or in combination.
Claims 5 and 10 are allowed because they depend directly/indirectly on claim 4 or 9.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAM S NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2151.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DOUGLAS RODRIGUEZ, can be reached on 571-431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LAM S NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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