DETAILED ACTION
Remarks
This non-final office action is in response to the application filled on 12/05/2023. Claims 1-7 are pending and examined below.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a) ‐ (d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP 2021/096042, filed on 06/08/2021. PCT/JP2022/021264 was filled on 05/24/2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
As of date of this action, IDS filled has been annotated and considered.
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.
Claim(s) 1-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1 (and similarly claim 7), which recites “a work requested” line 2 is not clear since a work is also recited earlier on claim 1. It is not clear both works are same or different.
Dependent claim(s) 2-6 is/are also rejected because they do not resolve their parent (claim 1’s) deficiencies.
Regarding claim 5, which recites “a destination” line 2 is not clear since a destination is also recited on claim 1. It is not clear both destinations are same or different.
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) 1 and 3-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0324646 (“Shon”), and further in view of US 2021/0256472 (“Javidan”).
Regarding claim 1 (and similarly claim 7), as best understood in view of indefiniteness rejection explained above, Sohn discloses an autonomous robot system for controlling an autonomous robot such that, in response to a work request from a user, the autonomous robot does a work requested by the user (see at least [0017], where “a method of controlling a robot system, the method including a first robot receiving user input including a request for delivery of a predetermined article, the first robot transmitting information based on the user input to a server…robot moving to a delivery destination included in the delivery request”; see also [0135]), the system comprising:
a stay management server for managing a location where the user stays in a facility (see at least fig 10, where guest room number is interpreted as location the user stays in a facility. See also [0289]);
the autonomous robot configured to move in the facility (see at least [0299], where “the second robot 102 can move to the delivery destination, i.e. the guest room in which the customer 1010 lodges, while carrying the article requested by the customer 1010 in 1064 step.”); and
a control device for controlling operations of the autonomous robot (see at least [0195]),
wherein the control device is configured to:
acquire, via an SNS system, input data of the work request entered by the user when the user uses an SNS (see at least fig 10, request article (S1011) and 101 is interpreted as SNS system. See also [0289]);
acquire work information about the work requested by the user based on the input data (see at least [0289], request an article);
acquire position data of the user's (see at least fig 10, S1020); and
control the operations of the autonomous robot based on the work information and the position data of the user's position (see at least fig 10, S1064).
Shon does not disclose the following limitation:
position data of the user's position.
However, Javidan discloses a system wherein position data of the user's position (see at least [0019], where “Autonomous delivery robots (which also may be referred to as delivery vehicles) may include locking storage containers to hold packages and other items for delivery to recipients at requested times and locations…delivery locations are optimized for a plurality of users (as determined by position, request, etc. from the multiple users)”; delivery is done based on position of the user).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Shon to incorporate the teachings of Javidan by including the above feature for increasing efficiency and accuracy for providing services by robot by acquiring position data.
Regarding claim 3, Sohn discloses a system wherein when the work requested by the user, who is a requester user, is delivery of an item to a receiver user who is to receive the item, the control device acquires position data of the user and that of the receiver user, and instructs the autonomous robot to make a movement based on the position data of the requester user and that of the receiver user (see at least fig 10, where robot move to deliver requested article based on room number). The rejection relied on Sohn for location data and Javidan for position data.
Regarding claim 4, Sohn further discloses a system wherein when the work requested by the user, who is a requester user, is delivery of an ordered item to the requester user, the control device acquires position data of the requester user and that of an ordered item providing place where the ordered item is to be picked up, and instructs the autonomous robot to make a movement based on the position data of the requester user and that of the ordered item providing place (see at least fig 10, where article is delivered to used based on request). The rejection relied on Sohn for location data and Javidan for position data.
Regarding claim 5, as best understood in view of indefiniteness rejection explained above, Sohn further discloses a system wherein when the work requested by the user is leading the user to a destination, the control device acquires position data of the destination, and instructs the autonomous robot to make a movement based on the position data of the destination (see at least [0141] and [0167], where specific place is interpreted as position data of the destination).
Regarding claim 6, Sohn further discloses a system wherein when the autonomous robot successfully completes the work requested by the user, who is a requester user, the control device transmits a report of work completion to the requester user via the SNS system (see at least fig 10, report completion of task (S1073). See also [0335], where “The server 10 can transmit the interim report to the first robot 101”).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0324646 (“Shon”), and in view of US 2021/0256472 (“Javidan”), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US 2022/0226996 (“Ishizuka”).
Regarding claim 2, Sohn in view of Javidan does not disclose claim 2. However, Ishizuka discloses a system comprising a face authentication server for performing face authentication to verify the user's identity, wherein the autonomous robot is provided with a camera configured to shoot the user's face (see at least [0020], where “the robot device 20 can recognize the user through face authentication by an image analysis”), and wherein the control device is configured to:
provide face image captured by the camera and the user's ID information acquired from the input data of the work request to the face authentication server (see at least fig 1 and [0020]);
cause the face authentication server to perform face authentication (see at least [0019]); and
receive a face authentication result from the face authentication server (see at least [0020]).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Shon in view of Javidan to incorporate the teachings of Ishizuka by including the above feature for providing services to verified user and reducing confusion.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SOHANA TANJU KHAYER whose telephone number is (408)918-7597. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday, 7 am-5.30 pm, PT.
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/SOHANA TANJU KHAYER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3657