DETAILED ACTION
1. This Final Office Action is in response to Applicant’s Amendments filed 10/27/2025. Claims 1-15 are currently pending. The effective filing date of the present application is 7/2/2021.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. 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 § 103
3. 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.
4. Claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatenable by U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2020/0250610 to Schoening (“Schoening”) in view of WIPO 2013/121564 to Yamauchi et al. (“Yamauchi”).
5. With regards to claim 1, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
- emitting a radio beacon from a radio beacon emitter, which is assigned to a product and is essentially located in the spatial proximity of this product or the intended place of the product (See [0054] discussing the RFID tags of the item, shelf, or location.),
- receiving the emitted radio beacon by a radio beacon receiver which is locally movable, in particular with the person or a device (See [0054] discussing the RFID reader attached to a forklift.), and
- triggering an action when the radio beacon receiver is moved into a predefined action-triggering area around the radio beacon emitter (See [0108] discussing the locking onto a RFID signal in proximity to trigger the displaying of the information.),
Schoening is silent on the limitation of,
wherein the radio beacon emitter is configured to provide a variable radio signal strength.
However, Yamauchi teaches that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the beacon art to include the radio beacon emitter is configured to provide a variable radio signal strength (See [pg. 4] discussing plurality of RFID tags need to be collectively arranged in a range that is determined to be arranged at the same position with respect to the sensitivity of the reader 20 (the highest sensitivity when the sensitivity is variable) and [pg. 6] discussing the tag and reader both being variable.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the beacon art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Schoening to include the radio beacon emitter is configured to provide a variable radio signal strength, as disclosed by Yamauchi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to reach the target location more easily (Yamauchi [pg. 3]).
6. With regards to claim 2, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the guided person is an order picker and the radio beacon receiver is an electronic mobile device that comprises a display-screen and displays product information of a product or a list of products to be picked by the order picker (See e.g., [0013] discussing the forklift operator retrieving goods. See also [0108] discussing the locking onto a RFID signal in proximity to trigger the displaying of the information on the user interface device, and [0054] discussing the user interface device as a phone, tablet, or other handled device with a display.).
7. With regards to claim 3, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the electronic mobile device is realized by one of the following elements that comprises a radio beacon receiver stage which receives the radio beacon:
- a Personal Digital Assistant,
- a smart phone,
- a tablet computer,
- a smartwatch, or
- a smart trolly (See [0054] discussing the user interface device as a phone, tablet, or other handled device with a display.).
9. With regards to claim 4, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the radio beacon emitter is realized by at least one of the following elements that comprises a radio beacon emitting stage which emits the radio beacon:
- an electronic shelf label See [0054] discussing the RFID tags of the item, shelf, or location.),
- a rail to which shelf labels or other devices are attachable,
- an electronic rail-controller, which is designed to control a number of electronic shelf labels or other electronic devices that are attached to a rail of the rail-controller, and/or
- an electronic label that is attached to a product.
10. With regards to claim 5, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the action is characterized by at least one of the following measures which is realized in the spatial proximity of this product or the intended place of the product and/or which is locally movable with the person:
- change a humanly readable content displayed on a display screen, in particular picking information (See [0108] discussing the locking onto a RFID signal in proximity to trigger the displaying of the information.);
- show a visual effect on a display screen;
- show a visual effect by the aid of a light source;
- perform a vibration by the aid of a vibration stage; and/or
- release an acoustic signal by the aid of an acoustic signal generator stage.
11. With regards to claim 6, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the action triggering area is predefined:
- by the radio beacon signal strength set at the radio beacon emitter (See [0108] discussing the RFID reader “lock[ing] onto” to RFID tag before triggering the displaying of detected product code and verification with the asset tracking and management device and the moving of an item to a parallel signal path to increase signal strength.)and/or
- by a predefined threshold of a reception signal parameter, wherein the signal parameter describes the radio beacon received at the radio beacon receiver , and the predefined threshold is set by the radio beacon receiver .
12. With regards to claim 7, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the triggering of the action is dependent on a change of a signal parameter that is used to describe the received radio beacon (See [0108] discussing the RFID reader “lock[ing] onto” to RFID tag before triggering the displaying of detected product code and verification with the asset tracking and management device and the moving of an item to a parallel signal path to increase signal strength.).
13. With regards to claim 8, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the radio beacon receiver sends radio beacon data content of the received radio beacon to a, in particular central, control stage and based on the radio beacon data content the control stage identifies the respective radio beacon emitter which has emitted the data content by the radio beacon and triggers the action in relation to the identified radio beacon emitter (See [0108] discussing the RFID reader “lock[ing] onto” to RFID tag before triggering the displaying of detected product code and verification with the asset tracking and management device and the moving of an item to a parallel signal path to increase signal strength.).
14. With regards to claim 9, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the control stage stores a data structure which links a particular product with a particular radio beacon emitter (See [0021] discussing compares the product and product designation RFID tag ID sent by the remote tracking and communication application with the product and product designation RFID tag stored in a product and order database, which is stored on the centralized asset tracking and management device.).
15. With regards to claim 10, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the control stage triggers the action in relation to the radio beacon receiver from which it has received the data content (See [0108] discussing the RFID reader “lock[ing] onto” to RFID tag before triggering the displaying of detected product code and verification with the asset tracking and management device and the moving of an item to a parallel signal path to increase signal strength.).
16. With regards to claim 11, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the triggered action is terminated if the radio beacon receiver is moved out of the predefined action-triggering area (See [0111] discussing not printing the final paperwork when the error message or incorrect bay message are sent based on RFID detection.).
17. With regards to claim 12, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the triggered action is terminated if a termination signal is received (See [0110] discussing sending signals to the application if the operator is no longer working on the job.).
18. With regards to claim 13, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
varying the radio signal strength of the radio beacon emitter.
However, Yamauchi teaches that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the beacon art to include varying the radio signal strength of the radio beacon emitter (See [pg. 4] discussing plurality of RFID tags need to be collectively arranged in a range that is determined to be arranged at the same position with respect to the sensitivity of the reader 20 (the highest sensitivity when the sensitivity is variable) and [pg. 6] discussing the tag and reader both being variable.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the beacon art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Schoening to include varying the radio signal strength of the radio beacon emitter, as disclosed by Yamauchi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to reach the target location more easily (Yamauchi [pg. 3]).
19. With regards to claim 14, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
wherein the action triggering area is narrower than a maximum distance from the radio emitter in which the radio beacon can be received and processed, and the action is only triggered when the radio beacon receiver is within the action triggering area narrower than the maximum distance.
However, Yamauchi teaches that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the beacon art to include varying the radio signal strength of the radio beacon emitter (See [pg. 4] discussing widest and narrowest area effects on the response area and discussing the notification system based on proximity and [pg. 6] discussing area of response with an example.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the beacon art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Schoening to include varying the radio signal strength of the radio beacon emitter, as disclosed by Yamauchi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to reach the target location more easily (Yamauchi [pg. 3]).
20. With regards to claim 15, Schoening disclosed the limitations of,
triggering a different action when the radio beacon receiver is moved within the action triggering area to a position closer to the radio beacon emitter.
However, Yamauchi teaches that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the beacon art to include triggering a different action when the radio beacon receiver is moved within the action triggering area to a position closer to the radio beacon emitter (See [pg. 4] discussing the volume of a notification sound such as a beep sound, the size of a image for displaying related information on the display, and the like are changed according to the proximity.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the beacon art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Schoening to include triggering a different action when the radio beacon receiver is moved within the action triggering area to a position closer to the radio beacon emitter, as disclosed by Yamauchi. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to reach the target location more easily (Yamauchi [pg. 3]).
Response to Arguments
21. Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks , filed 10/27/2025, with respect to claim objections and §101 rejection have been fully considered and are persuasive. The claim objections and §101 rejection have been withdrawn.
22. Applicant’s arguments with respect to the rejection under §102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection under §103 is made in view of Yamauchi.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See Notice of References Cited, PTO form 892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL JARED WALKER whose telephone number is (303)297-4407. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 9:00 AM -5:00 PM CT.
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/MICHAEL JARED WALKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3627 Michael.walker@uspto.gov