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 .
Priority
It is noted that the present application is a 371 National Phase Patent Application of PCT/US2021/051981, for which the 371(c) filing date is 09/24/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/18/2024 has been considered by examiner and made of record in the application file.
The information disclosure statement filed 07/30/2025 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered. Examiner notes IDS filled on 07/30/2025 has a Non-Patent Literature Document JP2024-518507, “Office Action” is not received and thus is not considered by the examiner.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-14, and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NI (WO-2020117302-A1) in view of Brown (US-20200112453-A1).
Regarding Claim 1, NI discloses a method for performing a hierarchical mobile application launch (page 3, paragraph [0007], Fig.1, "…an active application that enables control of multiple smart devices from multiple parties (e.g., a home control application described above), both: (1) an interactive graphical interface element that, when interacted with, causes corresponding control of smart device(s) of a 3P; and (2) a selectable element that, when selected, causes execution of a deeplink to cause a 3P application to open in a state that presents additional information for the smart device(s)." (i.e., deeplink to cause a 3P application to open.)), the method comprising:
receiving one (page 5, paragraph [0011], "The smart device topology is associated with the user account" and page 6, paragraph [0012], "Responsive to receiving affirmative user interface input in response to rendering of the output, one or more particular smart devices, of the 3P, can be efficiently added to the smart device topology." (i.e., you can add smart devices to smart device topology.));
mapping the one or more smart home devices to the user account based on the one (page 6, paragraph [0012], "In response to determining that a BP application is installed at a client device, but the smart device topology lacks any entries for 3P smart devices, output can be rendered, at the client device or an additional client device associated with the user account, where the output includes a suggestion for adding the 3P to the smart device topology. Responsive to receiving affirmative user interface input in response to rendering of the output, one or more particular smart devices, of the 3P, can be efficiently added to the smart device topology." (i.e., the topology described in par.11 is mapped to the user account and par.12 discloses rendering the smart devices based on the request of the user.));
receiving, by an application executed by a mobile device, a request to launch (page 6, paragraph [0013], "Further, when 3P smart device(s) are added to a smart device topology in response to proactively suggesting adding of the 3P smart device(s) to the smart device topology, control of those 3P smart device(s) is enabled through the automated assistant interface and/or a home control application…a home control application executing on a client device…This can be more computationally efficient than, for example, launching and executing multiple separate 3P applications…" and paragraph [0044], "instead of requiring a user to perform multiple inputs to locate a 3P application, launch the 3P application, and navigate within the 3P application to a desired state of the 3P application - a selectable interface element can instead be presented within the home control application 115 that, when selected, executes a deeplink that causes the corresponding 3P application to be launched in the desired state." (i.e., a request to launch is implied since a user is launching a home control application to then add 3P devices.)),
wherein the application executed by the mobile device is mapped to the user account (page 6, paragraph [0013], "For example, a home control application executing on a client device can enable control of the 3P smart devices, as well as smart devices from other 3Ps, all from a single application." (i.e., the home control application controlling is implying that its mapped to the user account, and see also par.11-12 wherein the topology is related to the user account.));
analyzing the one or more smart home devices registered to the user account (paragraph [0007], "directed to rendering, within an active application that enables control of multiple smart devices from multiple parties (e.g., a home control application described above)…and (2) a selectable element that, when selected, causes execution of a deeplink to cause a 3P application to open in a state that presents additional information for the smart device(s)." and paragraph [0009], "such a deeplink if the recent activity detection occurred less than five minutes from the request. If no recent activity detection occurred, the 3P can generate an alternative deeplink," (i.e., the application analyzes the smart device and the topology in order to generate deeplink based on the activity and when user clicks on the deeplink, the application will provide the topology of smart devices.));
based on analyzing the one or more smart home devices registered to the user account and the user interface hierarchy, selecting an initial launch interface from a plurality of initial launch interfaces to be presented by the application in response to the receiving the request to launch (paragraph [0008], "additional information for the smart device(s) that is presented when the application opens in the state is in addition to the interactive graphical interface element and/or any other information that is presented by the active application. For example, the additional information can include at least one additional graphical element that, when interacted with, causes control of one or more properties of the smart device(s), where the control of the one or more properties is not enabled via interaction with the at least one interactive graphical interface element rendered via the application…selection of the selectable element causes the 3P application to open in a state that enables further control of the smart device(s) of the 3P." and paragraph [0009], "a 3P can generate the deeplink so that it causes a 3P application to be opened in a state that presents additional information for the smart device(s) indicated by the identifier. By having the 3P generate the deeplink, instead of relying on a deeplink stored by a IP of the active application, the BP can generate the deeplink so that it conforms to a current schema of the 3P application…such a deeplink if the recent activity detection occurred less than five minutes from the request. If no recent activity detection occurred, the 3P can generate an alternative deeplink," (i.e., the application analyzes the activity occurred and an alternative deeplink can be generated and when clicking the deeplink will launch an interface with the smart devices that is relevant to the user.)); and
outputting, by the application executed by the mobile device, the selected initial launch interface (paragraph [0010], "where the deeplink is generated by the 3P responsive to a request that is addressed to a particular address for the 3P, the request is generated by the active application in response to user interface input that is determined to be a request for rendering graphical interface element(s) that enable control of the smart device(s) of the 3P." (i.e., users also can generated the deeplink wherein will generated the initial launch interface as in the desired smart devices presented to the user.)).
However, NI does not explicitly disclose a user interface hierarchy.
Brown discloses and a user interface hierarchy (paragraph [0070], Figs.5-8, "Smart-home control interface creation engine 420 may create an output user interfaces such as those detailed in relation to FIGS. 5-8. Smart-home control interface creation engine 420 may create individual tiles or coins that control both smart-home devices via direct smart device control API 370 and third-party smart-home devices via smart device cloud API 360." and paragraph [0080], Fig.7, "FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a control interface 700 that may be presented by smart-home controller device 140 for a particular location subcategory." (i.e., Fig.5 control interface of smart-home controller device as disclosed in par.73, and Fig.7 shows a control interface that presented group of devices in the same location in par.80, and Fig.8 is the control of multiple smart devices.)).
NI and Brown are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are solving the same problem of controlling multiple smart devices in an application. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified NI to implement the method of Brown as it would allow control of common operating characteristics group and elements with common control function, thus making convenient for the user to change control of multiple devices with similar functionality (Brown, paragraph [0003], “The method may include providing, by the application being executed by the mobile device, a control element that allows for control of smart-home devices with the common operating characteristic group. The control element controls the common function at the first smart-home device via the first cloud-based server system and at the second smart-home device via the second cloud-based server system.”).
Regarding Claim 2, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 1.
NI further discloses wherein the one or more smart home devices comprise at least two smart home devices (paragraph [0058], Fig.5, "referring to FIG. 5, an interface of the home control application is provided. The interface 500 includes graphical elements 505, 510, and 515 to allow the user to change the status of "Light 1," "Light 2," and "Light 3."" (i.e., Fig.5 shows multiple smart home devices.)).
Regarding Claim 3, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 2.
NI further discloses wherein: the at least two smart home devices are of different categories of smart home devices (paragraph [0010], "the active application can initially present icons for multiple disparate smart devices that can be controlled, including a particular smart device of the 3P, as well as other smart devices (of the 3P and additional 3Ps)." (i.e., Fig.5 shows only lights and considered to be in the same category but par.10 and par.7 discloses unique smart devices and doesn't necessarily need to be the same category devices.)); and
the initial launch interface selected from the plurality of initial launch interfaces is based on the at least two smart home devices being of different categories of smart home devices based on the user interface hierarchy (paragraph [0007], "within an active application that enables control of multiple smart devices from multiple parties (e.g., a home control application described above)," and paragraph [0058], Fig.5, "a suggestion to configure a smart device may be provided through the home control application 115…” (i.e., as disclosed in rejection of claim 1 and par.10, the control or launch of different category of smart devices.)).
Brown further discloses at least two smart home devices being of different categories of smart home devices based on the user interface hierarchy (paragraph [0074], Fig.5:510, “Top interface region 510 is devoted to whole-home smart-device controls. Top interface region 510 is labeled with location 505 that is indicative of the entire structure or other form of place where the smart-home devices are installed. Controls with top interface region 510 can include: off element 511; on element 512; play element 513; thermostat element 514; camera element 515; add element 516; and settings element 517.”).
The proposed combination as well as the motivations for combining the references presented in the rejection of the parent claim apply to this claim and are incorporated herein by reference.
Regarding Claim 5, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 2.
NI further discloses wherein: the at least two smart home devices are of a same category of smart home device (paragraph [0058], Fig.5, "a suggestion to configure a smart device may be provided through the home control application 115. For example, referring to FIG. 5, an interface of the home control application is provided." (i.e., Fig.5 shows multiple light switches.));
and the initial launch interface selected from the plurality of initial launch interfaces is a middle-tier initial launch interface based on the at least two smart home devices all being of the same category of smart home device (paragraph [0058], Fig.5, "a suggestion to configure a smart device may be provided through the home control application 115…The interface 500 includes graphical elements 505, 510, and 515 to allow the user to change the status of "Light 1," "Light 2," and "Light 3." Further, interface 500 includes a suggestion 520 that indicates smart device(s) from a particular 3P ("3P ABC")" (i.e., a middle-tier initial launch interface is reading as interface that is able to control multiple devices from the user display wherein Fig.5 shows control of multiple lights.)).
Regarding Claim 6, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 2.
NI further discloses wherein the at least two smart home devices are of a different type of smart home device, but are of a same category of smart home device (paragraph [0006], "Implementations disclosed herein are directed to efficient control and/or linking of smart network connected devices (also referred to herein as smart devices or Internet of Things (loT) devices) such as smart home alarms, smart door locks, smart cameras, smart lights, smart thermostats, smart weight scales…smart fire alarms," and paragraph [0058], Fig.5, "…device configuration engine 160 can interact with a corresponding one of the 3P remote servers 110I-N to add any device(s) of the user to the device topology representation." (i.e., implying user can have different smart devices such as smart home alarms, and smart fire alarms in the same category as shown in Fig.5.)); and
the initial launch interface selected from the plurality of initial launch interfaces is a middle-tier initial launch interface based on the at least two smart home devices being of the same category of smart home device but different types of smart home device (paragraph [0007], "rendering, within an active application that enables control of multiple smart devices from multiple parties (e.g., a home control application described above), both: (1) an interactive graphical interface element that, when interacted with, causes corresponding control of smart device(s) of a 3P; and (2) a selectable element that, when selected, causes execution of a deeplink to cause a 3P application to open in a state that presents additional information for the smart device(s)." and paragraph [0058], "…device configuration engine 160 can interact with a corresponding one of the 3P remote servers 110I-N to add any device(s) of the user to the device topology representation." (i.e., a deeplink can provide launch of smart devices that can be same category but different smart devices as disclosed in par.6 and par.58.)).
Regarding Claim 7, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 1.
NI further discloses the initial launch interface selected from the plurality of initial launch interfaces is a lowest-tier initial launch interface based on the single smart home device and the user interface hierarchy (paragraph [0052], "the user may access an interface of the home control application 115 that is directed to a camera smart device. Through the home control application 115, the user may only be able to view a live video feed from the camera smart device. However, additional functionality can be provided via a 3P application for the camera smart device, such as functionality to allow the user to view video footage from one or more past events captured by the camera smart device, functionality to enable the user to zoom/pan/tilt the camera, etc." (i.e., a lowest-tier initial launch is reading as a full control of a single device wherein shows all the control of the camera and no other device.)).
Regarding Claim 8, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 7.
NI further discloses the initial launch interface selected from the plurality of initial launch interfaces is a lowest-tier initial launch interface based on the single smart home device and the user interface hierarchy (paragraph [0052], "the user may access an interface of the home control application 115 that is directed to a camera smart device. Through the home control application 115, the user may only be able to view a live video feed from the camera smart device. However, additional functionality can be provided via a 3P application for the camera smart device, such as functionality to allow the user to view video footage from one or more past events captured by the camera smart device, functionality to enable the user to zoom/pan/tilt the camera, etc." (i.e., a lowest-tier initial launch is reading as a full control of a single device wherein shows all the control of the camera and no other device.)).
Regarding Claim 9, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 8.
NI further discloses wherein the single smart home device is a video camera and the selected launch interface is a device-level video feed that is captured using the video camera (paragraph [0052], "the user may access an interface of the home control application 115 that is directed to a camera smart device. Through the home control application 115, the user may only be able to view a live video feed from the camera smart device. However, additional functionality can be provided via a 3P application for the camera smart device, such as functionality to allow the user to view video footage from one or more past events captured by the camera smart device, functionality to enable the user to zoom/pan/tilt the camera, etc." (i.e., par.52 discloses a camera smart device.)).
Regarding Claim 10, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 1.
NI further discloses wherein the one or more smart home devices are smart home devices selected from the group consisting of: a video camera; a smart thermostat; (paragraph [0006], "efficient control and/or linking of smart network connected devices (also referred to herein as smart devices or Internet of Things (loT) devices) such as smart home alarms, smart door locks, smart cameras, smart lights, smart thermostats, smart weight scales, smart beds, smart irrigation systems, smart garage door openers, smart plugs, smart appliances, smart baby monitors, smart fire alarms, smart moisture detectors, etc." and paragraph [0038], "a smart device can be, or can otherwise be associated with, an air conditioning system, lighting device, home theater and entertainment system, security system, automatic door locking system, thermostat device, home automation system, sound speaker, camera device, treadmill, weight scale, smart bed, irrigation system, garage door opener, appliance, baby monitor, fire alarm, and/or other suitable device or system.").
Brown further discloses a wireless network router; a smart doorbell; a smart home assistant device (paragraph [0037], "The smart-home environment 200 may include…entryway interface devices 206 (hereinafter referred to as “smart doorbells 206”)." and paragraph [0041], "one or more home assistant devices may be present in the residence, such as home assistant device 274." and paragraph [0048], "all or some of the smart devices can serve as wireless or wired repeaters. For example, a first one of the smart devices can communicate with a second one of the smart devices via a wireless router 260.").
The proposed combination as well as the motivations for combining the references presented in the rejection of the parent claim apply to this claim and are incorporated herein by reference.
Regarding Claim 11, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 1.
NI further discloses wherein the one or more smart home devices are one or more smart home devices installed with a single structure (paragraph [0054], "The device topology representation can be constructed using various suitable techniques and can be any suitable format and/or structure capable of representing the topology and organization of one or more smart devices within one or more structures…For instance, a structure associated with the user can be a home, business, vehicle, office, and/or any other suitable structure associated with the user." (i.e., the smart devices can be within one structure.)).
Regarding Claim 12, which is similar in scope to claim 1, thus rejected under the same rationale.
Examiner further notes NI discloses A mobile electronic device, comprising: an electronic display; a wireless network interface; and one or more processors; a memory communicatively coupled with the electronic display, the wireless network interface and the one or more processors, the memory being readable by the one or more processors and having stored therein processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors (NI, paragraphs [0083-0089], Fig.8:810).
Regarding Claim 13, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 12. (claim 1 and claim 12 are similar in scope)
Brown further discloses wherein the processor-readable instructions are loaded in the memory of the mobile electronic device as the application downloaded from an application store via the wireless network interface (paragraph [0065], "smart-home control application 410 is downloaded onto smart-home controller device 140 from an application store." (i.e., downloading from the application store. The download via the wireless network interface is implied.)).
The proposed combination as well as the motivations for combining the references presented in the rejection of the parent claim apply to this claim and are incorporated herein by reference. It 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 to have modified NI such that the Browns downloading of the smart-home controller device from an application store as its integral and routine to download applications from the Appstore on the user device in order perform the functionality as described in NI.
Regarding Claim 14, which is similar in scope to claim 3, thus rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 15, which is similar in scope to claim 4, thus rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 16, which is similar in scope to claim 5, thus rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 17, which is similar in scope to claim 6, thus rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 18, which is similar in scope to claim 8, thus rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 19, which is similar in scope to claim 9, thus rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 20, which is similar in scope to claim 1, thus rejected under the same rationale.
Examiner notes NI discloses a non-transitory processor-readable medium (NI, paragraph [0016]).
Claim(s) 4 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NI (WO-2020117302-A1) in view of Brown (US-20200112453-A1) in further view of VON DEHSEN (US-20160364114-A1) (IDS).
Regarding Claim 4, NI in view of Brown discloses all the limitation of claim 3.
However, NI in view of Brown do not explicitly disclose wherein: a status card element is presented for each category of the different categories of smart home devices as part of the initial launch interface; and for each status card element, a current status of the corresponding category of smart home devices is presented.
VON DEHSEN discloses wherein: a status card element is presented for each category of the different categories of smart home devices as part of the initial launch interface (paragraph [0155], Fig.11A, "The device state graphics 1106 represent respective device states of various devices (e.g., smart devices 204) in the smart home environment 100 (e.g., 1106-1 corresponding to a video feed of a camera 118, 1106-2 corresponding to a thermostat 102, 1106-3 corresponding to a hazard detector 104)." (i.e., a status card element for each category of the different category of devices is shown in Fig.11A as 1100-1, 1106-1 and so on.));
and for each status card element, a current status of the corresponding category of smart home devices is presented (paragraph [0155], Fig.11A, "The environment status graphic 1100-1 is represented by a corresponding visual mode that includes an icon (an optionally, an associated color for the ring encircling the icon, such as green) that indicates that the current environment status corresponding to a non-critical alert level (e.g., a first one of multiple environment statuses)." (i.e., the color ring representing the status of the smart devices.)).
NI in view of Brown and VON DEHSEN are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are solving the same problem of controlling multiple smart devices in an application. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified NI to implement the method of VON DEHSEN as to implement color status as described in par.155;162;166 as it’s a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results. More specifically, VON DEHSEN icons of smart device(s) permits the ring encircling the icon to indicate the current environment status in order to heightened alert level for the user to address any type of issues represented by the color (paragraph [0162], “the hazard device state indicator 1118-1 corresponds to the visual mode of the device state graphic 1106-3 in FIG. 11A (e.g., both the hazard device state indicator 1118-1 and the device state graphic 1106-3 include yellow colored rings).” and paragraph [0166], “In contrast to FIG. 11A, the environment status graphic 1100-2 is represented by a corresponding visual mode that includes an icon (and optionally, an associated color for the ring encircling the icon, such as a red) that indicates that the current environment status corresponds to a heightened alert level (e.g., a house icon with an exclamation point).”).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Erkin S. Abdullaev whose telephone number is (571)272-4135. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday - 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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ERKIN S. ABDULLAEV
Examiner
Art Unit 2648
/ERKIN ABDULLAEV/Examiner, Art Unit 2648
/WESLEY L KIM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2648