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 § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-6 and 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Chan et al (US PG Pub # 2004/0229575) in view of Forshaw et al (US PG Pub # 2011/0240379) and Kubo et al (JP 2019-030596). With respect to claims 1 & 7, the Chen reference discloses a non-wearable measurement apparatus (para. # 0013) comprising:
a wireless communication interface (36, 38) configured to execute wireless communication (para. # 0022 & 0026);
a sensor (“any known detection device”) configured to detect a change in a surrounding environment when the measurement apparatus is not in use (para. # 0022, 0029-0030, & 0033-0034); and
a controller (14) configured to, in response to the sensor detecting the change in the surrounding environment, cause the wireless communication interface to transmit an advertising signal for establishing the wireless communication (para. # 0022).
The Chen reference discloses the controller (14) establishing communication with the load cells only, and does not establish communication with a separate information terminal before use of the measurement apparatus. However, it was known in the art to connect a personal weighing scale, such as the measurement apparatus of Chen, with an external information terminal such as a smart phone as shown by the example of the Forshaw reference (para. # 0070). Furthermore, the Kubo reference discloses causes a Bluetooth® communication interface to transmit an advertising signal for establishing wireless communication between a sensor and an external device upon power up from a low power mode (Para. # 0002-0004 & 0009-0011). It would have been obvious to the ordinary practioner to modify the measurement apparatus (10a) of the Chen reference to program the controller (14) to transmit a Bluetooth® advertising signal to establish communications with an external information terminal such as a smartphone upon “waking up” to transmit weighing data to the smartphone for the convenience of the user.
With respect to claims 2 & 3, the measurement apparatus (10a) detects vibrations caused by the approach of the user via the load cells.
With respect to claim 4, a force sensor is inherently an acceleration sensor, as it would pick up vibrations caused by the nearby movement of a user1. Even if the controller of Chen did not inherently detect vibrations already, it would have been well within the scope of the ordinary practioner to program the controller of Chen to respond to vibration signals from the load cells.
With respect to claim 5, the Chen reference detects a presence of a human on the platform.
With respect to claim 8, the scale of Chen was designed to measure the weight of a biological creature (a human).
With respect to claim 9, establishing communications prior to measuring the weight of the user would be inherent as it would be impossible for the controller (14) of Chen to measure weight information before communications was established with the load cells at least.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chan et al (US PG Pub # 2004/0229575) in view of Forshaw et al (US PG Pub # 2011/0240379) and Kubo et al (JP 2019-030596), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Zhang et al (US PG PUB # 2024/0125665). Although Chen does not disclose a sensor for measuring background radio frequency inference (RFI), but it was known to equip wireless sensors with some type of sensor to detect background RFI and to compensate for it as shown by Zhang (para. # 0041-0051), so it would have been obvious to the ordinary practioner to modify the measuring apparatus of Chen to do the same to prevent RFI from causing erroneous weight readings.
Conclusion
Applicant effectively changed the scope of the entire invention when he clarified (both in the Interview held on 14 May 2026 and in the response filed 19 May 2026) what was meant by the term “advertising signal”. Since the written description as originally filed did not clearly define what the term “advertising signal” meant, the examiner used the dictionary definition of “advertising” when searching for the claimed invention and formulating the rejection in the last office action (mailed 27 January 2026). However, applicant clarified that the claim term “advertising signal” was supposed to be interpreted as covering some type of Near-Field Communications (i.e.: Bluetooth® for example) pairing and handshaking signal, and this redefinition of the claim term changes the entire scope of the invention from what the examiner thought that it was when using the plain meaning of the term, to something else.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RANDY W GIBSON whose telephone number is (571)272-2103. The examiner can normally be reached Tue-Friday 10AM-6PM.
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RANDY W. GIBSON
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2856
/RANDY W GIBSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
1 See column 1, lines 5-40 of Dee (US # 4,396,080); or, column 3, lines 43-59 of Kusmenskji et al(US # 4553618) for examples.
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