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
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 07, 2024 is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because all numeric blocks need to be labeled. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Paragraph 0049, line 2, “The mobile terminal 3” should read as ----The mobile terminal 2----.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-14 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As per claim 1, line 4, “the at least one sensor has in each case at least one sensing unit” is not clear. Does it mean ----the at least one sensor comprises at least one sensing unit----
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the mutual" in line 12. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
As per claims 1, 5-6, 8-9 and 13-14, “preferably”, “particular preferably”, “very particular preferably” and “more preferably” cause uncertainty and definiteness issues.
Regarding claims 4-5 and 8, the term "and/or" is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. For example, A and/or B. It means embodiment A, or embodiment B, or embodiment A and B. It is clear that there are 3 embodiments in the claim. So, the use of such term is indefinite.
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.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim recites a computer program product executed on a processor. The broadest reasonable interpretation of these claims covers both non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable-media. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir. 2007 (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter). The claims may be amended to cover only statutory embodiments and avoid a 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim.
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) 1-2, 4-5, 7-9 and 11-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bartelheim et al. (DE 10124266) in view of Mehta et al. (US 2017/0325056).
As per claim 1, Bartelheim et al. disclose a system (1.00, figure 1) for storing position information comprising a field device (1, figure 2) and a mobile terminal (2, figure 3),
wherein the field device has at least one sensor (15) and field device electronics (11), wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one sensing unit for detecting a physical variable, wherein the field device electronics being designed to actuate the at least one sensor and comprises at least one control unit (14), a communication interface (12) and a memory (17) stored position information of the field device (see detail description of figure 1)
wherein the mobile terminal (2) comprises a communication interface (22) and a display (24), wherein when a fault occurs in a field device, the position of the installation location of the field device being retrieved in accordance with the system identification shown and sent continuously. The position information being received with the mobile device and visualized with its display unit (24) to alert a service personnel able to control and locate the faulty field device (see description of figure 2),
wherein the communication interface (22) of the mobile terminal (2) and the
communication interface (1) of the field device (1) are designed for mutual exchange of data, preferably within a short range, and for the transmission of position information from field device to the mobile terminal (2), and
wherein the control unit (11) of the field device (1) being designed to store 16position information.
Bartelheim et al. disclose the instant claimed invention except for the mobile device comprises a position determination unit configured to determine position information of the mobile device, a communication interface configured to transmit the mobile device position to the field device and wherein the field device configured to store the position information determined by the mobile terminal. Mehta et al. disclose a system for emergency communication comprises a mobile device (106, figure 1A) comprising a communication interface (114) and a position determination unit (118), wherein the position determination unit configured to determine the position information of the mobile device (paragraph 0109) and an emergency management device (130, figure 1A) comprising a communication interface (138) for mutual exchange of data within a short range with the mobile device to receive position information and store the position information onto a location database (137, paragraphs 0112). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to utilize the system as taught by Mehta et al. in a system as disclosed by Bartelheim et al for the purpose of providing a precise geographic coordination which helps quickly locates the emergency in order to reduce the response time and potentially saving lives.
As per claim 2, Methta et al. disclose the mobile terminal (106) being designed to transmit position information determined by means of the position determination unit (118) to the field device (130) via the communication interface (138), wherein the position information determined by means of the position determination unit (118) being
assumed to be representative of the position of the field device (130, paragraphs 0108-0112).
As per claim 4, Mehta et al. disclose the field device electronics (12) is designed to access/use position information stored in the memory (137, paragraphs 0196, 0226).
As per claim 5, Bartelheim et al. disclose the communication interface of the mobile terminal being designed for wireless (see figures 2-3).
As per claim 7, Mehta et al. disclose the communication interface (114) of the mobile terminal (106) and the communication interface (138) of the field device (130) are based on Bluetooth (paragraphs 0085, 0109).
As per claim 8, both Bartelheim et al. and Mehta et al. disclose the field device has a power supply in a form of a battery is designed to supply at least parts of the field device electronics (inherently included).
As per claim 9, Bartelheim et al. disclose the communication interface (22), being designed for communication with a bus (figure 3).
As per claim 11, Mehta et al. disclose the position determination unit (118) comprises a receiver for a GNSS-Global Navigation Satellite System and being designed to determine global position information based on signals from the GNSS (paragraph 0109).
As per claim 12, Mehta et al. disclose the position determination unit (118) being designed to receive beacon signals from a plurality of transmitters of known position and to determine an absolute or relative position by evaluating received beacon signals (paragraphs 0082 and 0124).
As per claim 13, refer to claim 1 above.
As per claims 14-15, The method claims and their associated computer program products claims 14-15 are essentially the same in scope as system claim 1 above and are rejected similarly.
Claim(s) 6 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bartelheim et al., as modified, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Tuttle (US 2008/0238685).
As per claims 6 and 10, Bartelheim et al., as modified, disclose the instant claimed invention except for the communication interface of the mobile terminal and the communication interface of the field device being additionally designed for energy transmission from the mobile terminal to the field device, wherein energy transmitted via the communication interfaces configured to use to supply the control unit and the memory of the field device (claim 6), wherein the communication interface being designed to use for energy transmission for supplying at least parts of the field device electronics (claim 10). Tuttle discloses RFID tag system (100) for determining physical characteristics with tagged object comprises an RFID tag (16) having antenna (200) attached to an object (10) in communication with an RFID reader (19) via antenna (18), wherein the antenna of the passive RFID tag receives an interrogating signal transmitted from a reader circuit and attached antenna, and the power extracted from the received interrogating signal is used to power the RFID tag (paragraphs 0024-0028). Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to utilize the power transmission and energy harvesting as taught by Tuttle in a system as disclosed by Bartelheim et al., as modified, for the purpose of enabling long-term maintenance-free operation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TAI T. NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-2961. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm.
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/TAI T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685 March 31, 2026