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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-18, 21, and 22 in the reply filed on 5/20/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: There is a typographical error in the claim. Apparently, the word “working” should read as “work”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: There is a typographical error in the claim. Apparently, the word “based” should read as “base”. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-3, 5-6, 10-14, 18, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao et al. (CN 111030255, machine translation referenced herein), and further in view of Wen et al. (US 2022/0117457).
Regarding Claim 1: Zhao teaches a cleaning system comprising: a cleaning machine (element 1) and a base station (element 2) docking with the cleaning machine to form a physical communication link (pg. 5, first full paragraph).
Zhao does not expressly disclose wherein the cleaning machine is configured to send, via the physical communication link, to the base station and after determining that one or more preset conditions are met, work instructions; and wherein the base station is configured to receive, from the cleaning machine and via the physical communication link, the work instructions; and execute the work instructions. However, Wen teaches a cleaning system comprising a cleaning machine and base station wherein the cleaning machine is configured to send work instructions to the base station after determining that one or more preset conditions are met [0104-0105]. Wen teaches that this allows the base station to enter or stop the dust extracting mode according to the preset conditions. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhao by providing the cleaning machine configured to send work instructions via the physical link to allow the base station to begin or end a dust extraction automatically, as taught by Wen.
Regarding Claim 2: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 1 as discussed above. Zhao teaches that the cleaning machine is docked on the base station for extracting dust (see pg. 2, BACKGROUND) but does not expressly disclose the features recited in the claim. However, Wen teaches that the cleaning machine comprises a dust box having a dust outlet, wherein the dust box collects garbage [0013]; the base station comprises a fan, a dust collection port and a dust collection space, wherein the dust collection port communicates with the dust outlet and communicates with the dust collection space, and wherein the fan communicates with the dust collection space and sucks the garbage in the dust box into the dust collection space [0048]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhao with the features described by Wen for sufficient dust extraction from the cleaning machine.
Regarding Claim 3: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 1 as discussed above. Wen is cited for teaching the cleaning machine executes the work instructions when the preset conditions are met. Wen further teaches wherein the cleaning machine is configured to determine whether the one or more preset conditions are met by: determining a current remaining volume of a dust box in the cleaning machine [0060] and at least one of values in a period between a current time and a time of last dust collection, the at least one of values comprising accumulated cleaning times and an accumulated cleaning duration; and determining that the one or more preset conditions are met, wherein the one or more preset conditions comprise that: the accumulated cleaning times are greater than or equal to a threshold number of times, the accumulated cleaning duration is greater than or equal to a duration threshold, and the current remaining volume is less than or equal to a volume threshold [0078-0079].
Regarding Claims 5 and 6: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 2 as discussed above. Wen is cited for teaching a fan, and further teaches that the base station is further configured to: after the base station turns on the fan for a predetermined period of time, turn off the fan to terminate dust collection , and wherein the base station is further configured to charge the cleaning machine after the fan is turned off [0083].
Regarding Claim 10: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 1 as discussed above. Zhao further teaches that the cleaning machine is provided with a charging contact (elements 20, 22), the base station is provided with a power supply contact (elements 10, 12), and the charging contact is electrically connected to the power supply contact to form the physical communication link (abstract, pg. 3, sixth full paragraph).
Regarding Claim 11: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 1 as discussed above. Zhao does not expressly disclose analyzing a target level signal received from the base station to obtain state information of the base station. However, Wen teaches analyzing a target level signal received from the base station and synchronizing obtained state information of the base station to a target application associated cleaning machine and base station [0057-0058]. Wen teaches that this allows the base station to communicate a “debris full” state to the cleaning machine and to remind users to empty the debris container. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Zhao such that it is configured to synchronize the obtained state information to a target application associated with the cleaning machine and the base station in order to communication a debris full signal, as in Wen, for example.
Regarding Claim 12: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 10 as discussed above. Zhao further teaches wherein the cleaning machine further comprises a first controller configured to: transmit, to the base station, via the physical communication link and after detecting a circuit current between the cleaning machine and the base station, a first level waveform carrying working data of the cleaning machine; and resolve a second level waveform transmitted by the base station via the physical communication link to obtain working data of the base station after the second level waveform is received; and wherein the base station further comprises a second controller configured to: resolve the first level waveform to obtain working data of the cleaning machine after the first level waveform is received; and transmit, to the cleaning machine, via the physical communication link and after detecting the circuit current, the second level waveform carrying the working data of the base station (pg. 4, first four full paragraphs).
Regarding Claims 13 and 14: Zhao further teaches wherein the cleaning machine further comprises a charging management unit connected with the first controller, the charging management unit is configured to: close a charging circuit to form the physical communication link after determining that the charging contact of the cleaning machine is in electrical contact with the power supply contact of the base station; and modulate a first information code characterizing the working data of the cleaning machine into the first level waveform after determining that a first information modulation instruction sent by the first controller is received, and modulate a second information code characterizing the working data of the base station into the second level waveform after determining that a second information modulation instruction sent by the second controller is received (pgs. 4, 5).
Regarding Claim 18: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 13 as discussed above. Zhao further teaches that the cleaning machine comprises at least one charging contact, and a number of the power supply contacts of the base station is the same as a number of charging contacts (pg. 4, final paragraph through pg. 5, second full paragraph); and after determining that there are a plurality of the charging contacts: different numbers are pre-assigned to different charging contacts, the nu7mber of the power supply contact corresponds to the number of the charging contact, and the charging contact and the power supply contact corresponding to the numbers are connected when data is transmitted between the cleaning machine and the base station (pg. 5).
Regarding Claim 21: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 2 as discussed above. Zhao is cited for teaching the physical communication link. Wen is cited for teaching sending and executing work instructions. Wen further teaches wherein the cleaning machine is further configured to send, via the physical communication link and after determining that the one or more preset conditions are met, dust collection instructions to the base station [0105]; and the base station is configured to turn on the fan based on the dust collection instructions [0049].
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao et al. (CN 111030255, machine translation referenced herein) and Wen et al. (US 2022/0117457) as applied to Claim 12, and further in view of Alzen (US 2020/0401155).
Regarding Claim 17: Zhao and Wen teach the elements of Claim 12 as discussed above, but do not expressly disclose first or second amplifying units as claimed. However, Alzen teaches a bidirectional communication channel between a robot lawnmower and a charging state for data communication between the robot lawnmower and the charging station (abstract) wherein a transmitting part sends data through the charging contacts, and an amplifying unit on the robot and charging station configured for amplifying an outgoing signal ([0030] and claim 13). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the cleaning machine of Zhao and Wen with amplifying units to amplify the outgoing signal as in Alzen.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 7-9, 15, 16, and 22 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the reviewed prior art does not anticipate or fairly suggest the features of these claims. The closest prior art of record is that of Zhao and Wen as set forth above. However, Zhao and Wen combined do not teach wherein the cleaning machine is further configured to send the dust collection instructions to the base station by: controlling a charging chip of the cleaning machine to be alternately enabled and disabled for a first preset number of times, wherein the charging chip outputs at a high level when it is enabled, and wherein the charging chip outputs at a low level when it is disabled, as required by claims 4, 7-9, and 22.
The cited references do not teach or fairly suggest the first controller is further configured to: transmit a first information transmission instruction to the charging management unit after determining that the first information code is modulated into the first level waveform and the cleaning machine is in a stationary state; and wherein the charging management unit is further configured to: transmit, via the physical communication link to the base station, and based on enabling and disabling operations, the first level waveform after determining that the first information transmission instruction is received, as required by Claim 15.
The cited references do not teach or fairly suggest the second controller is further configured to: transmit a second information transmission instruction to the power supply management unit after determining that the second information code is modulated into the second level waveform and the cleaning machine is in a stationary state; and wherein the power supply management unit is further configured to: transmit, via the physical communication link to the cleaning machine and based on enabling and disabling operations, the second level waveform after determining that the second information transmission instruction is received, as required by Claim 16.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATASHA CAMPBELL whose telephone number is (571)270-7382. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 AM- 5:00 PM EST.
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/NATASHA N CAMPBELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1714
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