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 .
Response to Amendments
Entry of Amendments
Claim(s) 1-2, 7-9 and 13 have been amended.
Rejections under 35 USC 102 and 103
Applicant’s amendments filed 04/06/2026 with respect to Claim(s) 1-16 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant's arguments with respect to Claim(s) 1-16 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the reference(s) and/or ground(s) being used in the current rejection.
For further details see the rejections/objections for Claim(s) 1-16 herein.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites a term “the data transmission” in line 7. Examiner suggests amending the term to recite “transmission of the data” to restore antecedent clarity.
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 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 of this title, 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) 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olsson et al. (US Patent 11073632; hereinafter Olsson) in view of COHEN et al. (US 20130128738).
Regarding claim 1, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 An underground line locator system (Col. 14 line 34 - Col. 15, line 31; underground utility locator system 100 that includes a utility locator device 110; Figs. 1A-1C), comprising:
a locator (locator 110; fig. 1A) including an array of spaced apart low frequency magnetic sensors that receives signals, including magnetic signals (Col. 4, line 14 - Col. 5, line 54, Claims 1-2 - combined passive and active signal locating device/system includes an array of antennas that measure active magnetic field signals) emanating from an underground cable or pipe (310, 320 fig. 3; col. 1 lines 40-42 :- detect magnetic field signals emanating from utility lines and/or other conductors hidden or buried underground); and
a communication system (transmitter 140, communication devices 360, 370, 380; figs. 1,3) that provides communications with a cloud-based platform that receives and stores data that includes the signals (Col. 15, lines 8-21 - locator 110 may, in part or in full, be implemented in a processing element of one or more devices separate from the locator, such as a smart phone/laptop computer communicatively coupled to the locator, a cloud based computing system, or other local or remote processing elements; Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - a suite of active frequencies may be retrieved, displayed on a GUI, and stored remotely or locally; Figs. 1, 3-5),
wherein the data transmission is an isomorphic data transmission (Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - data transmission of the utility locator is isomorphic data transmission, that is, raw data is transmitted to different computing environments: e.g., depth, position, phase, current magnitude, direction, etc., may be simultaneously determined from each of multiple frequencies within a suite and/or from multiple frequencies across suites for display and/or storage in the locator and/or on a remote computing system; Col. 5, lines 34-46: data may be presented on a display or other output device separately for each of two or more frequencies, may be presented in combination, such as by using a single representation of locate data determined from
a particular suite or set of frequencies in a suite, and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory or communicated to another locate system device or remote system or device; Figs. 3-7).
Olsson does not teach explicitly isomorphic data transmission that allow communications method overlay such that the data transmission is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium.
However, COHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-11 isomorphic data transmission that allow communications method overlay such that the data transmission is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium (para. 10 - part of a communication stream to be communicated on a first transmission medium while another part of the communication stream is communicated on a second transmission medium; fig. 4).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Olsson by having isomorphic data transmission that allow communications method overlay such that the data transmission is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium as taught by COHEN in order to provide combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results as evidenced by "to improve networking systems… directed at methods for path selection, load balancing, stream aggregation, packet loss minimization, duplicate packet detection, and out-of-order packet re-ordering, in networking systems which are capable of using multiple transmission media to transmit/receive a stream." (abstract).
Regarding claim 2, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the line locator system according to claim 1, wherein the communications system is a WiFi system (Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - data may be presented in various combinations on the display and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory, or may be presented discretely and/or stored discretely in a non-transitory memory, and/or may be transmitted, via a wired or wireless communications module, e.g., WiFi, cellular data, Bluetooth, etc., in the locator, to a local, e.g., notebook computer, tablet, cell phone, etc., or remote electronic computing device or system, e.g., a back-end server system; Figs. 3-7).
Regarding claim 3, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the line locator system according to claim 1, wherein the communication system includes a mobile device communicating with the locator and providing WiFi connection with the cloud-based platform (Col. 15, lines 8-21 - locator 110 may, in part or in full, be implemented in a processing element of one or more devices separate from the locator, such as a smart phone/laptop computer communicatively coupled to the locator, a cloud based computing system, or other local or remote processing elements; Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 4, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the line locator system according to claim 1, wherein the locator includes a Real Time Kinetic GNSS system for position location on the earth’s surface (Col. 27, lines 10-24 and lines 46-60 - real time kinetic GNSS system is used to determine position location, i.e., signal measurements and positional location information are simultaneously correlated; Figs. 16-17).
Regarding claim 5, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the line locator system according to claim 4, wherein the locator receives RTK correction data from a ground base station or alternative GNSS corrections (Col. 17, line 49 - Col. 18, line 30, Col. 27, lines 10-24 and lines 46-60 - real time kinetic GNSS
system is used to determine position location, i.e., signal measurements and positional location information are simultaneously correlated; Col. 18, line 52 - Col. 19, line 10; alternative position/location calculations are made to determine locate/position parameters; Figs. 2,16-17).
Regarding claim 6, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the line locator system of claim 1, wherein the locator communicates with a Cloud Webserver that includes an Internet-Of-Things (IOT) platform (Col. 27, line 46 - Col. 28, line 51 - data stored on cloud storage further accessible by other utility locator devices and/or other computing devices, and data may be stored in the locator and/or on cloud storage
and/or other centralized databases on other computing or locating system devices as either locate data, additional targets of opportunity, or both; Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - locator communicates with a back-end server system that includes a local, e.g., notebook computer, tablet, cell phone, etc., or remote electronic computing device, e.g., IOT device/platform; Figs. 4-5. 17-18).
Regarding claim 7, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the line locator system of claim 1, wherein the communications system uses attribute-value pairing formats for data interchanges (Col. 4, line 66 - Col. 5, line 13 - spectral
scan data is the array of measurements for a frequency suite that extracts separate signal components, that may then be displayed as amplitudes and phases, for example; Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - a suite of active frequencies may be retrieved, displayed on a GUI, and stored remotely or locally; Figs. 4-5).
Regarding claim 8, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the line locator system of claim 1, wherein the communications system can include a smart phone communicating with the locator (Col. 5, lines 34-46 - data may be presented on a display or other output device separately for each of two or more frequencies, may be
presented in combination, such as by using a single representation of locate data determined from a particular suite or set of frequencies in a suite, and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory or communicated to another locate system device or remote system or device; Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 10 - locator 110 communicates with a smart phone; Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 9, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 a method of transmitting data from a line location receiver (Col. 2, lines 47-65 - method for locating and transmitting by a line location receiver a location of buried utilities; Figs. 1A-1C, 2-3), comprising:
acquiring data (Col. 14, line 34 - Col. 15, line 31 – underground utility locator system 100 that includes a utility locator device 110; Col. 15, line 31, Col. 17, line 57- Col. 18, line 38 - acquiring and transmitting GPS/location data of the utility/line locator device and a frequency suite of utility/location site; Figs. 2-3);
determining a locate vector from the data (Col. 17, lines 63-66; Figs. 2-3);
determining isomorphic data from the locate vector (Col. 11, lines 22-31 - processing of received magnetic field signals at multiple frequencies may be used to generate an individual vector solution or gradient solution or combined vector/gradient solution for the different frequencies within the received signals set that may include measurements at each frequency providing a magnitude, direction, and/or measurement of relative and/or absolute phase of the signal received from the buried utility and may be based on simultaneous receipt and/or processing of multiple signals at different frequencies; Col. 25, lines 4-12 - as a utility locator is moved about the locate area, the amplitude and/or vector and/or gradient of each separate frequency signal component may change based on the location of the measurement due,
for example, to changes in the underground environment around the utility, such as interaction with other conductors in the area, distance below ground surface, ground conductivity, and the like; Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - data transmission of the utility locator is isomorphic data transmission, that is, raw data is transmitted to different computing environments: e.g., depth, position, phase, current magnitude, direction, etc., may be simultaneously determined from each of multiple frequencies within a suite and/or from multiple frequencies across suites for display and/or storage in the locator and/or on a remote computing system; Figs. 3-7); and
transmitting the isomorphic data (Col. 5, lines 34-46, data may be presented on a display or other output device separately for each of two or more frequencies, may be presented in combination, such as by using a single representation of locate data determined from a particular suite or set of frequencies in a suite, and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory or communicated to another locate system device or remote system or device).
Olsson does not teach explicitly isomorphic data allow communications method overlay such that transmitting the isomorphic data is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium.
However, COHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-11 isomorphic data allow communications method overlay such that transmitting the isomorphic data is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium (para. 10 - part of a communication stream to be communicated on a first transmission medium while another part of the communication stream is communicated on a second transmission medium; fig. 4).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Olsson by having isomorphic data allow communications method overlay such that transmitting the isometric data is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium as taught by COHEN in order to provide combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results as evidenced by "to improve networking systems… directed at methods for path selection, load balancing, stream aggregation, packet loss minimization, duplicate packet detection, and out-of-order packet re-ordering, in networking systems which are capable of using multiple transmission media to transmit/receive a stream." (abstract).
Regarding claim 10, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the method of claim 9, wherein transmitting the isomorphic data includes transmitting the isomorphic data using WiFi (Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - data transmission is isomorphic data transmission, that is, raw data is transmitted to different computing environments: e.g., depth, position, phase, current magnitude, direction, etc., may be simultaneously determined from each of multiple frequencies within a suite and/or from multiple frequencies across suites for display and/or storage in the locator and/or on a remote computing system. This data may be presented in various combinations on the display and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory, or may be presented discretely and/or stored discretely in a non-transitory memory, and/or may be transmitted, via a wired or wireless communications module, e.g., WiFi, cellular data, Bluetooth, etc., in the locator, to a local, e.g., notebook computer, tablet, cell phone, etc., or remote electronic computing device or system, e.g., a back-end server system; Col. 5, lines 34-46 - data may be presented on a display or other output device separately for each of two or more frequencies, may be presented in combination, such as by using a single representation of locate data determined from a particular suite or set of frequencies in a suite, and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory or communicated to another locate system device or remote system or device; Figs. 3-7).
Regarding claim 11, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the method of claim 9, wherein transmitting the isomorphic data includes transmitting the isomorphic data to a mobile device (Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 – data transmission is isomorphic data transmission, that is, raw data is transmitted to different computing
environments: e.g., depth, position, phase, current magnitude, direction, etc., may be simultaneously determined from each of multiple frequencies within a suite and/or from multiple frequencies across suites for display and/or storage in the locator and/or on a remote computing system. This data may be presented in various combinations on the display and/or may he stored in a non-transitory memory, or may be presented discretely and/or stored discretely in a non-transitory memory, and/or may be transmitted, via a wired or wireless communications module, e.g., WiFi, cellular data, Bluetooth, etc., in the locator, to a local, e.g., notebook computer, tablet, cell phone, etc., or remote electronic computing device or system, e.g., a back-end server system; Col. 5, lines 34-46, data may be presented on a display or other output device separately for each of two or more frequencies, may be presented in combination, such as by using a single representation of locate data determined from a particular suite or set of frequencies in a suite, and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory or communicated to another locate system device or remote system or device; Figs. 3-7).
Regarding claim 12, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the method of claim 9, wherein acquiring data includes acquiring locate data, operational data, and geolocation data (Col. 28, lines 4-63 - image/spectral scan data, locate operation and associated collected data, and geographic or mapping data; Figs. 17-19).
Regarding claim 13, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 a locate receiver Col. 14 line 34 - Col. 15, line 31; underground utility locator system 100 that includes a utility locator device 110; Figs. 1A-1C), comprising:
a magnetic sensor array (Col. 4, line 14 - Col. 5, line 54, Claims 1-2 - combined passive and active signal locating device/system includes an array of antennas that measure active magnetic field signals);
a processing circuit coupled to the magnetic sensor array (Abs., Col. 2, lines 29-46 - a processing element);
a GPS antenna coupled to the processing circuit (Col. 26 line 58 - Col. 27 line 60, the utility locator includes a OPS antenna and is coupled to OPS and ONSS system to determine position location, i.e., signal measurements and positional location information; Figs. 16-17);
a communications interface coupled to the processing circuit (Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - utility locator includes a wireless interface and processing element, data may be presented in various combinations on the display and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory, or may be presented discretely and/or stored discretely in a non-transitory memory, and/or may be transmitted, via a wired or wireless communications module, e.g., WiFi, cellular data, Bluetooth, etc., in the locator, to a local, e.g., notebook computer, tablet, cell phone, etc., or remote electronic computing device or system, e.g., a back-end server system; Figs. 3-7); and
a memory coupled to the processing circuit (Abs., Col. 2, lines 29-46), the memory storing instructions executable by the processing circuit to
acquire data from the magnetic sensor array and the GPS antenna,
determine a locate vector from the data,
determine isomorphic data from the locate vector, and
transmit the isomorphic data through the communications interface (Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - data transmission of the utility locator is isomorphic data transmission, that is, raw data is transmitted to different computing environments: e.g., depth, position, phase, current magnitude, direction, etc., may be simultaneously determined from each of multiple frequencies within a suite and/or from multiple frequencies across suites for display and/or storage in the locator and/or on a remote computing system; Col. 5, lines 34-46: data may be presented on a display or other output device separately for each of two or more frequencies, may be presented in combination, such as by using a single representation of locate data determined from
a particular suite or set of frequencies in a suite, and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory or communicated to another locate system device or remote system or device; Figs. 3-7).
Olsson does not teach explicitly isomorphic data allow communications method overlay such that transmitting the isomorphic data is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium.
However, COHEN teaches in figure(s) 1-11 isomorphic data allow communications method overlay such that transmitting the isomorphic data is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium (para. 10 - part of a communication stream to be communicated on a first transmission medium while another part of the communication stream is communicated on a second transmission medium; fig. 4).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Olsson by having isomorphic data allow communications method overlay such that transmitting the isometric data is capable of starting in a first transmission medium and be continued in a second transmission medium as taught by COHEN in order to provide combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results as evidenced by "to improve networking systems… directed at methods for path selection, load balancing, stream aggregation, packet loss minimization, duplicate packet detection, and out-of-order packet re-ordering, in networking systems which are capable of using multiple transmission media to transmit/receive a stream." (abstract).
Regarding claim 14, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the locate receiver of claim 13, further including operational sensors including inertial sensors and wherein instructions to acquire data further include instructions to acquire data from the operational sensors (Abs., Col. 17, line 49 - Col. 18, line 38 - utility locator includes a position sensing module for determining and storing its location using inertial sensors, and in steps 220-240, instructions to acquire data, e.g., locate operation, from operational sensors based on location tracking sensors and systems; Figs. 1A-1C and 2).
Regarding claim 15, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the locate receiver of claim 13, wherein the communications interfaces includes a WiFi interface (Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - data may be presented in various combinations on the display and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory, or may be presented discretely and/or stored discretely in a non-transitory memory, and/or may be transmitted, via a wired or wireless communications module, e.g., WiFi, cellular data, Bluetooth, etc., in the locator, to a local, e.g., notebook computer, tablet, cell phone, etc., or remote electronic computing device or system, e.g., a back-end server system; Figs. 3-7).
Regarding claim 16, Olsson teaches in figure(s) 1-21 the locate receiver of claim 13, wherein the communications interface includes a Bluetooth interface to isomorphically transfer data to a mobile device (Col. 20, line 54 - Col. 21, line 45 - data transmission is isomorphic data transmission, that is, raw data is transmitted to different computing environments: e.g., depth, position, phase, current magnitude, direction, etc., may be simultaneously determined from each of multiple frequencies within a suite and/or from multiple frequencies across suites for display and/or storage in the locator and/or on a remote computing system. This data may be presented in various combinations on the display and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory, or may be presented discretely and/or stored discretely in a non-transitory memory, and/or may be transmitted, via a wired or wireless communications module, e.g., WiFi, cellular data, Bluetooth, etc., in the locator, to a local, e.g., notebook computer, tablet, cell phone, etc., or remote electronic computing device or system, e.g., a back-end server system; Col. 5, lines 34-46 - data may be presented on a display or other output device separately for each of two or more frequencies, may be presented in combination, such as by using a single representation of locate data determined from a particular suite or set of frequencies in a suite, and/or may be stored in a non-transitory memory or communicated to another locate system device or remote system or device; Figs. 3-7).
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AKM ZAKARIA whose telephone number is (571)270-0664. The examiner can normally be reached on 8-5 PM (PST).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JUDY NGUYEN can be reached on 571-272-2258. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AKM ZAKARIA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
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