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 Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filed on 10/17/2025 has been entered. Claims 1, 6, 19, 22 are amended. Claim 24 is newly added. Claims 1-2, 4-13, 17-22, 24 are pending.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-7, 11, 20-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagan (US 20240169820 A1) and further in view of Lauria (US 20170053505).
Regarding claim 1, Hagan discloses an apparatus for controlling a plurality of RFID tags, the apparatus comprising:
a session control circuit that is dedicated to generating session control messages that are targeted to select RFID tags, wherein the session control circuit comprises a processor, wherein the processor generates the session control messages based on a list of identifying information for the select RFID tags, wherein the identifying information comprises information that represents a UPC, G10 or SKU shared by a group of select RFID tags, and wherein the session control messages are configured to cause the select RFID tags to exhibit a readable session state (via the reader 610 may unmute all RFID tags of that class, Para. 60, 64, 65); and
a wireless transmitter for transmitting RF signals that encode the session control messages, wherein the RF signals are for reception by the select RFID tags to force the select RF tags to exhibit the readable session state (via RFID reader 610, Para. 60).
Hagan fails to specifically disclose the session control messages generated by the processor include a multicast session control message that uses a mask to target the group of select RFID tags, wherein the mask encompasses the group of select RFID tags based on the UPC, G10 or SKU shared by the group of select RFID tags; and the RF signals transmitted for reception by the select RFID tags include an RF signal that encodes the multicast session control message for reception by the group of select RFID tags using the mask.
Lauria teaches a RFID reader system including a reader to transmit RF signals transmitted for reception by a select RFID tags include an RF signal that encodes a multicast session control message for reception by the group of select RFID tags using a mask (Targeting of the high-priority tags is performed by transmitting UPC masks during a select process. Less time is spent reading the low-priority tags, thereby enhancing the efficiency and speed of the reading performance of the system, Para. 25).
From the teachings of Lauria, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan to include the session control messages generated by the processor include a multicast session control message that uses a mask to target the group of select RFID tags, wherein the mask encompasses the group of select RFID tags based on SKU shared by the group of select RFID tags; and the RF signals transmitted for reception by the select RFID tags include an RF signal that encodes the multicast session control message for reception by the group of select RFID tags using the mask in order to quickly and efficiently read a particular group of tags.
Regarding claim 2, Hagan discloses wherein the apparatus does not generate or transmit RF
signals for interrogating RF tags for read responses (only the tag or tags of interest reflect the timing beacon pulse signals from the proximity detection devices 602a, 602b, 602c, 602d, Para. 60).
Regarding claim 4, Hagan discloses wherein the list includes a plurality of entries of identifying information for the select RFID tags, and wherein the session control circuit generates the session control messages from the entries on the list (class data or the UIDs, Para. 60).
Regarding claim 5, Hagan already teaches transmitting different session control messages (via unmuting of RFID tags based on class data or the UIDs, Para. 60).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan to include wherein a plurality of the entries encompass at least one
RFID tag in common, and wherein the session control circuit generates different session control
messages based on the entries so that the at least one RFID tag in common is targeted by a plurality of different session control messages as the different session control messages can be transmitted to a tag more than once (tag with class data and UID matching session control messages received) in order to unmute tags of interest.
Regarding claim 6, Hagan discloses wherein the entries comprise a mask entry (class data) and a full RFID tag identifier entry (UID), wherein the mask entry encompasses an RFID tag that is identified by
the full RFID tag identifier entry (Para. 60).
Regarding claim 7, Hagan discloses wherein the list is updatable to remove the mask entry,
and wherein the session control circuit will still generate a session control message targeting the RFID tag identified by the full RFID tag identifier entry if the list still includes the full RFID tag identifier entry (via unmuting of RFID tags based on class data or the UIDs, Para. 60).
Regarding claim 11, Hagan discloses wherein the list includes a mask entry that encompasses a plurality of RFID tags (particular garment type/class, Para. 65, 60), and wherein the list is updated in response to a determination that one or more of the encompassed RFID tags are estimated to be moving (putting away) and one or more of the encompassed RFID tags are estimated to be stationary (on the shelf) so that the list replaces the mask entry with one or more full RFID tag identifiers for the one or more RFID tags that are estimated to be moving (via putting away of items not on a correct shelf, Para. 65).
Regarding claim 20, Hagan discloses wherein the RFID tags include a hidden tag that has been detected by an RFID reader (via muted tag, Para. 66), and wherein the session control circuit generates one or more session control messages targeted to the hidden tag and/or one or more related tags to the hidden tag to cause the hidden tag and/or related tag(s) to be in the readable session state (via unmute tags of that class, Para. 60).
Regarding claim 21, Hagan discloses wherein the select RFID tags include a plurality of RFID tags that are estimated to be moving, and wherein the identifying information serves to identify the RFID tags that are estimated to be moving (via putting away of items, Para. 65).
Regarding claim 22, Hagan discloses wherein the group of select RFID tags includes one or more of the RFID tags that are estimated to be moving and a plurality of additional RFID tags that share a SKU in common with the one or more RFID tags that are estimated to be moving (via putting away particular garment type items, Para. 65).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagan and Lauria, and further in view of Xia (Efficient Tag Grouping via Collision Reconciliation and Data Compression).
Regarding claim 8, Hagan fails to explicitly disclose wherein the entries comprise a first mask entry and a second mask entry, wherein the first and second mask entries define different masks but encompass at least one RFID tag in common between the different masks.
Xia is in the field of RFID tag grouping (abstract) and teaches wherein the entries comprise a first mask entry and a second mask entry (tags are classified into different groups; a first group (mask entry) tags and a second group of tags; page 1818, 1st col, 1st para; page 1824, 1st col), wherein the first and second mask entries define different masks but encompass at least one RFID tag in common between the different masks (tags may belong to different groups; page 1819, sec 3.2.1).
From the teachings of Xia, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan and Lauria to include wherein the entries comprise a first mask entry and a second mask entry, wherein the first and second mask entries define different masks but encompass at least one RFID tag in common between the different masks for the purpose of resolving tag collision for improving inventory efficiency (Xia; abstract).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagan and Lauria, and further in view of Manley (US 20070080788 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Hagan fails to disclose wherein the session control circuit cycles through the list a plurality of times to generate session control messages so that a plurality of session control messages will be generated from a single entry on the list if the single entry remains on the list for a plurality of cycles through the list.
Manley teaches communications to RFID tags can sometimes fail and multiple communications to RFID tags may be required in some situations (Para. 3).
From the teachings of Manley, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan and Lauria to include wherein the session control circuit cycles through the list a plurality of times to generate session control messages so that a plurality of session control messages will be generated from a single entry on the list if the single entry remains on the list for a plurality of cycles through the list in case a message received confirmation is not received from a selected RFID tag, thereby improve reliability.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagan and Lauria, and further in view of Brandsma (US 20110169606 A1).
Regarding claim 10, Hagan fails to disclose wherein the list is updated to remove identifying information for select RFID tags that are later estimated to be stationary.
Brandsma teaches removing a tag from a list upon successfully read operation (Para. 33).
From the teachings of Brandsma, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan and Lauria to include wherein the list is updated to remove identifying information for select RFID tags in order to eliminate the need to read the tags that are read already, thereby improve read efficiency.
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagan and Lauria, and further in view of Wang (Session-based security enhancement of RFID systems for emerging open-loop applications, 2014-08).
Regarding claim 12, Hagan fails to disclose an I/O interface circuit that receives the list from a remote source.
Wang teaches a reader system including an I/O interface circuit that receives a read list from a remote source (reader in communication with server to receive tags to communicate with; during the second process, a session key between the reader and the tag is generated by the server and is distributed to the reader, Page 4, last paragraph).
From the teachings of Wang, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan and Lauria to include an I/O interface circuit that receives the list from a remote source in order to allow updating of the list remotely, thereby improve flexibility.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagan and Lauria, and further in view of Mahdawi (US 2008/0068174).
Regarding claim 13, Hagan fails to specifically disclose a plurality of wireless transmitters.
Mahdawi teaches a RFID reader can be configured to include a plurality of wireless transmitters to cover a bigger area (Para. 67).
From the teachings of Mahdawi, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan and Lauria to include a plurality of wireless transmitters in order to improve coverage of transmissions.
Claim(s) 17-19, 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hagan and Lauria, and further in view of Wilkinson (US 20130027191).
Regarding claim 17, Hagan fails to specifically disclose wherein the session control circuit is located in a housing that does not also house an RFID reader.
Wilkinson teaches that a session control circuit is located in a housing that does not also house an RFID reader (Para. 35, Fig. 3).
Section IV and V of MPEP 2144.04 state that making a device integral/separable and changes in shape are considered obvious to one of ordinary skill in the arts.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan and Lauria to include wherein the session control circuit is located in a housing that does not also house an RFID reader as electronic devices can be made separable or integral to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Regarding claim 18, Hagan fails to specifically disclose wherein the session control circuit is located in a housing that also houses an RFID reader, wherein the RFID reader and the session control circuit use different wireless transmitters for communicating with the RFID tags.
Wilkinson teaches a RFID reader and a session control circuit use different wireless transmitters for communicating with the RFID tags (Para. 40).
Section IV and V of MPEP 2144.04 state that making a device integral and changes in shape are considered obvious to one of ordinary skill in the arts.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan and Lauria to include wherein the session control circuit is located in a housing that also houses an RFID reader as making devices integral/separated is considered obvious, wherein the RFID reader and the session control circuit use different wireless transmitters for communicating with the RFID tags as the reader and the session control circuit can be made two separate devices, each device requiring a wireless transmitter.
Regarding claim 19, Hagan fails to disclose wherein the session control circuit and the wireless
transmitter operate in Session 2 or Session 3 according to EPC GEN2.
Wilkinson teaches including Session 2 or Session 3 in a RFID communication system (Para. 28 and 35).
From the teachings of Wilkinson, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Hagan to include wherein the session control circuit and the wireless transmitter operate in Session 2 or Session 3 according to EPC GEN2 in order to properly communicate in a RFID communication protocol.
Regarding claim 24, Hagan and Wilkinson teach wherein the session control messages comprise select commands that force the select RFID tags to exhibit the readable state (via the reader 610 may unmute all RFID tags of that class, see Hagan Para. 60, 64, 65) for Session 2 or Session 3 according to EPC GEN2 (see protocols according to EPC GEN2, rejection of claim 23 above).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) filed on 10/17/2025 have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection based on a new reference (US 20170053505) presented in the rejections above.
Conclusion
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/YONG HANG JIANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689