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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 5/30/2024 in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Status of Claims
Claims 2, 11 and 24 are cancelled and claim 27 is newly added, leaving claims 1, 3-10, 12-23 and 25-27 pending in this application.
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.
Claim 27 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tan et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2020/0014552) in view of Goel et al. (U.S. 2024/0338171).
As per claim 27, Tan et al. discloses:
A method for configuring a voice assistant feature for a portable rental radio (Figure 4 and Paragraphs [0042-0045]), comprising:
providing a radio rental portal for renting portable radios to a customer for an event (Figure 4, items 404 & 406 and paragraphs [0040-0046] & [0072-0073] – smart speakers are portable and renting the rental property includes renting the smart speakers with the booking application in communication with the Smart-home application acting as the portal);
receiving, at the portal, a request to configure the rental radio with a voice assistant feature as part of a rental registration for the event (Figure 4, items 404 & 406 and paragraphs [0040-0046] & [0072-0073] – smart speakers are portable and renting the rental property includes renting the smart speakers with the booking application in communication with the Smart-home application acting as the portal);
obtaining, at the portal, customer database access to a customer database (Figure 4, items 404 & 406 and paragraphs [0040-0046] & [0072-0073] – smart speakers are portable and renting the rental property includes renting the smart speakers with the booking application in communication with the Smart-home application acting as the portal. The User account and the rental property information are the customer database);
obtaining, by the portal, customer deployment context data from the customer database (Figure 4, items 404 & 406 and paragraphs [0040-0046] & [0072-0073] – The context data is the rental property information);
identifying, by the portal, at least one customer environment function from the customer deployment context data for the event (Figure 4, items 404 & 406 and paragraphs [0040-0048], [0072-0073] & [0093-0101] – The environment functions are those that control temperature, lights etc.);
generating a voice command, by the portal, for the at least one identified customer environment function (Paragraphs [0072], [0086-0087] & [0104] – voice commands for controlling the smart home features are generated);
creating a mapping of voice commands to respective customer environment functions for the event (Paragraphs [0072], [0086-0087] & [0104] – voice commands for controlling the smart home features are generated); and
programming the plurality of portable rental radios with the customer verified mapping to complete the voice assistant configuration of the portable rental radio (Paragraphs [0072], [0086-0087] & [0104] – voice commands for controlling the smart home features via the smart speakers are implemented).
Tan et al. fails to explicitly disclose, but Goel et al. in the same field of endeavor teaches:
providing the mapping for customer verification (Paragraphs [0089] & [0094] – the mapping of “Joe” in the command to Yfat Joe is verified by the user);
It would be obvious for a person having ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to modify the method, portal and system of Tan et al. with the command mapping verification capabilities of Goel et al. because it is a case of combining prior art elements according to known methods to yield predictable results. Tan et al. allows users to specify settings & preferences of devices and produce customized voice commands but does not disclose user verification of command mapping. It would be obvious to add the voice command mapping of Goel et al. because user verification improves correct command execution.
The combination of Tan et al. and Goel et al. discloses the claimed invention except for generating the voice command automatically. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the effective filing date of the invention to automatically generate the voice command, since it has been held that broadly providing a mechanical or automatic means to replace manual activity which has accomplished the same result involves only routine skill in the art. In re Venner, 120 USPQ 192.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3-10, 12-23 and 25-26 are allowed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 10-11, filed 3/17/2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 1-26 under 35 USC 112 and 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claims 1-26 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed 3/17/2026 concerning newly added claim 27 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Specifically, making a process automatic has been held to be an obvious variation of a manual process that accomplishes the same result.
Examiner Notes
The Examiner cites particular columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims above for the convenience of the Applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the Applicant fully considers the references in its entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or as disclosed by the Examiner.
Communications via Internet e-mail are at the discretion of the applicant and require written authorization. Should the Applicant wish to communicate via e-mail, including the following paragraph in their response will allow the Examiner to do so:
“Recognizing that Internet communications are not secure, I hereby authorize the USPTO to communicate with me concerning any subject matter of this application by electronic mail. I understand that a copy of these communications will be made of record in the application file.”
Should e-mail communication be desired, the Examiner can be reached at Edwin.Leland@USPTO.gov
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 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.
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/EDWIN S LELAND III/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2654