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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-15, 20, 22-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable by Lipowski et al. (U.S. Patent Application Number: 2019/0166457).
Consider claim 1; Lipowski discloses a method for rendering an alert message at a user device that is in a moving condition, the method comprising:
determining a current geographical location of the user device [e.g. GPS (par. 166, lines 1-5)];
receiving alert messages [e.g. from a server (par. 55, line 1 – par. 56, line 2)], each alert message comprising message information (e.g. alert event) and a geographical code (par. 55, line 1 – par. 56, line 2); and
configuring an alert filter at the user device (e.g. via the mobile alert application) to allow alert messages to pass the alert filter for rendering at the user device that comprise a geographical code which corresponds to a geographical area in which the current geographical location of the user device is located (par. 100, lines 10-14).
Consider claim 2; Lipowski discloses converting the geographical code of the alert message to a corresponding geographical area (par. 100, lines 10-14), wherein the configuring step comprises configuring the filter to allow alert messages to pass the filter (par. 100, lines 10-14) if the current geographical location of the user device lies within the determined geographical area [e.g. current location (par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11)].
Consider claim 3; Lipowski discloses mapping the current geographical location of the user device to a corresponding geographical area (par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11), wherein the geographical area is associated with a geographical code (par. 100, lines 10-14); determining the geographical code of the mapped geographical area (par. 100, lines 10-14); wherein the configuring step comprises configuring the filter to allow alert messages to pass the filter that comprise a geographical code which corresponds to the determined geographical code [e.g. current location (par. 100, lines 10-14; par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11)].
Consider claim 4; Lipowski discloses the filter is configured to further allow alert messages to pass the filter that comprise a geographical code which corresponds to a geographical area adjacent the geographical area in which the current geographical location of the user device is located (par. 174, lines 4-9).
Consider claim 5; Lipowski discloses determining an expected route of travel along which the user device will travel [e.g. planning on visiting (par. 59, lines 1-3)]; configuring the filter to further allow alert messages to pass the filter that comprise geographical codes which correspond to geographical areas that are passed along the expected route of travel [e.g. planning on visiting (par. 59, lines 1-10; par. 100, lines 10-14)].
Consider claim 6; Lipowski discloses converting the geographical code of the alert message to a corresponding geographical area (par. 100, lines 10-14), wherein the configuring step comprises configuring the filter to allow alert messages to pass the filter if the expected route of travel passes the determined geographical area (par. 100, lines 10-14; par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11).
Consider claim 7; Lipowski discloses mapping the expected route of travel to a plurality of geographical areas that are passed along the expected route of travel [e.g. current location (par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11)], wherein each geographical area is associated with a geographical code (par. 99, lines 7-12); determining the geographical codes of the respective geographical areas [e.g. via the mobile alert application (par. 99, lines 7-12)]; wherein the configuring step comprises configuring the filter to further allow alert messages to pass the filter that comprise geographic codes which correspond to the determined geographical codes (par. 100, lines 10-14).
Consider claim 8; Lipowski discloses determining a plurality of geographical locations that need to be passed along the expected route of travel [e.g. planning on visiting (par. 59, lines 1-10)]; and mapping these geographical locations to geographical areas (par. 59, lines 1-10).
Consider claim 9; Lipowski discloses determining a plurality of geographical locations comprises determining the geographical location of the current position of the user device (par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11) and at least one further geographical location along the expected route of travel [e.g. planning on visiting (par. 59, lines 1-10)].
Consider claim 10; Lipowski discloses mapping the geographical locations to geographical areas comprises identifying the geographical locations in a database of geographical codes (par. 90, lines 1-6).
Consider claim 11; Lipowski discloses determining an expected route of travel comprises receiving current location data (par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11), route data and/or destination data.
Consider claim 12; Lipowski discloses the expected route of travel is determined using a navigational system [e.g. GPS (par. 166, lines 1-5)].
Consider claim 13; Lipowski discloses the expected route of travel is determined based on behavioral patterns of a user of the user device [e.g. planning to visit (par. 59, lines 1-10)].
Consider claim 14; Lipowski discloses repeating the process and updating the geographical area that allows the alert messages to pass the filter based on latest position and/or route information [e.g. current location (par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11)].
Consider claim 15; Lipowski discloses the geographical codes associated with the geographical areas include at least one of Federal Information Processing System (FIPS) codes, Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) codes, and Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) codes (par. 152, lines 4-7).
Consider claim 20; Lipowski discloses the alert messages further comprise a category type code [e.g. geographical location code (par. 100, lines 10-14)], wherein the category type code identifies a category of the message information conveyed by the alert message [e.g. geographical location code (par. 100, lines 10-14)], and wherein the alert message is rendered at the user device only if the category of the message corresponds to a preselected category [e.g. geographical location code (par. 100, lines 10-14)].
Consider claim 22; Lipowski discloses an emergency alert location filtering system of a user device comprising:
a receiver module configured to receive alert messages that comprise message information and a geographical code (par. 144, lines 1-13);
a GPS/navigational module (par. 96, lines 10-12; par. 166, lines 1-5) configured to determine a current geographical location of the user device (par. 165, lines 7-11; par. 196, lines 7-11) and/or configured to determine a route between a current geographical location and a destination geographical location;
a human machine interface (par. 96, lines 1-10);
a processor coupled to the receiver module, the GPS/navigational module and the human machine interface (par. 96, lines 1-10); and
a memory storing instructions that (par. 96, lines 1-6), when executed by the processor (par. 96, lines 1-6), configure the processor to:
allow alert messages to pass from the receiver module to the human machine interface that comprise a geographical code which corresponds to a geographical area in which the current geographical location of the user device is located (par. 144, lines 1-13).
Consider claim 23; Lipowski discloses configuring the processor (par. 96, lines 1-10) to convert the geographical code of the alert message to a corresponding geographical area (par. 144, lines 1-13), and allow alert messages to pass to the human machine interface if the current geographical location of the user device lies within the determined geographical area (par. 96, lines 1-10; par. 144, lines 1-13).
Consider claim 24; Lipowski discloses map the current geographical location of the user device to a corresponding geographical area (par. 59, lines 1-10), wherein the geographical area is associated with a geographical code (par. 59, lines 1-10); determine the geographical code of the mapped geographical area (par. 59, lines 1-10); allow alert messages to pass to the human machine interface (par. 96, lines 1-10) that comprise a geographical code which correspond to the determined geographical code (par. 100, lines 10-14; par. 144, lines 1-13).
Consider claim 25; Lipowski discloses configuring the processor to allow alert messages to pass to the human machine interface (par. 96, lines 1-10) that comprise a geographical code which corresponds to a geographical area adjacent the geographical area in which the current geographical location of the user device is located (par. 174, lines 4-9).
Taggert is another reference that discloses the inventive concept.
Conclusion
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to Joel Ajayi whose telephone number is (571) 270-1091. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Anderson can be reached on (571) 272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/JOEL AJAYI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646