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 .
1. Acknowledgement is made to the preliminary amendment, filed 5/14/2024. Claims 1-15 are pending.
Priority
2. The instant application is a 371 of PCT/EP2021/086677, filed 12/18/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. Acknowledgement is made to the information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 5/14/2024, 8/8/2025, & 11/13/2025. The information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
4. Claim 8 is/are objected to because of the following informalities, which appear to be minor draft errors including grammatical and/or lack of antecedent basis problems.
Regarding claim 8, line 12 recites “the price and/or product information”, however there is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 (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 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.
5. Claims 1-3 & 8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yoichiro et al. (JP 2015-170255 A), hereinafter Yoichiro, the examiner referencing the provided machine translation.
Regarding claim 1, Yoichiro discloses an Electronic price and/or product-information display device (14 – electronic shelf label), a display device (E1-E9) for short, which is designed to visually reproduce price and/or product information of a product (P1-P9) and which is designed to store reproduction data, said reproduction data representing the price and/or product information, wherein the display device (E1-E9) [0032]
- comprises a first short-range communication device (8) (54 – short-range wireless communication unit), in particular a first near-field communication device, NFC device for short, which is designed for wireless short-range communication with a reproduction device (11) (18 – mobile terminal), in particular, a reproduction device which is NFC-compatible [0032],
characterized in that the reproduction data comprise
- display-reproduction data (AW1), which are determined in order to visually reproduce the price and/or product information by means of the electronic price and/or product display device (E1-E9) itself [0033], and
- output reproduction data (AW2) which allows for output by means of wireless short-range communication to the reproduction device (11) and there the acoustic reproduction of the price and/or product information at the reproduction device (11), in particular, in the form of audio and/or text reproduction data [0034, 0035, & 0054], and that
the short-range communication device (8) has access to the output reproduction data (AW2) and is designed to output the output reproduction data (AW2) in the course of wireless short-range communication [0035 & 0054].
Regarding claim 2, Yoichiro discloses the display device (E1-E9) according to Claim 1, comprising a system communication device (7) which differs from the short-range communication device (8) and is which is provide in order to communicate with a control device (29) used to provide the reproduction data (AW1, AW2), wherein the output reproduction data (AW2) is obtained by means of the system communication device (7) and is stored in a storage stage (12, 13) of the display device (E1-E9) [0029 & 0032].
Regarding claim 3, Yoichiro discloses the display device (E1-E9) according to Claim 1, which is designed to recognize a output-reproduction-data query command (AWB) that can be received in the course of wireless short-range communication, and to also distinguish it from at least one other query command where applicable, and to transmit the output reproduction data (AW2) only after the output-reproduction-data query command (AWB) has been recognized by means of wireless short-range communication [0034, 0035, & 0054].
Regarding claim 8, Yoichiro discloses a Reproduction device (11) which comprises:
- a reproduction stage (20) designed for the acoustic reproduction of digitally represented information [0054], characterized in that
- a second short-range communication device (24) (63 – wireless communication unit of the mobile terminal), in particular, a second near-field communication device, NFC device for short, which is provided for wireless short-range communication with an electronic price and/or product-information display device (14 – electronic shelf label), a display device (E1-E9) for short, in particular, one that is NFC-compatible [0034], and
- the second short-range communication device (24) is designed for querying and receiving output reproduction data (AW2) in the course of wireless short-range communication with the electronic price and/or product display device (E1-E9), wherein the output reproduction data (AW2) in the reproduction device (11) allows the price and/or product information to be reproduced acoustically [0034, 0035, & 0054], and
- the second short-range communication device (24) for the provision of the output reproduction data (AW2), in particular, in the form of audio and/or text reproduction data, is designed for the acoustic reproduction of price and/or product information by the reproduction stage (20) [0034, 0035, & 0054].
Regarding claim 9, Yoichiro discloses the reproduction device (11) according to Claim 8, wherein the reproduction stage (20) is designed for direct reproduction of audio reproduction data represented by the output reproduction data (AW2) [0034, 0035, & 0054].
Regarding claim 10, Yoichiro discloses the reproduction device (11) according to Claim 8, wherein the reproduction device (11) is designed to convert text reproduction data represented by the output reproduction data (AW2) into audio reproduction data, and the reproduction stage (20) is designed to directly reproduce the audio reproduction data obtained thereby [0034, 0035, & 0054].
Regarding claim 11, Yoichiro discloses the reproduction device (11) according to Claim 8, which is designed to output a output-reproduction-data query command (AWB) via the second short-range communication device (24) for the purpose of initiating the reception of the output reproduction data (AW2) [0034, 0035, & 0054].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
6. Claims 4-7 & 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoichiro in view of Kim et al. (US 2014/0316944 A1), hereinafter Kim.
With respect to claims 4, 5, 12, & 14, the teachings of Yoichiro have been discussed above.
Yoichiro, directed to a networked system of electronic shelf labels that is capable of communicating relevant product information to customer devices [0004, 0007, & 0008], is silent with respect to explicitly disclosing communicating product-surroundings description data and directions query commands, as recited in claims 4, 5, 12, & 14.
Kim teaches, regarding claims 4, 5, 12, & 14, communicating product-surroundings description data and directions query commands [0040-0044].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to further employ the direction features of Kim within the system of Yoichiro for at least the benefit of providing for improved convenience to customers by reducing shopping time through more efficient and optimal shopping paths [0008, 0009, & 0011].
Regarding claim 6, Kim, as modified above, discloses the display device (E1-E9) according to Claim 5, which, after recognizing the Directions Query Command (PUB), is designed to provide directions description data (WB) comprising output reproduction data (AW2) and to provide the directions description data (WB) via the short-range communication device (8), wherein the directions description data (WB) are determined with the reproduction device (11) for the acoustic reproduction of the description of the path to the further product (P1-P9) [0040-0044].
. Regarding claim 7, Kim, as modified above, discloses the display device (E1-E9) according to Claim 6, having a system communication device (7) which differs from the short-range communication device (8) and which is provide in order to communicate with a control device (29) used to provide the reproduction data (AW1, AW2), wherein the output reproduction data (AW2) is obtained by means of the system communication device (7) and is stored in a storage stage (12, 13) of the display device (E1-E9) and is designed to query the output reproduction data (AW2) comprising directions description data (WB) from the control device (29) with disclosure of the product data of the further product (P1-P9) [0040-0044].
Regarding claim 13, Kim, as modified above, discloses the reproduction device (11) according to Claim 12 which is designed to reproduce, section by section, the description of the product surroundings of the product (P1- P9) represented or referenced by means of the product-surroundings description data (UB), in particular, as a result of a detection of a user interaction [0040-0044].
Regarding claim 15, Kim, as modified above, discloses the reproduction device (11) according to Claim 14 which is designed to reproduce, section by section, the description of the path to a further product (P1-P9) represented or referenced by means of the directions description data (WB), in particular, as a result of a detection of a user interaction [0040-0044].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAULTEP SAVUSDIPHOL whose telephone number is (571)270-1301. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F,7-3 EST. If the examiner cannot be reached by telephone, he can be reached through the following email address: paultep.savusdiphol@uspto.gov
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone and email are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael G. Lee can be reached on (571) 272-2398. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PAULTEP SAVUSDIPHOL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876