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 10/14/2024, 02/11/2025, 04/14/2025, 06/24/2025,09/18/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Status
Claims 2-21 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,051,181 B2.
Claim(s) 2-21 is/are allowed if they are overcome the Double Patenting rejection.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
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Claims 2-21 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,051,181 B2.
For Claim 2, although this claim is not identical to Claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12,051,181, this claim is not patentably distinct from Claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12,051,181 because Claim 2 is broader than and fully encompassed by Claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12,051,181.
Application 18/787,405 (U.S. 20250104208 A1)
US Patent 12,051,181 B2
A computer-implemented method comprising:
obtaining satellite imagery of a geographic region prior to a date when fire occurred within the geographic region; selecting a subset of the satellite imagery, the subset captured (i) before the date when the fire occurred and (ii) does not illustrate fire; generating a model from the subset of satellite imagery; determining a start date of the fire using the subset of satellite imagery and the model; obtaining other satellite imagery of the geographic region, the other satellite imagery captured (i) prior to the determined start date and (ii) after the determined start date; selecting another subset of satellite imagery from the other satellite imagery prior to the determined start date; generating another model from the another subset of satellite imagery prior to the determined start date; determining an end date of the fire using the other satellite imagery and the other model; and providing, for output, the start date and the end date of the fire within the geographical region.
geographic region; determining, by the server, an end date of the fire based on a comparison of the second satellite imagery occurring after the start date to the second statistical distribution; and providing, for output by the server, a range that includes the start date of the fire and the end date of the fire within the geographical region.
A computer-implemented method performed comprising: obtaining, by a server, a date when a fire occurred within a geographic region; obtaining, by the server, first satellite imagery of the geographic region from before the date when the fire occurred within the geographic region; selecting, by the server, a first set of imagery from the first satellite imagery, the first set of imagery (i) captured before the date when the fire occurred within the geographic region and (ii) does not illustrate fire occurring within the geographic region; generating, by the server, a first statistical distribution from the first set of imagery; determining, by the server, a start date of the fire based on a comparison of the first satellite imagery to the first statistical distribution; obtaining, by the server, second satellite imagery of the geographic region from before and after the determined start date when the fire occurred within the geographic region; selecting, by the server, a second set of imagery from the second satellite imagery from before the start date when the fire occurred within the geographic region, wherein an amount of the second set of imagery is smaller than an amount of the first set of imagery; generating, by the server, a second statistical distribution from the second set of imagery from before the start date when the fire occurred within the geographic region; determining, by the server, an end date of the fire based on a comparison of the second satellite imagery occurring after the start date to the second statistical distribution; and providing, for output by the server, a range that includes the start date of the fire and the end date of the fire within the geographical region.
For Claims 3-21, although this claim is not identical to Claims 2-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,051,181, this claim is not patentably distinct from Claims 2-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,051,181 because Claims 3-21 are broader than and fully encompassed by Claims 2-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,051,181.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2-21 is/are allowed if they are overcome the Double Patenting rejection.
Reasons for Allowance
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The present invention comprises generate a temporal range of a historic wildfire over a geographic region. In particular, a server can generate the temporal range that includes a start date and an end date of a wildfire given its spatial bounds in the geographic region and a date the wildfire occurred at the geographic region. The start date corresponds to the day the wildfire originated. The end date corresponds to the day the wildfire concluded. The closest prior art, Bausch Doug et al (WO-2020/132031 A1; Bausch) shows a similar system which also includes automatic detection of wildfire activity; receive data regarding one or more fires, the fire data may be received via one or more satellite sources; a geographical location and severity of the observed fire(s) may be determined. Such attributes may be parsed from received data; a severity of the observed fire(s) may be compared to a threshold severity. The threshold severity may be determined based on historical wildfire data; based on the comparing, one or more of the observed fires may be classified as wildfires and one or more automated alerts may be issued to one or more geographic areas affected by, or that may be affected by, the wildfires.
However, Bausch fails to disclose “obtaining satellite imagery of a geographic region prior to a date when fire occurred within the geographic region; selecting a subset of the satellite imagery, the subset captured (i) before the date when the fire occurred and (ii) does not illustrate fire; generating a model from the subset of satellite imagery; determining a start date of the fire using the subset of satellite imagery and the model; obtaining other satellite imagery of the geographic region, the other satellite imagery captured (i) prior to the determined start date and (ii) after the determined start date; selecting another subset of satellite imagery from the other satellite imagery prior to the determined start date; generating another model from the another subset of satellite imagery prior to the determined start date; determining an end date of the fire using the other satellite imagery and the other model; and providing, for output, the start date and the end date of the fire within the geographical region.” These features have been added to independent claim(s) 2, 15 and 21; therefore, rendering it/them allowable.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Bausch Doug et al (WO-2020/132031 A1), “Automated Wildfire Detection”, teaches
about systems and methods are described for the global, rapid, and automatic detection of
wildfire activity. It also teaches about the method receive data regarding one or more fires, the
fire data may be received via one or more satellite sources; a geographical location and severity
of the observed fire(s) may be determined. Such attributes may be parsed from received data; a
severity of the observed fire(s) may be compared to a threshold severity. The threshold severity
may be determined based on historical wildfire data; based on the comparing, one or more of the
observed fires may be classified as wildfires and one or more automated alerts may be issued to
one or more geographic areas affected by, or that may be affected by, the wildfires. Such
automated alerts may be of any suitable form and may be sent to one or more computer systems
for distribution or reception. The processes may be implemented in real time or near real time of
observing a fire. Multiple wildfires may be handled simultaneously to provide alerts to some or
all affected geographic areas.
Artés, Tomàs, et al, “A global wildfire dataset for the analysis of fire regimes and
fire behaviour”, teaches about a global single wildfire database and the resulting data, the
GlobFire Database, based on an algorithm that relies on encoding in a graph structure a space-
time relationship among patches of burned areas. This approach allows to have wildfires with
several initial ignition points and merge them even if burnt areas are non-spatially contiguous
such as spotting fires. Besides, it is possible to use several burnt area products at the same time
and combine them. It is possible to extract from the GlobFire database, the single wildfire events,
their properties and their evolution. It also teaches about within GlobFire, a single wildfire event
is considered as an abstract representation of a fire that can be stored in a database. An abstract
representation is done with a small class diagram15 that is flexible enough to add new properties
to the fire and which contains the minimum elements to describe a fire event. For instance, it
makes it possible to store the initial and final date of the fire, spatial data describing the fire
perimeter and its burnt area for every individual time step, and sources used for each iteration in
the evolution of a fire.
Tschernezki et al (U.S. 20180336452 A1), “Predicting wildfires on the basis of
biophysical indicators and spatiotemporal properties using a long short term memory
network”, teaches about systems, software, and computer implemented methods for predicting
wildfires on the basis of biophysical indicators and spatiotemporal properties. A method includes
receiving a request for a wildfire prediction for at least one geographical area. At least one
biophysical indicator is identified. Each biophysical indicator provides biophysical data for the at
least one geographical area. The at least one biophysical indicator is provided to a long short
term memory (LSTM) network. The LSTM network includes a convolutional neural network
(CNN) for each of multiple LSTM units. Each LSTM unit and each CNN are associated with a
historical time period in a time series. The LSTM is used to generate at least one prediction for
wildfire risk for the at least one geographical area for an upcoming time period.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Duy A Tran whose telephone number is (571)272-4887. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/DUY TRAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2674
/ONEAL R MISTRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2674
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