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 .
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).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-19 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20, 1-15, 1-22 and 1-18 of U.S. Patent No. 12060725, 12207713, 11958605 and 11708704; respectively. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the metes and bounds of the claims of this application would obviously have been construed from those of the patent by one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-5, 8-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and(a)(2) as being anticipated by Salnikov 20160307448.
The PG Pub to Salnikov discloses in paragraphs 80-87 and 164 all features of the claimed invewntion as described below.
[0080] A hybrid airship-drone also needs to know the current pressure and temperature of gas in its balloon to control its overall lift. In order to monitor pressure and temperature we might use an integrated sensor placed into the balloon. The sensor allows us to obtain current lifting gas pressure and temperature and report this value to the main CPU. The CPU uses this metering to recalculate and dynamically change buoyancy via a gas pressure control device 400, as for example the hybrid airship-drone loses weight as filler is consumed while performing a crop dusting operation.
[0081] A communication unit 230 is responsible for the exchange of control information with the remote ground control station, and getting RTK corrections and emergency information. Each aerial farm robot is connected to a local network through a Wi-Fi link and is represented as an independent network device with its own unique IP address. Such set-up allows us to almost eliminate one-to-one radio links and standardize all communication over the Ethernet protocol. In particular, all mission commands and telemetry information are sent over Wi-Fi.
[0082] Peak performance of the newest Wi-Fi implementation 802.11n is about 300 Mbps. It is well-known, however, that the throughput number will fall considerably when clients move further away from the base station. Still, in real field conditions we can expect at least 50 Mbps bandwidth. In order to maintain timely aerial farm robot location and status information, we need to collect telemetry data at least every second. Assuming that each telemetry record is approximately 1 Kb we conclude that a 802.11n network can support up to 50,000 aerial farm robots in this idealistic scenario. In real life, the more clients interacting with the network the more collisions we will get, hence the throughput of a Wi-Fi network decreases non-linearly.
[0083] A one-way radio-link can be used, but normally only for back-up and broadcast of emergency information, such as a “Fly Home and Park” command.
[0084] A high-precision positioning unit is responsible for getting the precise coordinates of a mobile unit. It includes a high-precision GPS/GLONASS board with a GPS/GLONASS antenna. Currently there are commercial GPS boards available which provide up to 5 cm precision in an X, Y coordinate plane. While GPS produces vertical coordinates as well, it is usually less precise then for horizontal coordinates. The landscape is not always flat, which can pose problems for precise vertical positioning. That is why sonar is usually the preferred mean to control vertical positioning of aerial farm robot. The height of application affects the width of the application band and the concentration of fertilizer, and should be tightly controlled.
[0085] A toolset control unit is responsible for controlling attached toolsets, such as a spraying toolset, planting toolset or fertilizing toolset. The control logic has much in common between those toolsets, allowing us to re-use the same control unit. The toolset control unit is described in more detail below.
[0086] An optical flow sensor is optional, as an addition to the positioning unit. In some cases an optical flow sensor helps to improve flying precision. It depends on algorithm used for position and attitude control implementation.
[0087] Modern GPS technologies allow for high-precision positioning with centimeter-grade accuracy. Under ideal conditions, accuracy can reach sub-centimeter levels. In order to achieve such precision, RTK-corrections are typically used. In order to use RTK-corrections, there should be two GPS devices, one called a “base station” or “reference station” to be set up in a fixed location, and another called a “mobile unit” or “rover.” The base station should know its own GPS coordinates with maximal precision. The base station re-broadcasts the phase of the carrier that it measures, and the mobile units compare their own phase measurements with the ones received from the base station.
[0164] Some applications and attachments may require heavy power usage in the field, in which case it may be practical to adopt a remote in-flight laser charging system that is used in conjunction with a solar cell on the aerial farm robot by aiming a laser beam at the solar cell and thus recharging the aerial farm robot's batteries.
1. A sunshade device for mitigating the harmful effects of direct and prolonged exposure to the sun, comprising: a sunshade device having: a collapsible reflective canopy; one or more lift units and/or positioning machines attached to the collapsible reflective canopy; a sunshade device management system for controlling the one or more lift units and/or positioning machines to control elevation and geolocation positioning of the sunshade device.(The gas filled ballon of paragraph 80 is inherently collapsible and reflective to some degree and is a lift unit. The device has a control unit paragraph 84)
2. The sunshade device of claim 1, wherein the sunshade device management system transmits positioning instructions to the positioning machines to alter the shape of the reflective canopy. (see paragraph 80)
3. The sunshade device of claim 1, wherein the sunshade device management system transmits positioning instructions to the positioning machines to alter the angle or elevation of the sunshade device. (see paragraph 80)
4. The sunshade device of claim 1, wherein the sunshade device management system transmits positioning instructions to the positioning machines to alter the positioning of the sunshade device. (see paragraph 80)
5. The sunshade device of claim 1, wherein the sunshade device management system receives user input and transmits instructions to the positioning machines according to the user input. (See paragraph 81)
8. The sunshade device of claim 1, wherein the sunshade device further comprises: a rechargeable battery power system for powering the at least one positioning machine; and a solar panel system for charging the battery power system. (see paragraph 164)
9. The sunshade device of claim 1, wherein the one or more lift units comprise lift balloons. (see paragraph 80)
10. The sunshade device of claim 1, wherein the one or more positioning machines comprise propeller-driven drone devices. (see propellers 340 of Salnikov)
Claims 11-15 and 18-19 follow from the above paragraphs and their application to the claims.
11. A sunshade device, comprising: a sunshade device having: a collapsible reflective canopy; one or more lift units and/or positioning machines attached to the collapsible reflective canopy; a sunshade device management system for controlling the one or more lift units and/or positioning machines to control elevation and geolocation positioning of the sunshade device; wherein the sunshade device management system receives user instructions and transmits instructions to the positioning machines according to the user instructions.
12. The sunshade device of claim 11, wherein the sunshade device management system transmits positioning instructions to the positioning machines to alter the shape of the reflective canopy.
13. The sunshade device of claim 11, wherein the sunshade device management system transmits positioning instructions to the positioning machines to alter the angle or elevation of the sunshade device.
14. The sunshade device of claim 11, wherein the sunshade device management system transmits positioning instructions to the positioning machines to alter the positioning of the sunshade device.
15. The sunshade device of claim 11, further comprising: one or more sensors provided with the sunshade device for sensing one or more of altitude and elevation from the earth’s surface, and GPS signals; and the sunshade device management system controlling the one or more lift units and/or positioning machines to control elevation and geolocation positioning of the sunshade device according to inputs from the one or more sensors.
16. The sunshade device of claim 11, further comprising one or more sensors provided with the sunshade device for sensing one or more of air temperature, barometer pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, intensity of the sun’s rays and angle of the sun, and local atmospheric precipitation. (see paragraph 52 barometric pressure)
[0052] An aerial farm robot is a semi-autonomous multi- or single-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or hybrid airship-drone that can fly and execute at least some tasks autonomously using its built-in central processing unit (CPU) in conjunction with a series of sensors such as a gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer (compass), barometer, sonar, optical flow, energy consumption and voltage meter, and GPS module. These sensors provide motor inputs, height, pitch, roll, heading, position, attitude, high-precision absolute and relative location, obstacle detection, distance detection, speed control and digital wind speed. A hybrid airship-drone may include additional gas pressure and gas temperature sensors which provide information for dynamic gas pressure control in a gas-filled balloon in the hybrid airship-drone, which may include inflating and deflating the balloon due to payload weight change while doing crop dusting or other field jobs. Instructions for the tasks to be executed are sent via a wireless communication network to one or more aerial farm robots from a control system that provides an interactive interface to an operator that can input the tasks to be executed using a simple interface.
17. The sunshade device of claim 11, wherein the sunshade device management system has a means for receiving weather forecast data, and based on the sensor data and the weather forecast data, the sunshade device management system determines if grounding of the sunshade device is necessary due to weather. (follows from paragraph 52 where the user would inherently land the balloon in bad weather)
18. The sunshade device of claim 11, wherein the one or more lift units comprise lift balloons.
19. The sunshade device of claim 11, wherein the wherein the one or more lift units comprise propeller-driven drone devices.
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.
Claim(s) s 6 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salnikov in view of Sherts 2007/0283991.
6. The sunshade device of claim 1, wherein the reflective canopy has a canopy underside bearing a message. (see paragraph 84 of Sherts)
7. The sunshade device of claim 6, wherein the canopy underside is an underside display bearing the message, and the message can be altered by a user. (see paragraph 84 of Sherts)
The PG pub to Salnikov discloses all features of the disclosed invention, but for the specifics of the message on the underside of a canopy. The PG pub to Sherts discloses in Figure 19 and paragraph 84 that a message may be displayed on a canopy.
[0084] The embodiments described above may not only be employed for the protection of a user but may also be employed as a display 1950 for displaying any suitable printed material 1930 such as messages, pictures and the like for advertising or any other desired purpose. As can be seen in FIG. 19, any of the embodiments described above such as, for example, FIGS. 1A-2b and 13A-13C may have a pole support 1940 that extends from the retraction mechanism or hub 1910 in such a manner as to position the compression frame 1900 and canopy 1920 for optimal viewing by passers by or any interested person. The pole support 1940 may be supported by a suitable stand, held by a user or driven into the ground. The display 1950 may, for example, be placed in a storefront, along the side of a road or any other suitable location. The display 1950 in accordance with this exemplary embodiment is easily stored in a compact manner and may be quickly deployed or taken down.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to provide the device of Salkinov with a message on the canopy as taught by Sherts in order to convey information to viewers.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD M CAMBY whose telephone number is (571)272-6958. The examiner can normally be reached M - F flex.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Peter D Nolan can be reached at 571 270 7016. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RICHARD M CAMBY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3661