DETAILED ACTION
This is a Non-final office action on the merits. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the Office) has received claims 1-24 in application number 18/828,915. Claims 1-24 are pending and have been examined on the merits.
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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2, 3, 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 2 and 12 recites the limitation "the communications protocol" in line 4. Claims 2 and 12 are dependent on Claims 1 and 11, respectively. Claims 1 and 11 recite two “crowdsourcing protocols” but no “communications protocol”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 3 and 13 recites the limitation "the crowdsourcing protocol" in line 3. Claims 3 and 13 are dependent on Claims 1 and 11, respectively. Claims 1 and 11 recite two crowdsourcing protocols, it is unclear which one “the” crowdsourcing protocol refers to. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
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.
Claims 1-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Publication 2021/0192436 (Tiwari) in view of U.S. Patent Publication 2020/0082325 (Wylie).
Regarding Claims 1, 11, 18 and 19:
Tiwari teaches a system that tracks assets including pharmaceutical assets within a facility and between facilities, detects shortages/overages and enables the transfer of assets including pharmaceutical assets to avoid expiry and waste. Tiwari teaches: A pharmaceutical asset tracking system, comprising: a pharmaceutical asset tracker configured to transmit pharmaceutical asset information to a communications device wherein: the pharmaceutical asset information comprises an identifier for a pharmaceutical asset associated with the pharmaceutical asset tracker in a defined area, ([0022] “unique serial number” and [0030] “all or some of the data may be written directly onto a memory bank of the RFID tag such that the data can be read directly from the RFID tag. For example, upon associating a RFID tag with a product, the manufacturer may write the product's product code, serial number, and expiration date to the memory bank of the RFID tag”).
and a server configured to: receive the pharmaceutical asset information and location information from the communications device; ([0054] “server” and [0023] “product expiration management system 140”).
a location of the asset; ([0030] “The data corresponding to each of the UIDs, as described above, may provide, for example, the location of a product associated with the RFID tag comprising the specific UID”).
and provide for display information regarding a group of pharmaceutical assets determined to be at a specified location, wherein the group is identified based on pharmaceutical asset information for each of the assets in the group. ([0039] “the product expiration management system 140, referenced in FIG. 1, may review the data stored in the database and determine that hospital A has 500 units of product X in stock”).
While Tiwari teaches using RFID asset tags to track pharmaceutical assets and teaches determining and storing in the inventory database the location of the asset, Tiwari does not specifically teach: in accordance with the communications device being responsive to communications via a first crowdsourcing protocol, the pharmaceutical asset tracker transmits the pharmaceutical asset information to the communications device via the first crowdsourcing protocol, and in accordance with the communications device being responsive to communications via a second crowdsourcing protocol, the pharmaceutical asset tracker transmits the pharmaceutical asset information to the communications device via the second crowdsourcing protocol. Wylie also teaches tracking assets using electronic tags and further teaches using crowdsourcing of the tag signals to improve location accuracy. Wylie teaches this: ([0023] “vehicles 102, 104 are equipped with respective beacons 106, 108 that transmit respective beacon signals 107, 109 that are detectable by nearby mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones) 112, 118 and one or more stationary receivers 110, 111, according to an example implementation of the disclosed technology. Certain example implementations of the disclosed technology may leverage the ubiquitous use of smartphones having Bluetooth®, GPS, and/or other standard receivers to contribute (via crowdsourcing) to measurement data that can be used to determine approximate locations of the respective vehicles 102, 104 and/or other assets. It should be appreciated that the disclosed technology may be applied to many other tracking applications and is not limited to vehicle tracking, as illustrated in the example use case scenario 100. In certain example implementations, the beacons 106, 108 may be low energy Bluetooth® (BLE) beacons that can be configured to periodically (for example, every 100 ms, every 500 ms, once per second, etc.,) broadcast corresponding beacon IDs that may uniquely identify the asset to which they are attached” and [0068-0070] “example implementations of the disclosed technology may utilize crowdsourcing to update the beacon estimated location, for example, so that multiple users walking around the lot can provide data points… While certain previous systems and methods may provide information about a user's mobile computing device location based on signals received from stationary beacons, certain embodiments of the disclosed technology instead provide a different function whereby a location of a beacon attached to a moveable asset may be estimated using known locations of a user's mobile computing device. Furthermore, as discussed above, certain example implementations of the disclosed technology may utilize stationary receivers to provide a reference signal strength measurement to further increase the location accuracy… The systems and methods disclosed herein may provide the technical effect of increasing asset location accuracy via crowdsourcing compared to the location accuracy determined by measurements along a single path or by a single user”). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve the asset tracking system taught by Tiwari by also including the crowdsourcing of tag signals, as taught by Wylie, to predictably improve the accuracy of the location sensing, as suggested by Wylie in at least [0070]. Examiner notes that while Applicant claims two crowdsourcing protocols, Applicant does not specifically claim any use or improved functionality from using two versus one and, as claimed, the first and second crowdsourcing protocols appear to simply be redundant systems. MPEP 2144.04 (VI)(B) Duplication of parts states that “mere duplication of parts has no patentable significance unless a new and unexpected result is produced”.
Regarding Claims 2 and 12:
Tiwari in view of Wylie teach all of the elements of Claims 1 and 11. Tiwari also teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein: the pharmaceutical asset tracker is configurable to be in a discoverable state, and the communications device is configured to search for a device in the discoverable state via the communications protocol used to transmit the pharmaceutical asset information to the communications device. ([0022] “when an RFID tag is interrogated, the tag responds by emitting a data signal that includes the tag's UID, which is captured by the reader”).
Regarding Claims 3 and 13:
Tiwari in view of Wylie teach all of the elements of Claims 1 and 11. While Tiwari also teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein: the identifier uniquely identifies the asset, ([0030] “all or some of the data may be written directly onto a memory bank of the RFID tag such that the data can be read directly from the RFID tag. For example, upon associating a RFID tag with a product, the manufacturer may write the product's product code, serial number, and expiration date to the memory bank of the RFID tag”), but Tiwari does not specifically teach: and the location information is determined based on the crowdsourcing protocol used to transmit the pharmaceutical asset information to the communications device. Wylie teaches this: ([0023] “vehicles 102, 104 are equipped with respective beacons 106, 108 that transmit respective beacon signals 107, 109 that are detectable by nearby mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones) 112, 118 and one or more stationary receivers 110, 111, according to an example implementation of the disclosed technology. Certain example implementations of the disclosed technology may leverage the ubiquitous use of smartphones having Bluetooth®, GPS, and/or other standard receivers to contribute (via crowdsourcing) to measurement data that can be used to determine approximate locations of the respective vehicles 102, 104 and/or other assets. It should be appreciated that the disclosed technology may be applied to many other tracking applications and is not limited to vehicle tracking, as illustrated in the example use case scenario 100. In certain example implementations, the beacons 106, 108 may be low energy Bluetooth® (BLE) beacons that can be configured to periodically (for example, every 100 ms, every 500 ms, once per second, etc.,) broadcast corresponding beacon IDs that may uniquely identify the asset to which they are attached” and [0068-0070] “example implementations of the disclosed technology may utilize crowdsourcing to update the beacon estimated location, for example, so that multiple users walking around the lot can provide data points… While certain previous systems and methods may provide information about a user's mobile computing device location based on signals received from stationary beacons, certain embodiments of the disclosed technology instead provide a different function whereby a location of a beacon attached to a moveable asset may be estimated using known locations of a user's mobile computing device. Furthermore, as discussed above, certain example implementations of the disclosed technology may utilize stationary receivers to provide a reference signal strength measurement to further increase the location accuracy… The systems and methods disclosed herein may provide the technical effect of increasing asset location accuracy via crowdsourcing compared to the location accuracy determined by measurements along a single path or by a single user”). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to improve the asset tracking system taught by Tiwari by also including the crowdsourcing of tag signals, as taught by Wylie, to predictably improve the accuracy of the location sensing, as suggested by Wylie in at least [0070]. Examiner notes that while Applicant claims two crowdsourcing protocols, Applicant does not specifically claim any use or improved functionality from using two versus one and, as claimed, the first and second crowdsourcing protocols appear to simply be redundant systems. MPEP 2144.04 (VI)(B) Duplication of parts states that “mere duplication of parts has no patentable significance unless a new and unexpected result is produced”.
Regarding Claims 4, 5, 14, 15 and 20:
Tiwari in view of Wylie teach all of the elements of Claims 1 and 11. Tiwari also teaches that electronic asset tracking tags have known ranges from which they can be read, Tiwari teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein the pharmaceutical asset tracker is configured to transmit the pharmaceutical asset information to the communications device in accordance with a determination that the communications device is within the defined area. The system of claim 1, wherein the pharmaceutical asset tracker is configured to cease transmitting the pharmaceutical asset information in accordance with a determination that the pharmaceutical asset tracker is no longer within the defined area. ([0006] “Common types of RFID tags include low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID tags. LF RFID tags generally operate at a frequency of about 30 KHz to 300 KHz, and may only be scanned by a reader within extremely close proximity to the LF RFID tag, e.g., approximately less than 10 cm. HF RFID tags generally operate at a frequency of about 3 to 30 MHz, and may only be scanned by a reader within relative close, but not necessarily extremely close, proximity to the HF RFID tag, e.g., approximately between 10 cm and 1 m. UHF RFID tags generally operate at a frequency of about 300 MHz to 3 GHz, and may be scanned from a greater distance than LF and HF RFID tags, e.g., a distance of up to approximately 12 m. Inventory tracking systems may be based on LF RFID tags, HF RFID tags, UHF RFID tags, barcodes, etc., for example”). Examiner notes that when a tag has a readable proximity range, if a reader is not within this range of the tag, the reader will inherently not be able to read the tag.
Regarding Claims 6, 16 and 21:
Tiwari in view of Wylie teach all of the elements of Claims 1 and 11. Tiwari also teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein the pharmaceutical asset tracker is configured to cease transmitting the pharmaceutical asset information in accordance with a determination that the asset has been transferred. ([0030] “data corresponding to each of the UIDs, as described above, may provide, for example, the location of a product associated with the RFID tag comprising the specific UID, the expiration date of the product, the date and time the product is used/consumed” and [0045] “if the product expiration management system 140 of FIG. 1 determines that the product received by the consumer is short-dated, the alert may indicate that product X should be sent back to the manufacturer. For example, an alert may be generated to a user via the UI, described above (block 340 of FIG. 3), and the user may take any necessary steps to send the product back to the manufacturer”). Examiner notes that if an item is used/consumed or returned to the manufacturer it will inherently no longer be in-range proximate to any readers in the system.
Regarding Claims 7 and 17:
Tiwari in view of Wylie teach all of the elements of Claims 1 and 11. Tiwari also teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein the pharmaceutical asset information comprises expiration information associated with the asset, the expiration information indicating a time when the asset expires. ([0030] “data corresponding to each of the UIDs, as described above, may provide, for example, the location of a product associated with the RFID tag comprising the specific UID, the expiration date of the product, the date and time the product is used/consumed”).
Regarding Claims 8 and 22:
Tiwari in view of Wylie teach all of the elements of Claims 1 and 11. Tiwari also teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein the server is configured to: determine whether an inventory transfer criterion is met; and in accordance with a determination that the inventory transfer criterion is met, provide for generation of an indication to transfer at least a portion of the group of assets from the first specified location to a second specified location. ([0046] “the system may make a determination to relocate the product to another location within the same consumer location or to another consumer location. For example… the product expiration management system 140 of FIG. 1 may determine that hospital A has 5 units of product X that may be expiring in a month. The alert may indicate that hospital B uses large quantities of product X and that a user should relocate all 5 units of product X from hospital A to hospital B in an attempt to use/consume product X before expiration”).
Regarding Claims 9 and 23:
Tiwari in view of Wylie teach all of the elements of Claims 1 and 11. Tiwari also teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein the server is configured to: determine whether a quantity of the group of assets is below a threshold; and in accordance with a determination that the quantity of the group of assets is below the threshold, provide for generation of an alert indicating low inventory. ([0046] “the product expiration management system 140 of FIG. 1 may determine that hospital A has 5 units of product X that may be expiring in a month. The alert may indicate that hospital B uses large quantities of product X and that a user should relocate all 5 units of product X from hospital A to hospital B in an attempt to use/consume product X before expiration”).
Regarding Claims 10 and 24:
Tiwari in view of Wylie teach all of the elements of Claims 1 and 11. Tiwari also teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein the server is configured to predict a demand of the asset in the specified location based on a quantity history of the group of assets. ([0041] “Based on historical data, hospital A has ceased using product X, and none of these products are likely to be used/consumed by the consumer location in the relative future” and [0039] “50 units of product X are typically used/consumed per month”).
Relevant Prior Art Not Relied Upon
The prior art is made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. The additional cited art further establishes the state of the art at the time of applicant’s application.
U.S. Patent Publication 2025/0159458 (Sahin). (Reference paragraphs provided herein are to the provisional 63/311,883 dated 2/18/22). This reference teaches an asset tracking system that uses multiple types of electronic asset identification, localization and tracking systems including RFID tags and crowdsourcing solutions that are networked together and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. (see at least [0004] “There are also alternative crowdsourced IoT solutions that use a Bluetooth based crowdsourced approach to target overlapping use cases with LPWA, such as asset tracking in a wide area. Example products that use such crowdsourced IoT solutions include Apple AirTag, Amazon Sidewalk, Nodle.io, and Tile” and [0088] “The network node 600 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 600, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)”).
U.S. Patent Publication 2022/0283520 (Fan) teaches asset tracking for semiconductors and teaches various electronic asset tagging systems such as RFID and LPWAN (crowdsourcing) that are networked together and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. (See at least [0014]). This reference also teaches that the asset tag information includes a unique identifier and an asset expiration date (see at least [0016]-[0018]).
U.S. Patent Publication 2011/0285591 (Wong) teaches using crowd sourcing of data of cell phones to build a localization map (see at least [0012], [0049] and [0052]). This reference also teaches asset tags such as RFID for asset tracking and supplementation of the RFID system with the crowdsourcing location technology (see at least [0036] and [0043]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIMBERLY S BURSUM whose telephone number is (571)272-8213. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM.
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/KIMBERLY S. BURSUM/Examiner, Art Unit 3627