DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to Application filed on 11 September 2024.
Claims 1-14 are pending. The claims have been considered and examined.
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 (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.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang et al., U.S. Patent App. Pub. 2018/0266717, hereinafter referred to as “Wang”.
Referring to claim 1, Wang discloses a user computer used with an intelligent control system to assure operations (See paragraphs 0035 and 0048). - A test supports apparatus comprising
Wang discloses user computer is a laptop to or personal computer, thus having a processor or CPU (See paragraph 0035). - processing circuitry:
Wang discloses generating a state machine for the equipment (See paragraph 0028). Wang discloses finite state machine with states and switching from one state to another under conditions (See paragraph 0025). - regarding each device included in a test subject that includes at least one device, to generate for each state of each device, state transition information indicating a transition of operation to be executed by each device included in the test subject,
Wang discloses a state machine definition with description content that is used to generate the state machine and its states and conditions (See Fig 6 and paragraph 0025 and 0028). - based on operation definition information indicating the operation to be executed by each device and an occurrence condition and a release condition corresponding to the operation to be executed by each device, and
Wang discloses a trigger condition for transition from a source state to a destination state (See paragraph 0053). - to complement the transition indicated in the state transition information, based on an urgency degree corresponding to each state indicated in the state transition information.
Referring to claim 4, Wang discloses a finite state machine that includes a state0 and state1 that directly transition to the next states without a steady state condition (See Fig. 6B and paragraphs 0050-0052). Wang discloses a condition1 and condition2 that directly transition state0 and state1 respectively (See Fig. 6B and paragraphs 0050-0052). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein states indicated in the state transition information include two unsteady states, and the processing circuitry complements a transition between the two unsteady states, based on an urgency degree corresponding to each of the two unsteady states.
Referring to claim 7, Wang discloses the intelligent control system assuring operations of air-conditioning equipment (See paragraph 0048). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the test subject is an air conditioner instrumentation system.
Referring to claim 10, Wang discloses the intelligent control system assuring operations of air-conditioning equipment (See paragraph 0048). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the test subject is an air conditioner instrumentation system.
Referring to claim 13, claim 13 is rejected for similar reasons as claim 1, see above rejection. Additionally, Wang discloses methods for assuring the finite state machine and the method being on a computer (See paragraphs 0011, 0028, and 0035).
Referring to claim 14, claim 14 is rejected for similar reasons as claim 1, see above rejection. Additionally, Wang disclose a computer program for assuring the finite state machine and the computer program on a computer (See paragraphs 0011, 0028, and 0035).
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) 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nonaka et al., U.S. Patent App. Pub. 2020/0217542, hereinafter referred to as “Nonaka’.
Referring to claim 2, Wang discloses all the limitations (See rejection of claim 1) except for The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation definition information indicates a priority degree corresponding to each operation to be executed by each device included in the test subject.
Nonaka discloses a diagnostics apparatus (See Nonaka, paragraph 0006-0007). Nonaka discloses having priority of operation conditions (See Nonaka, paragraph 00007).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art the time of filing of the invention to combine the assessing operations of a finite state machine operations of Wang with the priority of operations of Nonaka. This would have been obvious to do because the diagnostics can then concentrate on the operation conditions with the highest priority (See Wang, paragraph 0121-0123).
Referring to claim 3, Wang and Nonaka disclose all the limitations (See rejection of claim 2) including Wang discloses defining the states of the finite state mine and the transitions from a source state to a destination state (See Wang, paragraph 0025 and0053). - The test support apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry generates as information included in the state transition information, information indicating a transition from operation indicated in the operation definition information to another operation indicated in the operation definition information, based on the operation definition information.
Referring to claim 5, Wang and Nonaka disclose all the limitations (See rejection of claim 2) including Wang discloses a finite state machine that includes a state0 and state1 that directly transition to the next states without a steady state condition (See Fig. 6B and paragraphs 0050-0052). Wang discloses a condition1 and condition2 that directly transition state0 and state1 respectively (See Fig. 6B and paragraphs 0050-0052). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein states indicated in the state transition information include two unsteady states, and the processing circuitry complements a transition between the two unsteady states, based on an urgency degree corresponding to each of the two unsteady states.
Referring to claim 6, Wang and Nonaka disclose all the limitations (See rejection of claim 3) including Wang discloses a finite state machine that includes a state0 and state1 that directly transition to the next states without a steady state condition (See Fig. 6B and paragraphs 0050-0052). Wang discloses a condition1 and condition2 that directly transition state0 and state1 respectively (See Fig. 6B and paragraphs 0050-0052). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein states indicated in the state transition information include two unsteady states, and the processing circuitry complements a transition between the two unsteady states, based on an urgency degree corresponding to each of the two unsteady states.
Referring to claim 8, Wang and Nonaka disclose all the limitations (See rejection of claim 2) including Wang discloses the intelligent control system assuring operations of air-conditioning equipment (See paragraph 0048). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the test subject is an air conditioner instrumentation system.
Referring to claim 9, Wang and Nonaka disclose all the limitations (See rejection of claim 3) including Wang discloses the intelligent control system assuring operations of air-conditioning equipment (See paragraph 0048). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the test subject is an air conditioner instrumentation system.
Referring to claim 11, Wang and Nonaka disclose all the limitations (See rejection of claim 5) including Wang discloses the intelligent control system assuring operations of air-conditioning equipment (See paragraph 0048). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the test subject is an air conditioner instrumentation system.
Referring to claim 12, Wang and Nonaka disclose all the limitations (See rejection of claim 6) including Wang discloses the intelligent control system assuring operations of air-conditioning equipment (See paragraph 0048). - The test support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the test subject is an air conditioner instrumentation system.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent App. Pub. 2025/0165333 to Carville
- Identification of a fault in a finite state machine
U.S. Patent App. Pub. 2016/0274987 to Finch et al.
- Independent hardware operating state transitions by a test unit
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/JOSEPH D MANOSKEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2113 November 24, 2025