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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 8, 9, 13-16, 19, 20, 23, and 24 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
(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.
Claims 1, 3, 5, 18, 37 and 38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by McFarland (US Pub No. 2006/0074494).
Regarding claim 1, McFarland teaches a method of detecting positions of HVAC automation devices of an HVAC system with respect to an HVAC information plan representing at least partially the HVAC system (See abstract), the method comprising:
determining, for each HVAC automation device of the HVAC automation devices, separation distances between the respective HVAC automation device and multiple other HVAC automation devices by measuring antenna transmission and reception distance, and generating
separation distance data therefrom (See abstract, [0005], [0017], [0019]-[0020], [0045], and [0050]); and
identifying, for each HVAC automation device, a position in the HVAC information plan based on the separation distance data (See abstract, [0005], [0017], [0019]-[0020], [0045], and [0050]).
Regarding claim 3, McFarland teaches measuring the antenna transmission and reception distance comprises measuring at least one of ultrawideband transmission and reception, non-carrier-wave transmission and reception, transmission and reception with time of flight ranging, impulse-based transmission and reception, pulse-binary-shift-keying (PBSK) transmission and reception, pulse-binary-frequency-shift-keying (PBFSK) transmission and reception, or transmission and reception occupying a bandwidth of at least 500 MHz (See [0018] and [0032]).
Regarding claim 5, McFarland teaches method of detecting positions of HVAC automation devices of an HVAC system with respect to an HVAC information plan representing at least partially the HVAC system (See abstract), comprising:
receiving, from the HVAC automation devices, separation distance data representing, for each HVAC automation device of the HVAC automation devices, separation distances between the respective HVAC automation device and multiple other HVAC automation devices of the HVAC system, the separation distance data based on measuring antenna transmission and reception distance (See [0054]-[0055]); and
identifying, for each HVAC automation device, a respective position in the HVAC information plan based on the separation distance data (See [0055] and [0057]).
Regarding claim 18, McFarland teaches identifying a sub-set of the HVAC automation devices determined to be grouped together; and treating the sub-set of HVAC automation devices independently of other HVAC automation devices (See [0055] and [0057]).
Regarding claim 37, McFarland teaches non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions configured to perform the method of claim 1 (See [0008]).
Regarding claim 38, McFarland teaches non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions configured to perform the method of claim 5 (See [0008]).
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 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McFarland as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hatch et al. (US Pub No 2018/0066863).
Regarding claim 4, McFarland does not teach measuring the antenna transmission and reception distance comprises measuring at least one of Bluetooth transmission and reception, transmission and reception in the 2.4GHz spectrum, or frequency-hopping spread spectrum transmission and reception.
Hatch teaches measuring the antenna transmission and reception distance comprises measuring at least one of Bluetooth transmission and reception, transmission and reception in the 2.4GHz spectrum, or frequency-hopping spread spectrum transmission and reception (See [0036]).
One of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed would have been motivated to modify McFarland’s method to include Hatch’s teachings in order for improved efficiencies relative to the systems such as the HVAC system, improved levels of comfort, and less wasted energy (Hatch, [0032]) . Therefore, the invention as a whole would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS S MCCORMACK whose telephone number is (571)272-0841. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/THOMAS S MCCORMACK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686