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 08/27/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendment submitted 08/28/2026 overcomes the claim objections and 35 U.S.C. 112 rejections set forth in the prior office action dated 06/03/2026. Applicant’s 08/28/2026 arguments with respect to claims 1-12 and 14-19 and the De Bruijn reference have been fully considered and are persuasive. The previous prior art rejections of claims 1-12 and 14 have been withdrawn.
However, Applicant's argument set forth in the last paragraph of page 8 is not persuasive with respect to independent claim 13. Specifically, Applicant asserts that De Bruijn fails to anticipate “the light signal being modulated according to the encoding of the identification information such that the light signal is a temporally varying signal over a period of time.” However, the examiner maintains that paragraph [0074] of De Bruijn discloses a coded light signal (illuminated light that is modulated, i.e. temporally varying signal, that exists over a period of time (De Bruijn discloses in [0074] that the transmission of the coded light need not be continuous). Thus, the “period of time” would exist between the beginning and end times of data transmission. Therefore, the rejection of claim 13 over De Bruijn has been maintained.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by US PGPub 20180293593 to De Bruijn et al, hereinafter “De Bruijn.”
As per claim 13, De Bruijn discloses a light-emitting device, wherein the light- emitting device is a shelf label (See ESL 320 in Figure 3), which is designed to display product and/or price information, or a product separator designed to separate different products, wherein the light-emitting device comprises: a memory stage for storing identification information (See [0086] and [0123]-[0124]), with the help of which a product positioned on a shelf, in the vicinity of which the light-emitting device is positioned, can be identified, and a light signal generation stage designed to encode a light signal according to the identification information and to emit this encoded light signal (See [0102]), the light signal being modulated according to the encoding of the identification information such that the light signal is a temporally varying signal over a period of time (See [0074] where it is disclosed that the transmission of the coded light data need not be continuous, meaning that the coded light is temporally varying over a period of time, with that period of time being only when the data need be transmitted).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 and 14-19 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The examiner is in agreement with Applicant’s 08/28/2026 remarks on page 8 with respect to claims 1 and 12 (penultimate paragraph of page 8) and hereby adopts as reasons for allowance said remarks. Specifically, De Bruijn fails to anticipate, nor render obvious, the claimed “automatically determined orientation and position of the camera being determined by way of one or more sensors of the electronic device independently of detection of the light signal.”
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID OMETZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7593. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 8am-4pm.
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DAVID OMETZ
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2672
/DAVID OMETZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2672
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