Detailed Action
The communications received 07/20/2026 have been filed and considered by the Examiner. Claims 16-35 are pending. Claims 32-35 are withdrawn.
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 Objections
Claim 30 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 30 recites “…wherein connecting the material flow digital twin to a Manufacturing Execution System for retrieving information on current orders comprises and connecting the material flow digital twin to a Manufacturing Execution System for giving feedback to the MES for scheduling the orders of the processing.” Which should read “wherein connecting the material flow digital twin to a Manufacturing Execution System for retrieving information on current orders comprises connecting the material flow digital twin to a Manufacturing Execution System for giving feedback to the MES for scheduling the orders of the processing.” To remove the extra recitation of “and” or similar correction. Appropriate correction is required.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 32-35 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected system, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 07/20/2026.
Applicant's election with traverse of claims 16-31 in the reply filed on 07/20/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that Backstrom fails to disclose generating a material portion representor and modifying an attribute of that representor. This is not found persuasive because in the context of the claim, a material portion representor can include anything that represents a material portion. Therefore a measurement such as what is taught in Backstrom works, especially as any corrective action will then cause the measurement to be modified. Measurements have attributes such as magnitude and sign which can be changed in accordance with achieving a desired property as suggested by Backstrom, therefore the limitation is met, unity of invention is lacking a posteriori and is upheld.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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.
(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) 16, 20-25, 27-28 and 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Huhtelin (US 6,473,670) hereinafter HUH.
As for claim 16, HUH teaches a method of producing a paper product by processing a continuously flowing material (a paper machine which produces a paper sheet that is continuous) [Abstract], the processing comprising at least two process stages comprising a plurality of process steps, the method comprising:
representing the material as a virtual material and virtually discretizing the material into a plurality of material portions (grade change model with dynamic models) [col. 3 l. 20-44];
generating material portion representors respectively associated with the material portions, wherein generating the material portion representors comprises generating respective attributes of each of the material portion representors, the attributes being indicative of properties of the respective material portions (process variables including inputs and outputs) [col. 3 l. 45-col. 6 l. 68];
for at least some of the plurality of process steps, modifying the material portion representors by a respective virtual process step function representing the respective process step, wherein the modifying comprises modifying at least one attribute of the material portion representors (applying a target ramp using the dynamic models) [col. 7 l. 30-col. 8 l. 47],
the at least two process stages comprising a merging process stage (deposition of the fibers onto the wire via headbox, thereby merging the fibers with each other) and a splitting process stage (drying) [col. 20-44], wherein the merging process stage is upstream of the splitting process stage and comprises merging a mergeable resource material part to the material (deposition of the fibers onto the wire via headbox, thereby merging the fibers with each other), and wherein the splitting process stage comprises splitting a split resource material part from the material (removal of water to dry) [col. 3 l. 20-44];
the method comprising for the splitting process stage, whereby a downstream material portion of the material portions is being processed in the splitting process stage:
splitting a portion of a downstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the downstream material portion representor associated with the downstream material portion, into a split resource material portion representor associated with the split resource material part and a remaining material portion representor for the remaining downstream material portion (by detecting the amount of discharged water) [col. 5 l. 15-35],
the method comprising for the merging process stage, whereby an upstream material portion of the material portions is being processed in the merging process stage:
merging, with an upstream material portion representor of the material portion representors, the upstream material portion representor associated with the upstream material portion, a mergeable resource material portion representor associated with the mergeable resource material part (controlling the flow onto the wire) [col. 3 l. 45-col. 4 l. 34].
As for claim 20, HUH teaches claim 16, wherein the split resource material portion representor comprises at least some attributes based on the attributes of the downstream material portion representor (steam pressure, heat, energy supplied) [col. 5 l. 15-57].
As for claim 21, HUH teaches claim 16 and wherein the mergeable resource material portion representor comprises at least some attributes based on the attributes of the downstream material portion representor (machine speed, moisture) [col. 4 l. 61- col. 5 l. 5; col. 5 l. 57 – col. 6 l. 20].
As for claim 22, HUH teaches claim 16, further comprising merging the split resource material portion representor with a bulk resource material representor (former section machine speed which includes the initial moisture therefore initial water which is merged into the splitting section) representing a bulk resource material, and splitting the mergeable resource material portion representor from the bulk resource material representor (as the machine speed represents the bulk of water and fiber entering the process, whereby it is then removed in drying) [col. 3 l. 20-col. 4 l. 35].
As for claim 23, HUH teaches claim 16 and that one material portion representor is the energy consumption (steam pressure which describes the heat/drying energy supplied) [col. 5 l. 35-57].
As for claim 24, HUH teaches claim 16 and further comprising: generating additional representors, which are merged and/or split from the material portion representors during the plurality of process steps (moisture, ash content incorporated as a one state variable, both of which are both split from the material via drying/pressing, steam pressure which is merged and also split) [col. 5 l. 35-55; col. 6 l. 3-30].
As for claim 25, HUH teaches claim 24, wherein generating the additional representors comprises generating at least one of an additional material portion representor, an input material portion representor (steam pressure as this is input material), a water representor (moisture), an energy portion representor (steam pressure as this is input energy) [col. 5 l. 35-55; col. 6 l. 3-30].
As for claim 27, HUH teaches claim 16, further comprising generating a history data set, wherein the history data set is indicative of the at least one attribute, the process step and the material portion representor [col. 7 l. 44-col. 8 l. 2].
As for claim 28, HUH teaches claim 27, and it is understood that there would be an emission history calculated for the emission management for the production of the paper product (as during drying water is emitted from the paper and therefore its emission calculation would be included in the historical data)
As for claim 31, HUH teaches claim 16, wherein the industrial processing of a material for producing a paper product comprises a pulp-and-paper process (headbox which uses pulp to resultant paper) [Abstract; col. 3 l. 20-45].
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 17-19 and 26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUH in view of Hondroulis et al (WO 2015027042 A1) hereinafter HON.
As for claim 17, HUH teaches claim 16, but fails to teach wherein the mergeable resource material part and the split resource material part are parts of a resource material flowing from the splitting process stage to the merging process stage. The Examiner understands this to be a recycle loop.
HON teaches that in fiber processing method that includes a drying step [Abstract] that includes a recycle processing loop which can be used to recycle both energy components (to produce biofuel) and water components (to reuse the water removed from drying) [pg. 5 l. 15-29].
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have used the recycle processing loop of HON to the drying step of HUH which would then connect to the only other water including step of HUH which is the merging step, in order to recycle the water and energy components of HUH. As both HON and HUH pertain to drying and processing fiber materials they are analogous art and one of ordinary skill in the art expects success in the combination. As this recycle loop would cause the input material dynamics to change, one of ordinary skill in the art would model this aspect of the process as well.
As for claim 18, HUH/HON teach claim 17 and wherein the method further comprises: representing the resource material as a virtual resource material comprising a plurality of resource material portions; generating a plurality of resource material portion representors respectively associated with the resource material portions; wherein the plurality of resource material portion representors comprises the mergeable resource material portion representor and the split resource material portion representor (as in the combination, now the water removed would be modelled with additional components in order to account for the amount of water added in the merging step which contributes to the overall input amounts).
As for claim 19, HUH/HON teach claim 18 and wherein generating the plurality of resource material portion representors comprises splitting at least some of the resource material portion representors from respective material portion representors (as in the combination would now require a split from water that is recovered from water that is simply lost in the drying process).
As for claim 26, HUH teaches claim 16, and HUH/HON as applied to claim 17 teaches wherein splitting of the downstream material portion representor into a split resource material portion representor and a remaining portion representor comprises: associating each of the split resource material portion representor and the remaining portion representor with respective parts of the at least one attribute of the upstream material portion representor (via a recycle loop that includes the water recycled back into the upstream material portion representor).
Claim(s) 29-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUH in view of Cella et al (US 2022/0108262) hereinafter CEL.
As for claim 29, HUH teaches claim 16, but fails to teach that the method further comprises:
generating a material flow digital twin for representing the industrial processing comprising a plurality of process steps, the material flow digital twin comprising the respective virtual process step functions of the process steps;
and, connecting the material flow digital twin to other information systems comprising at least one of a Distributed Control System for adapting the material flow digital twin to current processing data, a Manufacturing Execution System for retrieving information on current orders, and an Enterprise Resource Planning system for gaining information about input materials and orders of the processing system.
CEL teaches that in industrial plant operations including paper and pulp machines [Abstract; 1437-80] that one manner of improving the optimization of the plant is by creating a digital twin of the plant [Abstract; 0014-19] in which there is a Distributed Control System (a platform of various intelligence layers) [0019; 5299] for adapting the material flow digital twin to current processing data (as it adapts the signals from the paper and pulp machines) [1437; 1480], a Manufacturing Execution System for retrieving information on current orders (on time delivery and inventory turn) [0126-127], and an Enterprise Resource Planning system for gaining information about input materials and orders of the processing system (on time delivery and inventory turns with machine cycle time efficiency, etc.) [0126-127].
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have added the digital twin control method of CEL to the method of HUH in order to improve the optimization of CEL. As CEL teaches that this control method can be applied to paper machines, both HUH and CEL are pertinent to the same problem of controlling a paper machine and one of ordinary skill in the art expects success in the combination.
As for claim 30, HUH/CEL teach claim 29 and CEL further teaches wherein connecting the material flow digital twin to a Manufacturing Execution System for retrieving information on current orders comprises connecting the material flow digital twin to a Manufacturing Execution System for giving feedback to the MES for scheduling the orders of the processing (via connection to inventory turns and throughput) [0127].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Elisa Vera whose telephone number is (571)270-7414. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 - 4:30.
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/E.V./Examiner, Art Unit 1748
/RITA P ADHLAKHA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1711
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