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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on December 20, 2024 is being considered by the examiner.
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 6-9 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.
Claim 6 recites the limitation "the water" in line 26. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 7-9 should have been rejected for the same reason for their dependency.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 1-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Vincent et al. (US 2022/0378026).
As per claim 1, Vincent et al. disclose an acoustic navigation system (100, figure 1, paragraph 0028) comprising:
a surface component (10, figure 1) installed on a vessel (figure 1), the surface component comprising a surface acoustic transducer unit (40) and an acoustic transceiver unit (20, paragraph 0029);
the surface component configured to generate and transmit an omnidirectional acoustic interrogation signal (see abstract and paragraphs 0012 and 0033);
a subsurface component (60) comprising a plurality of seafloor platforms placed at known geodetic locations on the seafloor (figure 1), the plurality of seafloor platforms each comprising a subsurface acoustic transducer unit (71), an acoustic signal processing unit (68) and an energy source (67), paragraph 0042);
each of the plurality of seafloor platforms configured to receive and process the acoustic interrogation signals and to generate and transmit an omnidirectional acoustic reply signal (paragraph 0045);
the surface component further configured to receive and process the acoustic reply signal transmitted by each seafloor platform, to calculate the geodetic location and heading of the vessel, and to display the geodetic location and heading of the vessel on a human machine interface (see abstract and paragraphs 0030-0031, 0033, 0040, 0060 and 0063).
As per claim 2, Vincent et al. disclose the surface acoustic transceiver unit comprises a directional transducer (see abstract and paragraphs 0012 and 0033).
As per claim 3, Vincent et al. disclose the omnidirectional acoustic reply signal is a coded acoustic signal (paragraphs 0035-0036).
As per claim 4, Vincent et al. disclose the coded acoustic signal identifies the one of the plurality of seafloor platforms that generated and transmitted the omnidirectional acoustic reply signal (paragraphs 0036 and 0039).
As per claim 5, Vincent et al. disclose the coded acoustic signal identifies the geodetic location of the one of the plurality of seafloor platforms that generated and transmitted the omnidirectional acoustic reply signal (paragraphs 0039-0040).
As per claims 6-9, The method claims 6-9 are essentially the same in scope as system claims 1-5 above and are rejected similarly.
Conclusion
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/TAI T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685 February 13, 2026
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