DETAILED ACTION
Responsive to the claims filed October 15, 2024. Claims 1-20 are pending. 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
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.
Claims 1, 2, and 16-20 rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(g) as being anticipated by Rotvold et al (US 11,700,232).
As per claim 1, Rotvold et al teach a bridging device for use in a process control system including a first network supporting a first protocol, the first network having a plurality of field devices and at least one controller, and a second network supporting a second protocol, the bridging device operatively connected to the first network and to the second network, the bridging device comprising:
a first connection device coupled to the first network and to at least one of the plurality of field devices (see at least fig 3 (205)); a first transmission path coupled to the first connection device and to a second connection device operatively connecting the first network between the at least one controller and the at least one field device (see at least fig 3 (204));
a second transmission path coupled to the first connection device (see at least fig 3 (225)) and to an extraction component, the extraction component arranged to extract digital data from the first protocol transmitted by the at least one field device (see at least fig 3 (212)); and
a conversion component operatively connected to the extraction component arranged to receive the digital data and convert the digital data into the second protocol for use in the second network ; and transmit the digital data on the second network using the second protocol (see at least column 22, lines 15-24, column 31, lines 26-42).
As per claim 2, Rotvold et al teach wherein, the first network includes at least one control loop connecting the at least one field device to the controller.
Claim 16 contains similar rationale as claim 1 and therefore is rejected for similar reasons.
As per claim 19, Rotvold et al teach wherein the second network is an Ethernet communication network and the second protocol is an Ethernet IP protocol, and wherein converting the extracted data into a second protocol comprises, assembling the data frames stored in the memory into the Ethernet IP data packets for transmission on the Ethernet communication network (see at least column 7, lines 7-46).
As per claim 20 Rotvold et al teach wherein, the first protocol is a HART communication protocol and decoding the data from the first protocol comprises decoding the HART first analog channel to extract the digital data from the HART second channel (see at least column 7, lines 7-46).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-15 and 17 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.
Conclusion
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RAMSEY REFAI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3664
/RAMSEY REFAI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3664
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