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 .
This is a Final Action on the Merits. Claims 1-12 are currently pending and are addressed below.
Response to Amendments
The Amendment filed on December 24th, 2025 has been considered and entered. Accordingly, claims 1-2, 4-6, 9, and 12 have been amended.
Response to Arguments
The Applicant stated (Amend. 6) that the previous POL-326 indicated that the drawings were filed on December 18th, 2024, whereas the Drawings were filed on October 18th, 2024. Appropriate corrections have been made.
The previous rejection of claims 1-12 under 35 USC 112(b) have been overcome due to the Applicant’s Amendments.
The previous rejection of claims 1-12 under 35 USC 101 have been overcome due to the Applicant’s Amendments.
The Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-12 have been considered but are moot in view of the newly formulated grounds of rejections necessitated by the Applicant’s Amendments.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on October 14th, 2025 has been considered and entered.
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.
Claims 1-2, 5-6, and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bergin (US 20180147913 A1) (“Bergin”) in view of Greiner (US 20080183334 A1) (“Greiner”).
With respect to claim 1, Bergin teaches an information processing method executed by at least one processor programmed to remotely control an air conditioner of a vehicle via a communication line, the method comprising:
selecting a user interface from a plurality of user interfaces that is stored in a memory for remotely controlling the air conditioner of the vehicle; outputting the user interface that was selected (See at least Bergin FIGS. 5-6 and Paragraphs 100-101 “After the splash screen 52 is loaded, the application 50 checks for available thermostats 24 for connection at step 106. In doing this checking, if an available Bluetooth thermostat from a specific manufacturer is found, the application 50 next moves to a pairing screen 54 at step 108 for management of pairing. One example of a pairing screen is shown at FIG. 5. In moving to the pairing screen at step 108, a list of available Bluetooth devices from a specific manufacturer may be shown. As depicted in FIG. 5, a one or more thermostats may be shown as available in the form of the list 58. In preparing this listing at step 110, the app 50 will eliminate any non-manufacturer specific Bluetooth devices. This means that any devices which are not from a preselected or specific manufacturer are eliminated from the list and not shown to a user. Alternatively, if multiple Bluetooth devices, for example thermostats, are available to the app and from a specific pre-selected manufacturer, all of these may be shown at the pairing screen depicted in FIG. 5. Next, a user selects a Bluetooth device desired at step 112. When this occurs, the app checks whether there is a successful pairing at step 114. If there is not a successful pairing process, the app 50 may return back to the pairing screen shown in FIG. 5 and step 108 of the method 100. Alternatively, if the pairing is successful at step 114, the method 100 next moves to a thermostat emulation screen, one of which is shown at FIG. 6. Further, from this pairing step 114, the app 50 may determine if there are additional pairings necessary, for example, if there are further Bluetooth connections available after the first one is selected. This occurs at step 116. This may be useful in the situation where multiple HVACs 22 and thermostats 24 are utilized, for example in the vehicle depicted in FIG. 1. If the additional pairings are available, the application 50 may return to the step 112 and allow the user to select a Bluetooth device. If no additional pairings are available, this portion of the method 100 stops at step 118.”);
acquiring a parameter related to air conditioning, the parameter being set via the user interface that was output; and issuing a control command for that remotely controls the air conditioner based on the parameter set via the user interface (See at least Bergin FIGS. 4-11 and Paragraph 103-104 “From any of the modes 124, 126, 128, the operating characteristics within that mode may be adjusted by increasing or decreasing at step 136. For example, in the fan speed mode at step 124, increasing or decreasing the fan speed is possible utilizing the second and third areas 143, 144 (FIG. 6). Similarly, in the air conditioning mode at step 126, the increasing and decreasing steps at 136 may increase or decrease the set temperature for the HVAC system 22. Further, in the heating mode at step 128, increasing or decreasing at step 136 may increase or decrease the set temperature for the HVAC system 22. Further, from the thermostat emulation screen at step 120, a settings virtual button may be depressed at step 140. This may provide access to a plurality of settings, several of which are shown in FIG. 10 at step 142. These include, but are not limited to, changing the name of a Bluetooth connected thermostat, changing the settings from Fahrenheit to Celsius or vice versa, disconnecting the smart device 30 from the thermostat 24, or canceling or exiting the settings mode of step 140.”),
wherein the plurality of user interfaces includes at least one of a first user interface that displays a numerical value set as a target room temperature (See at least Bergin FIG. 8 and Paragraph 94 “Referring now to FIG. 8, a further view of the application 50 and the screen 140 emulating the thermostat screen 40 (FIG. 3) is shown. The mode virtual button in the first area 142 is selected to change the mode to a cooling mode. The cooling mode is depicted in the fourth area 145 with an icon related to the cooling mode and the set temperature is also depicted. The second and third areas 143, 144 may be depressed in order to change the set temperature in the cooling mode.”).
Bergin fails to explicitly disclose a second user interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature.
Greiner teaches an interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature (See at least Greiner FIG. 4 and Paragraph 26 “FIG. 4 illustrates in detail the control head 56, schematically shown in FIG. 2. The control head 56 acts as an input device for the vehicle occupants, allowing manual selection of various climate control functions. A mode selector switch 60 allows an occupant to choose where airflow will be directed. A temperature selector switch 62 provides air temperature control, and a fan selector switch 64 provides on-off and fan speed control. The recirculation switch 66 allows for full recirculation of cabin air, all fresh air, or some combination thereof. The A/C switch 68 allows an occupant to manually select air conditioning. The control head 56 is just one example of a control head that can be used with the present invention. Other control heads, including other analog or digital control heads may also be used.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Bergin to include a second user interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature, as taught by Greiner as disclosed above, such that a second user interface does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature, in order to ensure optimal air conditioning control to a user (Greiner Paragraph 8 “Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for environmental management of a vehicle that automatically operate a vehicle climate control system to quickly and efficiently defog a vehicle window, such as a vehicle windshield, while still operating at or near environmental comfort guidelines determined by a vehicle occupant”).
With respect to claim 2, and similarly claims 6 and 10, Bergin in view of Greiner teach that the user interface is output to a display of a user terminal (See at least Bergin FIGS. 4-10 and Paragraph 79 “Referring now to FIG. 4, a front view of an embodiment of a smart device 30 is depicted. The smart device 30 may be a mobile computing device of a user such as, for example, a smart phone, a tablet, a laptop, a smart watch, smart glasses, etc. Computing or smart device 30 typically includes at least one processor which communicates with a number of peripheral devices via bus subsystem. These peripheral devices may include a storage subsystem, including, for example, a memory subsystem and a file storage subsystem, user interface input devices, user interface output devices, and a network interface subsystem. The input and output devices allow user interaction with computing device. Network interface subsystem provides an interface to outside networks and is coupled to corresponding interface devices in other devices.”).
With respect to claim 5, Tamane teaches an information processing system that remotely controls an air conditioner of a vehicle via a communication line, the information processing system comprising:
a first processor programmed to: select a user interface from a plurality of user interfaces that is stored in a memory for remotely controlling the air conditioner of the vehicle; output the user interface that was selected (See at least Bergin FIGS. 5-6 and Paragraphs 100-101 “After the splash screen 52 is loaded, the application 50 checks for available thermostats 24 for connection at step 106. In doing this checking, if an available Bluetooth thermostat from a specific manufacturer is found, the application 50 next moves to a pairing screen 54 at step 108 for management of pairing. One example of a pairing screen is shown at FIG. 5. In moving to the pairing screen at step 108, a list of available Bluetooth devices from a specific manufacturer may be shown. As depicted in FIG. 5, a one or more thermostats may be shown as available in the form of the list 58. In preparing this listing at step 110, the app 50 will eliminate any non-manufacturer specific Bluetooth devices. This means that any devices which are not from a preselected or specific manufacturer are eliminated from the list and not shown to a user. Alternatively, if multiple Bluetooth devices, for example thermostats, are available to the app and from a specific pre-selected manufacturer, all of these may be shown at the pairing screen depicted in FIG. 5. Next, a user selects a Bluetooth device desired at step 112. When this occurs, the app checks whether there is a successful pairing at step 114. If there is not a successful pairing process, the app 50 may return back to the pairing screen shown in FIG. 5 and step 108 of the method 100. Alternatively, if the pairing is successful at step 114, the method 100 next moves to a thermostat emulation screen, one of which is shown at FIG. 6. Further, from this pairing step 114, the app 50 may determine if there are additional pairings necessary, for example, if there are further Bluetooth connections available after the first one is selected. This occurs at step 116. This may be useful in the situation where multiple HVACs 22 and thermostats 24 are utilized, for example in the vehicle depicted in FIG. 1. If the additional pairings are available, the application 50 may return to the step 112 and allow the user to select a Bluetooth device. If no additional pairings are available, this portion of the method 100 stops at step 118.”);
acquire a parameter related to air conditioning, the parameter being set via the user interface; and a second processor programmed to: issue a control command for that remotely controls the air conditioner based on the parameter set via the user interface (See at least Bergin FIGS. 4-11 and Paragraph 103-104 “From any of the modes 124, 126, 128, the operating characteristics within that mode may be adjusted by increasing or decreasing at step 136. For example, in the fan speed mode at step 124, increasing or decreasing the fan speed is possible utilizing the second and third areas 143, 144 (FIG. 6). Similarly, in the air conditioning mode at step 126, the increasing and decreasing steps at 136 may increase or decrease the set temperature for the HVAC system 22. Further, in the heating mode at step 128, increasing or decreasing at step 136 may increase or decrease the set temperature for the HVAC system 22. Further, from the thermostat emulation screen at step 120, a settings virtual button may be depressed at step 140. This may provide access to a plurality of settings, several of which are shown in FIG. 10 at step 142. These include, but are not limited to, changing the name of a Bluetooth connected thermostat, changing the settings from Fahrenheit to Celsius or vice versa, disconnecting the smart device 30 from the thermostat 24, or canceling or exiting the settings mode of step 140.”),
wherein the plurality of user interfaces includes at least one of a first user interface that displays a numerical value set as a target room temperature (See at least Bergin FIG. 8 and Paragraph 94 “Referring now to FIG. 8, a further view of the application 50 and the screen 140 emulating the thermostat screen 40 (FIG. 3) is shown. The mode virtual button in the first area 142 is selected to change the mode to a cooling mode. The cooling mode is depicted in the fourth area 145 with an icon related to the cooling mode and the set temperature is also depicted. The second and third areas 143, 144 may be depressed in order to change the set temperature in the cooling mode.”).
Bergin fails to explicitly disclose a second user interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature.
Greiner teaches a second user interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature (See at least Greiner FIG. 4 and Paragraph 26 “FIG. 4 illustrates in detail the control head 56, schematically shown in FIG. 2. The control head 56 acts as an input device for the vehicle occupants, allowing manual selection of various climate control functions. A mode selector switch 60 allows an occupant to choose where airflow will be directed. A temperature selector switch 62 provides air temperature control, and a fan selector switch 64 provides on-off and fan speed control. The recirculation switch 66 allows for full recirculation of cabin air, all fresh air, or some combination thereof. The A/C switch 68 allows an occupant to manually select air conditioning. The control head 56 is just one example of a control head that can be used with the present invention. Other control heads, including other analog or digital control heads may also be used.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the system of Bergin to include a second user interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature, as taught by Greiner as disclosed above, in order to ensure optimal air conditioning control to a user (Greiner Paragraph 8 “Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for environmental management of a vehicle that automatically operate a vehicle climate control system to quickly and efficiently defog a vehicle window, such as a vehicle windshield, while still operating at or near environmental comfort guidelines determined by a vehicle occupant”).
With respect to claim 9, Tamane teaches an information processing device that requests remote control of an air conditioner of a vehicle via a communication line, the device comprising: a program stored in a memory; and at least one processor that executes the program to:
select a user interface from a plurality of user interfaces that is stored in a memory for remotely controlling the air conditioner of the vehicle; output the user interface that was selected (See at least Bergin FIGS. 5-6 and Paragraphs 100-101 “After the splash screen 52 is loaded, the application 50 checks for available thermostats 24 for connection at step 106. In doing this checking, if an available Bluetooth thermostat from a specific manufacturer is found, the application 50 next moves to a pairing screen 54 at step 108 for management of pairing. One example of a pairing screen is shown at FIG. 5. In moving to the pairing screen at step 108, a list of available Bluetooth devices from a specific manufacturer may be shown. As depicted in FIG. 5, a one or more thermostats may be shown as available in the form of the list 58. In preparing this listing at step 110, the app 50 will eliminate any non-manufacturer specific Bluetooth devices. This means that any devices which are not from a preselected or specific manufacturer are eliminated from the list and not shown to a user. Alternatively, if multiple Bluetooth devices, for example thermostats, are available to the app and from a specific pre-selected manufacturer, all of these may be shown at the pairing screen depicted in FIG. 5. Next, a user selects a Bluetooth device desired at step 112. When this occurs, the app checks whether there is a successful pairing at step 114. If there is not a successful pairing process, the app 50 may return back to the pairing screen shown in FIG. 5 and step 108 of the method 100. Alternatively, if the pairing is successful at step 114, the method 100 next moves to a thermostat emulation screen, one of which is shown at FIG. 6. Further, from this pairing step 114, the app 50 may determine if there are additional pairings necessary, for example, if there are further Bluetooth connections available after the first one is selected. This occurs at step 116. This may be useful in the situation where multiple HVACs 22 and thermostats 24 are utilized, for example in the vehicle depicted in FIG. 1. If the additional pairings are available, the application 50 may return to the step 112 and allow the user to select a Bluetooth device. If no additional pairings are available, this portion of the method 100 stops at step 118.”);
acquire a parameter related to air conditioning, the parameter being set via the user interface; issue a control command for that remotely controls the air conditioner based on the parameter set via the user interface (See at least Bergin FIGS. 4-11 and Paragraph 103-104 “From any of the modes 124, 126, 128, the operating characteristics within that mode may be adjusted by increasing or decreasing at step 136. For example, in the fan speed mode at step 124, increasing or decreasing the fan speed is possible utilizing the second and third areas 143, 144 (FIG. 6). Similarly, in the air conditioning mode at step 126, the increasing and decreasing steps at 136 may increase or decrease the set temperature for the HVAC system 22. Further, in the heating mode at step 128, increasing or decreasing at step 136 may increase or decrease the set temperature for the HVAC system 22. Further, from the thermostat emulation screen at step 120, a settings virtual button may be depressed at step 140. This may provide access to a plurality of settings, several of which are shown in FIG. 10 at step 142. These include, but are not limited to, changing the name of a Bluetooth connected thermostat, changing the settings from Fahrenheit to Celsius or vice versa, disconnecting the smart device 30 from the thermostat 24, or canceling or exiting the settings mode of step 140.”),
wherein the plurality of user interfaces includes at least one of a first user interface that displays a numerical value set as a target room temperature (See at least Bergin FIG. 8 and Paragraph 94 “Referring now to FIG. 8, a further view of the application 50 and the screen 140 emulating the thermostat screen 40 (FIG. 3) is shown. The mode virtual button in the first area 142 is selected to change the mode to a cooling mode. The cooling mode is depicted in the fourth area 145 with an icon related to the cooling mode and the set temperature is also depicted. The second and third areas 143, 144 may be depressed in order to change the set temperature in the cooling mode.”).
Bergin fails to explicitly disclose a second user interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature.
Greiner teaches a second user interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature (See at least Greiner FIG. 4 and Paragraph 26 “FIG. 4 illustrates in detail the control head 56, schematically shown in FIG. 2. The control head 56 acts as an input device for the vehicle occupants, allowing manual selection of various climate control functions. A mode selector switch 60 allows an occupant to choose where airflow will be directed. A temperature selector switch 62 provides air temperature control, and a fan selector switch 64 provides on-off and fan speed control. The recirculation switch 66 allows for full recirculation of cabin air, all fresh air, or some combination thereof. The A/C switch 68 allows an occupant to manually select air conditioning. The control head 56 is just one example of a control head that can be used with the present invention. Other control heads, including other analog or digital control heads may also be used.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the system of Bergin to include a second user interface that does not display the numerical value set as the target room temperature, as taught by Greiner as disclosed above, in order to ensure optimal air conditioning control to a user (Greiner Paragraph 8 “Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for environmental management of a vehicle that automatically operate a vehicle climate control system to quickly and efficiently defog a vehicle window, such as a vehicle windshield, while still operating at or near environmental comfort guidelines determined by a vehicle occupant”).
Claims 3, 7, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bergin (US 20180147913 A1) (“Bergin”) in view of Greiner (US 20080183334 A1) (“Greiner”) further in view of Ogasawara (US 20040122564 A1) (“Ogasawara”).
With respect to claim 3, and similarly claims 7 and 11, Bergin in view of Greiner fail to explicitly disclose that the first user interface is a first graphical user interface (GUI) and the second user interface is a second graphical user interface (GUI).
Ogasawara teaches that the first user interface is a first graphical user interface (GUI) and the second user interface is a second graphical user interface (GUI) (See at least Ogasawara FIG. 2 and Paragraphs 4-5 “The display apparatus comprises, as shown in FIG. 4, a main controller 6 for controlling an image-drawing process on a LCD panel 3 which is a display, and a switch controller 7 for controlling input/output processes of operation signals from touch switches 4 displayed on the LCD panel 3 and switches of an operation panel 5 provided around the LCD panel 3. The main controller 6 stores a control program including a common program common to all types of the vehicles on which the display apparatus might be mounted, and plural inherent programs inherent to each type of the vehicles. The switch controller 7 stores a vehicle type code showing a type of the vehicle on which the display apparatus should be mounted, in addition to a program for the input/output processes of the operation signals. When, for example, an air conditioner switch is operated, the main controller 6 obtains the vehicle type code from the switch controller 7 and displays an image including operation switches for an air conditioner, corresponding to the vehicle type code. That is, the main controller 6 makes effective the inherent program corresponding to the vehicle type code obtained from the switch controlling part 7 among the plural inherent programs.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Bergin in view of Greiner to include that that the first user interface is a first graphical user interface (GUI) and the second user interface is a second graphical user interface (GUI), as taught by Ogasawara as disclosed above, in order to ensure accurate information is presented to a user (Ogasawara Paragraph 2 “This invention relates to an on-vehicle device control system capable of changing an operating condition of an on-vehicle device in accordance with a type of a vehicle on which the on-vehicle device is mounted.”).
Claims 4, 8, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bergin (US 20180147913 A1) (“Bergin”) in view of Greiner (US 20080183334 A1) (“Greiner”) in view of Ogasawara (US 20040122564 A1) (“Ogasawara”) further in view of Sugiyama (US 20150112489 A1) (“Sugiyama”).
With respect to claim 4, and similarly claims 8 and 12, Bergin in view of Greiner in view of Ogasawara teach that the first interface displays the target room temperature numerically (See at least Bergin FIGS. 4-11) and the second user interface does not display the target room temperature numerically (See at least Greiner FIG. 4).
Bergin in view of Greiner in view of Ogasawara fail to explicitly disclose that the first user interface and the second user interface includes a slider for setting the target room temperature.
Sugiyama teaches an interface that includes a slider for setting the target room temperature (See at least Sugiyama Paragraph 127 “The graph area 310 includes a first slide bar 301 used to make a user set a preset temperature at the go-to-bed time, a second slide bar 302 used to make a user set a preset temperature at the boundary time, a third slide bar 303 used to make a user set a preset temperature at the wake-up time, and a temperature scale 305, which is the vertical axis. Here, the boundary time is a time in the early morning when the body temperature of human beings bottoms out in accordance with the circadian rhythm, and is assumed to be 4 a.m.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Bergin in view of Greiner in view of Ogasawara to include an interface that includes a slider for setting the target room temperature, as taught by Sugiyama as disclosed above, such that the first and second user interface include the slider, in order to ensure that a user can accurately see and set the aur conditioning settings (Sugiyama Paragraph 2 “The present disclosure relates to a control method for an information terminal device that controls an air conditioner over a network and to a non-transitory computer readable recording medium”).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 IBRAHIM ABDOALATIF ALSOMAIRY whose telephone number is (571)272-5653. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-5:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Faris Almatrahi can be reached at 313-446-4821. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/IBRAHIM ABDOALATIF ALSOMAIRY/ Examiner, Art Unit 3667 /KENNETH J MALKOWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667