DETAILED ACTION
This is in response to applicant's communication filed on 10/30/2024, wherein:
Claim 21-40 are pending.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claim 21-24, 27-28, 30-34, and 36-40 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1-4, 7, 9-11, 13, and 15-20 of U.S. Patent No. US 12125184 B2. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because their scope are overlapped.
Claim 21: A system comprising one or more computers and one or more storage devices on which are stored instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising (claim 16 – “ A system comprising: …. a processor and a storage device storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the processor, to cause the processor to perform operations comprising”): obtaining sensor data using a monitoring device connected to a monitoring network to monitor a predetermined location associated with a property (claim 16 – “determining the potentially problematic locations associated with the property to monitor based on information obtained about the property; obtaining image data using the monitoring device”); comparing the sensor data with reference data (claim 16 – “comparing a first image of the image data with a reference image or a second image of the image data”); identifying an indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations based on the comparing (claim 16 – “identifying an indication of water damage or water management problem in at least one of the potentially problematic locations based on the comparing”); determining whether potential water damage or a potential water management problem is present in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations in response to identifying the indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations (claim 16 – “determining that water damage or a water management problem is present in at least one of the potentially problematic locations in response to identifying the indication of water damage or water management problem in at least one of the potentially problematic locations”); and based on determining whether potential water damage or a potential water management problem is present in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations, transmitting, to an electronic device, an instruction to cause the electronic device to perform one or more actions (claim 16 – “transmitting, to an electronic device associated with a user, an indication that a particular location at the property has water damage or a water management problem”).
Claim 22: The system of claim 21, wherein the operations comprise determining the one or more predetermined locations associated with a property based on information obtained about the property (claim 16 – “determining the potentially problematic locations associated with the property to monitor based on information obtained about the property”).
Claim 23: The system of claim 21, wherein the operations comprise: training a neural network to identify the one or more predetermined based on data indicative of potential water damage or potential water management problems, wherein the data indicative of potential water damage or potential water management problems comprises at least one of: training sensor data of the potential water damage or the potential water management problems near a building obtained from different angles; and keywords identifying potential water damage or a potential water management problem in an image (claim 17 – “training a neural network to identify problematic locations with data indicative of water damage or water management problems, wherein the data indicative of water damage or water management problems comprises at least one of: training image data of the water damage or the water management problems near a building obtained from different angles; and keywords identifying water damage or a water management problem in an image”).
Claim 24: The system of claim 21, wherein: the obtaining of the sensor data to monitor the one or more predetermined locations is performed in response to receiving a trigger signal from a server; and the operations comprise: generating the trigger signal in response to a likely occurrence of a weather event, a scheduled time to perform monitoring of the property, or data received from a second monitoring device different from the monitoring device (claim 18 – “the monitoring device comprises a sensor or a camera; the obtaining of the image data to monitor the potentially problematic locations is performed in response to receiving a trigger signal from a server; and the operations comprise: generating the trigger signal in response to a likely occurrence of a weather event, a scheduled time to perform monitoring of the property, or data received from a second monitoring device different from the monitoring device”).
Claim 25: The system of claim 21, wherein: the sensor data is obtained using a polarization filter configured at a first angle; the reference data is obtained using the polarization filter configured at a second angle different from the first angle; and identifying the indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in the at least one of the one or more predetermined locations comprises: detecting transitory brightness in an area in the sensor data greater than a threshold brightness level (claim 19 – “the first image of the image data is obtained using a polarization filter configured at a first angle; the second image of the image data is obtained using the polarization filter configured at a second angle different from the first angle; and identifying the indication of water damage or water management problem in the at least one of the potentially problematic locations comprises: detecting transitory brightness in an area in the first image greater than a threshold brightness level”).
Claim 27: The system of claim 21, wherein: the sensor data is obtained using a camera as the monitoring device; and the reference data is an image without a presence of the potential water damage or the potential water management problem in the one or more predetermined locations (claim 20 – “the first image of the image data is obtained using a camera as the monitoring device; and the reference image is an image without a presence of the water damage or the water management problem in the potentially problematic locations”).
Claim 28: The system of claim 21, the instructions comprising: obtaining second sensor data using a second monitoring device connected to the monitoring network to monitor the predetermined location associated with the property from a second view that is different than a first view of the sensor data from the monitoring device; comparing the second sensor data with the reference data; identifying a second indication of potential water damage or second potential water management problem in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations based on the comparing; determining whether potential water damage or a potential water management problem is present in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations in response to identifying the second indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations; and based on determining whether potential water damage or a potential water management problem is present in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations, transmitting, to an electronic device, a second instruction to cause the electronic device to perform one or more actions (the claim recites the same procedure performed by the system of claim 21 using a second view different from first view, therefore, it is also being rejected on ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 16 of US 12125184 B2in the same manner indicated in claim 21).
Claim 30: A computer-implemented method, comprising: obtaining sensor data using a monitoring device connected to a monitoring network to monitor a predetermined location associated with a property (claim 1 – “determining potentially problematic locations associated with a property to monitor based on information obtained about the property; obtaining image data using a monitoring device connected to a monitoring network to monitor the potentially problematic locations associated with the property”); comparing the sensor data with reference data (claim 1 - “comparing a first image of the image data with a reference image or a second image of the image data”); identifying an indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations based on the comparing (claim 1 – “identifying an indication of water damage or water management problem in at least one of the potentially problematic locations based on the comparing;”); determining whether potential water damage or a potential water management problem is present in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations in response to identifying the indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations (claim 1 – “determining that water damage or a water management problem is present in at least one of the potentially problematic locations in response to identifying the indication of water damage or water management problem in at least one of the potentially problematic locations”); and based on determining whether potential water damage or a potential water management problem is present in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations, transmitting, to an electronic device, an instruction to cause the electronic device to perform one or more actions (claim 1 – “transmitting, to an electronic device associated with a user, an indication that a particular location at the property has water damage or a water management problem”).
Claim 31: The computer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein: the information obtained about the property comprises one or more of an address of the property, terrain information of an area around the property, dwellings in the property, a layout of a home on the property, or pipes and drains in and connected to the property, and the one or more predetermined locations associated with the property comprise one or more of a hill, a slanted ground level inclining downwards towards a building on the property, or an area at a bottom of a slanted ground or hill (claim 2 – “the information obtained about the property comprises one or more of an address of the property, terrain information of an area around the property, dwellings in the property, a layout of a home on the property, or pipes and drains in and connected to the property, and the potentially problematic locations associated with the property comprise one or more of a hill, a slanted ground level inclining downwards towards a building on the property, or an area at a bottom of a slanted ground or hill”).
Claim 32: The computer-implemented method of claim 30, comprising: training a neural network to identify problematic locations with data indicative of potential water damage or potential water management problems (claim 3 – “training a neural network to identify problematic locations with data indicative of water damage or water management problems”), wherein the data indicative of potential water damage or potential water management problems comprises at least one of: training sensor data of the potential water damage or the potential water management problems near a building obtained from different angles; and keywords identifying potential water damage or a potential water management problem in an image (claim 4 – “training image data of the water damage or the water management problems near a building obtained from different angles; and keywords identifying water damage or a water management problem in an image”).
Claim 33: The computer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein: the sensor data is obtained using a polarization filter configured at a first angle; and the reference data is obtained using the polarization filter configured at a second angle different from the first angle (claim 7 – “the first image of the image data is obtained using a polarization filter configured at a first angle; and the second image of the image data is obtained using the polarization filter configured at a second angle different from the first angle”).
Claim 34: The computer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein identifying the indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in the at least one of the one or more predetermined locations comprises: detecting transitory brightness in an area in the sensor data greater than a threshold brightness level (claim 9 – “wherein identifying the indication of water damage or water management problem in the at least one of the potentially problematic locations comprises: detecting transitory brightness in an area in the first image greater than a threshold brightness level”).
Claim 36: One or more computer storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform a method (claim 10- “A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, which, when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer processor to perform operations”) comprising: obtaining sensor data using a monitoring device connected to a monitoring network to monitor a predetermined location associated with a property (claim 10 – “determining potentially problematic locations associated with a property to monitor based on information obtained about the property; obtaining image data using a monitoring device connected to a monitoring network to monitor the potentially problematic locations associated with the property”); comparing the sensor data with reference data (claim 10 – “comparing a first image of the image data with a reference image or a second image of the image data”); identifying an indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations based on the comparing (claim 10 – “identifying an indication of water damage or water management problem in at least one of the potentially problematic locations based on the comparing”); determining whether potential water damage or a potential water management problem is present in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations in response to identifying the indication of potential water damage or potential water management problem in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations (claim 10 – “determining that water damage or a water management problem is present in at least one of the potentially problematic locations in response to identifying the indication of water damage or water management problem in at least one of the potentially problematic locations”); and based on determining whether potential water damage or a potential water management problem is present in at least one of the one or more predetermined locations, transmitting, to an electronic device, an instruction to cause the electronic device to perform one or more actions (claim 10 – “transmitting, to an electronic device associated with a user, an indication that a particular location at the property has water damage or a water management problem”).
Claim 37: The computer storage media of claim 36, wherein the method comprises determining one or more predetermined locations associated with a property to monitor based on information obtained about the property (claim 10 – “determining potentially problematic locations associated with a property to monitor based on information obtained about the property”).
Claim 38: The computer storage media of claim 37, wherein: the information obtained about the property comprises one or more of an address of the property, terrain information of an area around the property, dwellings in the property, a layout of a home on the property, or pipes and drains in and connected to the property, and the one or more predetermined locations associated with the property comprise one or more of a hill, a slanted ground level inclining downwards towards a building on the property, or an area at a bottom of a slanted ground or hill (claim 11 – “the information obtained about the property comprises one or more of an address of the property, terrain information of an area around the property, dwellings in the property, a layout of a home on the property, or pipes and drains in and connected to the property, and the potentially problematic locations associated with the property comprise one or more of a hill, a slanted ground level inclining downwards towards a building on the property, or an area at a bottom of a slanted ground or hill.”).
Claim 39: The computer storage media of claim 36, wherein: the monitoring device comprises a sensor or a camera; the obtaining of the sensor data to monitor the one or more predetermined locations associated with the property is performed in response to receiving a trigger signal from a server; and the method comprises: generating the trigger signal in response to a likely occurrence of a weather event, a scheduled time to perform monitoring of the property, or data received from a second monitoring device different from the monitoring device (claim 13 – “the monitoring device comprises a sensor or a camera; the obtaining of the image data to monitor the potentially problematic locations associated with the property is performed in response to receiving a trigger signal from a server; and the operations comprise: generating the trigger signal in response to a likely occurrence of a weather event, a scheduled time to perform monitoring of the property, or data received from a second monitoring device different from the monitoring device”).
Claim 40: The computer storage media of claim 36, wherein: the first image of the sensor data is obtained using a camera as the monitoring device; and the reference image is an image without a presence of the potential water damage or the potential water management problem in the one or more predetermined locations associated with a property (claim 15 – “the first image of the image data is obtained using a camera as the monitoring device; and the reference image is an image without a presence of the water damage or the water management problem in the potentially problematic locations associated with a property”).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUNG HONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7928. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
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/DUNG HONG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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