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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-6 are currently pending.
Priority
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/546,699, filed on Dec. 9, 2021
Claim Objections
Claims 1-6 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 1-3, 5 and 6 recites “associated”. Examiner suggest amending the phrase to clarify how association is formed/related.
Claim 4 recites “The system of claim Error! Reference source not found.” Examiner suggest amending the limitation as “The system of claim 1
Claim 5 recites “The system of claim 4Error! Reference source not found.” Examiner suggest amending the limitation to “The system of claim 4.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 §§ 706.02(l)(1) - 706.02(l)(3) 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 USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp.
Claim 1 is rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1 of US Patent Number 12,213,024 B2. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other.
Instant Application 18/991,263
US Patent No. US 12,213,024 B2
Interpretation/Differences
1. A system, comprising:
an inventory data structure;
a user device that includes a reader;
a wireless communication device; and
a controller configured to:
receive, from the user device, read data associated with a read operation of the reader;
determine, based on the read data, object information associated with an object in a physical environment;
determine, based on the object information and an entry of the inventory data structure, object-based locationing information associated with a first location associated with the object;
receive, from the user device, signal information associated with a signal that is communicated between the user device and the wireless communication device;
determine, based on the signal information, signal-based locationing information associated with the user device, wherein the signal-based locationing information is indicative of a second location associated with the wireless communication device;
determine, using a locationing model, a location of the user device based on the first location and the second location; and
perform an action associated with the location and the user device.
1. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a locationing system and from a user device, locationing information associated with the user device, the locationing information including signal-based locationing information associated with a wireless communication device associated with the locationing system, and an object identifier associated with an object identified by read data obtained by a reader of the user device;
identifying, by the locationing system and from an inventory data structure, based on the object identifier, object location information associated with the object, the inventory data structure associating the object identifier with the object location;
determining, by the locationing system and based on the signal-based locationing information, a signal-based location associated with the user device;
training a machine learning model of a locationing model based on historical data associated with previously locating user devices within a physical environment associated with the locationing system, the historical data including historical signal information associated with wireless communication devices associated with the locationing system and object locations indicated in the inventory data structure;
determining, by the locationing system and using the locationing model, a location of the user device, the locationing model being configured to indicate the location of the user device based on the object location information and the signal-based location, and identify locations of the user devices based on the historical data; and
performing, by the locationing system, an action associated with the location and the user device.
As can be seen from the side-by-side comparison, US Patent 12,213,024 B2 has every feature/limitation that the present application does with slight word changes with the exception of the bolded, italicized, and underlined feature in the present application.
As shown in table above, the issued patent covers all the claimed limitations of pending application such that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that the pending application and issued patent are not patentably distinct from each other.
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 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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Moshfeghi (US 20180206065 A1), in view of Shmueli (US 20210027360 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Moshfeghi teaches a system (Figure 1A), comprising:
a user device that includes a reader (Paragraph 0042; mobile devices 104,106,108, and 110 may comprise image and/or video cameras. Paragraph 0149; the mobile device 902 may use its RFID reader to receive positioning assistance data from an RFID position reference tag 920);
a wireless communication device (Figure 5 and Paragraphs 0083 and 0084; the mobile device 402 may extract channel characteristics or parameters from a plurality of received signals from plurality of access points 436 and/or cell tower 438); and
a controller (Figure 1A and Paragraph 0083; POS device) configured to:
receive, from the user device, read data associated with a read operation of the reader (Paragraph 0149; the mobile device 902 may use its RFID reader to receive positioning assistance data from an RFID position reference tag 920);
determine, based on the read data, object-based locationing information associated with a first location associated with the object (Paragraph 0149; the mobile device 902 may use its RFID reader to receive positioning assistance data from an RFID position reference tag 920);
receive, from the user device, signal information associated with a signal that is communicated between the user device and the wireless communication device (Figure 5 and Paragraphs 0083 and 0084; the mobile device 402 may extract channel characteristics or parameters from a plurality of received signals from plurality of access points 436 and/or cell tower 438, and communicate the extracted channel parameters to the POS device 428. Paragraphs 0090, 0099 and 0195; parameters may be received signal strength indicator RSSI, a transmitted signal strength, and/or beacon strength);
determine, based on the signal information, signal-based locationing information associated with the user device, wherein the signal-based locationing information is indicative of a second location associated with the wireless communication device (Figure 5 and Paragraph 0106; the location module accesses reference database of channel parameters and uses interpolation and matching to determine the mobile device’s position);
determine, using a locationing model (Paragraphs 0103 and 0104; the position module 418 calculate location coordinates of the mobile device for each of plurality of radios, for example, GPS radio, Bluetooth radio, WiMax radio and cellular radio, and calculate location coordinates based on channel parameters for each of those radios may then be weighted. The position module 418 may calculate the location coordinates by averaging the weighted positions of the mobile device. Weights used in averaging calculated positions of a given radio using different channel parameters may be based on reliability and accuracy of the given channel parameters), a location of the user device based on the first location and the second location (Figure 5 and Paragraph 0106; the location module uses interpolation and matching to determine the mobile device’s position); and
perform an action associated with the location and the user device (Figure 5 and Paragraph 0106; the location module communicate the position information to the mobile device 402 with or without filtering the position information).
Moshfeghi does not explicitly teach an inventory data structure; determine, based on the read data, object information associated with an object in a physical environment; determine, based on the object information and an entry of the inventory data structure, object-based locationing information associated with a first location associated with the object. In an analogous art, Shmueli teaches an inventory data structure (Paragraph 0155; a database or a catalog of items); determine, based on the read data, object information associated with an object in a physical environment (Paragraphs 0083; tagging techniques may be utilized to identify an item, as an example, an RFID sensor may be utilized to read RFID information from a tag embedded in or coupled to the item, the RFID information may comprise an indication of the identity of the tagged item, such as a barcode, icon, etc.); determine, based on the object information and an entry of the inventory data structure, object-based locationing information associated with a first location associated with the object (Paragraphs 0155 and 0249; the server may be configured to know what items are located based on an inventory list, and each item that is located in the located may be identified and listed in the database of the store). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Moshfeghi and Shmueli because it would accurately identify and thus more accurately locate item locations (Shmueli, Paragraphs 0083 and 0084).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Moshfeghi and Shmueli teaches all of the limitations of claim 1, as described above. Further, Shmueli teaches wherein the reader includes a camera and the object information is received based on the read data being associated with an image that depicts the object and an output of an image processing model that is configured to identify the object via the object information (Paragraph 0082; the device may comprise a vision sensor such as a camera that provides visual representation of the item. The visual input may be a visual representation as would be captured by a human being, data that is computationally processed to generate an image (e.g., by an imaging process), or the like. The device may be configured to identify the item using the visual data. As an example, the device may be configured to identify the item based on an optical image). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Moshfeghi and Shmueli because it would accurately identify and thus more accurately locate item locations (Shmueli, Paragraphs 0083 and 0084).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Moshfeghi and Shmueli teaches all of the limitations of claim 1, as described above. Further, Shmueli teaches wherein the entry is one of a plurality of entries in the inventory data structure that are associated with a plurality of objects within the physical environment (Paragraphs 0083, 0155 and 0249; server may comprise a catalog database of various items, the control module may be configured to compare and match objects identified in the input with objects of items stored in the catalog database), wherein the plurality of entries individually indicate corresponding locations, within the physical environment, associated with one or more objects of the plurality of objects (Paragraphs 0155 and 0249; the server may be configured to know what items are located based on an inventory list, and each item that is located in the located may be identified and listed in the database of the store). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Moshfeghi and Shmueli because it would accurately identify and thus more accurately locate item locations (Shmueli, Paragraphs 0083 and 0084).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Moshfeghi and Shmueli teaches all of the limitations of claim 1, as described above. Further, Moshfeghi teaches wherein the locationing model, to determine the location of the user device, is configured to: apply a first weight to the first locationing information and a second weight to the signal-based locationing information that is different from the first weight (Paragraphs 0103 and 0104; the weights used in averaging calculated positions of a given radio using different channel parameters may be based on the reliability and accuracy of given channel parameters. The weights used in averaging calculated positions using different radios 406-414 may be based on the reliability and accuracy of each radio. For example, if the WLAN radio 408 may provide better positioning accuracies than the GPS radio 406, the position calculated based on channel parameters of WLAN radio signals may be given a higher weight compared to the position calculated based on channel parameters of GPS radio signals); and identify the location according to the first weight and the second weight (Paragraphs 0103 and 0104; position module 418 may calculate the location coordinates by averaging the weighted positions of the mobile device 402, wherein the weights used in averaging calculated positions of a given radio using different channel parameters may be based on the reliability and accuracy of given channel parameters).
In addition, Shmueli teaches object-based locationing information (Paragraphs 0083, 0155 and 0249; server may comprise a catalog database of various items, the control module may be configured to compare and match objects identified in the input with objects of items stored in the catalog database). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Moshfeghi and Shmueli because it would accurately identify and thus more accurately locate item locations (Shmueli, Paragraphs 0083 and 0084).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Moshfeghi and Shmueli teaches all of the limitations of claim 4, as described above. Further, Moshfeghi teaches wherein the first weight is applied based on a first confidence score that is indicative of a likelihood that the object is located at the first location (Paragraph 0149; the mobile device 902 may use its RFID reader to receive positioning assistance data from an RFID position reference tag 920), and wherein the second weight is applied based on a second confidence score that is indicative of a degree of accuracy associated with determining the second location (Paragraphs 0103 and 0104; the weights used in averaging calculated positions of a given radio using different channel parameters may be based on the reliability and accuracy of given channel parameters. The weights used in averaging calculated positions using different radios 406-414 may be based on the reliability [such as likelihood] and accuracy of each radio. For example, if the WLAN radio 408 may provide better positioning accuracies than the GPS radio 406, the position calculated based on channel parameters of WLAN radio signals may be given a higher weight compared to the position calculated based on channel parameters of GPS radio signals).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Moshfeghi and Shmueli teaches all of the limitations of claim 5, as described above. Further, Moshfeghi teaches wherein the likelihood that the object is located at the first location is determined based on distance between different locations (Paragraph 0071; location can be determined from information such as range/distance of an RFID tag to a transmitting antenna), and wherein the degree of accuracy associated with determining the second location is determined based on a characteristic of a signal that is identified in the signal information (Paragraphs 0103 and 0104; the weights used in averaging calculated positions of a given radio using different channel parameters may be based on the reliability and accuracy of given channel parameters. The weights used in averaging calculated positions using different radios 406-414 may be based on the reliability [such as likelihood] and accuracy of each radio. For example, if the WLAN radio 408 may provide better positioning accuracies than the GPS radio 406, the position calculated based on channel parameters of WLAN radio signals may be given a higher weight compared to the position calculated based on channel parameters of GPS radio signals).
In addition, Shmueli teaches wherein the likelihood that the object is located at the first location is determined based on a distance between the second location and a location that is associated with the object (Paragraph 0154; the matching process may take into account the image together with the distance between the item and the approximated location, such as increasing likelihood of matching when the item is stored nearby the approximated location) in an inventory data structure (Paragraphs 0083, 0155 and 0249; server may comprise a catalog database of various items, the control module may be configured to compare and match objects identified in the input with objects of items stored in the catalog database. Paragraphs 0155 and 0249; the server may be configured to know what items are located based on an inventory list, and each item that is located in the located may be identified and listed in the database of the store). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Moshfeghi and Shmueli because it would accurately identify and thus more accurately locate item locations (Shmueli, Paragraphs 0083 and 0084).
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sadr et al. (US 20180338217 A1), discloses a method includes receiving sensor data from one or more mobile reader agents, receiving tag location data that describes the location of one or more sensor tags expressed in local coordinates of the subspace of the mobile reader agent that read the sensor tag, converting the tag location data into a global coordinate system that is common to all mobile reader agents, and updating one or more paths of one or more mobile reader agents to increase the coverage of reading tags in the subspace of the mobile reader agent
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jing Gao whose telephone number is (571)270-7226. The examiner can normally be reached on 9am - 6pm M-F.
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/Jing Gao/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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