DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the communication filed on 08/19/2026.
Claims 1-2, 4-11, 21 and 24 have been withdrawn.
Claims 13, 16-20 and 25 have been elected for examination.
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 .
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.
Claim(s) 13, 16, 18 and 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al (CN 111711683 A herein after “Liu”) and further in view of Fu-hu Liu (CN 115567555A herein after “FLiu”).
As per claim 13 and similarly claim 25, Liu discloses a method for controlling a target object by using a MESH network, the MESH network comprising a plurality of objects including the target object, the method comprising:
receiving, by at least one object in the MESH network, a control instruction for the target object (Liu, para[57-58] receive the BLE broadcast packet, the BLE broadcast packet may include a control data packet, the control data packet comprises…control information…for controlling a node of the MESH network);
forwarding, by the at least one object, the control instruction to the target object via inter-node links in the MESH network in a case where the at least one object determines that it is not an object targeted by the control instruction (Liu, para[32,62-63] under the condition of satisfying the preset condition, the control data packet is broadcast to the next hop device through the Mesh network; the specific content of the preset condition is not limited).
Liu does not disclose, however, FLiu discloses receiving a control instruction for the target object from a digital key corresponding to the target object (Liu, para[4] the vehicle owner can control the vehicle to send the unlocking prompt in a certain range through the digital key).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate FLiu’s teaching of a digital key into Liu’s teaching of device control because one of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to utilize a digital key for access to and control of a device.
As per claim 16, Liu discloses the method of claim 13, wherein the inter-node links includes at least one forwarding path on which a second object in the MESH network is included, and wherein the method further comprises: after the target object receives the control instruction, sending, by the target object and to the second object, instructions related to the control instruction (Liu, para[39,63]).
As per claim 18, Liu discloses the method of claim 13, wherein the inter-node links comprises a first forwarding path and a second forwarding path, the first forwarding path including thereon a second object in the MESH network and the second forwarding path including thereon a third object and a fourth object in the MESH network, and wherein the method further comprises: after the target object receives the control instruction via the first forwarding path and the second forwarding path respectively, sending, by the target object, instructions related to the control instruction to the second object and the fourth object respectively (Liu, para[39,63]).
Claims 17, 19 and 20 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. See form 892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Natisha Cox whose telephone number is (571)270-7167. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday, 10:00 am - 6:00pm EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Umar Cheema can be reached on (571)270-3037. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8000.
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/NATISHA D COX/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2458
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