DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. Claims 1-17 are pending.
3. This office action is in response to the Applicant’s communication filed 07/07/2026 in response to PTO Office Action mailed 05/08/2026. The Applicant’s remarks and amendments to the claims and/or the specification were considered with the results that follow.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant’s arguments filed 07/07/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant’s arguments are summarized as:
1) “A skilled artisan would thus find no benefit to combining the features as proposed by the Office and would instead be motivated by Blaine to carry out automatic subscriber-wide transmission of unique device IDs without Fayfield's manual assignment techniques. For at least the foregoing reasons, it is respectfully submitted that Fayfield, whether considered alone or in combination with Blaine, fails to disclose or suggest the above-recited features of claim 1.”
As per argument 1, in response to applicant's argument that “A skilled artisan would thus find no benefit to combining the features as proposed by the Office and would instead be motivated by Blaine to carry out automatic subscriber-wide transmission of unique device IDs without Fayfield's manual assignment techniques.”, the fact that the inventor has recognized another advantage which would flow naturally from following the suggestion of the prior art cannot be the basis for patentability when the differences would otherwise be obvious. See Ex parte Obiaya, 227 USPQ 58, 60 (Bd. Pat. App. & Inter. 1985).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Claims 1, 3-11 and 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fayfield et al. (US Patent No. 10,805,262 B1 hereinafter “Fayfield” – IDS Submission) in view of Blaine et al. (US Pub. No. 2014/0336821 A1 hereinafter “Blaine”).
Referring to claim 1, Fayfield discloses a bus arrangement, comprising:
a coordinator (Fayfield – Col. 11, line 34 disclose the master.);
a plurality of subscribers (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 34-36 disclose slave devices.), each comprising a button (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 42-46 disclose a user may select a first slave by activating a first sensor associated with the first slave (e.g., by the user touching the sensor with the user's hand, if the sensor input is a capacitive touch button).), a memory (Fayfield – Fig. 2 shows a memory 260) and a display (Fayfield – Col. 7, lines 4-8 disclose Each slave 110 is operably coupled (e.g., via electrical wiring) to a respective actuator output 113. Each actuator output 113 may take a variety of forms. For example, an actuator output 113 may be an optical illuminator output (such as an LED).); and
a bus which couples the coordinator to the plurality of subscribers (Fayfield – Col. 3, lines 39-43 disclose the master device is operably coupled to a plurality of slave devices 110A, 110B, 110C, and 110D (referred to collectively herein as “slaves 110”) over a network 115. The network 115 may be configured as a Modbus network with RS-485 cabling.), wherein the coordinator and the plurality of subscribers are configured to be set in an addresses allocation mode (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 34-36 disclose starting at step 605, the master transmits an address assignment broadcast message to slave devices on the network.),
wherein in the addresses allocation mode, the coordinator is configured to indicate a first subscriber number and to broadcast a first broadcast message to the plurality of subscribers (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 36-42 disclose the address assignment broadcast message may, for example, include a command to turn on slaves in the network to flashing red, indicating the assignment of slave IDs is in progress. The broadcast message may include a command to set all slave devices to an unused ID. Next, at step 610, the master begins polling, using a virtual ID, to look for sensor activation of slaves on the network.), and
wherein in the addresses allocation mode, after user activation of a button of a first subscriber of the plurality of subscribers in response to the indication of the first subscriber number and broadcast of the first broadcast message, the first subscriber is configured to be activated and to send an acknowledge message to the coordinator (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 42-51 disclose A user may select a first slave by activating a first sensor associated with the first slave (e.g., by the user touching the sensor with the user's hand, if the sensor input is a capacitive touch button). Next, at step 615, if the master does not receive a message from the first slave indicating that the first sensor input is activated, the master loops back to step 610, continuing to look on the network for sensor activation. At step 615, if the master receives a message from the first slave indicating that the first sensor input is activated….).
Fayfield fails to explicitly disclose the first subscriber is configured to send an acknowledge message with a unique device identification number to the coordinator; and wherein the coordinator is configured to store the unique device identification number together with the first subscriber number.
Blaine discloses the first subscriber is configured to send an acknowledge message with a unique device identification number to the coordinator (Blaine – Par. [0009] discloses the system can include slave devices and a master controller…. Each of the slave devices are initially un-configured and have a unique device identifier associated therewith. The master controller is operatively coupled to the slave devices to form a network. The master controller is programmed to assign each of the slave devices a network address based on the unique identifier of each of the slave devices and in response to bidirectional communication between the master controller and the slave devices to configure the slave devices and enable addressed communication between the controller and the slave devices.); and wherein the coordinator is configured to store the unique device identification number together with the first subscriber number (Blaine – Par. [0010] discloses the master controller… can be programmed to maintain at least one table correlating the unique device identifier of each of the slave devices with the network address assigned to each of the slave devices.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to include Blaine’s teachings with Fayfield’s techniques for providing a network device discovery protocol that does not require pre-assignment of device addresses, yet allows any number of like devices to be added to the network (Blaine – Par. [0007]).
Referring to claim 3, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein in the addresses allocation mode, the coordinator is configured to send a first subscriber number message comprising the first subscriber number to the first subscriber, and wherein in the addresses allocation mode, only the activated first subscriber of the plurality of subscribers is configured to store the first subscriber number in the memory of the first subscriber (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 40-44 disclose next, at step 610, the master begins polling, using a virtual ID, to look for sensor activation of slaves on the network. A user may select a first slave by activating a first sensor associated with the first slave. Col. 11, lines 50-54 disclose At step 615, if the master receives a message from the first slave indicating that the first sensor input is activated, then, at step 620, the master transmits a write message (using the virtual ID(s)) to write the first slave with the first (actual) ID in a predetermined list/range of IDs.).
Referring to claim 4, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 3, wherein the first subscriber is configured to send a confirmation message to the coordinator after storing the first subscriber number in the memory (Fayfield – Col. 12, lines 19-29 disclose Next, at step 710, the slave compares the destination address in the received request message to an AID and/or VID stored in the memory of the slave device. The AID and/or VID may have been previously assigned to this slave using, for example, the address assignment process 600 detailed in FIG. 6…. If at step 715, the destination address matches the AID of the slave device, then the slave device transmits a response message in response to the request message previously sent by the master at step 740.).
Referring to claim 5, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein at the start of the addresses allocation mode the coordinator is configured to send a broadcast message to each of the plurality of subscribers such that each of the plurality of subscribers is set in a listen-only mode and the display of each of the plurality of subscribers is configured to indicate a first status (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 34-39 disclose Starting at step 605, the master transmits an address assignment broadcast message to slave devices on the network. The address assignment broadcast message may, for example, include a command to turn on slaves in the network to flashing red, indicating the assignment of slave IDs is in progress.).
Referring to claim 6, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 5, wherein after activation of the first subscriber, the first subscriber is configured to control the display such that the display indicates a second status (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 56-60 disclose next, at step 625, the master may turn on a first output indicator associated with the first slave (e.g., by turning a light green) to indicate that the first slave has been programmed with the first (actual) ID.).
Referring to claim 7, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, disclose wherein the display of each of the plurality of subscribers comprises a light-emitting diode (Fayfield – Col. 7, lines 4-8 disclose Each slave 110 is operably coupled (e.g., via electrical wiring) to a respective actuator output 113. Each actuator output 113 may take a variety of forms. For example, an actuator output 113 may be an optical illuminator output (such as an LED).).
Referring to claim 8, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 7, wherein the display of each of the plurality of subscribers is configured to indicate a first status by a flashing light-emitting diode and to indicate a second status by a continuously emitting light-emitting diode (Fayfield – Col. 10, lines 34-40 disclose A fourth row 535 of the table 500 indicates that a fourth register 8702 is associated with the name “Light State.” The description field of the fourth row 535 details that register 8702 may store data representing a state of an indicator light associated with the slave. For example, register 8702 may store a 16-bit value associated with different actuation states of the indicator light (e.g., off, on, flash1, flash2).).
Referring to claim 9, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein the coordinator is configured to repeat the process until each of the plurality of subscribers has been activated and has received a subscriber number (Fayfield – Col. 12, lines 4-7 disclose at step 630, once every slave device in the Modbus network is assigned an (actual) ID, the address assignment process 600 is complete, and the process 600 ends.).
Referring to claim 10, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein the bus is realized as one of a group consisting of a two-wire bus, three-wire bus or four-wire bus (Fayfield – Col. 1, lines 16-19 disclose a network may be arranged in a ring, mesh, star, tree, or bus configuration. Some computer networks may be wired (e.g., using a coaxial cable and/or twisted pair cabling).).
Referring to claim 11, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein the bus is arranged as one of a linear bus, a star bus, a ring bus or a mixture of these bus forms (Fayfield – Col. 1, lines 16-19 disclose a network may be arranged in a ring, mesh, star, tree, or bus configuration. Some computer networks may be wired (e.g., using a coaxial cable and/or twisted pair cabling).).
Referring to claim 14, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein the coordinator is implemented as a master (Fayfield – Col. 11, line 34 disclose the master.) and the plurality of subscribers are implemented as slaves (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 34-36 disclose slave devices.).
Referring to claim 15, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein a subscriber of the plurality of subscribers (Fayfield – Col. 11, lines 34-36 disclose slave devices.) is one of a group consisting of a circuit breaker, power switch, protection switch, contactor, sensor and measuring device (Fayfield – Col. 11, line 42 discloses sensor activation of slaves.).
Referring to claim 16, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein a subscriber of the plurality of subscribers comprises an illuminated switch which comprises the button (Fayfield – Col. 4, lines 12-17 disclose FIG. 1, each sensor input is integrated with an indicator/actuator output in the form of individual light-up capacitive touch buttons. The capacitive touch button may, for example, have a light emitting diode (LED) as an actuator output, with a capacitive sensing surface as the sensor input.) and the display (Fayfield – Col. 10, line 64 to col. 11, line 8 disclose registers 8704-8800 are associated with the name “Display.”… For example, register 8704 may represent a starting address of ASCII display characters, while register 8800 may represent a last address of ASCII display characters. The Modbus register range 8704-8800 may, for example, provide a total of 97 registers (with 2 characters per register) for a total of 194 characters that can be output on a (LCD) display to indicate useful information to a worker or user. This implies the slave device has a display.).
Referring to claim 17, note the rejections of claim 1 above. The Instant Claim recites substantially same limitations as the above-rejected and is therefore rejected under same prior-art teachings.
8. Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fayfield in view of Blaine, and further in view of Sheahan (US Patent No. 4,427,974 A hereinafter “Sheahan”).
Referring to claim 2, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, however, fail to explicitly disclose wherein the coordinator comprises a coordinator display and is configured to indicate the first subscriber number on the coordinator display in the addresses allocation mode, and/or wherein the coordinator is configured to indicate the first subscriber number on an external display in the addresses allocation mode.
Sheahan discloses the coordinator comprises a coordinator display and is configured to indicate the first subscriber number on the coordinator display, and/or wherein the coordinator is configured to indicate the first subscriber number on an external display (Sheahan – Col. 5, lines 51-52 disclose a local control unit 102 includes seven segment display 114. Col. 6, line 50-54 disclose the seven segment display 114 includes two seven-segment light emitting diode display devices 114a, 114b (FIG. 5), each capable of representing a decimal digit. Thus devices 114a, 114b together can display any two-digit decimal number such as a point interface device (PID) number.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to include Sheahan’s teachings with Fayfield and Blaine’s techniques to provide a distributed alarm system in which an alternate circuit can be established when needed for communication with alarm monitoring devices beyond a break in a communication circuit (Sheahan – Col. 2, lines 36-40).
9. Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fayfield in view of Blaine, and further in view of Reidt (US Pub. No. 2011/0119507 A1 hereinafter “Reidt”).
Referring to claim 12, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, however, fail to explicitly disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein the coordinator is implemented as a gateway.
Reidt discloses the coordinator is implemented as a gateway (Reidt – Par. [0068] discloses the gateway 20 is the central element for the connection to the system of the open field bus 2.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to include Reidt’s teachings with Fayfield and Blaine’s techniques to o simplify a system and a method for controlling bus-networked devices with a gateway via an open field bus in such a way that there is no need for complicated wiring and the user can check, configure and, in case of error messages, re-start the system with minimal operating effort (Reidt – Par. [0020]).
Referring to claim 13, Fayfield and Blaine disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, however, fail to explicitly disclose the bus arrangement of claim 1, wherein the coordinator is implemented as a programmable logic controller.
Reidt discloses the coordinator is implemented as a programmable logic controller (Reidt – Par. [0004] discloses industrial switching devices and others are normally operated or monitored centrally by means of a control system, for instance, by means of a programmable logic controller (PLC). Typically, the switching devices are connected to the control unit (e.g. the PLC) via the control wiring lines.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to include Reidt’s teachings with Fayfield and Blaine’s techniques to o simplify a system and a method for controlling bus-networked devices with a gateway via an open field bus in such a way that there is no need for complicated wiring and the user can check, configure and, in case of error messages, re-start the system with minimal operating effort (Reidt – Par. [0020]).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicants are 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 extension fee 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 DAYTON LEWIS-TAYLOR whose telephone number is (571)270-7754. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Thursday, 8AM TO 4PM, EASTERN TIME.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Idriss Alrobaye, can be reached on 571-270-1023. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Dayton Lewis-Taylor/
Examiner, Art Unit 2181
/IDRISS N ALROBAYE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2181
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