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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim (Pub. No.: US 2022/0400545 A1).
With respect to claim 1:
Kim discloses a method for automatically transmitting a control signal based on a plurality of sub repeaters (fig. 1, item 40-1 to 40-n is a plurality of sub repeaters) to provide a theme production service in an automatic transmission program executed by at least one processor of a main repeater (fig. 1, item 20 represents the processor of a repeater because parag. 0046 discloses that item 30 sometimes can be incorporated inside control device 20), the method comprising: linking to a plurality of sub repeaters having a plurality of prestored libraries and a terminal (fig. 1, item 30 linking sub-repeaters 40-1 to 40-N); transmitting command data to at least one of the pluralities of linked sub repeaters (fig. 1, item 30 transmitting to items 40-1 to 40-N as in parag. 0045); and performing control so that the sub repeater receiving the command data automatically transmits a control signal for activating the library included in the command data (parag. 0047-0050), wherein the command data includes at least one of a sub repeater serial number, a library serial number, and setting information (parag. 0103 discloses library identification information).
With respect to claim 9:
Kim discloses a control signal automatic transmission system based on a plurality of sub repeaters, comprising: a main repeater (fig. 1, item 30 is a repeater) linked to a plurality of sub repeaters (fig. 1, item 40-1 to 40-n is a plurality of sub repeaters)and including a control unit (fig. 1, item 20 is a control unit) configured to remotely control the plurality of sub repeaters (fig. 1, item 20 represents the processor of a repeater because parag. 0046 discloses that item 30 sometimes can be incorporated inside control device 20), wherein the control unit: is linked to a plurality of sub repeaters (fig. 1 shows the linking) having a plurality of prestored libraries and a terminal, transmits command data to at least one of the plurality of linked sub repeaters (abstract and parag. 0008), and controls the sub repeater receiving the command data so that the sub repeater automatically transmits a control signal for activating a library included in the command data (parag. 0047-0050), and the command data includes at least one of a sub repeater serial number, a library serial number, and setting information (parag. 0103 discloses library identification information).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 2-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (Pub. No.: US 2022/0400545 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Knode (Pub. No.: US 2012/0056712 A1).
With respect to claim 2:
The rejection of claim 1 is incorporated; Kim does not explicitly disclose wherein the linking to the plurality of sub repeaters includes at least one of: assigning a sub repeater serial number to each of the plurality of linked sub repeaters, and acquiring a sub repeater serial number prestored for each of the plurality of linked sub repeaters.
Knode discloses wherein the linking to the plurality of sub repeaters includes at least one of: assigning a sub repeater serial number to each of the plurality of linked sub repeaters, and acquiring a sub repeater serial number prestored for each of the plurality of linked sub repeaters (parag. 0050 discloses assigning a serial number to repeater). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of Knode into the teaching of Kim in order to allow the one-way device to transmit an activation request message to the signal repeater.
With respect to claim 3:
Kim discloses the method for automatically transmitting a control signal based on a plurality of sub repeaters of claim 1 wherein the linking to the terminal includes: acquiring a plurality of libraries in which at least one emission pattern setting value is set from the linked terminal, and extracting a library serial number matched with the acquired plurality of libraries (parag. 0103-0104 and 0136).
With respect to claim 4:
Kim discloses the method for automatically transmitting a control signal based on a plurality of sub repeaters of claim 3, wherein the emission pattern setting value is data defining an emission form in which the light emitting device operates, and includes a setting value for at least one of an emission mode, an emission color, an emission time, luminous brightness, and an emission effect (parag. 0129-0130 discloses light brightness).
With respect to claim 5:
Kim discloses the method for automatically transmitting a control signal based on a plurality of sub repeaters of claim 1 wherein the transmitting of the command data includes at least one of: determining a first sub repeater based on the sub repeater serial number, determining a first library to be transmitted from the first sub repeater based on the library serial number, and setting first setting information including at least one of a signal radius, a propagation direction, and a reproduction mode of the control signal (parag. 0133-0136 discloses determining a first library to be transmitted from the first sub repeater based on the library serial number).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AJIBOLA A AKINYEMI whose telephone number is (571)270-1846. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:00pm, EST.
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/AJIBOLA A AKINYEMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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