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
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 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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Welsh et al. (US 2016/0129998).
Welsh teaches an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (10) for flying in a physical environment comprising a body (104) extending along an axis from a front end to a back end having a housing, a first mounting structure (i.e., portion of two arms (105-1, 105-2)) attached to the body and extending away from the body in a direction to a left side of the axis (fig. 1A), a second mounting structure (i.e., portion of two arms (105-1, 105-2)) attached to the body and extending away from the body in a direction to a right side of the axis being an opposite direction to the direction to the left side (fig. 1A), four propulsion units, in particular rotor assemblies, two (106-a, 106-4) of which are mounted to the first mounting structure and two (106-2, 106-3) of which are mounted to the second mounting structure, a fuselage (202) serving a directional distance measuring module including antennas (108) for a measuring field of view with a main view direction, within which measuring field of view directions and distances to surfaces in the physical environment are measurable by directionally emitting distance measurement radiation into the field of view, a detector unit for detecting distance measurement radiation reflected from a surface, and a distance measurement radiation source (paragraphs 0024, 0030), and a GNSS antenna system for receiving GNSS signals (i.e., a navigation system (808) receiving a global positioning system (GPS), paragraph 0054), wherein a part of the housing of the UAV is embodied as carbon fiber housing, wherein on the upper side of the UAV the carbon fiber housing surrounds a part of the housing embodied as fiber glass housing, wherein the GNSS antenna system is arranged below the fiber glass housing (paragraphs 0015, 0019) (see figs. 1A-2, 8; paragraphs 0015, 0019-0034, 0049-0055).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-14 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
None of prior art teaches the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) comprises the particular of the GNSS antenna system, an arrangement of the GNSS antenna, and functionalities of the GNSS antenna system for receiving GNSS signals as set forth in the claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SEUNG H LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-2401. The examiner can normally be reached 7-4:00PM.
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/SEUNG H LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
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