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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-8, 11, 14, 15, and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) & (a)(2) as being anticipated by “Outwater” (US 2015/0130630).
Regarding Claim 1:
A method comprising:
establishing, by an application executing on a mobile device (¶0022, “… a software application for a smart phone … to facilitate communication between a management system and a dispensing station”), a wireless communication session between the mobile device and a short-range wireless communication module (Claim 1 - “the application is configured to cause the smartphone to pair with or establish communication with the remote data source when in range”) connected to an offline product dispenser (Fig. 3, element 111; ¶0043, “Each charger 111, 121 has an antenna 113, 123 and one or more communication modules (shown in FIG. 11) with which to carry out an interaction with smart phone 132”; Fig. 11 further details that the fuel dispenser lacks a wide-area network adapter and is thus considered “offline”);
sending, by the application and via the wireless communication session (¶0022, “… a software application for a smart phone … to facilitate communication between a management system and a dispensing station”), one or more requests for information regarding the offline product dispenser to the short-range wireless communication module (Fig. 3, messages 331 and 333);
receiving, by the application and via the wireless communication session (¶0022, “… a software application for a smart phone … to facilitate communication between a management system and a dispensing station”), the information regarding the offline product dispenser from the short-range wireless communication module (Fig. 3, step 334; ¶0060, “Charger 111 may present data pack D to smart phone 132 in message 334, which smart phone 132 may acknowledge (not shown). Data pack D may comprise any of status information about charger 111, transaction data concerning the current and previous interactions, usage data concerning previous interaction (there has been no usage associated with the current transaction as yet), and other events (e.g., load shed and maintenance events)”), in response to the one or more requests (Fig. 3 shows message 334 being sent from the fuel dispenser to the mobile device responsive to request messages 331 and 333), wherein the offline product dispenser is configured to transmit the information regarding the offline product dispenser to the short-range wireless communication module via a communication channel of the offline product dispenser (¶0085, “At 607, while the smart phone 132 and charging station 111 are in communication, the charging station may send log data from charger log 630 to smart phone 132, which may further be digitally signed or encrypted by charging station 111”); and
transmitting, by the application (¶0022, “… a software application for a smart phone … to facilitate communication between a management system and a dispensing station”), the information regarding the offline product dispenser to a remote server (¶0085, “Smart phone 132 keeps this log data until it is transferred to server database 620 at 609”) configured to store and process the information regarding the offline product dispenser (¶0102, “Upon receipt, the server 305 can use this identity to determine appropriate parameters for checking signature 803, such as the public key corresponding to the indicated charging station”).
Regarding Claim 2:
The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the information regarding the offline product dispenser from the short-range wireless communication module comprises:
receiving, by the application and via the wireless communication session, the information regarding the offline product dispenser in an encrypted format from the short-range wireless communication module, in response to the one or more requests (¶0060, “In an alternative example, data pack D may be encrypted, using a private key for charger 111 for which server 305 knows the public key”).
Regarding Claim 3:
The method of claim 2, wherein the transmitting of the information regarding the offline product dispenser to the remote server comprises:
transmitting, by the application, the information regarding the offline product dispenser in the encrypted format to the remote server, the remote server being configured to perform decryption of the information regarding the offline product dispenser upon receipt (¶0060, “In an alternative example, data pack D may be encrypted, using a private key for charger 111 for which server 305 knows the public key”).
Regarding Claim 5:
The method of claim 2, wherein the application is unable to perform decryption of the information regarding the offline product dispenser, such that a user is prevented from accessing contents of the information regarding the offline product dispenser on the mobile device (¶0060, “In an alternative example, data pack D may be encrypted, using a private key for charger 111 for which server 305 knows the public key”; i.e., only the server possesses the key to decrypt the encrypted information, thus the application and/or mobile device are unable to decrypt the information to access the contents).
Regarding Claim 6:
The method of claim 1, wherein the sending of the one or more requests for information regarding the offline product dispenser to the short-range wireless communication module comprises:
sending, by the application and via the wireless communication session, the one or more requests for the information regarding the offline product dispenser to the short-range wireless communication module according to a predefined request flow defining a sequence of requests to send to the offline product dispenser (Fig. 3 details a predefined request flow between the fuel dispenser and the application of the mobile device).
Regarding Claim 7:
The method of claim 6, wherein the offline product dispenser only provides the information regarding the offline product dispenser to the short-range wireless communication module for communication to the mobile device when a sequence of the one or more requests sent by the mobile device matches the sequence of requests defined by the predefined request flow (Fig. 3 details a request/acknowledge sequence of messages between the application and fuel dispenser that further the protocol communication).
Regarding Claim 8:
The method of claim 6, wherein the sequence of requests defined by the predefined request flow comprises at least: a first request for a dispenser identifier (ID) of the offline product dispenser (¶0097, “For use the transaction sequence 300, secure certificate 700 comprises a charger ID element 712, which limits applicability of this certificate to a specific charging station (111) having the identity of the UUID "11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111". As information for use by smart phone 132 during search phase 320 and the construction of "looking for A" messages 321, 322, 323, the charger communications identity element 713 provides the device address (e.g., BD_ADDR) associated with charging station 111”) followed by a second request for operational data stored in memory of the offline product dispenser (Fig. 3 details “second” message 333 being responded to by message 334 comprising data pack D).
Regarding Claim 11:
The method of claim 1, wherein the short-range wireless communication module is configured to communicate using a short-range communication protocol selected from a group consisting of: a Bluetooth protocol, a Wi-Fi protocol, a near-field communication (NFC) protocol, and an ultra-wideband (UWB) protocol (¶0047, “Wireless connection 201 may be the same as connection 141, e.g., Bluetooth®, or may be a different wireless connection, e.g., near field communication (NFC), or may include both”).
Regarding Claim 14:
(¶0060, “In an alternative example, data pack D may be encrypted, using a private key for charger 111 for which server 305 knows the public key”; i.e., only the server possesses the key to decrypt the encrypted information, thus the application and/or mobile device are unable to decrypt the information to access the contents)
Regarding Claim 15:
The method of claim 1, further comprising:
performing, by the application and via the application, an initial pairing procedure between the mobile device and the short-range wireless communication module, wherein the wireless communication session is established after completion of the initial pairing procedure (Claim 1 - “the application is configured to cause the smartphone to pair with or establish communication with the remote data source when in range”).
Regarding Claim 17:
The method of claim 1, wherein the application transmits the information regarding the offline product dispenser to the remote server without having processed the information regarding the offline product dispenser (¶0060, “In an alternative example, data pack D may be encrypted, using a private key for charger 111 for which server 305 knows the public key”; i.e., only the server possesses the key to decrypt the encrypted information, thus the application and/or mobile device are unable to decrypt the information to process the contents).
Regarding Claim 18:
The method of claim 1, wherein the offline product dispenser is a fuel dispenser (Abstract, “… a station to dispense fuel to a vehicle…”).
Regarding Claims 19 and 20:
Apparatus claim 19 and system claim 20 correspond to method claim 1 and contain no further limitations. Therefore claims 19 and 20 are rejected by applying the same respective rationale used to reject claim 1 above.
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.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Outwater” (US 2015/0130630) in view of “Nishioka” (US 2022/0059232).
Regarding Claim 4:
Outwater teaches:
The method of claim 3, …
Outwater does not disclose:
… wherein the application securely transmits the information regarding the offline product dispenser in the encrypted format to the remote server using a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) application programming interface (API).
Nishioka teaches:
… wherein the application securely transmits the information regarding the offline product dispenser in the encrypted format to the remote server using a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) application programming interface (API) (¶0070, “For example, in alternate embodiments or aspects, a mobile application connects to sensor beacon 102 and may bridge to cloud monitoring server 108 for early detection and population management. This provides efficiency when using a bridge in industrial applications. Alternatively, a mobile device provides an application in the foreground. In some examples, a modular application API running on a mobile device can operate in the foreground, such that a mobile device is acting as a scanner and a gateway”; ¶0117, “By configuring bridge 406 for WiFi connectivity via mobile application 404 or gateway 408 (e.g., https ….), band 402 communicates information indirectly to cloud server 410…”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art to modify Outwater’s remote fuel dispenser system by enhancing Outwater’s mobile application to utilize HTTPS via application API to transmit encrypted data, as taught by Nishioka, in order to strengthen the security of the system during data communications.
The motivation is to utilize industry standard encryption protocol, such as HTTPS, to transmit data in a secure and effective manner across various systems.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Outwater” (US 2015/0130630) in view of “Zhang” (US 2023/0041669)
Regarding Claim 9:
Outwater teaches:
The method of claim 8, …
Outwater does not disclose:
… further comprising:
detecting, by the application, a disruption of the wireless communication session during transmission of the operational data from the short-range wireless communication module to the mobile device; and
re-establishing, by the application, the wireless communication session between the mobile device and the short-range wireless communication module using the dispenser ID.
Zhang teaches:
… further comprising:
detecting, by the application, a disruption of the wireless communication session during transmission of the operational data from the short-range wireless communication module to the mobile device (Fig. 8a, element 105, step 305; ¶0289, “S305: The Bluetooth agent module 105 identifies that the Bluetooth connection is disconnected, and sends a first notification to the Bluetooth chip 101, where the first notification is used to indicate the Bluetooth chip 101 to start Bluetooth scanning”); and
re-establishing, by the application, the wireless communication session between the mobile device and the short-range wireless communication module using the dispenser ID (¶0290, “The first notification carries the first MAC address. After starting to perform Bluetooth scanning, the Bluetooth chip 101 detects whether a received Bluetooth advertising signal carries the first MAC address”; ¶0291, “The Bluetooth advertising signal advertised by the vehicle-mounted Bluetooth chip 201 may further carry another parameter indicating the vehicle, for example, a VIN or a universally unique identifier (universally unique identifier, UUID)”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art to modify Outwater’s remote fuel dispenser system by enhancing Outwater’s system to detect a short-range communication channel disconnect and provide adequate data to re-establish the communication channel, as taught by Zhang, in order to prevent abrupt stoppages in refueling a vehicle at a fuel station.
The motivation is to provide further assurance that a connection with a fuel dispenser can resolve itself in the case of a disconnection by providing a mobile device with adequate data to re-establish a connection with the fuel dispenser, thereby reducing customer inconvenience when operating in an environment where a short-range signal is degraded.
Claim(s) 12 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Outwater” (US 2015/0130630) in view of “Turnidge” (US 2021/0327202).
Regarding Claim 12:
Outwater teaches:
The method of claim 1, …
Outwater does not disclose:
… wherein the communication channel of the offline product dispenser via which the offline product dispenser transmits the information regarding the offline product dispenser to the short-range wireless communication module is a serial communication channel.
Turnidge teaches:
… wherein the communication channel of the offline product dispenser via which the offline product dispenser transmits the information regarding the offline product dispenser to the short-range wireless communication module is a serial communication channel (¶0062, “In the present embodiment, fuel station controller 40 comprises partitioned housing 201 with a product controller 40A and a fuel dispensing controller 40B separated by partition 203. Thus, while a single controller may perform the fuel dispensing and convenience store product management functions described herein, two or more controllers may be used. Communications channels 286 and 288 communicatively couple, respectively, product sensors 136 and fountain system 100, to product controller 40A. Communication channel 286 may comprise a wired channel connecting product sensors 136 to product controller 40A via a serial communications protocol. Communication channel 286 may comprise a wired channel connecting product sensors 136 to each other and to a wireless node 290, and a wireless channel between wireless node 290 and product controller 40A. Wireless node 290 would then comprise a serial communications controller programmed to poll the sensors, obtain the data, and communicate the data, and a wireless controller programmed to receive the data and to transmit it wirelessly to product controller 40A”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art to modify Outwater’s remote fuel dispenser system by enhancing Outwater’s fuel dispenser to utilize a serial communication channel to connect with a short-range wireless communication module, as taught by Turnidge, in order to provide a universal connection point for wireless modules.
The motivation is to provide an industry-standard connection point, such as serial, for wireless modules to connect to in order to provide interoperability with a fuel dispenser to many different wireless modules.
Regarding Claim 13:
The method of claim 12, wherein Outwater in view of Turnidge further teaches the short-range wireless communication module is connected externally to a serial communication port of the offline product dispenser connected to the serial communication channel (Figure 4, element 290 being connected to element 280 via serial interface 286), the offline product dispenser being configured to transmit the information regarding the offline product dispenser to the short-range wireless communication module over the serial communication port (¶0062, “Use of a wireless node simplifies connectivity between the product racks and the product controller by eliminating a portion of the wired channel, but requires that the product controller include or have access to a wireless transmitter. Use of a wired-only communications channel requires a serial communications controller in the product controller. In cases where the product controller does not have space, e.g. a rack slot, to add a serial communications controller, substitution of a processor with a wireless processor may provide the communications channel without upgrading the product controller or the fuel station controller”).
The motivation to reject claim 13 by applying Turnidge to Outwater is the same motivation applied in the rejection of claim 12 above.
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Outwater” (US 2015/0130630) in view of “Badr” (US 2025/0306236).
Regarding Claim 16:
Outwater teaches:
The method of claim 1, …
Outwater does not disclose:
… wherein, having processed the information regarding the offline product dispenser, the remote server is further configured to provide a visual depiction of the processed information regarding the offline product dispenser to a user interface.
Badr teaches:
… wherein, having processed the information regarding the offline product dispenser, the remote server is further configured to provide a visual depiction of the processed information regarding the offline product dispenser to a user interface (¶0029, “For example, the GUIs 126A, 126B include an input device, such as a keypad, touch screen, or other device that can accept user information, and an output device that conveys information associated with the operation of the server system 102, or the client device itself, including gas storage real time monitoring data (reports), and/or well operations, respectively. The GUIs 126A, 126B each interface with at least a portion of the example system 100 for any suitable purpose, including generating a visual representation of the data collected by the data collection system 106, data generated by the server system 102, or data stored by the server system 102, such as probe data 122A, field data 122B, and action plans 122C, respectively”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art to modify Outwater’s remote fuel dispenser system by enhancing Outwater’s remote server to provide visual representation of fuel-related data to a graphical user interface, as taught by Badr, in order to provide monitoring data in real-time.
The motivation is to provide monitoring and reporting data associated with a fuel dispenser in real-time via a graphical user interface thus allowing a user to efficiently process the results (Badr, ¶0029, “… processes information and efficiently presents the results to the user visually”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 is 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: The prior art of record does not fairly teach or suggest, either alone or in combination, the subject matter recited within claim 10 in view of base claim 1. Therefore claim 10 is deemed allowable over the prior art of record.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL B POTRATZ whose telephone number is (571)270-5329. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 10 A.M. - 6 P.M. CST.
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/DANIEL B POTRATZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2491
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