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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Figure 5 contains two reference numbers “322”. The worker management database is numbered “323” in the specification. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Information Display Control Device and Method.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it appears a word –of—is needed after the word “list” in line 3 of the abstract. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Paragraph 4, Line 4: The verb “inspect” should be replaced with the word –inspects--.
Paragraph 5, Line 2: The verb “providing” should be replaced with the word –provide--.
Paragraph 32, Line 2: The correct article before “ROM” should be –a--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: Lines 14-15 of claim 1 appears to have the word –least-- misspelled. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception without significantly more. The claims recite a device and method to display a list of notifications including information on each of a plurality of unmanned aerial vehicles, identify the status of each of the aerial vehicles, and display the notification list based on the status of the vehicles. Each one of these steps can be performed in the human mind just by observing the status of the aerial vehicles and presenting the information in list form. The user can just observe information pertaining to the vehicles and present them on a board. The elements “memory” and “processor” are merely generic computing devices that can make the process faster. Therefore, this claim is considered a Mental Process as recited in MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)IIIA, which is similar to the example claim to “collecting information, analyzing it, and displaying certain results of the collection and analysis”, Electric Power Group v. Alstom, S.A., 830 F.3d 1350, 1353-54, 119 USPQ2d 1739, 1741-42 (Fed. Cir. 2016).
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because nearly every dependent claim recites different types of status in order to present the notification list. The position of a worker, the position of a port, the movement of the worker, and the distance between the worker and the port found in dependent claims 2-10 are all easily observable variables that aids the user in deciding the priority and position of each vehicle in the notification list.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the only additional elements that are found in the claims are a processor, a memory, and computer readable memory; all of which are considered generic computer components that do not provide an inventive concept. Claims 1-10, 14, and 15 are not patent eligible.
The Examiner does recognize that claims 11-13 do contain subject matter that integrates the mental process into a practical application because the claims do take the information gathered in the independent claims and issue evacuation warnings to workers via the terminal that displays the list. Quite simply, something is actually done with the information beyond merely gathering, analyzing, and displaying it to the worker. This is a practical application and is considered eligible subject matter.
Claims 2-13 are currently rejected as being dependent on a rejected base claim.
A prior art rejection has not been formulated in this application.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Aside from the subject matter eligibility issues mentioned above, the independent claims do teach subject matter that is not obvious when compared to the prior art. Presenting information regarding an autonomous vehicle has been found in the prior art, such as the system for controlling autonomous vehicles taught by Sweeney et al [U.S. 9,953,283] that can display an estimated time of arrival for a vehicle. However, two conditions not found in the prior art is the specific environment of the claimed subject matter for unmanned aerial vehicles in conjunction with the second display control code that controls the display of the notification list based on the specific status of each unmanned aerial vehicle. This is considered unobvious subject matter.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cahill [US 2016/0042637] receives information for drone safety alerts.
Kerzner et al [US 2022/0070414] generates drone video feed overlays.
Stegall et al [U.S. 12,209,874] determines ETAs of autonomous vehicles.
Partin et al [U.S. 12,423,764] relates to safety compliance of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN A. TWEEL JR whose telephone number is (571)272-2969. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta W Goins can be reached at 571-272-2957. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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JAT
5/28/2026
/JOHN A TWEEL JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689
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