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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-14 are pending.
This action is response to the application filed on March 24, 2025.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The instant application claims priority to European Patent Application No. 24165802.0, filed March 25, 2024, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
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.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Specifically claim 14 is directed to computer-readable storage medium, for implementing and the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim drawn to a computer readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. The USPTO recognizes that applicants may have claims directed to computer readable media that cover signals per se, which the USPTO must reject under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering both non-statutory subject matter and statutory subject matter. In an effort to assist the patent community in overcoming a rejection or potential rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in this situation, the USPTO suggests the following approach. A claim drawn to such a computer readable medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim. Cf. Animals - Patentability, 1077 Off. Gaz. Pat. Office 24 (April 21, 1987) (suggesting that applicants add the limitation "non-human" to a claim covering a multi-cellular organism to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101). The words " computer-readable storage media (medium) " are insufficient to convey only statutory embodiments to one of ordinary skill in the art absent an explicit and deliberate limiting definition or clear differentiation between storage media and transitory media in the disclosure.
Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals per se. Thus, such a medium cannot be patentable subject matter. non-transitory computer-readable storage medium is recommended as an appropriate computer readable medium.
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 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.
Claims 1-4 and 6-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sayyarrodsari et al (US 20220043431 A1).
With respect to claims 1, 13 and 14, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches
connecting a gateway device to the OPC UA PubSub automation network ([0013] FIG. 6 for storage of model templates in the smart gateway platform's library. [0014] FIG. 7 structuring of industrial data by a smart gateway platform in automation network);
discovering, by the gateway device, at least one information source in the OPC UA PubSub automation network. [0018] FIG. 11 a smart gateway platform collects, contextualizes, and structures data from industrial assets and provides the resulting structured and contextualized data to an AI analytic system. FIG. 31);
identifying and connecting to a broker, by the gateway device, wherein the broker manages the publisher data provided by the at least one publisher ([0023] FIG. 16 industrial data broker system. [0024] FIG. 17 database of an industrial device that supports smart objects. [0025] FIG. 18 publish-and-subscribe architecture facilitated by an industrial data broker system in conjunction with smart objects);
determining, by the gateway device, at least one matched information source from the discovered at least one information source based on information intent of the gateway device and PubSub meta information of the publisher data provided by the broker ([0062] Device interface 304 the smart gateway platform 302 and sources of industrial data at one or more plant facilities. Sources of industrial data that can be accessed by the device interface component 304. device interface component 304 can access the data on these data sources via a proxy or edge device that aggregates the data from multiple industrial devices for migration to the smart gateway platform 302 via the device interface component 304);
retrieving, by the gateway device, the data of interest from the at least one matched information source ([0062] Device interface component 304 can receive the industrial data via a public network such as the Interne. [0071] data publishing component 410 can support data streaming to higher level broker or analytic systems as part of an industrial publish-subscribe architecture, where the resulting data streams serve as data channels to which analytic systems or users can subscribe. For data streams sourced by smart objects, the data streams include any contextualization or data).
With respect to claim 2, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches providing, by the gateway device, the data of interest to at least one other network ([0013] FIG. 6 for storage of model templates in the smart gateway platform's library. [0014] FIG. 7 structuring of industrial data by a smart gateway platform in automation network).
With respect to claim 3, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches cloud system transforming the data of interest into a format that is readable for the other network ([0013] FIG. 6 for storage of model templates in the smart gateway platform's library).
With respect to claim 4, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches transforming the data of interest into a format that is readable for the other network ([0013] FIG. 6 for storage of model templates in the smart gateway platform's library. [0014] FIG. 7 structuring of industrial data by a smart gateway platform in automation network).
With respect to claim 6, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches providing information about entities and data in the OPC UA PubSub automation network ([0013] FIG. 6 for storage of model templates in the smart gateway platform's library. [0014] FIG. 7 structuring of industrial data by a smart gateway platform in automation network).
With respect to claim 7, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches determining the at least one matched information source comprises using PubSub-specific properties ([0062] Device interface 304 the smart gateway platform 302 and sources of industrial data at one or more plant facilities. Sources of industrial data that can be accessed by the device interface component 304).
With respect to claim 8, Sayyarrodsariet al teaches publishing intervals and/or information about the at least one publisher describing the information intent ([0025] FIG. 18 publish-and-subscribe architecture facilitated by an industrial data broker system in conjunction with smart objects).
With respect to claim 9, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches semantic information ([0062] Device interface 304 the smart gateway platform 302 and sources of industrial data at one or more plant facilities. Sources of industrial data that can be accessed by the device interface component 304).
With respect to claim 10, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches frequency of updates, topic names and/or names of FX connections ([0062] Device interface 304 the smart gateway platform 302 and sources of industrial data at one or more plant facilities. Sources of industrial data that can be accessed by the device interface component 304).
With respect to claim 11, Sayyarrodsar iet al teaches the security data allows the gateway device to retrieve encrypted data of interest ([0062] Device interface 304 the smart gateway platform 302 and sources of industrial data at one or more plant facilities. Sources of industrial data that can be accessed by the device interface component 304).
With respect to claim 12, Sayyarrodsari et al teaches edge device gateway ([0025] FIG. 18 publish-and-subscribe architecture facilitated by an industrial data broker system in conjunction with smart objects).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cho et al (US 20020174122 A1) ARCHITECTURE TO ENABLE SEARCH GATEWAYS AS PART OF FEDERATED SEARCH.
Considered for teachings related generally to enable search gateways as part of a federated search supports searching for data in one or more heterogeneous data sources. The data sources are within a computer system. Initially, a request for data is received at a federated data source. From the federated data source, data is retrieved from one or more of one or more terminal data repositories or one or more search gateway data sources.
Does not disclose or suggest responsive to provide publisher data, connecting a gateway device to the OPC UA PubSub automation network, discovering at least one information source in the OPC UA automation network, identifying and connecting to a broker by the gateway device, wherein the broker manages the publisher data provided by the at least one publisher, determining, by the gateway device, at least one matched information source from the discovered at least one information source based on information intent and PubSub meta information provided by the broker, and retrieving, by the gateway device, the data of interest from the at least one matched information source.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ISAAC M WOO whose telephone number is (571)272-4043. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 to 5:00.
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, Tony Mahmoudi can be reached at 571-272-4078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ISAAC M WOO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2163
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