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
Acknowledgment is made of this application’s status as a 371 of PCT/EP2024/050322 filed on 01/09/2024, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. 63/438,010 filed on 01/10/2023.
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy of EP23156223.2 filed on 02/13/2023 has been received/retrieved by the office.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/10/2025 and 01/28/2026 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 4 objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 4, the claim uses the term “if” which is improper, as it implies there is uncertainty of whether the event will happen, which renders the claim indefinite. The term should be replaced with “when” which refers to the time of a future situation or condition that is certain to happen.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 11, the claim recites term “the at least one fan” which renders the claim indefinite as there is a lack of antecedent basis for said term.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is rejected based upon dependency of rejected claim 11.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10 and 13-15 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance, this statement is not intended to necessarily state all the reasons for allowance or all the details why the claims are allowed and has not been written to specifically or impliedly state that all the reasons for allowance are set forth (MPEP 1302.14).
Regarding claims 1 and 15, none of the prior art of record alone or in combination thereof discloses or renders obvious all of the claimed limitation recited in the claims.
Prior Art of Record WO2013/179202A2 discloses a microphone signal that can be used to estimate the magnitude of the air flow (Claim 11)
Prior Art of Record US2019/0049479A1 discloses a system for motion detection wherein the sensor takes into account external noise such as airflow from HVAC system. (¶1)
The prior art differs from the claimed invention, as the prior art does not disclose or renders obvious
obtain the registered sensor data (from a thermal sensor) and the registered audio data (from a microphone)
based on the obtained audio data, Ad, estimate at least one property, Pi, of an air flow, and based on at least one correlation criterion, Cc, between the sensor data, Sd, and the audio data, Ad, estimate a level of influence, Li, of the at least one property, Pi, of the air flow on the sensor data, Sd.
Regarding claims 2-10 and 13-14, the claims are allowed based upon dependency of allowed independent claim 1 and may not be allowable when presented independently without all the claimed limitation of the base claim.
Claims 11-12 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAYMOND R CHAI whose telephone number is (571)270-0576. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30AM-5:00PM.
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, Alexander Taningco can be reached at 571-242-8048. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Raymond R Chai/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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