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 Objections
Claims 5-6, 15 and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 5, please spell out “SNR” as recited in line 3.
As per claim 6, 15 and 16, see claim 5.
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.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because claim is directed to a “computer-readable recording medium”. The broadest reasonable interpretation of “computer-readable recording medium” includes “a signal” per-se. Claims directed to “signal” per-se are non-statutory. Accordingly, claim 10 is non-statutory. The rejection maybe overcome if the claim is amended to recite “ non-transitory computer-readable recording medium”.
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 –
Claim(s) 1, 2 and 11-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Han et al US Patent Application Publication No. US20190115868 A1.
As per claim 1, Han et al discloses a method and apparatus (fig. 1) for controlling a communication signal of a photovoltaic power generation system(10), the method comprising: acquiring data on a communication status by monitoring a plurality of devices (50) included in the photovoltaic power generation system (10) (note para. [0045]; deriving information related to communication of each of the devices (50) based on the acquired data (para. [0046]); and controlling a communication signal of at least one of the devices (50) based on one of the acquired data or the information related to the communication (note para. [0045]).
As per claim 2, Han et al further teaches the acquiring comprises acquiring the data on the communication status by monitoring the communication status among the devices (50) connected by a power line communication method (see at least para. [0033] and para. [0040]).
As per claim 11, see rejection of claim 1. In addition, Han et al teaches the apparatus comprises a memory 860 and a controller 820.
As per claim 12, see claim 2.
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) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han et al US Patent Application Publication No. US20190115868 A1 in view of Hadar et al US 8,751,053.
As per claim 10, as applied to claim 1 above Han et al discloses every feature recited in the claim but fails to explicitly teach that the invention can be implemented in a computer readable medium storing a program to execute the method. Hada et al provides a computer readable medium storing a program to execute a method see col. 8, lines 1-30. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art to incorporate a computer readable medium storing a program to execute a method in Han et al in order the enable the invention to be used using existing computer hardware to reduce implementation cost and improve consumer experience.
Claim(s) 8 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han et al US Patent Application Publication No. US20190115868 A1 in view of ( translated abstract) Zhang CN 113050495 A.
As per claim 8, as applied to claim 1 above, Han et al discloses every feature recited in the claim but fails to explicitly teach providing a user with an alarm indicating a result of controlling the communication signal. Zhang et al teaches generally providing an alarm to a user based on analyzing (controlling) the communication signal(s) (Zhang et al, translated abstract). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art to have modified Han et al by providing the additional step of teach providing a user with an alarm indicating a result of controlling the communication signal so that the user can conveniently retrieve and check the results so as to improve maintenance efficiency (Zhang, translated abstract).
As per claim 18, see rejection of claim 8.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7, 9, 13-17 and 19 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.
Conclusion
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/JEAN B CORRIELUS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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