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 1-20 have been examined.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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)(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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kurimoto et al. (EP 2314961).
1. “A system for tracking a plurality of articles in a storage compartment, each of the plurality of articles associated with a respective passive radio frequency (RF) tag of a plurality of passive RF tags, the system comprising:”
(“storage system for storage and management of an object… IC tag is appended to each of the objects stored therein… RFID technique uses passive IC tag requiring neither battery nor power feed” — KURIMOTO ¶0002, ¶0013)
2. “a plurality of RF antennas, each RF antenna for receiving a signal from a respective passive RF tag of the plurality of passive RF tags;”
(“feeding antennas 8a to 8c… when food having IC tag is stored… reader/writer unit can read information of IC tag” — KURIMOTO ¶0020)
3. “an RF reader configured to provide power to the plurality of RF antennas in sequence;”
(“antenna selector 7 is controlled to select any desirable one of feeding antennas 8a to 8c and feed power thereto… feed power serially to feeding antennas 8a to 8c” — KURIMOTO ¶0035)
4. “and receive, from one or more of the plurality of RF antennas, response data corresponding to one or more signals received from one or more of the plurality of passive RF tags;”
(“reader/writer unit can read information of IC tag… feeding antenna reads information of IC tag… controller determines detected IDs” — KURIMOTO ¶0020, ¶0039, ¶0043)
5. “and a processor configured to determine whether a first article of the plurality of articles is located in the storage compartment based on the response data.”
(“controller unit 21 compares read IC tag information with stock information… determines presence/removal from stock list” — KURIMOTO ¶0044–¶0045)
CLAIM 15
15. “A method for tracking a plurality of articles in a storage compartment, each of the plurality of articles associated with a respective passive radio frequency (RF) tag of a plurality of passive RF tags, the method comprising:”
(“storage control method… RFID technique uses passive IC tag appended to objects stored in storage room” — KURIMOTO ¶0001, ¶0013)
16. “providing power to a plurality of RF antennas in sequence, wherein each RF antenna is for receiving a signal from a respective passive RF tag of the plurality of passive RF tags;”
(“feed power serially to feeding antennas 8a to 8c so that information is read from IC tag” — KURIMOTO ¶0035)
17. “receiving, from one or more of the plurality of RF antennas, response data corresponding to one or more signals received from one or more of the plurality of passive RF tags;”
(“feeding antennas read IC tag information… controller receives detected tag IDs” — KURIMOTO ¶0020, ¶0039)
18. “and determining whether a first article of the plurality of articles is located in the storage compartment based on the response data.”
(“IC tag information is compared with stock information… presence or absence determined from stock list and entry/removal list” — KURIMOTO ¶0044–¶0045)
CLAIM 5 / 18
“wherein each RF antenna is a loop antenna.”
(“feeding antennas 8a–8c are loop antennas”) — KURIMOTO ¶0022
CLAIM 6
“wherein the system comprises a single RF reader.”
(“reader/writer unit 6 controls antenna selector”) — KURIMOTO ¶0020
CLAIM 7 / 20
“wherein the RF reader is positioned in or on the storage compartment.”
(“reader/writer unit integrated into refrigerator structure”) — KURIMOTO ¶0020
CLAIM 9
“wherein the processor is configured to provide user feedback relating to which articles… to a connected mobile device for display thereon.”
(“information transmitted to mobile phone/web system for display of stock status”) — KURIMOTO ¶0030, ¶0047
CLAIM 13 / 19
“wherein the RF reader is configured to provide power… in response to a measurement of a sensor meeting a predefined criterion.”
(“door opening detection triggers antenna scanning operation”) — KURIMOTO ¶0035
CLAIM 14
“wherein the sensor comprises one or more of a movement sensor, light sensor, proximity sensor, an IR sensor, and a tilt sensor.”
(“door opening/closure detector includes optical switch, magnetic switch, push switch”) — KURIMOTO ¶0019
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4,8,10-12,16-17 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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/HOI C LAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689
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