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 .
This application is a CON of 18/314,017, now Pat. No. 12,340705; The 18/314,017 is a CON. of 16/535,867 now Pat. 11,694562; The 16/535,867 is a CON of 16/110,922 now Pat. No. 10,438495.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); and In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement.
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
Claim 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-15 of U.S. Pat. No. 12,340705, claims 1-12 of U.S. Pat. No. 11,694562, and claims 1-20 of U.S. Pat. No. 10,438495. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because all the claims are generic accordingly.
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) 1-4, 6-11 & 13-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Groden (20190033861) in view of Buchmueller (20160171896).
With regard to claim 1, Groden discloses a system comprises a memory; an input device; a location sensor; and a flight computer (see Fig. 1-2 for a system and method which shown inputs for determining aircraft conditions, input correlations, and etc., see [0016]-[0017]+) which is configured to:
obtain boundary information associated with a flying space, wherein no authority exists to assign the space (determining and defining a safety boundary corridor through which the vehicle can traverse, see [0151]-[0152]+);
receive an input associated with flying an aircraft from the input device (sampling inputs S310, S410 are received, see [0016]-[0017]+; and inputs from sensors, see [0026]+);
receive location information associated with the aircraft from the location sensor (location sensors, e.g., GPS, GNSS, see [0026]+); and
generate a control signal for the aircraft based at least in part on the boundary information, the input, and the location information, wherein the control signal is responsive to the input in a manner that would not cause the aircraft to cross a boundary is associated with the (the aircraft includes processors for analyzing inputs, determining guidance for controlling the aircraft, see [0031]+).
Groden fails to teach obtain and generating control signal for the aircraft based on boundary information associated with a three-dimensional (3D) flying space.
Buchmueller discloses an UAV with a system which detects object within the UAV’s airspace, generates, and controls the UAV within a corridor in 3D flying space, see [0155]-[0156]+).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Groden by including controlling the aircraft within a corridor in 3D flying space as taught by Buchmueller for performing flying accuracy and safety.
With regard to claim 2, Buchmueller teaches that the system recited in claim 1, wherein the 3D flying space has one or more of the following cross sections: a circular cross section, an elliptical cross section, or a rectangular cross section (see Fig. 4).
With regard to claim 3, Buchmueller teaches that the system recited in claim 1, wherein: 20 the 3D flying space includes an entrance and an exit; and a length of the 3D flying space, measured from the entrance to the exit, is larger than a height or a width of a cross-sectional area associated with the 3D flying space (the corridors shown in fig.4 and Fig. 5 that include an entrance and exit, see [0151]-[0152]+).
With regard to claim 4, Buchmueller teaches that the system recited in claim 1, wherein the boundary information associated with the 3D flying space includes a range of permitted altitudes and a perimeter (see [0055]-[0056]+).
With regarding to claims 6-8, Buchmueller teaches that the the UAV’s flight management system 300 comprises a processor, computer readable media, sensors, transmitter and wireless communication components (see [0042]+) which communicates between a plurality of UAVs, transfers database information, object identification data and data representing a captured signals, see [0053] which meets the scope of claims.
With regarding to claim 9, Buchmueller teaches that the system recited in claim 1, wherein the boundary information associated with the 3D flying space is modified in response to identification of a potential collision between a moving object and the aircraft using publicly-available location information associated with the moving object (the UAV captures a plurality of images representing the UAV’s airspace and analyze the captured images for indications of objects, navigation and anti-collision lights on the aircraft. A trajectory envelope determined to describe the likelihood of the object interacting with the UAV’s current flight plan, the UAV’s flight plan be updated, see [0024]-[0025]+).
With regarding to claim 10, Buchmueller system recited in claim 1, wherein: the boundary information associated with the 3D flying space is modified in response to identification of a potential collision between a moving object and the aircraft using publicly- available location information associated with the moving object; the moving object includes a ship; and the publicly-available location information associated with the moving object is associated with Automatic Identification System (AIS) information (the captured acoustic signal represented as a spectrogram and identify portions of the spectrogram a fingerprint which used to identify the object, see [0025]+).
With regard to claims 11 & 17, Groden discloses A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a non- transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions (method) for, comprising:
obtain boundary information associated with a flying space, wherein no authority exists to assign the space (determining and defining a safety boundary corridor through which the vehicle can traverse, see [0151]-[0152]+);
receive an input associated with flying an aircraft from the input device (sampling inputs S310, S410 are received, see [0016]-[0017]+; and inputs from sensors, see [0026]+);
receive location information associated with the aircraft from the location sensor (location sensors, e.g., GPS, GNSS, see [0026]+); and
generate a control signal for the aircraft based at least in part on the boundary information, the input, and the location information, wherein the control signal is responsive to the input in a manner that would not cause the aircraft to cross a boundary is associated with the (the aircraft includes processors for analyzing inputs, determining guidance for controlling the aircraft, see [0031]+).
Groden fails to teach obtain and generating control signal for the aircraft based on boundary information associated with a three-dimensional (3D) flying space.
Buchmueller discloses an UAV with a system which detects object within the UAV’s airspace, generates, and controls the UAV within a corridor in 3D flying space, see [0155]-[0156]+).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Groden by including controlling the aircraft within a corridor in 3D flying space as taught by Buchmueller for performing flying accuracy and safety.
With regarding to claims 13-15 & 18-20, Buchmueller teaches that the the UAV’s flight management system 300 comprises a processor, computer readable media, sensors, transmitter and wireless communication components (see [0042]+) which communicates between a plurality of UAVs, transfers database information, object identification data and data representing a captured signals, see [0053] which meets the scope of claims.
With regarding to claim 16, Buchmueller teaches that method recited in claim 11, wherein the boundary information associated with the 3D flying space is modified in response to identification of a potential collision between a moving object and the aircraft using publicly-available location information associated with the moving object (the UAV captures a plurality of images representing the UAV’s airspace and analyze the captured images for indications of objects, navigation and anti-collision lights on the aircraft. A trajectory envelope determined to describe the likelihood of the object interacting with the UAV’s current flight plan, the UAV’s flight plan be updated, see [0024]-[0025]+).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 & 12 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 claim.
.
Prior Arts Cited
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Ekhaguere (20100100269) discloses a method and system for UAV navigation. The UAV’s system calculated a flight corridor, flight path, and flight plan. During operation, the system detects obstacles and calculates another plan to avoid the obstacles (see the abstract).
Conclusion
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/NGA X NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3662
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