DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Application
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Status of the Claims
This action is in response to the applicant’s filing on August 6, 2025. Claims 1 – 16 are pending and examined below.
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.
Claims 1 – 7, 9 – 12 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the
claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception without significantly more. The following rejection is based on the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance. (See 84 Fed. Reg. 50 (Jan. 7, 2019).
Does claim 1 fall into one of four of the statutory categories? Yes. The preamble of claim 1 recites a flight path generation system. The body of claim 1 recites at least one physical element that forms part of the claimed system. Therefore, claim 1 is directed to an apparatus.
Does claim 16 fall into one of the statutory categories? Yes. The preamble of claim 16 recites a method, and the body of the claim positively recites a series of method steps. Therefore, claim 16 is directed to a process.
Step 2A – Prong 1
Do claims 1 – 7, 9 – 12 and 16 recite a judicial exception? Yes. The claims recite the limitations of
determining a flight altitude of the unmanned aerial vehicle from a ground on the two-dimensional flight path based on the two-dimensional flight path and the elevation;
under an assumption that the two-dimensional flight path is traveled by the unmanned aerial vehicle moving horizontally, if an excess region where the flight altitude exceeds a predetermined first altitude and a first region where the flight altitude does not exceed the first predetermined altitude occur on the two-dimensional flight path, the first region leading to the excess region, the processor is configured or programmed to determine the flight altitude in the excess region and the first region such that: a maximum value of the flight altitude of the unmanned aerial vehicle in the excess region does not exceed the first predetermined altitude; the unmanned aerial vehicle descends in a descent region including a portion of the excess region or the first region; and the unmanned aerial vehicle moves horizontally over regions other than the descent region in the excess region and the first region (Claims 1 and 16);
determine the flight altitude in the excess region and the first region such that the descent region is part of the excess region and does not include the first region (Claim 2);
determine the flight altitude in the excess region and the first region such that the descent region is part of the first region and does not include the excess region (Claim 3);
determine the flight altitude in the excess region and the first region such that the descent region includes part of the excess region and part of the first region (Claim 4);
determine the flight altitude in the excess region and the first region such that a distance that the unmanned aerial vehicle moves vertically in the descent region is equal to or less than a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of elevations in the excess region (Claim 5);
determine the flight altitude in the second region such that the unmanned aerial vehicle moves horizontally across the second region (Claim 6);
determine the flight altitude in the second region such that a minimum value of the flight altitude in the second region is equal to or greater than a predetermined second altitude, and the unmanned aerial vehicle ascends in at least part of the second region (Claim 7);
determine the flight altitude on the two-dimensional flight path such that the unmanned aerial vehicle moves horizontally along the two-dime (Claim 9);
determine the flight altitude on the two-dimensional flight path such that the flight altitude on the two-dimensional flight path is equal to or greater than a predetermined second altitude (Claim 10);
calculate a distance that the unmanned aerial vehicle is capable of moving horizontally when flying along the two-dimensional flight path, based on the two-dimensional flight path and the elevation, and update the two-dimensional flight path based on the calculated distance (Claim 11); and
calculate driving energy of the unmanned aerial vehicle when flying along the two-dimensional flight path, based on the two-dimensional flight path and the elevation, and update the two-dimensional flight path based on the calculated driving energy (Claim 12).
The determining and calculating limitations, as drafted, are processes that, under their broadest reasonable interpretation, cover performances of the limitations in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components. That is, other than reciting “[a] flight path generation system comprising: an acquisition device . . . and a processor” nothing in the claim precludes the determining and calculating steps from practically being performed in the human mind/visually. For example, but for the acquisition device and processor language, the claims encompass the user to manually/visually perform the aforementioned determining and calculating steps. As such, these claim limitations are considered mental processes.
Step 2A – Prong 2
Do claims 1 – 7, 9 – 12 and 16 integrate the judicial exception into a practical application? No. Claims 1 – 7, 9 – 12 and 16 recite one additional element: an acquisition device configured or programmed to acquire route data including information of a two-dimensional flight path of the unmanned aerial vehicle and map data including information of elevation at each point on the two-dimensional flight path. The acquisition device is recited at a high level of generality (i.e., as a general means of gathering an electronic representation of a route data including information of a two-dimensional flight path of the unmanned aerial vehicle and map data including information of elevation at each point on the two-dimensional flight path), and amount to mere data gathering, which is a form of insignificant extra-solution activity. This generic acquisition limitation is no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. As such, claims 1 – 7, 9 – 12 and 16 are directed to the abstract idea.
Step 2B
Do claims 1 – 7, 9 – 12 and 16 provide an inventive concept? No. As discussed with respect to Step 2A Prong Two, the additional element in the claim amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. The same analysis applies here in 2B, i.e., mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot integrate a judicial exception into a practical application at Step 2A or provide an inventive concept in Step 2B. Claims 1 – 7, 9 – 12 and 16 are ineligible.
Therefore, claims 1 – 7, 9 – 12 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as being directed to non- statutory subject matter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8, 13, 14 and 15 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
The following prior art is made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
KR 101877900 B1 relates to a three-dimensional flight path generation system using battery power consumption amount prediction and a method thereof. The three-dimensional flight path generation system includes: a map and terrain information providing server for providing map and terrain information; a user terminal which requests three-dimensional flight path generation in accordance with the purpose of flight and two-dimensional section information designated by a user, receives three-dimensional flight paths and a predicted battery power consumption amount value as a response, and executes a flight operation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); and a service providing server which extracts and stores terrain information for generating the three-dimensional flight paths from the map and terrain information providing server, generates multiple three-dimensional flight paths corresponding to the purpose of flight by using the terrain information of two-dimensional sections in accordance with a request from the user terminal, predicts the battery power consumption amount of each of the three-dimensional flight paths, and provides the three-dimensional flight path with the lowest predicted battery power consumption amount and the corresponding predicted battery power consumption amount to the user terminal as a response to the request.
When generating the three-dimensional flight path, the service providing server generates a plurality of two-dimensional flight paths for the two-dimensional section and uses the geographical information of the two-dimensional section for each point constituting the two- After the altitude information of the ground surface is detected, the altitude of each point constituting the two-dimensional flight path is separated from the altitude of the surface of the ground surface by the corresponding distance based on the predetermined distance information from the ground surface Dimensional flight path can be generated by determining the height of the three-dimensional flight path.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RODNEY A. BUTLER whose telephone number is (313)446-6513. The examiner can normally be reached on weekdays, Monday through Friday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anne M. Antonucci can be reached on weekdays, Monday through Friday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at (313) 446-6519. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Electronic Communications
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/RODNEY A BUTLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3666
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