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 .
Status of Claims
This communication is a First Office Action Non-Final on Merits. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 11/10/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Priority
The present application, filed on 11/10/2025, claims priority to KR10-2023-0059368, filed on 05/08/2023.
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.
Claim 8 is 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. Claim 8 recites the acronym “QR”. However, the Applicant has failed to explicitly define what the acronym refers to. Further clarification is needed. Dependent claims inherit the deficiencies of the parent claims and thus dependent claims are rejected on the same basis as indicated above for the respective parent claims.
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 - 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception without a practical application and significantly more.
Step 1: Identifying Statutory Categories
When considering subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101, it must be determined whether the claims are directed to one of the four statutory categories of invention, i.e., process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter (i.e., Step 1). In the instant case, claims 1-20 are directed to an issue management system comprising a manager terminal, a worker terminal, and a server (i.e. machine). Thus, each of these claims fall within one of the four statutory categories. Nevertheless, the claims fall within the judicial exception of an abstract idea.
Step 2A: Prong One: Abstract Ideas
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention recites an abstract idea. Independent claim 1 recites: An issue management system comprising at least one worker who is guided to perform work within a greenhouse according to a preset schedule; a manager who oversees a state of the work within the greenhouse and a progress of the work within the greenhouse; and store and manage information about the greenhouse, transmit first issue occurrence information generated, the first issue occurrence information at least comprises one of a type of issue, an occurrence location of an issue, a photo related to the issue, and urgency status of the issue, the first is obtained through an issue, store the first issue occurrence information received from the at least one worker, classify, as an unconfirmed issue, and store the first issue occurrence information until an issue registration determination for the first issue occurrence information is received from the manager, and provide one or more pieces of the stored issue occurrence information to the manager in response to a trigger received from the manager, the manager display an issue occurrence status reflecting the one or more pieces of the provided issue occurrence information, one or more issue items representing the one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information are displayed on the issue occurrence status, the one or more issue items are classified and displayed according to the type, an issue item indicating issue occurrence information classified as the unconfirmed issue is classified, as the unconfirmed issue, and displayed despite the type, and an issue item indicating issue occurrence information comprising an urgency is displayed along with an urgency indicator indicating the urgency.
The limitations as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, falls under the abstract groupings of: Certain methods of organizing human activity (commercial or legal interactions (including advertising, marketing or sales activities or behaviors; business relations; (managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people (including social activities, teaching, and following rules or instructions). As the claims discuss an issue management system comprising at least one worker who is guided to perform work within a greenhouse according to a preset schedule; a manager who oversees a state of the work within the greenhouse and a progress of the work within the greenhouse, which is one of certain methods of organizing human activity. Mental Processes (concepts performed in the human mind (including an observation, evaluation, judgement, opinion (independent claim 1 recites for example, “one worker who is guided to perform work within a greenhouse according to a preset schedule”; “a manager who oversees a state of the work within the greenhouse and a progress of the work within the greenhouse”; “manage information about the greenhouse”, “transmit first issue occurrence information, the first issue occurrence information at least comprises one of a type of issue, an occurrence location of an issue, and urgency status of the issue”; “first issue occurrence information received from the at least one worker”, “classify, as an unconfirmed issue, the first issue occurrence information until an issue registration determination for the first issue occurrence information is received from the manager”, “provide one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information to the manager in response to a trigger received from the manager”, “one or more issue items are classified and displayed according to the type, an issue item indicating issue occurrence information classified as the unconfirmed issue is classified, as the unconfirmed issue, and displayed despite the type, and an issue item indicating issue occurrence information comprising an urgency is displayed along with an urgency indicator indicating the urgency.”) Concepts performed in the human mind as mental processes because the steps of guiding a worker, manager oversees, manage information, transmit, receive, classify, provide and analyzing data to determine urgency, mimic human thought processes of observation, evaluation, judgement and opinion, perhaps with paper and pencil, where data interpretation is perceptible in the human mind. See In re TLI Commc’ns LLCPatentLitig., 823 F.3d 607, 611 (Fed. Cir. 2016); FairWarning IP, LLC v. Iatric Sys., Inc., 839 F.3d 1089, 1093-94 (Fed. Cir. 2016)).
Further, dependent claims add additional limitations, for example: (claim 2) wherein when a first issue item based on a second input of the user is selected, the manager displays an issue detail for the first issue item, and the issue detail page displays the type, the occurrence location, and the photo, which are corresponding to the selected first issue item; (claim 3) wherein when the first issue item is an issue item classified as the unconfirmed issue, the issue detail page is further provided with an issue registration, the manager transmits an issue registration determination when obtaining the issue registration determination for the first issue item through the issue registration, and reclassifies, as a registered issue, the issue occurrence information classified as the unconfirmed issue corresponding to the first issue item; (claim 4) wherein when the first issue item is an issue item indicating issue occurrence information classified as the registered issue, the issue detail is further provided with an issue resolution, the manager transmits an issue resolution determination when obtaining the issue resolution determination for the first issue item through the issue resolution, and reclassifies, as a resolved issue, the issue occurrence information classified as the registered issue corresponding to the first issue item; (claim 5) wherein the issue items indicating the issue occurrence information classified as the resolved issue is classified as the resolved issue and displayed on the issue occurrence status despite the type; (claim 6) wherein the manager transmits second issue occurrence information generated according to input of the user, the second issue occurrence information comprises at least the type of issue and the occurrence location of the issue, obtained through the issue input provided on the manager, and the stores the second issue occurrence information received from the manager, but classifies, as the registered issue, and stores the second issue occurrence information even though the issue registration determination for the second issue occurrence information is not received; (claim 7) an occurrence location selection of the issue; a type selection of the issue; a photo related to the issue; an urgency selection of the issue; and a description input related to the issue; (claim 8) selecting the occurrence location is deactivated when there is location information corresponding to a code obtained through the worker; (claim 9) wherein the occurrence location selection is provided to a preset list of locations so that one of the locations is selected; (claim 10) wherein the occurrence location selection comprises at least one of: a zone selection provided to display preset zone tabs so that one of the zone tabs is selected; a line selection provided to display a preset list of lines existing within a zone so that one of the lines existing within the zone is selected; and a line-based location selection provided to display preset approximate location tabs within a line so that one of the approximate location tabs within the line is selected; (claim 11) wherein the type selection is provided to display preset issue type tabs so that one of the issue type tabs is selected, the photo input is provided to input the photo obtained from a photographing, the urgency selection is provided to display preset urgency setting tabs so that one of the urgency setting tabs is selected, and the description input interface is provided to input a message through an input unit of the worker; (claim 12) wherein the type at least comprises pests and diseases, as well as facility failures, and an issue item indicating issue occurrence information classified as unconfirmed, an issue item indicating issue occurrence information regarding the pests and diseases, and an issue item indicating issue occurrence information regarding the facility failures are classified and displayed in the issue occurrence status; (claim 13) wherein among the one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information, a number of pieces of the issue occurrence information classified as the unconfirmed issue and the number of pieces of the issue occurrence information by type are classified and displayed in the issue occurrence status; (claim 14) wherein the occurrence location is classified for each zone within the greenhouse, and the one or more issue items are classified and displayed for each zone in the issue occurrence status; (claim 15) wherein the issue occurrence information further comprises a generation date of the issue, and the issue occurrence status separately displays an issue item indicating issue occurrence information comprising the urgency and whose generation date is a current date, among the one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information; (claim 16) wherein the manager terminal displays an issue detail for a second issue item when the second issue item is selected according, the issue detail is provided with a reminder settings, the manager transmits reminder date information when obtaining the reminder date information for the second issue item through the reminder settings, and sets a reminder comprising the reminder date information in the issue occurrence information corresponding to the second issue item; (claim 17) wherein in the issue occurrence status page, a reminder indicator is displayed together with an issue item indicating issue occurrence information for which the reminder is set; (claim 18) wherein the manager terminal provides an alarm when there is issue occurrence information, for which the reminder is set and comprising the reminder date information corresponding to the current date, among the one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information; (claim 19) wherein the manager displays an issue detail for a third issue item when the third issue item is selected according to a user, the issue detail is provided with a message input, the manager terminal transmits an additional message when obtaining the additional message for the third issue item through the message input, comprises the additional message in issue occurrence information corresponding to the third issue item; (claim 20) wherein the issue detail displays the additional message included in the issue occurrence information corresponding to the third issue item, but these only serve to further limit the abstract idea. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation of certain methods of organizing human activity and mental processes, but for the recitation of generic computing components, the claims recite an abstract idea.
Step 2A: Prong Two
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims merely describe how to generally “apply” the abstract idea. In particular, the claims only recite the additional elements – (claim 1) manager terminal, worker terminal, server, interface(s). These additional elements are recited at a high-level of generality such that it amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. Simply implementing the abstract idea on generic computer components is not a practical application of the abstract idea, as it adds the words “apply it” (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea, as discussed in MPEP 2106.05(f). The limitations generally link the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use (such as computing, see MPEP 2106.05(h)). The “store and manage information about the greenhouse, transmit first issue occurrence information generated ... the first is obtained”, “store the first issue occurrence information received from the at least one worker”, “classify, as an unconfirmed issue, and store the first issue occurrence information”, and “provide one or more pieces of the stored issue occurrence information to the manager in response”, “the manager display an issue occurrence status reflecting the one or more pieces of the provided issue occurrence information”, “the one or more issue items are classified and displayed according to the type,” and “an issue item indicating issue occurrence information comprising an urgency is displayed” limitations describe data gathering and transmission of data. The Office has long considered data gathering to be insignificant extra-solution activity. Merely adding insignificant extra-solution activity to an abstract idea does not integrate the exception into a practical application, see MPEP 2106.05(g)). Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide generic computer implementation and do not impose a meaningful limit to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application.
Step 2B:
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to discussion of integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements amount to no more than mere instructions to apply an exception and generally link the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use. With respect to the computer components, these limitations are described in Applicant’s own specification as generic and conventional elements. See at least Applicant’s specification, para 0127, recites: “Referring to FIG. 4, the worker terminal 100 according to one exemplary embodiment may include a communication unit 110, an input unit 120, an output unit 130, a photographing module
140, a memory 150, and a processor 160.” Applicant’s specification, para 0129, recites: “The input unit 120 of the worker terminal 100 may receive various user operations and transmit the user operations to the processor 160 thereof described later. The input unit 120 may receive the user operations through an interface provided to a user through the output unit 130 thereof described later. The input unit 120 may be implemented as a touchpad, a keypad, a mouse, and/or a microphone, etc.”
Thus, the specification spells out different generic equipment that might be applied using the concept and the particular steps such conventional processing would entail based on the concept of information access. Thus, the claims at issue amount to nothing significantly more than instructions to apply the abstract idea using some unspecified, generic computers. The use of such generic computers to receive or transmit data over a network has been identified as well understood, routine and conventional activity by the courts. With respect to “store and manage information about the greenhouse, transmit first issue occurrence information generated ... the first is obtained”, “store the first issue occurrence information received from the at least one worker”, “classify, as an unconfirmed issue, and store the first issue occurrence information”, and “provide one or more pieces of the stored issue occurrence information to the manager in response”, “the manager display an issue occurrence status reflecting the one or more pieces of the provided issue occurrence information”, “the one or more issue items are classified and displayed according to the type,” and “an issue item indicating issue occurrence information comprising an urgency is displayed” limitations, which amounts to mere data gathering or merely add insignificant extra-solution activity to the abstract idea, see MPEP 2106.05(d). The legal precedent in Symantec, TLI and OIP Techs court decisions cited in MPEP 2106.05(d)(II) indicated that receipt and transmission of information over a computer network are a well-understood, routine, and conventional functions when claimed in a generic manner, as is the case here. See also Trading Techs. Int’l, Inc. v. IBG LLC, 921 F.3d 1084, 1093 (Fed. Cir. 2019) (data gathering and displaying are well-understood, routine, and conventional activities). Furthermore, claims 1-20 have been fully analyzed to determine whether there are additional elements recited that amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. The limitations fail to include an improvement to another technology or technical field, an improvement to the functioning of the computer itself, or meaningful limitations beyond generally linking the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment. Thus, nothing in the claim adds significantly more to the abstract idea. Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide conventional computer implementation. The claims are ineligible. Therefore, since there are no limitations in the claim that transform the exception into a patent eligible application such that the claim amounts to significantly more than the exception itself, the claims are rejected under 35 USC 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or non-obviousness.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KR 2021/0131568A, hereinafter “KR”, over Oliver et al. (US 2015/0100168 A1), hereinafter “Oliver”.
Regarding Claim 1, KR teaches An issue management system comprising a manager terminal, a worker terminal, and a server, the system comprising: (KR, Abstract, teaches an intelligent farm management method and system for monitoring information on resources and related event information located in a smart farm; See at least KR, page 2, teaching a manager device; See KR, page 8, teaches worker device; Server is taught throughout KR, see at least page 2, teaches server provided with a smart farm platform);
at least one worker terminal assigned to a worker who is guided to perform work within a greenhouse according to a preset schedule; (KR, Abstract, The intelligent farm management system is a monitoring unit including manpower; See at least KR, page 6, teaches work schedule); at least one manager terminal assigned to a manager who oversees a state of the work within the greenhouse and a progress of the work within the greenhouse; and (See at least KR, page 2, teaching a manager device; KR, Abstract, teaches intelligent farm management system is a monitoring unit that monitors resources including manpower, equipment, facilities; Further, see KR, page 8, teaches real-time work management screen 310, the manager can check the location or movement route of manpower or equipment in the farm, and the current work history, number of workers, work time, work speed, event occurrence, etc.); the server communicatively connected to the worker terminal and the manager terminal and configured to store and manage information about the greenhouse, (KR, Server is taught throughout KR, see at least page 2, teaches server; Abstract, teaches intelligent farm management system is a monitoring unit that monitors resources including manpower, equipment, facilities, measuring instruments and logistics, stores location information, movement information and status information about resources, and connects related information between objects of resources);
wherein the worker terminal is configured to transmit first issue occurrence information generated according to a first input of a user to the server, (KR, page 8, teaches receives a user input or work instruction signal for a change in location or movement of personnel or equipment, a change in work history, etc., based on real-time work management information; KR, page 6, teaches manages the disease and environment of crops in the farm based on the monitoring; Further, KR, page 8, work status display function, the work object can select an event that occurs during work from the preset screen and transmit the corresponding event occurrence information to the server. Such event occurrence information may be transmitted to the manager device through the server); the first issue occurrence information at least comprises one of a type of issue, an occurrence location of an issue, a photo related to the issue, and urgency status of the issue, (KR, page 6, manages the growth, disease, and environment of crops in the farm based on the monitoring result of the monitoring ... based on the monitoring result by the camera (Examiner notes photo related to issue));
the first input is obtained through an issue input interface provided on the worker terminal, (See KR, page 8, teaches worker device; KR, page 8, an input interface for reporting the occurrence of an event); the server is configured to store the first issue occurrence information received from the at least one worker terminal, classify, as an unconfirmed issue, and store the first issue occurrence information until an issue ... for the first issue occurrence information is received from the manager terminal, and provide one or more pieces of the stored issue occurrence information to the manager terminal in response to a trigger received from the manager terminal, (See KR, page 8, teaches worker device; Server is taught throughout KR, see at least page 2, teaches server provided with a smart farm platform; KR, page 7, classifies and stores location information, status information or history information about work objects or events; KR, page 4, the job event information is processed as resolved or unresolved and stored; KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image to the mobile terminal of the related worker or the related manager ... can proceed with event processing through the 'Resolve' button for the event, and can process events that do not require or do not require processing by selecting the 'Unresolved' button; Further, See KR, page 3, The quality control unit may determine the quality of the product based on a linear condition of a quality analysis result according to a combination of a production elapsed date and a storage temperature or a combination of a storage period and a storage temperature (Examiner notes confirmation)); the manager terminal is configured to display an issue occurrence status page reflecting the one or more pieces of the provided issue occurrence information, (KR, page 8, the manager device, the operator may search the event list through the search bar, and the details or location information of the selected event may be shared in real time on the screen);
one or more issue items representing the one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information are displayed on the issue occurrence status page, (KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result including the information collected in the monitoring step and the image on the crop condition to the user terminal. Also, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image 330a to the mobile terminal of the related worker or the related manager);
the one or more issue items are classified and displayed according to the type, (KR, page 4, classification of the job type and provided as a pop-up, and the level according to the duration and duration of the job event is displayed); an issue item indicating issue occurrence information classified as the unconfirmed issue is classified, as the unconfirmed issue, and displayed despite the type, and (KR, page 7, teaches, classifies location information, status information about work objects or events; KR, page 9, teaches may be displayed in real time. On the event statistics screen ... event processing through the 'Resolve' button for the event, and can process events that do not require or do not require processing by selecting the 'Unresolved' button);
an issue item indicating issue occurrence information comprising an urgency is displayed along with an urgency indicator indicating the urgency (KR, page 7, teaches, a visualization function of the type of job by color and a level display according to the severity of the job event; Further, KR, page 9, alarms may be output differently through different colors or different sounds on the event statistics screen according to the severity level of an important event or a general event). Yet KR does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor Oliver teaches issue registration determination (See at least Oliver, Figures 18 and 19, and para 0023, FIG. 18 depicts one embodiment of a plant type profile for a succulent plant. The profile specifies properties and corresponding rules comprising of conditions and actions for different stages of the lifecycle of the plant; para 0024, FIG. 19 depicts one embodiment of a plant type profile of a strawberry plant. The profile specifies the properties and corresponding rules comprising of conditions and actions for different stages of the lifecycle of the plant.) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine KR with registration determination as taught by Oliver with the motivation for optimal care for plants, a set of parameters specifying the ideal conditions and an acceptable range as well as a set of rules to observe when conditions are not ideal for each plant (Oliver, para 0001). The KR invention now incorporating the Oliver invention, has all the limitations of claim 1.
Regarding Claim 2, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein when a first issue item based on a second input of the user is selected, the manager terminal displays an issue detail page for the first issue item, and the issue detail page displays the type, the occurrence location, and the photo, which are corresponding to the selected first issue item (KR, Abstract, The intelligent farm management system is a monitoring unit that monitors resources including manpower, equipment, facilities, measuring instruments and logistics, stores location information, movement information and status information about resources; KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image (Examiner notes photo) to the mobile terminal of the related manager; KR, page 7, the type of job and display).
Regarding Claim 3, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 2, wherein when the first issue item is an issue item classified as the unconfirmed issue, the issue detail page is further provided with an issue registration interface, the manager terminal transmits an issue registration determination to the server when obtaining the issue registration determination for the first issue item through the issue registration interface, and the server reclassifies, as a registered issue, the issue occurrence information classified as the unconfirmed issue corresponding to the first issue item (See KR, page 8, teaches worker device; Server is taught throughout KR, see at least page 2, teaches server provided with a smart farm platform; KR, page 7, classifies and stores location information, status information or history information about work objects or events; KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image to the mobile terminal of the related worker or the related manager ... can proceed with event processing through the 'Resolve' button for the event, and can process events that do not require or do not require processing by selecting the 'Unresolved' button; Further, See KR, page 3, The quality control unit may determine the quality of the product based on a linear condition of a quality analysis result according to a combination of a production elapsed date and a storage temperature or a combination of a storage period and a storage temperature (Examiner notes confirmation); Oliver teaches registration determination, see at least Oliver, Figures 18 and 19, and para 0023-0024).
Regarding Claim 4, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 3, wherein when the first issue item is an issue item indicating issue occurrence information classified as the registered issue, the issue detail page is further provided with an issue resolution interface, the manager terminal transmits an issue resolution determination to the server when obtaining the issue resolution determination for the first issue item through the issue resolution interface, and the server reclassifies, as a resolved issue, the issue occurrence information classified as the registered issue corresponding to the first issue item (KR, page 4, the job event information is processed as resolved or unresolved and stored; KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image to the mobile terminal of the related worker or the related manager ... can proceed with event processing through the 'Resolve' button for the event).
Regarding Claim 5, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 4, wherein the issue items indicating the issue occurrence information classified as the resolved issue is classified as the resolved issue and displayed on the issue occurrence status page despite the type (KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image to the mobile terminal of the related worker or the related manager ... can proceed with event processing through the 'Resolve' button for the event).
Regarding Claim 6, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein the manager terminal transmits second issue occurrence information generated according to a third input of the user to the server, the second issue occurrence information comprises at least the type of issue and the occurrence location of the issue, the third input is obtained through the issue input interface provided on the manager terminal, and the server stores the second issue occurrence information received from the manager terminal, but classifies, as the registered issue, and stores the second issue occurrence information even though the issue registration determination for the second issue occurrence information is not received (See KR, page 8, teaches worker device; Server is taught throughout KR, see at least page 2, teaches server provided with a smart farm platform; KR, page 7, classifies and stores location information, status information or history information about work objects or events; KR, page 4, the job event information is processed as resolved or unresolved and stored; KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image to the mobile terminal of the related worker or the related manager ... can proceed with event processing through the 'Resolve' button for the event, and can process events that do not require or do not require processing by selecting the 'Unresolved' button.);
Regarding Claim 7, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein the issue input interface comprises: an occurrence location selection interface of the issue; a type selection interface of the issue; a photo input interface related to the issue; an urgency selection interface of the issue; and a description input interface related to the issue (KR, page 7, classifies and stores location information, status information or history information about work objects or events (Examiner notes location and description); KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image (Examiner notes photo) to the mobile terminal; KR, page 6, teaches manages disease and environment of crops in the farm based on the monitoring result (Examiner notes type); KR, page 7, teaches, a visualization function of the type of job by color and a level display according to the severity of the job event (Examiner notes urgency)).
Regarding Claim 8, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 7, wherein the interface for selecting the occurrence location is deactivated when there is location information corresponding to a ... obtained through the worker terminal (KR, page 7, any one of a location recognition tag or a location recognition device capable of providing location information sensed through any one of a WiFi signal-based method, a beacon signal-based method, a Bluetooth signal-based method, and an RFID tag-based method can respond to one. Oliver throughout teaches QR codes, see at least Oliver, para 0144, teaches scanning QR code, or bard code, using camera for Mobile computing device to plant type identifier for lookup of database).
Regarding Claim 9, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 7, wherein the occurrence location selection interface is provided to display a preset list of locations so that one of the locations is selected (KR, page 3, farm and generate its own location information based on identifiers or preset location information; Further, KR, page 4, a space divided for each zone and sector of a predetermined unit.)
Regarding Claim 10, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 7, wherein the occurrence location selection interface comprises at least one of: a zone selection interface provided to display preset zone tabs so that one of the zone tabs is selected; a line selection interface provided to display a preset list of lines existing within a zone so that one of the lines existing within the zone is selected; and a line-based location selection interface provided to display preset approximate location tabs within a line so that one of the approximate location tabs within the line is selected (KR, teaches user interface throughout, See KR, page 3, farm and generate its own location information based on identifiers or preset location information; Further, KR, page 4, a space divided for each zone and sector of a predetermined unit; Further, KR, page 8, A map display area 313 for displaying objects such as personnel and equipment; KR, page 5, intelligent farm management system among a plurality of guide pipes spaced apart from each other in a specific type of farm, for example, a crop cultivation area arranged in multiple rows). Examiner notes the “zone tabs” and “location tabs” are simply labels and add little, if anything, to the claimed acts or steps and thus does not serve to distinguish over the prior art. Any differences related merely to the meaning and information conveyed through labels (i.e., the specific type of information) which does not explicitly alter or impact the steps of the method does not patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art in terms of patentability.
Regarding Claim 11, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 7, wherein the type selection interface is provided to display preset issue type tabs so that one of the issue type tabs is selected, the photo input interface is provided to input the photo obtained from a photographing module of the worker terminal, the urgency selection interface is provided to display preset urgency setting tabs so that one of the urgency setting tabs is selected, and the description input interface is provided to input a message through an input unit of the worker terminal (See KR, page 3, farm and generate its own location information based on identifiers or preset location information; KR, page 7, classifies and stores location information, status information or history information about work objects or events (Examiner notes location and description); KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image (Examiner notes photo) to the mobile terminal; KR, page 6, teaches manages disease and environment of crops in the farm based on the monitoring result (Examiner notes type); KR, page 7, teaches, a visualization function of the type of job by color and a level display according to the severity of the job event (Examiner notes urgency); KR, page 2, message through a user interface).
Examiner notes the “issue type tabs” and “urgency setting tabs” are simply labels and add little, if anything, to the claimed acts or steps and thus does not serve to distinguish over the prior art. Any differences related merely to the meaning and information conveyed through labels (i.e., the specific type of information) which does not explicitly alter or impact the steps of the method does not patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art in terms of patentability.
Regarding Claim 12, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein the type at least comprises pests and diseases, as well as facility failures, and an issue item indicating issue occurrence information classified as unconfirmed, an issue item indicating issue occurrence information regarding the pests and diseases, and an issue item indicating issue occurrence information regarding the facility failures are classified and displayed in the issue occurrence status page (KR, page 7, classifies and stores location information, status information or history information about work objects or events; KR, page 6, teaches manages disease and environment of crops in the farm based on the monitoring result (Examiner notes type); KR, Abstract, teaches intelligent farm management system is a monitoring unit that monitors resources including manpower, equipment, facilities).
Regarding Claim 13, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein among the one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information, a number of pieces of the issue occurrence information classified as the unconfirmed issue and the number of pieces of the issue occurrence information by type are classified and displayed in the issue occurrence status page (KR, page 7, classifies and stores location information, status information or history information about work objects or events; KR, page 9, an event statistics screen for checking information about the event that has occurred... These event alarms may be output differently through different colors or different sounds on the event statistics screen according to the severity level of an important event or a general event.)
Regarding Claim 14, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein the occurrence location is classified for each zone within the greenhouse, and the one or more issue items are classified and displayed for each zone in the issue occurrence status page (KR, page 9, an event statistics screen for checking information about the event that has occurred. In the event statistics screen, when an event occurs... a specific color on the path between the crop cultivation areas and the crop cultivation areas by area or sector.)
Regarding Claim 15, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein the issue occurrence information further comprises a generation date of the issue, and the issue occurrence status page separately displays an issue item indicating issue occurrence information comprising the urgency and whose generation date is a current date, among the one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information (KR, page 9, an event statistics screen for checking information about the event that has occurred... These event alarms may be output differently through different colors or different sounds on the event statistics screen according to the severity level of an important event or a general event; KR, page 8, The work path inquiry module may provide a function to inquire the work path by entering a specific date; Further, KR, page 9, the farm management system provides a user interface that can inquire the work time, total moving distance, and work history on a specific date).
Regarding Claim 16, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein the manager terminal displays an issue detail page for a second issue item when the second issue item is selected according to a fourth input of the user, the issue detail page is provided with a reminder settings interface, the manager terminal transmits reminder date information to the server when obtaining the reminder date information for the second issue item through the reminder settings interface, and the server sets a reminder comprising the reminder date information in the issue occurrence information corresponding to the second issue item (See KR, page 8, teaches worker device; Server is taught throughout KR, see at least page 2, teaches server provided with a smart farm platform; KR, page 7, classifies and stores location information, status information or history information about work objects or events; KR, page 9, the farm management system may provide the monitoring result image to the mobile terminal of the related worker or the related manager ... can proceed with event processing through the 'Resolve' button for the event, and can process events that do not require or do not require processing by selecting the 'Unresolved' button; Further, See KR, page 3, The quality control unit may determine the quality of the product based on a linear condition of a quality analysis result according to a combination of a production elapsed date and a storage temperature or a combination of a storage period and a storage temperature; See at least Oliver, para 0353, Settings can be made for properties such as, but not limited to Moisture/Watering needs, Ideal Temperature and Sunlight for the plant as well as reminders for fertilizing can be configured by selecting symbols representing the properties and Conditions required.)
Regarding Claim 17, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 16, wherein in the issue occurrence status page, a reminder indicator is displayed together with an issue item indicating issue occurrence information for which the reminder is set (See KR, teaches server provided with a smart farm platform; See KR, page 3, The quality control unit may determine the quality of the product based on a linear condition of a quality analysis result according to a combination of a production elapsed date and a storage temperature or a combination of a storage period and a storage temperature; See at least Oliver, para 0353, Settings can be made for properties such as, but not limited to Moisture/Watering needs, Ideal Temperature and Sunlight for the plant as well as reminders for fertilizing can be configured by selecting symbols representing the properties and Conditions required.)
Regarding Claim 18, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 16, wherein the manager terminal provides an alarm when there is issue occurrence information, for which the reminder is set and comprising the reminder date information corresponding to the current date, among the one or more pieces of the issue occurrence information (See KR, teaches server provided with a smart farm platform; See KR, page 3, The quality control unit may determine the quality of the product based on a linear condition of a quality analysis result according to a combination of a production elapsed date and a storage temperature or a combination of a storage period and a storage temperature; See at least Oliver, para 0353, Settings can be made for properties such as, but not limited to Moisture/Watering needs, Ideal Temperature and Sunlight for the plant as well as reminders for fertilizing can be configured by selecting symbols representing the properties and Conditions required; Oliver, para 0384, timing based reminders, such as “fertilise after 40 days” can be set in the application on the mobile computing device to trigger reminders.)
Regarding Claim 19, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 1, wherein the manager terminal displays an issue detail page for a third issue item when the third issue item is selected according to a fifth input of the user, the issue detail page is provided with a message input interface, the manager terminal transmits an additional message to the server when obtaining the additional message for the third issue item through the message input interface, and the server comprises the additional message in issue occurrence information corresponding to the third issue item (KR, page 2, message through a user interface; KR, page 8, teaches receives a user input or work instruction signal for a change in location or movement of personnel or equipment, a change in work history, etc., based on real-time work management information; KR, page 6, teaches manages the disease and environment of crops in the farm based on the monitoring; Further, KR, page 8, work status display function, the work object can select an event that occurs during work from the preset screen and transmit the corresponding event occurrence information to the server. Such event occurrence information may be transmitted through the server).
Regarding Claim 20, KR, now incorporating Oliver, teaches The issue management system of claim 19, wherein the issue detail page displays the additional message included in the issue occurrence information corresponding to the third issue item (KR, page 2, message through a user interface; Further, KR, page 8, work status display function, the work object can select an event that occurs during work from the preset screen and transmit the corresponding event occurrence information to the server).
Additional Prior Art Consulted
The prior art made of record and not relied upon which is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure includes the following:
McCall (US 2003/0033156 A1) - A network advisory system that provides advisory information to a field service provider is disclosed. The network advisory system receives collected data from one or more destination facilities and analyzes the information to generate advisory information. The advisory information is used by the field service provider to provide a service at the destination facility. The field service provider may receive the advisory information while in transit to the destination facility or while located at a destination facility. The field service provider receives the advisory information through a network connection. The network connection may be either a wireless connection or a land-based connection.
Omansky et al. (US 2013/0082101 A1) – System and method for field management using barcodes and optical scanners
Prendergast (US 2023/0031148 A1) - Methods and systems are disclosed configured to control the planting, application of pesticides, and harvesting of greenhouse crops, such as herbs. The greenhouse may include a variety of sensors, such as moisture sensors, ph sensors, and/or CO2 sensors. Unmanned vehicles may be utilized to capture crop images, and a learning engine may be used to determine the size of greenhouse crops. Such sensor data may be used to predict crop availability. A predication engine may be utilized to predict demand for greenhouse crops using current and historical orders for greenhouse crops. Greenhouse crop production instructions may be generated and transmitted to a greenhouse computer system to cause crops to be sown or harvested. Pallet loading instructions may be generated regarding the loading of specified quantities of crop packs on respective pallets for shipment to a destination.
NPL - Ayaz MAmmad-Uddin MSharif ZMansour AAggoune E, “Internet-of-Things (IoT)-based smart agriculture: Toward making the fields talk”, Publisher IEEE 2019, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8784034 - Despite the perception people may have regarding the agricultural process, the reality is that today's agriculture industry is data-centered, precise, and smarter than ever. The rapid emergence of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) based technologies redesigned almost every …
NPL – B. Balaji Bhanu; K. Raghava Rao; J.V.N. Ramesh; Mohammed Ali Hussain, “Agriculture field monitoring and analysis using wireless sensor networks for improving crop production”, Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 16 October 2014, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6923043 - The purpose of this is to design and develop an agricultural monitoring system using wireless sensor network to increase the productivity and quality of farming without observing it for all the time manually. Temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels are the most important factors for the productivity, growth, and quality of plants in agriculture. So this system periodically measures these parameters inside the fields, thus the farmers or the agriculture experts can observe the measurements from the web simultaneously. Moreover, when a critical change in one of the measurements occurs, then the farmer will be intimated via mobile text message and e-mail by an agriculture expert. With the continuous monitoring of many environmental parameters, the grower can analyze the optimal environmental conditions to achieve maximum crop productiveness, for the better productivity and to achieve remarkable energy savings.
Applicant is advised to review additional references supplied on the PTO-892 as to the state of the art of the invention.
Conclusion
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/R.R.N./Examiner, Art Unit 3629/LYNDA JASMIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3629
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