Ex Parte Carmi et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardAug 14, 201713528339 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 14, 2017) Copy Citation United States Patent and Trademark Office UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O.Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 13/528,339 06/20/2012 Eitan Carmi 2011P13690US01 7153 45113 7590 08/16/2017 Siemens Corporation Intellectual Property Department 3501 Quadrangle Blvd Ste 230 Orlando, EL 32817 EXAMINER THANGAVELU, KANDASAMY ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2123 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 08/16/2017 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): IPDadmin.us@siemens.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte EITAN CARMI, RAFI BLUMENFELD, and TALI SEGALL Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 Technology Center 2100 Before JOHN A. JEFFERY, ERIC S. FRAHM, and JOHN D. HAMANN, Administrative Patent Judges. JEFFERY, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s decision to reject claims 1—23.1 We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We affirm-in-part. 1 Although Appellants’ Replacement Claims Appendix filed September 30, 2016 omits claims 22 and 23, these claims are nevertheless presented in the Appeal Brief’s original Claims Appendix filed July 21, 2016 and the Claims Appendix accompanying the Reply Brief filed January 10, 2017. The Examiner likewise acknowledges that claims 22 and 23 are pending in this appeal. See Ans. 3. Therefore, we presume that claims 22 and 23 are pending in this appeal, and treat Appellants’ omission of these claims in the Replacement Claims Appendix as a harmless typographical error. Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants’ invention produces an access-controlled three- dimensional (3D) environment of a facility and its assets. After an environment management system (EMS) validates received user credentials, 3D environment data is transmitted to a client system based on those credentials and user-specific data. Upon receiving a request for additional information corresponding to an associated asset, the EMS transmits a reference to the additional information on an enterprise server system (ESS). The client then uses this reference to retrieve the additional information from the ESS for display. See generally Abstract. Claim 1, reproduced below with our emphasis, is illustrative: 1. A method performed by an environment management system (EMS), comprising: receiving, from a client system, user credentials; validating the user credentials; retrieving user-specific data corresponding to the validated user credentials; transmitting three-dimensional (3D) environment data to the client system based on the validated user credentials and the user-specific data; receiving a request for information regarding an asset of the 3D environment data; determining, based on the validated user credentials, additional information corresponding to the asset of the 3D environment data, the additional information located on an enterprise server system (ESS); and transmitting, to the client system, a reference to the additional information on the ESS, wherein the reference can be used by the client system to retrieve the additional information from the ESS for display on the client system. 2 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 THE REJECTIONS The Examiner rejected claims 1—3, 5—11, 13—19, and 21—23 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Omansky (US 2012/0066178 Al; Mar. 15, 2012), Trenciansky (US 2012/0281095 Al; Nov. 8, 2012), and Reichard (US 2007/0075995 Al; Apr. 5, 2007). Final Act. 3-12.2 The Examiner rejected claims 4, 12, and 20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Omansky, Trenciansky, Reichard, and Rappaport (US 6,971,063 Bl; Nov. 29, 2005). Final Act. 12-13. THE OBVIOUSNESS REJECTION OVER OMANSKY, TRENCIANSKY, AND REICHARD Regarding claim l,3 the Examiner finds that Omansky discloses, among other things, an EMS that (1) retrieves user-specific data; (2) receives a request for information regarding an asset of 3D environment data; (3) determines, based on validated user credentials, additional information corresponding to the asset; and (4) transmits a reference to the additional information on an ESS. Final Act. 3—5. Although the Examiner acknowledges that Omansky does not receive user credentials from a client system nor validate those credentials, the Examiner cites Trenciansky as teaching these elements, and that additional information can be located on an 2 Throughout this opinion, we refer to (1) the Final Rejection mailed February 17, 2016 (“Final Act.”); (2) the Appeal Brief filed July 21, 2016 (supplemented September 30, 2016) (“App. Br.”); (3) the Examiner’s Answer mailed November 22, 2016 (“Ans.”); and (4) the Reply Brief filed January 10, 2017 (“Reply Br.”). 3 Although the Examiner’s findings and conclusions on pages 3 to 8 of the Final Rejection pertain to independent claim 9, these findings and conclusions also pertain to independent claim 1 that recites commensurate limitations. See Final Act. 12. 3 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 ESS. Final Act. 6, 8. The Examiner also cites Reichard for teaching transmitting 3D environment data to a client system based on validated user credentials and user-specific data. Final Act. 7—8. Based on these collective teachings, the Examiner concludes that claim 1 would have been obvious. Final Act. 3—8. Appellants argue that the cited references do not teach or suggest an EMS that (1) transmits 3D environment data to a client system based on validated user credentials and user-specific data, and (2) determines the recited additional information based on the validated user credentials, where this information is located on a different system, namely an ESS. App. Br. 16—21; Reply Br. 9—17. Appellants add that the Examiner’s proposed combination is based on impermissible hindsight. App. Br. 22—23. Appellants also argue other recited limitations summarized below. ISSUES I. Under § 103, has the Examiner erred by finding that Omansky, Trenciansky, and Reichard collectively would have taught or suggested: (1) (a) transmitting 3D environment data to a client system based on validated user credentials and user-specific data, and (b) determining, based on the validated user credentials, additional information corresponding to an asset of the 3D environment data, where the additional information is located on an ESS, as recited in claim 1? (2) the client system combining the 3D environment data with data from a graphic mapping server to produce a simulated 3D environment display, as recited in claim 2? 4 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 (3) the client system displaying additional information that has an associated effective date corresponding to a user-specified date, as recited in claim 8? II. Is the Examiner’s proposed combination of the cited references supported by articulated reasoning with some rational underpinning to justify the Examiner’s obviousness conclusion? ANALYSIS Claims 1, 3, 5—7, 9, 11, 13—15, 17, 19, and 21—23 On this record, we find no error in the Examiner’s rejection of claim 1. In the rejection, the Examiner cites Omansky for teaching an EMS that (1) retrieves user-specific data, namely particular data structures and data sets that are relevant to a person associated with a construction project, and (2) transmits 3D environment data to a client system. Final Act. 3—4, 7 (citing Omansky Abstract; H 3, 6, 27, 50). Although the Examiner acknowledges that Omansky does not retrieve user-specific data corresponding to validated user credentials, we see no error in the Examiner’s reliance on Trenciansky merely to show that retrieving data corresponding to validated user credentials via a login procedure in paragraph 51 is known in the art, and that it would have been obvious to require users in Omansky to validate their credentials to obtain data—a predictable result. See Final Act. 6—8. Given these teachings in view of Reichard’s additional teachings of providing 3D environment data noted by the Examiner (Final Act. 7—8), we agree with the Examiner that transmitting 3D environment data to a client system based on validated user credentials and user-specific data would have been obvious. 5 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 Nor do we find error in the Examiner’s reliance on Omansky for determining additional information corresponding to an asset of the 3D environment data, where that additional information is located on an ESS. As Omansky’s Abstract explains, after selected data structures and data sets are transmitted to a user terminal, they are updated based on inputs received from the user. Notably, this updated information corresponds to the recited “additional information” as noted in the Examiner’s rejection. See Final Act. 4—5. Given this functionality considered in light of Trenciansky, not only would retrieved user-specific data correspond to validated user credentials, but also the additional updated information that, notably, is based on user inputs—users whose credentials can be verified via login as suggested by Trenciansky’s paragraph 51. Therefore, this additional information would be based at least partly on validated user credentials in view of these collective teachings, particularly given Omansky’s ability to enable updates using a permissions configurator in paragraph 43 as the Examiner indicates. See Ans. 5. Appellants’ contentions regarding Omansky’s individual shortcomings in this regard (App. Br. 17—18; Reply Br. 10—11) do not show nonobviousness where, as here, the rejection is based on the cited references’ collective teachings. See In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 1097 (Fed. Cir. 1986). In short, the Examiner’s proposed combination uses prior art elements predictably according to their established functions—an obvious improvement. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 417 (2007). We also find unavailing Appellants’ contention that because Omansky’s additional information is on the server itself (i.e., the EMS), this 6 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 information is ostensibly not located on the ESS as claimed. App. Br. 18— 21; Reply Br. 10—12. This argument, however, ignores the Examiner’s reliance on Omansky’s third computing device in paragraph 27, namely a database, as corresponding to the recited ESS. See Final Act. 8 (mapping the third computing device to the ESS). This database not only communicates with the server (i.e., the second computing device), but also can be a separate server. See Omansky || 27, 30. Therefore, Omansky at least suggests storing the additional information in a separate server-based location, such as a database or ESS, under the Examiner’s mapping. Appellants’ arguments do not squarely address—let alone persuasively rebut—the Examiner’s findings in this regard. In short, Appellants’ arguments—including those alleging that the Examiner officially noticed facts improperly (Reply Br. 15—16)—are not germane to the Examiner’s above-noted reliance on Omansky’s separate database as corresponding to the recited ESS. To the extent that Appellants contend that Omansky’s separate database somehow cannot constitute—or at least suggest—an ESS (see App. Br. 16—21; Reply Br. 9-17), there is no persuasive evidence on this record to substantiate such an assertion. Rather, the weight of the evidence favors the Examiner’s findings and conclusions in this regard, particularly given the scope and breadth of the term “ESS” and its data storage function described in Appellants’ Specification. See, e.g., Spec. 130 (noting that ESS 240 can maintain user-specific and environmental data). That the term “ESS” is not defined in the Specification, unlike other terms whose explicit definitions 7 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 leave no doubt as to their meaning,4 only bolsters the propriety of the Examiner’s equating Omansky’s separate database to the recited ESS given the term’s scope and breadth. Lastly, we see no error in the Examiner’s rationale to combine the cited references on pages 5, 6, and 8 of the Final Office Action. Nor do we find the Examiner rejection is based on impermissible hindsight reconstruction as Appellants allege. App. Br. 22—23; Reply Br. 17—19. To be sure, “[a]ny judgment on obviousness is in a sense necessarily a reconstruction based upon hindsight reasoning . . . .” In re McLaughlin, 443 F.2d 1392, 1395 (CCPA 1971). But it is well settled that the reason to combine references need not be found in the combined references, but rather may be found in any number of sources, including common knowledge, the prior art as a whole, or the nature of the problem itself. DyStar Textilfarben GmbH & Co. Deutschland KG v. C.H. Patrick Co., 464 F.3d 1356, 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (citation omitted). Where, as here, the record tends to suggest that the Examiner’s rationale to combine the references stems from common knowledge in the art and the teachings of the cited references, and is not based solely on knowledge gleaned from Appellants’ disclosure, the Examiner’s proposed combination is proper. See id. On this record, then, we find the Examiner’s proposed combination is supported by articulated reasoning with some rational underpinning to justify the Examiner’s obviousness conclusion. 4 See, e.g., Spec. 8, 26, 28 (defining various terms explicitly). 8 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 Therefore, we are not persuaded that the Examiner erred in rejecting claim 1, and claims 3, 5—7, 9, 11, 13—15, 17, 19, and 21—23 not argued separately with particularity. Claims 2, 10, and 18 We also sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claim 2 reciting that the client system combines the 3D environment data with data from a graphic mapping server to produce a simulated 3D environment display. Final Act. 9, 12.5 Although the term “graphic mapping server” is not defined explicitly in the Specification, the Specification’s paragraph 29 nevertheless explains that geographic mapping server 230 can store, generate, and transmit geographic information to the client, and can be implemented using a system such as the “Google Earth” geographic mapping system. Although this description is exemplary and non-limiting, it nevertheless informs our constmction of the term “graphic mapping server” in claim 2 as providing geographic mapping data that, when combined with the 3D environment data, produces a simulated 3D environment display. Despite Appellants’ arguments to the contrary (App. Br. 23—25; Reply Br. 20—21), we see no error in the Examiner reliance on Omansky’s paragraphs 3 and 6 in this regard, particularly in light of Omansky’s data updating capabilities in the Abstract, and Reichard’s teaching that multiple servers 920 can be used to serve one or more clients in Figure 9. Final Act. 9 (citing Omansky || 3, 6); Ans. 12—13 (citing Omansky, Abstract; Reichard 5 Although the Examiner’s rejection identifies claim 10, claim 2 recites commensurate limitations and is, therefore, rejected on the same basis. See Final Act. 9, 12. 9 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 65—66). Given Omansky’s acknowledged use of geographic information in building modeling systems in paragraph 3, and that data structures and data sets for such modeling systems are updated after transmission to a user terminal as noted in Omansky’s Abstract, we see no reason why geographic data associated with such an update could not be received from a separate graphic mapping server and combined with other 3D environment data at the client, particularly in light of the multiple servers shown in Reichard’s Figure 9. Such an enhancement uses prior art elements predictably according to their established functions—an obvious improvement. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 417 (2007). Appellants’ arguments regarding the cited references’ individual shortcomings in this regard (App. Br. 23—25; Reply Br. 20-21) do not show nonobviousness where, as here, the rejection is based on the cited references’ collective teachings. See Merck, 800 F.2d at 1097. Therefore, we are not persuaded that the Examiner erred in rejecting claim 2, and claims 10 and 18 not argued separately with particularity.6 Claims 8 and 16 We will not, however, sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claim 8 reciting, in pertinent part, the client system displaying additional information that has an associated effective date corresponding to a user-specified date. 6 Although Appellants nominally argue claims 10 and 18 separately (App. Br. 33—35, 42-43), Appellants reiterate arguments made for claim 2. We, therefore, group these claims accordingly. We treat other nominally-argued claims similarly, and group those claims accordingly. 10 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 Final Act. 11—12.7 Our emphasis underscores that the additional information itself has an effective date as claimed. The Examiner’s rejection, however, falls short in this regard. As Appellants indicate (App. Br. 25—27; Reply Br. 22—23), the times and dates in Omansky’s Figure 8 and associated paragraph 54, on which the Examiner relies, merely pertain to particular systems: they are not the effective dates of the information itself, much less information-specific dates that correspond to a user-specified date. That the Examiner failed to respond to Appellants’ arguments in this regard in the Answer is telling. Accord Reply Br. 23 (noting this omission). In short, the Examiner simply does not explain how or why these dates in Omansky are effective dates of the additional information itself let alone explain why these dates correspond to a user- specified date. Nor will we speculate in that regard here in the first instance on appeal. The Examiner’s reliance on lines 15 to 18 of Omansky’s paragraph 40 (Final Act. 11) is likewise unavailing. Here again, apart from merely citing this passage, the Examiner does not explain how or why this disclosed functionality teaches or suggests effective dates of the additional information itself let alone explain why these dates correspond to a user- specified date. To the extent that the Examiner finds that Omansky’s synchronization rules in paragraph 40 are somehow relevant in this regard, we cannot say on this record. Nor will we speculate in that regard here in the first instance on appeal. 7 Although the Examiner’s rejection identifies claim 16, claim 8 recites commensurate limitations and is, therefore, rejected on the same basis. See Final Act. 11—12. 11 Appeal 2017-004303 Application 13/528,339 Therefore, we are persuaded that the Examiner erred in rejecting claim 8, and claim 16 that recites commensurate limitations.8 THE OTHER OBVIOUSNESS REJECTION We do, however, sustain the Examiner’s obviousness rejection of claims 4, 12, and 20. Final Act. 12—13. Despite nominally arguing these claims separately, Appellants reiterate similar arguments made in connection with claim 1, and allege that Rappaport fails to cure those purported deficiencies. App. Br. 12—13. We are not persuaded by these arguments for the reasons previously discussed. CONCLUSION Under § 103, the Examiner did not err in rejecting claims 1—7, 9—15, and 17—23, but erred in rejecting claims 8 and 16. DECISION We affirm-in-part the Examiner’s decision to reject claims 1—23. No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(l)(iv). AFFIRMED-IN-PART 8 Although Appellants include claim 23 in connection with their arguments made for claims 8 and 16 (Reply Br. 22), claim 23 does not recite limitations commensurate with those recited in claims 8 and 16. Accordingly, we group claim 23 with claim 1—not claim 8. 12 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation