Office Action 1: Notice of Allowance (2025-07-02)

CLAIMS:
Claims What is claimed is:
1\. A method of operating a laundry treating appliance for treating laundry items according to a cycle of operation, the method comprising: rotating a rotatable treating chamber containing laundry items having RFID tags; receiving, by an antenna, RFID data from the RFID tags on the laundry items; processing, by a controller communicably coupled with the antenna, the RFID data to distinguish between RFID tags that are moving and RFID tags that are stationary; ignoring RFID data from the stationary RFID tags; and suggesting, altering, or implementing the cycle of operation based on the RFID data from the moving RFID tags.
2\. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving the RFID data by the antenna occurs during the rotation of the rotatable treating chamber.
3\. The method of claim 2 wherein the rotation of the rotatable treating chamber and the receiving the RFID data by the antenna occurs prior to supplying water to the treating chamber.
4\. The method of claim 1 wherein the antenna is an RFID reader.
5\. The method of claim 1 wherein the controller is an antenna controller and is integrated with the antenna.
6\. The method of claim 5 wherein the antenna controller is communicably coupled with a laundry treating appliance controller.
7\. The method of claim 1 wherein distinguishing between the moving RFID tags and the stationary RFID tags comprises signal processing of the RFID data.
8\. The method of claim 7 wherein the signal processing of the RFID data comprises analyzing signal strength.
9\. The method of claim 7 wherein the signal processing of the RFID data comprises at least one of signal strength analysis, signal phase analysis, signal amplitude change analysis, frequency analysis, transformed frequency analysis, standard deviation metrics, or short time Fourier transformations.
10\. The method of claim 1 wherein the RFID tags are removably or non-removably coupled to the laundry items.

OFFICE 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 .
Reasons for Allowance
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The prior art does not appear to teach or make obvious the claimed method of operating a laundry treating appliance, the method comprising: rotating a treating chamber containing laundry items having RFID tags; receiving by an antenna, RFID data from the RFID tags on the laundry items; processing, by a controller to distinguish between RFID tags that are moving and RFID tags that are stationary; ignoring RFID data from the stationary RFID tags; and suggesting, altering, or implanting the cycle of operation based on the RFID data from the moving RFID tags.
The prior art teaches methods of operating a laundry treating appliance having RFID tags but does not appear to teach the claimed method of distinguishing, ignoring, and affecting the cycle of operation based on it.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee.  Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion