DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 10/02/2025 has been entered.
Claims 1-15 and 18-21 are currently pending and examined below. Claims 1-3, 8-9, 11 and 15 have been amended. Claim 21 has been added.
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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 8-10, filed 10/02/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) and 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Liebchen et al. (DE 102016004422 B4) and Cristofaro (US 20140089049 A1).
Claim Objections
Claims 2 and 21 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claims 2 and 21, the Office recommends amending “random nose” to “random noise”.
Further, in claim 2, the Office recommends removing “[para. 361”.
Appropriate corrections are required.
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.
Claims 9-14 are 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.
In claim 9, the recitation “defined geographic area” is unclear. It is unclear because one of ordinary skill in the art would not know whether “a defined geographic area” in lines 8-9 and “a defined geographic area” in lines 11-12 are referring to the same area or different area and which of the two is “the defined geographic area” referring to in the later parts of the claim. The scope of the invention is thus indefinite.
Claims 10-14 and 12-20 are rejected as they depend upon rejected claim 9.
Appropriate corrections are required.
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.
Claims 1, 3-4, 8-11 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Messer et al. (US 11184762 B1; hereinafter Messer) in view of Liebchen et al. (see attached English translation of DE 102016004422 B4; hereinafter Liebchen).
Regarding claim 1, Messer discloses:
A method performed by a computing device (col. 7, lines 38-43 – first device 102 included in or integral with the vehicle 202) comprising storage hardware (col. 7, lines 38-43 – vehicle storage circuit 208) and processing hardware (col. 7, lines 38-43 – vehicle control circuit 206), the method (col. 5, lines 4-6 – vehicle control circuit 206 can include a function unit or circuit integral to the vehicle 202 and configured to execute or implement instructions) comprising:
as the computing device travels on a trip (Fig. 4 – travel route 408) from a starting location (Fig. 4 – starting location 432), storing geographic coordinates of the computing device captured during the traveling (col. 6, lines 38-53 – The location-movement sensor 212 can identify or calculate a geographic location of the vehicle 202; col. 4, lines 64-66 – The vehicle storage circuit 208 can store information from sensors);
testing the geographic coordinates against an obscuring condition to determine a first portion of the geographic coordinates that satisfy the obscuring condition (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof), wherein the first portion of the geographic coordinates that satisfy the obscuring conditions comprises one or more geographic coordinates inside a first geofence (col. 16, lines 12-25 – geofence of waypoint 450);
based on the determined first portion of geographic coordinates that satisfy the obscuring condition (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof), altering the geographic coordinates in the determined first portion of the geographic coordinates (col. 16, lines 33-40 – The recurrent region 452 can also represent an anonymization 502 of the location information of the current location 404 of the devices, The anonymization 502 is the masking of the current location 404 for privacy protection 456. The privacy protection 456 safeguards geographic location information or presence of the first device 102 of FIG. 1, the vehicle 202 of FIG. 2, or a combination thereof.), wherein the altering comprises reducing the precision or accuracy of the geographic coordinates in the determined first portion of geographic coordinates (col. 17, lines 12-26 – the anonymization 502 can also represent obfuscating the actual location for the current location 404);
transmitting in real-time, from the computing device via a wireless network, the first altered geographic coordinates (col. 22, lines 44-45 – reporting the anonymization in the real-time for a privacy protection in a box 708);
storing additional geographic coordinates from the trip collected after the computing device passes through the first geofence (Fig. 5 – see geographic location after waypoint 450; col. 6, lines 38-53 – The location-movement sensor 212 can identify or calculate a geographic location of the vehicle 202; col. 4, lines 64-66 – The vehicle storage circuit 208 can store information from sensors);
determining that the trip is still in progress and a destination location for the trip is not yet known (see Fig. 5 – progress on travel route 408, col. 14, lines 21-22 – The travel destination 410 can be an intended location or an objective of the traveling activity, the Examiner notes because travel destination 410 is a travel activity, it is not yet known);
responsive to the determination that the destination location is not yet known (see Fig. 5 – progress on travel route 408, col. 14, lines 21-22 – The travel destination 410 can be an intended location or an objective of the traveling activity, the Examiner notes because travel destination 410 is a travel activity, it is not yet known):
upon completion of the trip, the destination location (Fig. 5 – reaching travel destination 410);
determining an obscuring area for the destination location (col. 16, lines 12-25 – geofence of travel destination 410);
determining a second portion of the additional geographic coordinates that are within the obscuring area (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof);
altering the second portion of the additional geographic coordinates, wherein the altering comprises reducing the precision or accuracy of the additional geographic coordinates in the determined second portion of the additional geographic coordinates (col. 16, lines 33-40 – The recurrent region 452 can also represent an anonymization 502 of the location information of the current location 404 of the devices, The anonymization 502 is the masking of the current location 404 for privacy protection 456. The privacy protection 456 safeguards geographic location information or presence of the first device 102 of FIG. 1, the vehicle 202 of FIG. 2, or a combination thereof.);
transmitting, responsive to the determination of the completion of the trip, from the computing device via the wireless network, the second altered geographic coordinates (col. 22, lines 44-45 – reporting the anonymization in the real-time for a privacy protection in a box 708).
Messer does not specifically disclose:
responsive to the determination that the destination location is not yet known:
caching the additional geographic coordinates determining.
However, Liebchen discloses:
responsive to the determination that the destination location is not yet known:
caching the additional geographic coordinates determining (claim 1 – local caching measured time and location data is done regardless before anonymizing or pseudonymizing).
Messer and Liebchen are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control to further incorporate Liebchen’s privacy control for the advantage of locally caching location data before anonymizing the selected data which results in retaining location data on coordinates and privacy control at the specific location.
Regarding claim 3, Messer discloses:
wherein the obscuring condition comprises a dynamic condition (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the Examiner notes that whether or not a location is recurrent is a dynamic condition) based on a geographic area (col. 16, lines 7-11 – The example shown in FIG. 5, the recurrent region 452 is shown with a geometric shape as a polygon) based on an origin (see Fig. 5 – polygon of starting location 432) or destination of the trip (see Fig. 5 – polygon of travel destination 410).
Regarding claim 4, Messer discloses:
wherein the obscuring condition comprises a second geofenced area, and wherein the second geofenced area is defined before the trip begins (col. 18, lines 37-61 – The trip storage module 604 can collect location traces or trips for the user over time. The traces or trips can be for the navigation session 406 of FIG. 4 or for free-drive mode. To start anonymized data or the anonymization 502 of FIG. 5, the compute system 100 would need to collect trips or the recurrence 426 of FIG. 4 for a repeated number of times, such as two or more trips. The recurrence 426 can be based on the location or time duration., the Examiner asserts that there may be a recurrent region 452 for anonymization operations 502 before starting location 432 showing in Fig. 5 as there are multiple traces or trips collected over time).
Regarding claim 8, Messer discloses:
wherein the geographic coordinates comprise first unaltered geographic coordinates of the starting location (col. 17, lines 29-36 – The anonymization 502 can also be optional or not be performed if the current location 404 within a geofence of the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof, is not the recurrence 426 to that specific location, the travel route 408, the route segment 416 of FIG. 4, or a combination thereof.).
Regarding claim 9, Messer discloses:
A computing device (col. 7, lines 38-43 – first device 102 included in or integral with the vehicle 202) comprising:
processing hardware (col. 7, lines 38-43 – vehicle control circuit 206);
a Global Positioning System (GPS) module (col. 6, lines 38-53 – GPS receiver);
storage hardware (col. 7, lines 38-43 – vehicle storage circuit 208) storing instructions configured to be executed by the processing hardware to perform a process (col. 5, lines 4-6 – vehicle control circuit 206 can include a function unit or circuit integral to the vehicle 202 and configured to execute or implement instructions), the process comprising:
receiving GPS coordinates from the GPS module while the computing device is traveling on a trip (col. 6, lines 38-53 – The location-movement sensor 212 can identify or calculate a geographic location of the vehicle 202. Examples of the location-movement sensor 212 can include a GPS receiver or device), and storing the GPS coordinates in the storage hardware (col. 4, lines 64-66 – The vehicle storage circuit 208 can store information from sensors);
determining an obscuring condition comprising: a first condition associated with a defined geographic area (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof) and a second condition associated with a destination of the trip that was not specified to the computing device when the trip started (see Fig. 5 – progress on travel route 408, col. 14, lines 21-22 – The travel destination 410 can be an intended location or an objective of the traveling activity, the Examiner notes because travel destination 410 is a travel activity, it is not yet known);
determining, according to the GPS coordinates of the trip and according to a defined geographic area known when the trip started (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof), which of the GPS coordinates of the trip are within the defined geographic area, wherein a first portion of the GPS coordinates are collected over a first period of time and determined to be within the geographic area (col. 16, lines 12-25 – geofence of waypoint 450), wherein a second portion of the GPS coordinates are collected over a second period of time preceding the first period of time and determined to not be within the defined geographic area (see Figs. 4-5 – before geofence of waypoint 450), wherein a third portion of the GPS coordinates are collected over a third period of time subsequent to the first period of time and determined to not be within the defined geographic area (see Figs. 4-5 – after geofence of waypoint 450);
based on determining that the GPS coordinates in the first portion of GPS coordinates are within the defined geographic area (col. 16, lines 33-40 – The recurrent region 452 can also represent an anonymization 502 of the location information of the current location 404 of the devices, The anonymization 502 is the masking of the current location 404 for privacy protection 456. The privacy protection 456 safeguards geographic location information or presence of the first device 102 of FIG. 1, the vehicle 202 of FIG. 2, or a combination thereof.), reducing the accuracy or precision of the GPS coordinates in the first portion of GPS coordinates (col. 17, lines 12-26 – the anonymization 502 can also represent obfuscating the actual location for the current location 404);
transmitting, in real-time via a wireless network, the reduced first portion of GPS coordinates (col. 22, lines 44-45 – reporting the anonymization in the real-time for a privacy protection in a box 708);
based on determining that the GPS coordinates in the second portion of GPS coordinates are not within the defined geographic area, determining to not reduce the accuracy or precision of the GPS coordinates in the second portion of GPS coordinates (col. 17, lines 27-29 – the current location 404 is shown without the anonymization 502 outside of the recurrent region 452);
responsive to a determination that the trip has completed (Fig. 5 – reaching travel destination 410):
determining a destination location for the trip (Fig. 5 – reaching travel destination 410);
determining an obscuring area around the destination location (col. 16, lines 12-25 – geofence of travel destination 410);
based on at least part of the third portion of GPS coordinates being within the obscuring area, reducing the accuracy or precision of the at least part of the third portion of GPS coordinates (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof); and
transmitting, after arriving at the destination location for the trip via the wireless network, the reduced at least part of the third portion of GPS coordinates (col. 22, lines 44-45 – reporting the anonymization in the real-time for a privacy protection in a box 708).
Messer does not specifically disclose:
based on determining that the GPS coordinates in the third portion of GPS coordinates are not within the defined geographic area, caching the third portion of GPS coordinates.
However, Liebchen discloses:
based on determining that the GPS coordinates in the third portion of GPS coordinates are not within the defined geographic area, caching the third portion of GPS coordinates (claim 1 – local caching measured time and location data is done regardless before anonymizing or pseudonymizing).
Messer and Liebchen are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control to further incorporate Liebchen’s privacy control for the advantage of locally caching location data before anonymizing the selected data which results in retaining location data on coordinates and privacy control at the specific location.
Regarding claim 10, Messer discloses:
wherein the defined geographic area comprises a geofence defined at least in part prior to the trip starting, based at least in part on user input, automatically based on vehicle operation, based on crowd sourcing, defined based on road construction, or based on a property boundary (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof).
Regarding claim 11, Messer discloses:
wherein the GPS locations include an origin GPS location corresponding to the start of the trip, and wherein the defined geographic area (col. 16, lines 7-11 – The example shown in FIG. 5, the recurrent region 452 is shown with a geometric shape as a polygon) is defined according to the origin GPS location (see Fig. 5 – polygon of starting location 432).
Regarding claim 14, Messer discloses:
wherein the first and second portions of GPS coordinates are transmitted to a cloud service that collects GPS coordinates from other computing devices (col. 12, lines 37-48 – The second device 106 can receive information in the second communication circuit 336 from the first device transmission 308 of the communication path 104; col. 10, lines 7-12 – The first location circuit 320 can generate location information, the first location circuit 320 can function as at least a part of the global positioning system; col. 3, lines 29-37 – the first device 102 can be of any of a variety of devices, such as a vehicle, a telematics system in a vehicle, a computing device, a cellular phone, a tablet computer, a smart phone, a notebook computer, vehicle embedded navigation system, or a dongle or device that plugs into a vehicle.; col. 3, lines 38-47 – the second device 106 can be cloud computing resource), and wherein the other computing devices are configured to execute duplicates of the instructions in the storage hardware (see Fig. 1, col. 13, lines 15-17 – It is understood that the first device 102 and the second device 106 can operate any of the modules and functions of the compute system 100.).
Claims 2, 5 and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Messer, in view of Liebchen and in view of Cristofaro (US 20140089049 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Messer as currently modified does not specifically disclose:
wherein the geographic coordinates further comprise respective timestamps, and wherein the altering the geographic coordinates in the determined portion of the geographic coordinates further comprises obscuring the corresponding timestamps by at least applying one of (i) truncation, (ii) partial randomization, or (iii) addition of random nose to the corresponding timestamps.
However, Cristofaro discloses:
wherein the geographic coordinates ([0062] location history) further comprise respective timestamps ([0062] timestamps), and wherein the altering the geographic coordinates in the determined portion of the geographic coordinates further comprises obscuring the corresponding timestamps by at least applying one of (i) truncation ([0062] truncating timestamps to individual days, or hours), (ii) partial randomization, or (iii) addition of random nose to the corresponding timestamps.
Cristofaro is analogous to the claimed invention because it pertains to the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control as currently modified to further incorporate Cristofaro’s privacy control for the advantage of truncating timestamp from a location history which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Cristofaro’s Abstract).
Regarding claim 5, Messer as currently modified does not specifically disclose:
wherein the geographic coordinates comprise latitudes and longitudes, and wherein the altering comprises truncating or reducing the precision of the longitudes and the latitudes of the geographic coordinates in the determined portion of the geographic coordinates.
However, Cristofaro discloses:
wherein the geographic coordinates comprise latitudes and longitudes ([0062] latitude and longitude), and wherein the altering comprises truncating or reducing the precision of the longitudes and the latitudes of the geographic coordinates in the determined portion of the geographic coordinates ([0062] truncating less significant digits from a latitude and longitude of the location measured by the client device).
Cristofaro is analogous to the claimed invention because it pertains to the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control as currently modified to further incorporate Cristofaro’s privacy control for the advantage of truncating latitudes and longitudes from a location history which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Cristofaro’s Abstract).
Regarding claim 12, Messer as currently modified does not specifically disclose:
wherein the reducing comprises reducing the precision of the GPS coordinates in the first portion of GPS coordinates.
However, Cristofaro discloses:
wherein the reducing comprises reducing the precision of the GPS coordinates in the first portion of GPS coordinates ([0062] truncating less significant digits from a latitude and longitude of the location measured by the client device).
Cristofaro is analogous to the claimed invention because it pertains to the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control as currently modified to further incorporate Cristofaro’s privacy control for the advantage of truncating latitudes and longitudes from a location history which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Cristofaro’s Abstract).
Regarding claim 13, Messer as currently modified does not specifically disclose:
wherein the GPS coordinates are encoded as respective geohashes, and wherein reducing the precision of the GPS coordinates in the first portion of GPS coordinates corresponding increases the sizes of geographic areas represented by the respective geohashes.
However, Cristofaro discloses:
wherein the GPS coordinates are encoded as respective geohashes ([0062] location history may be encrypted, for example with a cryptographic hash, with less granularity than is measured), and wherein reducing the precision of the GPS coordinates in the first portion of GPS coordinates corresponding increases the sizes of geographic areas represented by the respective geohashes ([0062] truncating less significant digits from a latitude and longitude of the location measured by the client device, the Examiner notes that truncating digits from latitude and longitude would encompass a larger area).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control as currently modified to further incorporate Cristofaro’s privacy control for the advantage of truncating latitudes and longitudes from a location history which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Cristofaro’s Abstract).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Messer, in view of Liebchen and in view of Maccini et al. (US 20200134671 A1; hereinafter Maccini).
Regarding claim 6, Messer as currently modified does not specifically disclose:
wherein the obscuring condition comprises a region that is (i) randomly sized; (ii) randomly offset from the starting location or destination location; or both (i) and (ii).
However, Maccini discloses:
wherein the obscuring condition comprises a region that is (i) randomly sized and/or (ii) randomly offset from the starting location or destination location (points of a journey may be blinded through a radius of obscurity; [0109]).
Maccini is analogous to the claimed invention because it pertains to the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control as currently modified to further incorporate Maccini’s privacy control for the advantage of reduce the accuracy of the location measurement which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Maccini’s [0051]).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Messer, in view of Liebchen and in view of Lewis, II et al. (US 20090319616 A1; hereinafter Lewis).
Regarding claim 7, Messer as currently modified does not specifically disclose:
wherein the geographic coordinates comprise latitudes and longitudes, and wherein the altering comprises partial randomization or introduction of random noise to the latitudes and longitudes in the determined portion of the geographic coordinates.
However, Lewis discloses:
wherein the geographic coordinates comprise latitudes and longitudes ([0010] latitude and/or longitude), and wherein the altering comprises partial randomization or introduction of random noise to the latitudes and longitudes in the determined portion of the geographic coordinates ([0010] add random error information to a latitude and/or longitude associated with the requested geographic location for security purposes).
Lewis is analogous to the claimed invention because it pertains to the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control as currently modified to further incorporate Lewis’ privacy control for the advantage of adding random error information which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Lewis’ [0010]).
Claims 15, 18 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Messer in view of Cristofaro.
Regarding claim 15, Messer discloses:
A method performed by a computing device (col. 7, lines 38-43 – first device 102 included in or integral with the vehicle 202), the computing device incorporated in a vehicle, the method (col. 5, lines 4-6 – vehicle control circuit 206 can include a function unit or circuit integral to the vehicle 202 and configured to execute or implement instructions) comprising:
while the vehicle is traveling a trip (Fig. 4 – travel route 408) from an origin location (Fig. 4 – starting location 432) to a destination location (Fig. 4 – travel destination 410), receiving Global Positioning System (GPS) (col. 6, lines 38-53 – GPS receiver) coordinates of the vehicle (col. 6, lines 38-53 – The location-movement sensor 212 can identify or calculate a geographic location of the vehicle 202. Examples of the location-movement sensor 212 can include a GPS receiver or device);
storing the GPS coordinates in a buffer (col. 7, lines 38-43 – vehicle storage circuit 208)(col. 4, lines 64-66 – The vehicle storage circuit 208 can store information from sensors);
after the vehicle is done traveling the trip (col. 17, lines 17-18 – the anonymization 502 can also delay the reporting or availability of the current location 404), based on the GPS coordinates in the buffer, selecting a portion of the GPS coordinates in the buffer, wherein the portion of the GPS coordinates comprises one or more GPS coordinates from within a geofence that the vehicle traveled through (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof), wherein the geofence (col. 16, lines 12-25 – geofence of waypoint 450) is between the origin location and the destination location, further wherein the geofence does not include either of the origin location or destination location (Fig. 5 – geofence of the waypoint 450 is between and does not overlap with the starting location 432 and travel destination 410);
reducing the accuracy or precision of the selected GPS coordinates in the buffer (col. 17, lines 12-26 – the anonymization 502 can also represent obfuscating the actual location for the current location 404), wherein GPS coordinates in the buffer that are not selected do not have their accuracy or precision reduced (col. 17, lines 27-29 – the current location 404 is shown without the anonymization 502 outside of the recurrent region 452);
transmitting the reduced and non-reduced GPS coordinates in the buffer from the computing device via a wireless network (col. 17, lines 17-18 – the anonymization 502 can also delay the reporting or availability of the current location 404).
Messer does not specifically disclose:
wherein the GPS coordinates comprise respective timestamps;
reducing the accuracy or precision of the timestamps of the selected GPS locations in the buffer, wherein the timestamps of the non-selected GPS coordinates in the buffer do not have their accuracy or precision reduced.
However, Cristofaro discloses:
wherein the GPS coordinates ([0025] determination of location may be made solely based on GPS signals) comprise respective timestamps ([0062] location history include timestamps);
reducing the accuracy or precision of the timestamps of the selected GPS locations in the buffer ([0062] truncating timestamps to individual days, or hours), wherein the timestamps of the non-selected GPS coordinates in the buffer do not have their accuracy or precision reduced ([0060] selecting survey participants based on the location history of those participants while preserving the participant's privacy, the Examiner notes privacy protection is done on location history of the selected).
Messer and Cristofaro are considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control to further incorporate Cristofaro’s privacy control for the advantage of truncating timestamp from a location history which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Cristofaro’s Abstract).
Regarding claim 18, Messer discloses:
wherein the selecting the portion of GPS coordinates in the buffer comprises determining that the GPS coordinates meet a selection condition, the selection condition comprising one or more of: being within a threshold distance of the origin location or destination location (col. 16, lines 12-25 – the recurrent region 452 can be implemented by a geofence associated with or including the location, such as the starting location 432, the waypoint 450, the travel destination 410, or a combination thereof. The geofence can be implemented based on distance radius from the location, based on a structure as a building, a designation as a town or hospital, or a combination thereof) or being within a geographic area that is delineated prior to the trip (col. 18, lines 37-61 – The trip storage module 604 can collect location traces or trips for the user over time. The traces or trips can be for the navigation session 406 of FIG. 4 or for free-drive mode. To start anonymized data or the anonymization 502 of FIG. 5, the compute system 100 would need to collect trips or the recurrence 426 of FIG. 4 for a repeated number of times, such as two or more trips. The recurrence 426 can be based on the location or time duration., the Examiner asserts that there may be a recurrent region 452 for anonymization operations 502 before starting location 432 showing in Fig. 5 as there are multiple traces or trips collected over time).
Regarding claim 21, Messer does not specifically disclose:
wherein reducing the accuracy or precision of the timestamps comprises at least applying one of (i) truncation, (ii) partial randomization, or (iii) addition of random nose to the respective timestamps.
However, Cristofaro discloses:
wherein reducing the accuracy or precision of the timestamps comprises at least applying one of (i) truncation ([0062] truncating timestamps to individual days, or hours), (ii) partial randomization, or (iii) addition of random nose to the respective timestamps.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control as currently modified to further incorporate Cristofaro’s privacy control for the advantage of truncating timestamp from a location history which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Cristofaro’s Abstract).
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Messer, in view of Cristofaro and in view of Harshe et al. (US 20230001812 A1; hereinafter Harshe).
Regarding claim 19, Messer as currently modified does not specifically disclose:
wherein the GPS coordinates in the buffer comprises respective flags, the method further comprising setting the flags of the selected GPS coordinates and not setting the flags of the non-selected GPS coordinates.
However, Harshe discloses:
wherein the GPS coordinates in the buffer comprises respective flags (status flag; [0025]), the method further comprising setting the flags of the selected GPS coordinates (is the actual location of vehicle determined using GPS in geo-fence, if yes, status valid flag set to 1, Fig. 2, steps 72, 74, [0025], [0029]) and not setting the flags of the non-selected GPS coordinates (is the actual location of vehicle determined using GPS in geo-fence, if no, status valid flag is not set to 1, Fig. 2, step 72, [0025], [0029]).
Harshe is analogous to the claimed invention because it pertains to the same field of geofencing. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s geofencing as currently modified to further incorporate Harshe’s geofencing for the advantage of setting flags which results in keeping track of conditions met (Harshe’s [0029]).
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Messer, in view of Cristofaro and in view of Lewis, II et al. (US 20090319616 A1; hereinafter Lewis).
Regarding claim 20, Messer as currently modified does not specifically disclose:
wherein the reducing the accuracy or precision of the selected GPS coordinates comprises partial randomization or addition of random noise.
However, Lewis discloses:
wherein the reducing the accuracy or precision of the selected GPS coordinates comprises partial randomization or addition of random noise ([0010] add random error information to a latitude and/or longitude associated with the requested geographic location for security purposes).
Lewis is analogous to the claimed invention because it pertains to the same field of privacy control. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Messer’s privacy control as currently modified to further incorporate Lewis’ privacy control for the advantage of adding random error information which results in further privacy control at the specific location (Lewis’ [0010]).
Conclusion
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/PAYSUN WU/Examiner, Art Unit 3665
/DONALD J WALLACE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3665