DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1, 2, 4, and 6-15 are pending, and claims dated 11/11/2025 are being examined.
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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/12/2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/12/2026 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 1, 2, 4, and 6-15 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.
Regarding claim 1, claim 1 recites in lines 4-5 “at least one sensed element disposed about a bicycle wheel”. However, in lines 12-13, the second “determine…” limitation recites:
“determine a second speed based on a subset of the received second data and the first speed when the sensed element is not within the proximal region of the first sensor” (Emphasis on bold).
Applicant’s specification recites:
Para. [0034] “More feedback magnets may be included equally spaced on the rear wheel to increase the sampling rate”
Para. [0097] “the at least one sensed element includes two or more magnets attached to the bicycle”
Applicant’s specification makes clear that more than one sensed element (magnet) may be used. Thus, when the claimed bicycle wheel includes multiple sensed elements as per embodiments disclosed in [0034] or [0097], it is unclear whether “the sensed element” refers to any one of the sensed elements, each of the sensed elements collectively, a particular sensed element, or some other sensed element. For examination, the Examiner is treating “the sensed element” as “the at least one sensed element”. Appropriate correction is requested.
Claims 2, 4, and 6-15 are similarly rejected, because of their dependencies on rejected claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 2, 4, and 6-15 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), set forth in this Office Action and to include all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding claim 1, the prior arts on record do not teach, describe, and/or suggest all the limitations as presented in the claim as a whole – specifically the negative limitation of “…but not between the first time point and the second time point” (in the last paragraph).
The closest prior art Hasumi (US-20200207216-A1) discloses supplementation of acceleration sensor data in time periods in which the Hall sensor does not output a pulse signal ([0024], [0029], [0080]). While, Hasumi provides the acceleration data between the second time point and the third time point, Hasumi also provides the acceleration data between the first time point and the second time point.
Specifically, Hasumi [0134] discloses:
Until the rear wheel 26 performs at least more than one rotation (e.g., two rotations) after the electric assist bicycle 1 starts, the calculation circuit 71 does not detect a plurality of pulse signals. Therefore, the estimated speed 83 is matched to the acceleration sensor speed 81. Accordingly, during the time period in which the speed cannot be detected by the wheel rotation sensor 35, the calculation circuit 71 uses the acceleration sensor 38 to detect the speed.
It would not be obvious to remove the supplementing of acceleration sensor data between the first time point and the second time point as taught in Hasumi since doing so would discard the solution of Hasumi to avoid situations in which the speed cannot be detected by the Hall sensor. In contrast, as claimed and supported by remarks filed 11/11/2025, the invention does not want to receive acceleration data until the processor identifies two wheel speed events. Claims 2, 4, and 6-15 are also potentially allowable as they are dependent on potentially allowable claim 1 and would contain all the limitations/features of claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US-20220219776-A1: Corbett discloses Automated Slip Detection on an Electronic Bicycle
US-20200262511-A1: by the same Applicant Hahn is a related bicycle control system
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVIN SEOL whose telephone number is (571) 272-6488. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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/DAVIN SEOL/Examiner, Art Unit 3662
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