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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the Allowance of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant’s submission filed on December 10, 2025 has been entered. Claims 1, 12, and 20 were amended. Claim 2 remains cancelled. Thus, claims 1 and 3-21 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Masago (U.S. Patent Publication 2019/0212360 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Masago teaches a tire information detecting device configured to detect tire information including at least one of wear of a tire, deformation of the tire, a road surface state, a ground contact state of the tire, presence of failure of the tire, a travel history of the tire, or a load state of the tire (Masago: Abstract; ¶3 [“…an acceleration sensor attached to inside of the tire and, from the acquired acceleration information, a condition of a road surface on which the tire is running and uneven wear of the tire are estimated.”]), the tire information detecting device comprising:
at least one sensor module disposed on a tire inner surface (Masago: FIGS. 1-2; ¶24 [“…acceleration sensor 11 is disposed, as shown in FIG. 2, at a center of a tire width direction of an inner liner part 2 of a tire 1, so that a detection direction aligns with a tire radial direction, to thereby detect a tire radial direction acceleration input from the road surface…”]);
a determination unit configured to determine an attachment state of the sensor module based on a measurement value supplied from the sensor module (Masago: FIGS. 1-3; ¶¶19-20 [“…17 denotes a detachment determination means, and 18 denotes a storage means. The peak level calculation means 13 and the peak interval calculation means 14 constitutes the acceleration information acquisition means of the present invention. The acceleration sensor 11 constitutes a sensor unit l0A, and each means from the acceleration waveform extraction means 12 to the detachment determination means 17 and the storage means 18 constitute a storage/computing unit 10B.”]);
an element that is mounted on the sensor module and configured to generate a voltage based on deformation of a tread portion during tire rotation (Masago: FIGS. 1-3; ¶¶19-22 [“…a road surface condition estimation means 21 that estimates a road surface condition from an output signal of the acceleration sensor 11 and a vehicle control means 22, and controls running state of the vehicle based on the estimated road surface condition. Instead of the output signal of the acceleration sensor 11, data of acceleration waveforms extracted by the acceleration waveform extraction means 12 and data of peak levels calculated by the peak level calculation means 13 may be sent to the vehicle control unit 20.”]);
a voltage detection unit configured to detect the voltage generated by the element (Masago: FIGS. 1-3; ¶¶19-22 {See above.});
a storage area configured to store waveform data of the voltage detected by the voltage detection unit over time (Masago: FIGS. 1-3; ¶¶19-22 [“…The acceleration sensor 11 constitutes a sensor unit l0A, and each means from the acceleration waveform extraction means 12 to the detachment determination means 17 and the storage means 18 constitute a storage/computing unit l0B.”]); and
a calculation unit configured to calculate, from the waveform data stored in the storage area, a symmetry of the waveform data that is an index value of the attachment state of the sensor module (Masago: FIGS. 1-3; ¶¶29-31 [“The average value calculation means 15 calculates, from the peak level a and the peak interval b that are stored in the storage means 18, an average value A of peak levels that are obtained by averaging peak levels a of past L times and an average value B of peak levels that are obtained by averaging peak levels b of past M times. Specifically, when assuming that the latest. It is sufficient that L and M are at least 3 and at most 10. Land M may be the same value or different values.”] {Including Eqns. 1-4.}; ¶33 [“The detachment determination means 17 includes a difference ratio evaluation part 17 a, an evaluation value integration part 17b and a detachment determination part 17 c, and determines whether or not the acceleration sensor 11 is detached from the inside of the tire.”]), wherein
the determination unit determines the attachment state of the sensor module based on the symmetry of the waveform data calculated by the calculation unit (Masago: FIGS. 1-3; ¶¶29-31, ¶33 {Including Eqns. 1-4.} {See above.}); and
a container is disposed on an inner side of a ground contact edge in a tire width direction (Masago: FIGS. 1-3; ¶24 [“The acceleration sensor 11 is disposed, as shown in FIG. 2, at a center of a tire width direction of an inner liner part 2 of a tire 1, so that a detection direction aligns with a tire radial direction, to thereby detect a tire radial direction acceleration input from the road surface and acting on a tire tread 3”]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 20 is allowed. The reason for the indicated allowability of claim 20 was given in the previous action.
Claims 3-19, and 21 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The reason for the indicated allowability of dependent claims 3-19, and 21 was given in the previous action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on December 10, 2025 have been fully considered. Applicant’s amendments and arguments have overcome the previous rejections under 35 U.S.C. 101.
In regard claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102, Examiner’s position and supporting remarks are presented in the rejection above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEFFREY P AIELLO whose telephone number is (303) 297-4216. The examiner can normally be reached on 8 AM - 4:30 PM EST.
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/JEFFREY P AIELLO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857