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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in reply to the claims filed on 28 May 2026.
Claims 1, 11, 13, and 20 were amended.
Claims 2, 4, 12, and 14 were canceled.
Claim 21 has been added
Claims 1, 3, 5-11, 13, and 15-20 are currently pending and have been examined.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 28 May 2026 has been entered.
Claim Objections
Claim 13 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 13 recites, “the at least software upload/download equipment,” which is a typographical error of “the software upload/download equipment”.
Claim 20 recites, “an AV maintenance” in line 5. The term “AV” is an acronym that has not been previously defined by the claim. The limitation should read as “an autonomous vehicle (AV) maintenance”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
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 3, 13, and 10 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claims 3 and 13 recite the limitation, “the software upload/download equipment.” There is insufficient antecedent basis for the limitation.
Furthermore, claim 10 recites, “upgrading software stored on the on-board memory…” It is unclear how upgrading software can be performed with only software upload equipment as recited in claim 1.
For examination purposes the examiner will interpret the limitation “software upload equipment” in claim 1 to read as “software upload/download equipment”.
Claim 13 is directed to a system and depends from claim 11. However, claim 11 is directed towards a method. Therefore, it is unclear which statutory class claim 13 is directed towards. For examination purposes the claim is being examined to be directed towards a method.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 5-9, and 21; 11, 13, and 15-18; and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Derouen (US 2021/0264386 A1) in view of Kang et al. (US 2021/0044737 A1).
Claim 1 Derouen teaches: A system, comprising:
a memory (see, e.g., Figure 9 and ¶s 87-91, 98, and 101 teaching that a computing device implements the methods of the invention including with, e.g., modules stored in a memory); and
at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to perform operations comprising (see, e.g., Figure 9 and ¶s 87-91, 98, and 101 teaching that a computing device implements the methods of the invention including with, e.g., modules stored in a memory that are executed by at least one processor):
receiving, by a user interface (UI), a user input; (see “mobile device” in ¶ [0046]; “web-based software application” in ¶ [0047])
assigning, by the user interface (UI), one or more ingest and deploy resources within an autonomous vehicle (AV) maintenance facility responsive to the user input and an assessment of a needed maintenance service of an on-board memory of an AV during an AV ingest and deploy maintenance cycle (see, e.g., ¶s 92-94 teaching ranking different resources for different autonomous vehicles based on received service requests, urgency levels of the requests, locations, wait times, and other factors; see further, e.g., ¶s 51 and 54 teaching generating an appointment reservation for the AV and sending it to the AV), wherein the one or more ingest and deploy resources at the AV maintenance facility include software upload/download equipment configured to receive vehicle data uploaded from the vehicle; (see “receiving, using a communication device (such as the communication device 202), a maintenance request from the autonomous vehicle, wherein the maintenance request includes diagnostic data from an On-Board Computing (OBC) device of the autonomous vehicle” in ¶ [0060])
scheduling, by the user interface (UI), based on the user input and the assigned one or more ingest and deploy resources, a maintenance service for the AV at a corresponding stage of the AV ingest and deploy maintenance cycle (regarding a user interface, see, e.g., ¶s 46-47 teaching that the invention can operate in part with input from a user 112 via a user device 106 accessing the server 102 and platform 100; see also Figure 1; regarding assigning ingest and deploy resources in an AV maintenance facility responsive to an assessment of needed maintenance service, see, e.g., ¶s 92-94 and 96 teaching ranking different resources for different autonomous vehicles based on received service requests, urgency levels of the requests, locations, wait times, and other factors; see further, e.g., ¶s 51 and 54 teaching generating an appointment reservation for the AV and sending it to the AV, based on what service or services would be required);
directing, based on the maintenance service and the user input, self-navigating movement of the AV within the AV maintenance facility (see, e.g., Figure 6 and ¶s 75-77 teaching that the algorithm determines the maintenance requirements and directs the AV to the appropriate service locations and inspection lanes that were required, including multiple service lanes); and
responsive to completion of the ingest and deploy maintenance cycle for the AV, self-navigating the AV to a next maintenance stage within the AV maintenance facility (see, e.g., Figure 6 and ¶s 75-77 teaching that the algorithm determines the maintenance requirements and directs the AV to the appropriate service locations and inspection lanes that were required, including multiple service lanes; see further ¶s 78-79 teaching further processing the collected maintenance data to determine the path forward for the vehicle).
Derouen does not disclose:
the assigning of the one or more ingest and deploy resources is based on an available memory capacity of the software upload/download equipment;
Kang teaches the assigning of the one or more ingest and deploy resources is based on an available memory capacity of the software upload/download equipment (see “a size of a user storage space allocated to the server 300 for providing a connected service” in ¶ [0176]; “the dongle 200 uploads the image to the TCP server 302…the TCP server 302 may perform scheduling in consideration of an urgency of the image to be transmitted by the dongle 200, a size of the image” in ¶ [0277] of Kang). This operation of Kang is applicable to the system of Derouen as they both share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are directed to communicating with a vehicle for a service request. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Derouen to consider memory capacity as taught by Kang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to modify Derouen in order to maintain a quality of service for the entire network (see ¶ [0277] of Kang).
Claim 5
Derouen in view of Kang teach the limitation of claim 1.
Derouen further teaches:
the at least one processor further configured to perform operations comprising: determining, responsive to an event recorded in the on-board memory, if a priority ingest is required (see, e.g., ¶s 92-93 and 96-97 teaching prioritizing the AV routing based on the severity of the problems of the vehicle, including based on trouble codes determined generated in the onboard computer; see also Figure 10 features 1020 and 1030 teaching substantially the same; Examiner notes that the “trouble codes” are events recorded in the on-board memory as taught, e.g., in at least Figure 5 feature 502 and ¶s 59 and 72 and represent events such as an oil leak in ¶ 94 or a low tire in ¶ 97; see further Figure 11 feature 1110 teaching the vehicle telematics alert of an oil leak).
Claim 6
Derouen in view of Kang teach the limitations of Claim 5.
Derouen further teaches:
wherein the event occurred during a previous mission of the AV (see, e.g., ¶s 92-93 and 96-97 teaching prioritizing the AV routing based on the severity of the problems of the vehicle, including based on trouble codes determined generated in the onboard computer; see also Figure 10 features 1020 and 1030 teaching substantially the same; Examiner notes that the “trouble codes” are events recorded in the on-board memory of the previous mission as taught, e.g., in at least Figure 5 feature 502 and ¶s 59 and 72 and represent events such as an oil leak in ¶ 94 or a low tire in ¶ 97; see further Figure 11 feature 1110 teaching the vehicle telematics alert of an oil leak).
Claim 7
Derouen in view of Kang teach the limitations of Claim 1.
Derouen further teaches:
the at least one processor further configured to perform operations comprising determining one or more of: if an ingest phase of the ingest and deploy maintenance cycle is complete; if an deploy phase of the ingest and deploy maintenance cycle is not required; or if the deploy phase of the ingest and deploy maintenance cycle is complete (see, e.g., Figure 6 feature 616 teaching the determination of whether the maintenance cycle is complete; see also ¶ 77 teaching substantially the same).
Claim 8
Derouen in view of Kang teach the limitation of Claim 1.
Derouen further teaches:
the at least one processor further configured to perform operations comprising interfacing with any of: local servers, remote servers, or mobile data carts, during the ingest and deploy (see, e.g., ¶s 43-46 teaching communicating with remote servers when ingesting the vehicle’s data; see also ¶s 74, 77, 78, and 84 disclosing substantially the same).
Claim 9
Derouen in view of Kang teach the limitations of Claim 1.
Derouen further teaches:
the at least one processor further configured to perform operations comprising receiving, from the AV over a communicating network, periodic updates of a current status of the maintenance services (see, e.g., ¶ 97 teaching that the vehicle communicates trouble codes to the system and the system analyzes the codes to determine the status of the vehicle, the needed maintenance services, and where and when to best send the vehicle to receive those maintenance services).
Claim 21
Derouen in view of Kang teach the limitations of Claim 1.
Derouen does not disclose the limitation below. However, Kang further teaches:
wherein the assigning of the one or more ingest and deploy resources is further based on an estimated time to upload the vehicle data to the upload equipment (see “data communication speed with the server for providing a connected service” in ¶ [0023]; “the TCP server 302 may perform scheduling for time and bandwidth to upload the image to each dongle 200 connected to the entire network for quality of service (QoS) management of the entire network” in ¶ [0277] of Kang).
The motivation for making this modification to Derouen is the same as that set forth above, in the rejection of claim 1.
Claim 11 Derouen teaches: An autonomous vehicle (AV) maintenance method, the method comprising:
assigning one or more ingest and deploy resources within an AV maintenance facility responsive to the user input and an assessment of a needed maintenance service of an on-board memory of an AV during an AV ingest and deploy maintenance cycle (see, e.g., ¶s 92-94 teaching ranking different resources for different autonomous vehicles based on received service requests, urgency levels of the requests, locations, wait times, and other factors; see further, e.g., ¶s 51 and 54 teaching generating an appointment reservation for the AV and sending it to the AV), wherein the one or more ingest and deploy resources at the AV maintenance facility include comprises at least one software upload/download equipment configured to receive vehicle data uploaded from the AV; (see “receiving, using a communication device (such as the communication device 202), a maintenance request from the autonomous vehicle, wherein the maintenance request includes diagnostic data from an On-Board Computing (OBC) device of the autonomous vehicle” in ¶ [0060])
scheduling based on the assigned one or more ingest and deploy resources, a maintenance service for the AV at a corresponding stage of the AV ingest and deploy maintenance cycle (regarding a user interface, see, e.g., ¶s 46-47 teaching that the invention can operate in part with input from a user 112 via a user device 106 accessing the server 102 and platform 100; see also Figure 1; regarding assigning ingest and deploy resources in an AV maintenance facility responsive to an assessment of needed maintenance service, see, e.g., ¶s 92-94 and 96 teaching ranking different resources for different autonomous vehicles based on received service requests, urgency levels of the requests, locations, wait times, and other factors; see further, e.g., ¶s 51 and 54 teaching generating an appointment reservation for the AV and sending it to the AV, based on what service or services would be required);
directing, based on the maintenance service, self-navigating movement of the AV within the AV maintenance facility (see, e.g., Figure 6 and ¶s 75-77 teaching that the algorithm determines the maintenance requirements and directs the AV to the appropriate service locations and inspection lanes that were required, including multiple service lanes); and
responsive to completion of the ingest and deploy maintenance cycle for the AV, self-navigating the AV to a next maintenance stage within the AV maintenance facility (see, e.g., Figure 6 and ¶s 75-77 teaching that the algorithm determines the maintenance requirements and directs the AV to the appropriate service locations and inspection lanes that were required, including multiple service lanes; see further ¶s 78-79 teaching further processing the collected maintenance data to determine the path forward for the vehicle).
Derouen does not disclose:
the assigning of the one or more ingest and deploy resources is based on an available memory capacity of the software upload/download equipment;
Kang teaches the assigning of the one or more ingest and deploy resources is based on an available memory capacity of the software upload/download equipment (see “a size of a user storage space allocated to the server 300 for providing a connected service” in ¶ [0176]; “the dongle 200 uploads the image to the TCP server 302…the TCP server 302 may perform scheduling in consideration of an urgency of the image to be transmitted by the dongle 200, a size of the image” in ¶ [0277] of Kang). This operation of Kang is applicable to the method of Derouen as they both share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are directed to communicating with a vehicle for a service request. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Derouen to consider memory capacity as taught by Kang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to modify Derouen in order to maintain a quality of service for the entire network (see ¶ [0277] of Kang).
Claims 13 and 15-18 –
Claims 13 and 15-18 are directed to a method. Claims 13 and 15-18 recite limitations that are parallel in nature as those addressed above for claims 3 and 5-7 and 9, which are directed towards a system. Claims 13 and 15-18 are therefore rejected for the same reasons as set forth above for claims 3 and 5-7 and 9, respectively.
Claim 20 Derouen teaches: A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a user interface (UI), a user input; (see “mobile device” in ¶ [0046]; “web-based software application” in ¶ [0047])
assigning one or more ingest and deploy resources within an autonomous vehicle (AV) maintenance facility responsive to the user input and an assessment of a needed maintenance service of an on-board memory of an AV during an AV ingest and deploy maintenance cycle (see, e.g., ¶s 92-94 teaching ranking different resources for different autonomous vehicles based on received service requests, urgency levels of the requests, locations, wait times, and other factors; see further, e.g., ¶s 51 and 54 teaching generating an appointment reservation for the AV and sending it to the AV), wherein the one or more ingest and deploy resources at the AV maintenance facility include software upload/download equipment; (see “receiving, using a communication device (such as the communication device 202), a maintenance request from the autonomous vehicle, wherein the maintenance request includes diagnostic data from an On-Board Computing (OBC) device of the autonomous vehicle” in ¶ [0060])
scheduling, based on the user input and the assigned one or more ingest and deploy resources, a maintenance service for the AV at a corresponding stage of the AV ingest and deploy maintenance cycle (regarding a user interface, see, e.g., ¶s 46-47 teaching that the invention can operate in part with input from a user 112 via a user device 106 accessing the server 102 and platform 100; see also Figure 1; regarding assigning ingest and deploy resources in an AV maintenance facility responsive to an assessment of needed maintenance service, see, e.g., ¶s 92-94 and 96 teaching ranking different resources for different autonomous vehicles based on received service requests, urgency levels of the requests, locations, wait times, and other factors; see further, e.g., ¶s 51 and 54 teaching generating an appointment reservation for the AV and sending it to the AV, based on what service or services would be required);
directing, based on the user input and the maintenance service, self-navigating movement of the AV within the AV maintenance facility (see, e.g., Figure 6 and ¶s 75-77 teaching that the algorithm determines the maintenance requirements and directs the AV to the appropriate service locations and inspection lanes that were required, including multiple service lanes); and
responsive to completion of the ingest and deploy maintenance cycle for the AV, self-navigating the AV to a next maintenance stage within the AV maintenance facility (see, e.g., Figure 6 and ¶s 75-77 teaching that the algorithm determines the maintenance requirements and directs the AV to the appropriate service locations and inspection lanes that were required, including multiple service lanes; see further ¶s 78-79 teaching further processing the collected maintenance data to determine the path forward for the vehicle).
Derouen does not disclose:
the assigning of the one or more ingest and deploy resources is based on an available memory capacity of the software upload/download equipment;
Kang teaches the assigning of the one or more ingest and deploy resources is based on an available memory capacity of the software upload/download equipment (see “a size of a user storage space allocated to the server 300 for providing a connected service” in ¶ [0176]; “the dongle 200 uploads the image to the TCP server 302…the TCP server 302 may perform scheduling in consideration of an urgency of the image to be transmitted by the dongle 200, a size of the image” in ¶ [0277] of Kang). This operation of Kang is applicable to the medium of Derouen as they both share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are directed to communicating with a vehicle for a service request. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Derouen to consider memory capacity as taught by Kang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to modify Derouen in order to maintain a quality of service for the entire network (see ¶ [0277] of Kang).
Claims 3 and 10; and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Derouen (US 2021/0264386 A1) in view of Kang et al. (US 2021/0044737 A1) and further in view of Ullman et al. (US 2021/0191714 A1).
Claim 3
Derouen in view of Kang teach the limitation of claim 1.
Derouen in view of Kang do not teach:
wherein the software upload/download equipment comprises a data cart.
Ullman teaches wherein the software upload/download equipment comprises a data cart (see “the update system 110 establishes the wireless connections may be limited to a building, or some portion thereof, where the update system 110 is housed” in ¶ [0025] of Ullman). This step of Ullman is applicable to the system Derouen as they both share characteristics and capabilities, namely, they are directed to servicing a vehicle. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the combined system of Derouen in view of Kang to include a data cart as taught by Ullman. One of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention would have been motivated to modify the combination of Derouen in view of Kang in order to facilitate the deployment of software updates for vehicles due to vehicles relying on software for route planning, maneuver planning, and motion planning (see ¶s [0002] and [0015] of Ullman).
Claim 10
Derouen in view of Kang teach the limitations of Claim 1.
Derouen in view of Kang does not teach the limitation below. However, Ullman teaches:
the at least one processor further configured to perform operations comprising upgrading software stored on the on-board memory during a deploy phase of the AV ingest and deploy maintenance cycle (see ¶s [0026], [0055], and [0061] of Ullman).
The motivation for making this modification to Derouen in view of Kang is the same as that set forth above, in the rejection of claim 3.
Claim 19 –
Claim 19 is directed to a method. Claim 19 recites limitations that are parallel in nature as those addressed above for claim 10, which is directed towards a system. Claim 19 is therefore rejected for the same reasons as set forth above for claim 10.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to 35 USC § 102/103 of claim(s) 1, 3, 5-11, 13, and 15-21 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RESHA DESAI whose telephone number is (571)270-7792. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/RESHA DESAI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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