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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). 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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 09/17/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Rejection of claims 12-15 and 17-20 under 35 USC 101 has been withdrawn in response to amended claims submitted on 08/25/2025.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, “an operator area comprising at least one seat supported by the frame, the at least one seat having a seat bottom, an upper surface of the seat bottom defining a horizontal plane generally parallel to the ground surface” and “frame includes a hollow member positioned vertically offset relative to the horizontal plane” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Specification [0060] discloses a hollow member in which mast is retracted, however, drawings do not show the hollow member in which the mast is retracted. Furthermore, there is not support (in drawings) for upper surface of seat defining a horizontal plane generally parallel to the ground surface.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 recites “an operator area comprising at least one seat supported by the frame, the at least one seat having a seat bottom, an upper surface of the seat bottom defining a horizontal plane generally parallel to the ground surface” and “a hollow member positioned vertically offset relative to the horizontal plane and configured to receive at least a part of the mast”.
Specification filed 07/07/2023 in instant application or in provisional application filed 07/08/2022 does not disclose the above identified limitation. Figure 4A is the only figure deemed applicable to the claimed limitation. Additionally [0060-0063] disclose mast of teleoperation assembly to be in retracted configuration 406B, but the figure appears to illustrate the mast to be retracted along left side of the vehicle and NOT “in a hollow member”. Furthermore, there is no disclosure of an upper surface of the seat bottom defining a horizontal plane.
Therefore, the limitation identified above is deemed as not disclosed in originally filed specification.
Claims 2-7 and 21 are rejected as being dependent on claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
With respect to claim 8, no art was found alone or in combination to teach all the limitations of the claim, specifically: generating an amplified representation of the vehicle according to the extracted portion of image data that corresponds to the vehicle; generating an amplified teleoperation view including the amplified representation of the vehicle and at least a part of the teleoperation data that corresponds to the environment surrounding the vehicle; providing the amplified teleoperation view for display to a vehicle operator. Therefore, claim 8 is deemed novel, hence claims 8-11 are allowed.
With respect to claim 12, no art was found alone or in combination to teach all the limitations of the claim, specifically: receiving, from a leader vehicle, a second indication comprising environment data and a set of ground-engaging member locations of the leader vehicle;
generating, based on the estimated location of the ground-engaging member and a corresponding ground-engaging member location received from the leader vehicle, a vehicle command; and
controlling operation of the vehicle based on the generated vehicle command. Therefore, claim 12 is deemed novel, hence claims 12-15 and 17-20 are allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARSLAN AZHAR whose telephone number is (571)270-1703. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:30 - 5:30.
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/ARSLAN AZHAR/Examiner, Art Unit 3656