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 .
This is a non-final Office Action on the merits. Claims 1-6, 9-17 and 20 are currently pending and are addressed below. Claims 7-8 and 18-19 have been cancelled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments and/or arguments with respect to the rejection of Claims 1-20 under 35 USC 103 as set forth in the office action of 01 May 2026 have been considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection of claims 1-20 under 35 USC 103 as set forth in the office action of 01 May 2026 has been withdrawn.
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 1-6, 9-17 and 20 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.
Regarding claims 1, 12 and 13, have the limitation of “and controlling a braking system of the electric vehicle based on the distributed braking force” which is subject matter issues that is not explicitly or inherently supported in the specification and drawings. The specification does not seem to discuss controlling the braking of a vehicle, the specification makes mention of a driving control apparatus but does not go into detail on what it would control and there is no indication that the vehicle is autonomous/automatic in nature for it to perform this controlling step, see “[0008] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method or an apparatus is provided for driving control capable of determining where to and how much to charge a vehicle among a plurality of charging stations in order to attain arrival at a destination in the shortest time. … [0021] A driving control apparatus, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, comprises a navigation device configured to determine a driving path based on a destination, and a charging planner including at least one computer processor configured to perform a method described above. … [00158] The method for planning battery charging and vehicle driving control of the above- described embodiment may be applied to any vehicle that can be driven by a motor such as a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle.” Furthermore, the specification does mention the distribution of braking between regenerative and mechanical but does not mention that braking control would occur with this calculated distribution, see “[0063] The minimized solution of the above objective function for the prediction range is calculated under the constraints. As a result, the locations of one or more charging stations for charging the vehicle, the charging time, the driving force and/or the braking force and the vehicle speed for each unit section, and the distance to empty (DTE) are output (S 120). [0064] In this case, the braking force is distributed to the regenerative braking and/or the mechanical braking depending on the output braking force (S111 and S 112).”
The remaining dependent claims are also rejected under 112(a) due to their dependency upon the corresponding rejected independent claims.
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.
Claim 1-6, 9-17 and 20 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 claims 1, 12 and 13, it is unclear what is being claimed by “and controlling a braking system of the electric vehicle based on the distributed braking force”. The specification is not clear in how the distributed regenerative braking and mechanical force would be used for a vehicle in controlling its braking as this is not discussed in the specification in detail, see “[0008] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method or an apparatus is provided for driving control capable of determining where to and how much to charge a vehicle among a plurality of charging stations in order to attain arrival at a destination in the shortest time. … [0021] A driving control apparatus, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, comprises a navigation device configured to determine a driving path based on a destination, and a charging planner including at least one computer processor configured to perform a method described above. … [00158] The method for planning battery charging and vehicle driving control of the above- described embodiment may be applied to any vehicle that can be driven by a motor such as a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle. … “[0063] The minimized solution of the above objective function for the prediction range is calculated under the constraints. As a result, the locations of one or more charging stations for charging the vehicle, the charging time, the driving force and/or the braking force and the vehicle speed for each unit section, and the distance to empty (DTE) are output (S 120). [0064] In this case, the braking force is distributed to the regenerative braking and/or the mechanical braking depending on the output braking force (S111 and S 112).” Examiner will interpret the limitation as a vehicle controller implementing the braking force from the charging plan to control the braking of the vehicle as needed.
The remaining dependent claims are also rejected under 112(b) due to their dependency upon the corresponding rejected independent claims.
/*As a note, the 101 rejections will be raised again if no support is found for the “controlling” step. */
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner
should be directed to MOISES GASCA ALVA JR whose telephone number is (571)272-3752. The examiner
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Faris Almatrahi can be reached on (313) 446-4821. The fax phone number for the organization where
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/MOISES GASCA ALVA/Examiner, Art Unit 3667
/FARIS S ALMATRAHI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3667
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