DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Inventorship
2 This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
3. 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
4. Claims 11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Claims 11 and 13 are directed towards software (e.g. data structures) not claimed as embodied in computer-readable media. The claim is drawn to descriptive material per se and is not statutory because they are not capable of causing functional change in the computer. See, e.g., Warmerdam, 33 F.3d at 1361, 31 USPQ2d at 1760 (claim to a data structure per se held nonstatutory). Such claimed data structures do not define any structural and functional interrelationships between the data structure and other claimed aspects of the invention that permit the data structure's functionality to be realized.
In contrast, if claims 11 and 13 was/were to be amended to include a computer-readable medium encoded with said data structure-it would then define the structural and functional interrelationships between the data structure and the computer software and hardware components that permit the data structure's functionality to be realized. Such an amendment would make claim 11 and 13 statutory.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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, 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.
6. Claim 9 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being obvious over Kim (US 2012/0265404 A1) in view of Akatsuka et al. (US 12,097,916 B2).
Regarding claim 9, Kim teaches a control unit [Figure 1] for controlling an actuator of Figure 1 is a block configuration diagram showing a cooperative control device (20) of a motor-driven power steering apparatus], the control unit comprising: an interface [sensor (40)] configured to detect a steering angle that represents an instantaneous steering angle of at least one wheel of a motor vehicle [para. 0019, a steering angle is received by sensor (40)]; a further interface [SPAS (10)] configured to detect a steering angle demand [SPAS (10) provides a requested steering angle], which represents an instantaneous steering angle change due to a driver's wish or a change determined by the control unit or another control unit [para. 0007 teaches in order for the SPAS to perform an automatic parking using a motor-driven power steering apparatus, a cooperative control apparatus converts a requested steering angle of the SPAS to a steering angle]; a unit [limit setting unit (26)] configured to determine a limit value of an acceleration of the drive mechanism of the actuator of para. 0025-0026 teaches a limit value is determined based on the requested steering angle and the steering speed]; a unit [motor-driven power steering apparatus (30)] configured to activate the actuator in order to set a steering angle of at least one wheel as a function of at least the steering angle demand, and using the limit value [Figures 1, 2 and para. 0025-0028; the actuator and/or motor is controlled according to the limit value and steering angle is adjusted]; an interface configured to detect a speed that represents an instantaneous speed of the motor vehicle [Kim invention does not specifically teaches detecting a speed that represents an instantaneous speed of motor vehicle. However, para. 0003 teaches a steering system for a vehicle is a system that enables a driver to easily and quickly steer the vehicle by reducing a control force using an electronic control unit (ECU) in accordance with the traveling speed of the vehicle. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to be included a feature (e.g., interface) would be used for detecting traveling speed that represents an instantaneous speed of the motor vehicle].
Kim invention does not specifically teach a steer-by-wire system and an interface for detecting a speed of the motor vehicle.
Notes Figure 1, Akatsuka invention teaches a vehicle control system (10) controls the vehicle (1) of the steer-by-wire type; wherein, the vehicle control system (10) includes a control device (100) and a vehicle speed sensor (56) which configured to detect a vehicle speed (V) being a speed of vehicle (1).
Since the prior art references are both from the same field of endeavor. The purpose disclosed by Akatsuka invention would have been recognized in the pertinent art of Kim.
It would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary in the art to have provided a vehicle control system for controlling the steering apparatus of vehicle which known as steer-by-wire type; and the control system further includes a vehicle speed sensor for detecting and generating the vehicle speed taught by Akatsuka invention to modify the motor driven power steering apparatus for smart assistant system and method of Kim invention for the purpose of improving the performance of the driving assist control system.
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 1-8, 10, and 14 are allowed.
8. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: the prior art(s) do not teach the method comprises the steps:
determining a limit value of a drive mechanism of the actuator as a function of the instantaneous steering angle; and
activating the actuator for setting a steering angle of at least one wheel as a function of the steering angle demand using the limit value of the acceleration.
Conclusion
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHNNY H HOANG whose telephone number is (571) 272-4843. The examiner can normally be reached on [Monday-Friday [Maxi-Flex]].
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/J.H.H./
November 25, 2025
/Johnny H. Hoang/
Examiner, Art Unit 3747
/LOGAN M KRAFT/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3747