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 2/09/2026 has been entered.
Allowable Subject Matter
Applicant is advised that the Notice of Allowance mailed 12/31/2025 is vacated. If the issue fee has already been paid, applicant may request a refund or request that the fee be credited to a deposit account. However, applicant may wait until the application is either found allowable or held abandoned. If allowed, upon receipt of a new Notice of Allowance, applicant may request that the previously submitted issue fee be applied. If abandoned, applicant may request refund or credit to a specified Deposit Account.
The indicated allowability of claim 5-8 is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference(s) to foreign references applied by foreign office. Rejections based on the newly cited reference(s) follow.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claim(s) 5-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GOLSCH (US 20180103414) in view of OKADA et al. (US 20190051072) further in view of STITT et al. (US 20200118372 A1).
Re claim 5. GOLSCH discloses (abstract) a system for authenticating an authorization of a person to use a vehicle [0049-180], the system (FIG.1-18) comprising:
a control unit 20, in the vehicle, coupled with a plurality of nodes 31A-31F, wherein each of the plurality of nodes is configured as a Bluetooth interface [0056], and each of the plurality of nodes are arranged spaced apart from one another on or in the vehicle (FIG.1);
a portable handset 10 comprising a Bluetooth interface configured to form a Bluetooth radio link with exactly one of the plurality of nodes at any given time [0049, 62],
wherein the control unit is configured
to authenticate the portable handset as authorized when the control unit recognizes an authorization transmitted from the portable handset via the Bluetooth radio link, [0053-55]
to determine a position of the portable handset using a communication with the portable handset, [0106]
to determine, depending on the position of the portable handset, connection qualities of possible Bluetooth radio links between the handset and the plurality of nodes [0062-78].
However, GOLSCH fails to explicitly disclose:
wherein the control unit comprises an ultra-wideband interface configured to form an ultra-wideband, close-range radio link,
an ultra-wideband interface configured to form the ultra-wideband, close-range radio link;
via the ultra-wideband, close-range radio link.
OKADA teaches (abstract) in a similar field of invention, portable terminal 100 and authentication system (FIG.1-4) [0032-37] with vehicle control unit 200, wherein portable terminal communicates using UWB close-range radio link with control unit.
It would have been obvious to use UWB close-range radio for communication rather than other communication protocols, because the modification of using UWB close-range radio link for communication between portable terminal and control unit would have constituted the mere arrangement of old elements with each performing the same function it had been known to perform, the combination yielding no more than one would expect from such an arrangement.
However, GOLSCH as modified by OKADA fails to explicitly disclose:
when the determined connection qualities of one of the possible Bluetooth radio links has a higher connection quality than a currently formed Bluetooth radio link to an activated one of the plurality of nodes, to deactivate the activated one of the plurality of nodes and to activate one of the plurality of nodes having the higher connection quality to form the Bluetooth radio link.
STITT teaches (abstract) in a similar field of invention, passive entry/passive start communication systems (FIG.1) [0217-225] wherein RSSI data is used to determine higher quality, or best RSSI (or power values) [0309, 335] to select a pair of antennas among others.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to try using a process of determining higher connection quality among several possible antennas as taught by STITT in order to obtain best possible communication link using best pair of antennas for continued communication.
Re claim 6. GOLSCH discloses (abstract) the system of claim 5, wherein the Bluetooth interfaces of the portable handset and the plurality of nodes are configured the Bluetooth radio link according to the Bluetooth low-energy industry standard.
Re claim 7. GOLSCH discloses (FIG.1) the system of claim 5, wherein the portable handset is a mobile device.
Re claim 8. As applied for claim 5, a method for authenticating an authorization of a person to use a vehicle, the method comprising:
forming a Bluetooth radio link between a portable handset and exactly one of a plurality of nodes that are respectively configured as a Bluetooth interface and arranged spaced apart from one another on or in the vehicle and coupled with a control unit;
forming an ultra-wideband, close-range radio link is additionally formed between the portable handset and the control unit;
authenticating, by the control unit, the portable handset is as authorized when an authorization transmitted from the portable handset via the Bluetooth radio link is recognized;
determining, by the control unit, a position of the portable handset using a communication with the portable handset via the ultra-wideband, close-range radio link;
determining, by the control unit depending on the position of the portable handset, connection qualities of possible Bluetooth radio links between the portable handset and the plurality of nodes; and
deactivating, by the control unit responsive to one of the possible Bluetooth radio links having a higher connection quality than a currently formed Bluetooth radio link, a currently activated one of the plurality of nodes and activating one of the plurality of nodes having the higher connection quality to form the Bluetooth radio link.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CARLOS E GARCIA whose telephone number is (571)270-1354. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 9-6pm F 9-5pm.
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CARLOS E. GARCIA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2686
/Carlos Garcia/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686 6/18/2026
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