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 .
Introduction
The following is a final Office action in response to Applicant’s submission filed on 8/7/2025. Currently claims 1, 3-14, 16-20 are pending and claims 1, 13, 14 are independent. Claims 1, 3, 9, 14, 16 have been amended from the original claim set dated 4/21/2023. Claims 2 and 15 have been cancelled and no claims have been added.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2022-101405, filed on 6/23/2022.
Response to Amendments
Applicant’s amendments are acknowledged and necessitated the new grounds of rejection in this Office Action. In light of the amendments, the 35 USC § 112(b) rejection of claim 9 is withdrawn. Also in light of the amendments, the 35 USC § 101rejections of claims 1-20 are withdrawn. Specifically, the inclusion of the limitation “controlling the at least one vehicle to automatically adjust an interior arrangement in response to switching to the second mode, wherein adjusting the interior arrangement comprises changing a position of at least one seat within the at least one vehicle” demonstrates a controlling feature and overcomes the 101 rejection within the Step 2A (Prong 1) analysis.
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, 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 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, 3-5, 10-14, 16-18, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokunaga et al. (JP 2020166760 A) in view of Banthia et al. (US 20230089493 A1) further in view of Gurin et al. (US 20180186274 A1)
Regarding claims 1, 13, 14 (Amended), Tokunaga discloses a task management device comprising a control unit that calculates a required time for maintenance (Tokunaga ABS - A schedule management system includes a movable body management part for managing a schedule of a movable body, a necessity determination part 424 for determining the necessity of maintenance of the movable body, and a work time estimation part for estimating a work time of the maintenance of the movable body) of an internal environment of at least one vehicle (Tokunaga - Examples of maintenance include inspection work, maintenance work (sometimes referred to as maintenance work), vehicle exterior cleaning work, and vehicle interior cleaning work) to be operated in a mode corresponding to an application before the mode of the at least one vehicle is switched from a first mode to a second mode based on information acquired from any one of a first target to be transported by the at least one vehicle in the first mode and a second target to be transported by the at least one vehicle in the second mode that is different from the first mode (Tokunaga - In the present embodiment, the necessity determination unit 424 determines the necessity of maintenance of the vehicle 120. For example, the necessity determination unit 424 determines the necessity of maintenance of the vehicle 120 based on the usage mode of the vehicle 120 in the first period determined by the usage mode determination unit 422. The necessity determination unit 424 may determine the necessity of maintenance of the vehicle 120 based on any other determination criteria. For example, the necessity determination unit 424 determines the necessity of maintenance of the vehicle 120 based on the usage mode of the vehicle 120); estimates a degree of deterioration of the internal environment of the at least one vehicle due to transportation of the first target with reference to degree of deterioration data in which a degree of deterioration of the internal environment of the vehicle due to transportation of each of two or more types of targets is defined for each of the types of the targets, and uses an estimation result obtained as the information (Tokunaga - In another embodiment, when the condition that at least one of the user 40 and the transportation target has a predetermined attribute is satisfied {i.e. type of target}, the necessity determination unit 424 determines that the vehicle interior cleaning work is necessary. Examples of the above attributes include children, smokers, animals, garbage, and things left behind. In another embodiment, the necessity determination unit 424 determines that maintenance of the vehicle 120 is necessary when it is determined that the usage mode of the vehicle 120 in the first period satisfies the above-mentioned first condition).
Tokunaga lacks adjusts a dispatch schedule of the at least one vehicle in accordance with the required time calculated.
Banthia, from the same field of endeavor, teaches adjusts a dispatch schedule of the at least one vehicle in accordance with the required time calculated (Banthia ¶88 - FIG. 3B illustrates updating customizable steps and times in the timeline shown in FIG. 3A based on historical information, in accordance with some embodiments... The allotted time 324 for cleaning the vehicle has also been has updated based on historical information. In this example, historical information indicates that drivers take an average of 2 minutes to clean the vehicle 310 between trips. Thus, allotted time 324 for cleaning the vehicle is changed to an updated allotted time 344 of 2 minutes for cleaning the vehicle).
It would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant’s claimed invention to modify the transportation schedule management methodology/system of Tokunaga by including the transportation service time techniques of Banthia because Banthia discloses “These embodiments improve fleet organizational systems by providing additional customizable steps that can be added to a trip, allowing for more accurate trip time estimates used in vehicle dispatching and routing systems (Banthia ¶30)”. Additionally, Tokunaga further details that “The present invention relates to schedule management systems (Tokunaga)” so it would be obvious to consider including the additional transportation service time techniques that Banthia discloses because it would improve the accuracy of the schedules managed within Tokunaga.
Tokunaga further lacks controlling the at least one vehicle to automatically adjust an interior arrangement in response to switching to the second mode, wherein adjusting the interior arrangement comprises changing a position of at least one seat within the at least one vehicle.
Gurin, from the same field of endeavor, teaches controlling the at least one vehicle to automatically adjust an interior arrangement in response to switching to the second mode, wherein adjusting the interior arrangement comprises changing a position of at least one seat within the at least one vehicle (Gurin ¶90 - Another optional embodiment is such that the rear seat 4 is mechanically coupled to the upper trunk 5 such that both the rear seat 4 and the upper trunk 5 can be moved through either an automated (preferred, but can also be manual) common linkage/actuator to reconfigure into the courier mode from any of the other modes of this invention).
would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant’s claimed invention to modify the transportation schedule management methodology/system of Tokunaga by including the reconfigurable vehicle techniques of Gurin because Gurin discloses “The present invention is a system of configurable components, particularly the fuselage, passenger seats, and entirety of the trunk area for a vehicle used as for ride sharing, shared use and/or courier service. The ability to reconfigure the vehicle enables high vehicle utilization factor, that ultimately drives the economics of vehicle operations (Gurin ¶4)”. Additionally, Tokunaga further details that “The present invention relates to schedule management systems (Tokunaga)” so it would be obvious to consider including the additional reconfigurable vehicle techniques that Gurin discloses because it would improve the efficiency of the schedules managed within Tokunaga by enabling the increase in utilization of vehicles.
Regarding claims 3 and 16, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin discloses when a type of the first target is detected during a period in which the at least one vehicle is operated in the first mode, the control unit estimates the degree of deterioration of the internal environment of the at least one vehicle due to transportation of the first target by specifying the degree of deterioration defined in the degree of deterioration data for the type of the first target (Tokunaga - In another embodiment, when the condition that at least one of the user 40 and the transportation target has a predetermined attribute is satisfied {i.e. type of target}, the necessity determination unit 424 determines that the vehicle interior cleaning work is necessary. Examples of the above attributes include children, smokers, animals, garbage, and things left behind. In another embodiment, the necessity determination unit 424 determines that maintenance of the vehicle 120 is necessary when it is determined that the usage mode of the vehicle 120 in the first period satisfies the above-mentioned first condition).
Regarding claims 4 and 17, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin discloses the control unit estimates a degree of deterioration of the internal environment of the at least one vehicle that is tolerated when the second target is transported with reference to tolerance data in which a degree of deterioration of the internal environment of the vehicle that is tolerated when each of two or more types of targets is transported is defined for each of the types of the targets, and uses an estimation result obtained as the information (Tokunaga - In another embodiment, the management server 110 determines the next destination described above after the vehicle 120 arrives at the destination 214. For example, the management server 110 monitors the usage mode of the moving vehicle 120. The management server 110 determines the next destination described above based on the usage mode of the vehicle 120. For example, if it is determined that maintenance of the vehicle 120 is unnecessary {i.e. above tolerance level} at the end of the period specified in the contract 210, the management server 110 is at least one of the departure point 222, the return point 230, and the standby point 240. Is determined as the next destination of the vehicle 120. On the other hand, if it is determined that the maintenance of the vehicle 120 is necessary {i.e. below tolerance level} at the end of the period specified in the contract 210, the management server 110 determines the maintenance point 250 as the next destination of the vehicle 120).
Regarding claims 5 and 18, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin discloses when a type of the second target is notified before a period in which the at least one vehicle is operated in the second mode, the control unit estimates the degree of deterioration of the internal environment of the at least one vehicle that is tolerated when the second target is transported by specifying the degree of deterioration defined in the tolerance data for the type of the second target (Tokunaga - In another embodiment, the management server 110 determines the next destination described above after the vehicle 120 arrives at the destination 214. For example, the management server 110 monitors the usage mode of the moving vehicle 120. The management server 110 determines the next destination described above based on the usage mode of the vehicle 120. For example, if it is determined that maintenance of the vehicle 120 is unnecessary {i.e. above tolerance level} at the end of the period specified in the contract 210, the management server 110 is at least one of the departure point 222, the return point 230, and the standby point 240. Is determined as the next destination of the vehicle 120. On the other hand, if it is determined that the maintenance of the vehicle 120 is necessary {i.e. below tolerance level} at the end of the period specified in the contract 210, the management server 110 determines the maintenance point 250 as the next destination of the vehicle 120).
Regarding claims 10 and 20, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin discloses an application corresponding to each of the first mode and the second mode is delivery of articles, transportation of passengers, or sale of products (Tokunaga - Examples of the purpose or use include the attributes of the object to be transported, the behavior or schedule of the user 40 at the destination, the length of the travel distance, and the like. Examples of the attributes to be transported include the presence or absence of a passenger, the presence or absence of smoking by the passenger, the relationship between the user 40 and the passenger, the age or age group of the passenger, the presence or absence of infants, the presence or absence of children, the form of luggage, and the like. Will be done. Specific examples of the purpose or use include long-distance transportation, short-distance transportation, moving, family travel, travel with friends, sales, tool transportation, camping, swimming, fishing, clamming, skiing, mountain climbing, and the like).
Regarding claims 11, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin discloses the maintenance includes cleaning (Tokunaga - Examples of maintenance include inspection work, maintenance work (sometimes referred to as maintenance work), vehicle exterior cleaning work, and vehicle interior cleaning work).
Regarding claims 12, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin discloses the maintenance includes deodorizing (Tokunaga - In another embodiment, when the condition that at least one of the user 40 and the transportation target has a predetermined attribute is satisfied, the necessity determination unit 424 determines that the vehicle interior cleaning work is necessary. Examples of the above attributes include children, smokers {i.e. deodorizing}, animals, garbage, and things left behind).
Claims 6, 7, 8, 9, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tokunaga et al. (JP 2020166760 A) in view of Banthia et al. (US 20230089493 A1) further in view of Gurin et al. (US 20180186274 A1) further in view of Balva (US 20210142248 A1)
Regarding claims 6 and 19, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin discloses a task management device comprising a control unit that calculates a required time for maintenance (Tokunaga ABS - A schedule management system includes a movable body management part for managing a schedule of a movable body, a necessity determination part 424 for determining the necessity of maintenance of the movable body, and a work time estimation part for estimating a work time of the maintenance of the movable body).
Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin lacks the at least one vehicle is a plurality of vehicles traveling on a common route or within a common area.
Balva, from the same field of endeavor, teaches the at least one vehicle is a plurality of vehicles traveling on a common route or within a common area (Balva ¶20 - One way to achieve high occupancy might be to offer only fixed routes where all passengers board at a fixed origination location and off-board at a fixed destination location, with no passengers onboarding or off-boarding at intermediate locations).
It would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant’s claimed invention to modify the transportation schedule management methodology/system of Tokunaga by including the route optimization techniques of Balva because Balva discloses “Various embodiments provide approaches for selecting vehicles and optimizing routes for a combination of passenger transportation requests and cargo delivery requests (Balva ABS)”. Additionally, Tokunaga further details that “The present invention relates to schedule management systems (Tokunaga)” so it would be obvious to consider including the additional route optimization techniques that Balva discloses because it would optimize the efficiency of the schedules/routes managed within Tokunaga.
Regarding claim 7, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin further in view of Balva discloses a task management device comprising a control unit that calculates a required time for maintenance (Tokunaga ABS - A schedule management system includes a movable body management part for managing a schedule of a movable body, a necessity determination part 424 for determining the necessity of maintenance of the movable body, and a work time estimation part for estimating a work time of the maintenance of the movable body).
Balva further teaches the control unit adjusts the dispatch schedule of the vehicles so as to operate two or more of the vehicles in different modes for a same period (Balva ¶16 - Thus, future demand involving passenger requests and cargo requests can be predicted using the historical route data. In some embodiments, a set of proactive passenger requests and cargo requests corresponding to the predicted demand may be generated and submitted to a simulation module of a vehicle selection route determination system, which can determine a set of routes for a future period of time and assign the routes to vehicles of the transportation service. The vehicles may include different types of vehicles, including passenger-only vehicles which are only used to serve passenger requests, cargo-only vehicles which are only used to serve cargo delivery requests, and mixed passenger and cargo vehicles which can be used to serve both passenger requests and cargo requests. In some embodiments, the mixed passenger and cargo vehicles may hold passengers and cargo at the same time, servicing both types of requests simultaneously. In some embodiments, the determined routes are sent to the respectively assigned vehicles or computing devices onboard or associated with the vehicles).
It would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant’s claimed invention to modify the transportation schedule management methodology/system of Tokunaga by including the route optimization techniques of Balva because Balva discloses “Various embodiments provide approaches for selecting vehicles and optimizing routes for a combination of passenger transportation requests and cargo delivery requests (Balva ABS)”. Additionally, Tokunaga further details that “The present invention relates to schedule management systems (Tokunaga)” so it would be obvious to consider including the additional route optimization techniques that Balva discloses because it would optimize the efficiency of the schedules/routes managed within Tokunaga.
Regarding claim 8, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin further in view of Balva discloses a task management device comprising a control unit that calculates a required time for maintenance (Tokunaga ABS - A schedule management system includes a movable body management part for managing a schedule of a movable body, a necessity determination part 424 for determining the necessity of maintenance of the movable body, and a work time estimation part for estimating a work time of the maintenance of the movable body).
Balva further teaches the control unit adjusts the dispatch schedule of the vehicles so as to operate two or more of the vehicles in a same mode for different periods (Balva ¶16 - Thus, future demand involving passenger requests and cargo requests can be predicted using the historical route data. In some embodiments, a set of proactive passenger requests and cargo requests corresponding to the predicted demand may be generated and submitted to a simulation module of a vehicle selection route determination system, which can determine a set of routes for a future period of time and assign the routes to vehicles of the transportation service. The vehicles may include different types of vehicles, including passenger-only vehicles which are only used to serve passenger requests, cargo-only vehicles which are only used to serve cargo delivery requests, and mixed passenger and cargo vehicles which can be used to serve both passenger requests and cargo requests. In some embodiments, the mixed passenger and cargo vehicles may hold passengers and cargo at the same time, servicing both types of requests simultaneously. In some embodiments, the determined routes are sent to the respectively assigned vehicles or computing devices onboard or associated with the vehicles).
It would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant’s claimed invention to modify the transportation schedule management methodology/system of Tokunaga by including the route optimization techniques of Balva because Balva discloses “Various embodiments provide approaches for selecting vehicles and optimizing routes for a combination of passenger transportation requests and cargo delivery requests (Balva ABS)”. Additionally, Tokunaga further details that “The present invention relates to schedule management systems (Tokunaga)” so it would be obvious to consider including the additional route optimization techniques that Balva discloses because it would optimize the efficiency of the schedules/routes managed within Tokunaga.
Regarding claims 9, Tokunaga in view of Banthia further in view of Gurin further in view of Balva discloses a task management device comprising a control unit that calculates a required time for maintenance (Tokunaga ABS - A schedule management system includes a movable body management part for managing a schedule of a movable body, a necessity determination part 424 for determining the necessity of maintenance of the movable body, and a work time estimation part for estimating a work time of the maintenance of the movable body).
Balva further teaches the control unit adjusts the dispatch schedule of the vehicles in accordance with a demand of each mode for each time slot (Balva ¶16 - Thus, future demand involving passenger requests and cargo requests can be predicted using the historical route data. In some embodiments, a set of proactive passenger requests and cargo requests corresponding to the predicted demand may be generated and submitted to a simulation module of a vehicle selection route determination system, which can determine a set of routes for a future period of time and assign the routes to vehicles of the transportation service. The vehicles may include different types of vehicles, including passenger-only vehicles which are only used to serve passenger requests, cargo-only vehicles which are only used to serve cargo delivery requests, and mixed passenger and cargo vehicles which can be used to serve both passenger requests and cargo requests. In some embodiments, the mixed passenger and cargo vehicles may hold passengers and cargo at the same time, servicing both types of requests simultaneously. In some embodiments, the determined routes are sent to the respectively assigned vehicles or computing devices onboard or associated with the vehicles).
It would be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant’s claimed invention to modify the transportation schedule management methodology/system of Tokunaga by including the route optimization techniques of Balva because Balva discloses “Various embodiments provide approaches for selecting vehicles and optimizing routes for a combination of passenger transportation requests and cargo delivery requests (Balva ABS)”. Additionally, Tokunaga further details that “The present invention relates to schedule management systems (Tokunaga)” so it would be obvious to consider including the additional route optimization techniques that Balva discloses because it would optimize the efficiency of the schedules/routes managed within Tokunaga.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 8/7/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive and/or are moot in light of the new rejections addressed above.
As identified above, and in light of the amendments, the 35 USC § 112(b) rejection of claim 9 is withdrawn. Also in light of the amendments, the 35 USC § 101rejections of claims 1-20 are withdrawn. Specifically, the inclusion of the limitation “controlling the at least one vehicle to automatically adjust an interior arrangement in response to switching to the second mode, wherein adjusting the interior arrangement comprises changing a position of at least one seat within the at least one vehicle” demonstrates a controlling feature and overcomes the 101 rejection within the Step 2A (Prong 1) analysis.
Regarding the 35 USC § 103 rejections on the previous Office Action, Applicant amended the independent claims to further limit the claims with respect to automatically reconfiguring vehicle seats. In light of this amendment, Examiner agrees that the original references did not teach this, however the amendment necessitated further search and consideration. As a result of this further search and consideration, prior art was found that does teach these limitations and is now cited (Gurin as discussed above). As such, Applicant’s arguments (with respect to the independent claims and their respective dependent claims) are unpersuasive.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael R Koester whose telephone number is (313)446-4837. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday 8:00AM-5:00 PM EST.
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/MICHAEL R KOESTER/Examiner, Art Unit 3624
/Jerry O'Connor/Supervisory Patent Examiner,Group Art Unit 3624