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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 6-10 of the response, filed 12/17/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-20 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of US 2020/0344090 to Park.
Regarding applicant argument that Tokunaga reference does not to disclose a WUP at all, let alone “to generate w WUP”, the examiner respectfully disagrees. Tokunaga discloses as shown in FIG. 3, an example is taken from a case where a GW communicator unit 15 (for example, the first GW communicator unit 15a) transmits and receives a wakeup frame (that is, WUF) (see Tokunaga, ¶ 0074). Tokunaga further discloses the first GW communicator unit 15a that has received the first to third WUF transmits the received information items to the GW controller unit 11. The GW controller unit 11 thereby aggregates the information items of the wakeup patterns of the first to third WUFs to prepare a wakeup pattern for port corresponding to the first GW communicator unit 15a (see Tokunaga, ¶ 0078). Obviously, it is well-known in the are art for WUF to be interpreted as WUP.
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.
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(s) 1 and 5-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0070774 to TOKUNAGA et al. (hereafter Tokunaga) in view of US 202/0344090 to Park (hereafter Park).
Regarding claim1, Tokunaga discloses a system for implementing an early wake pulse for a vehicle network (see Tokunaga, Fig 1), comprising:
a networked device, in communication with a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs) over a plurality of vehicle buses, the networked device including gateway software configured to route data frames between the plurality of vehicle buses (see Tokunaga, Fig 1; ¶ 0021: a communication system 1 in the first embodiment is a communication system mounted on a vehicle. The communication system 1 includes a gateway device 3 (hereinafter, GW 3), a plurality of communication lines 5 (hereinafter, buses 5) connected to the GW 3, and a plurality of electronic control units 7 (hereinafter, ECUs 7) connected to each bus 5; ¶ 0024: communication is performed between each ECU 7 and the GW 3 via each bus 5 according to a CAN protocol (for example, ISO11898-6). That is, the communication frame is transmitted and received; ¶ 0030: the GW 3 includes at least a well-known gateway function for realizing communication between the ECUs 7 individually connected to different buses 5, while realizing communication according to the CAN protocol on each bus 5) and a wake-up pulse (WUP) generator configured to generate a WUP while the gateway software is being initialized (see Tokunaga, ¶ 0078: the first GW communicator unit 15a that has received the first to third WUF transmits the received information items to the GW controller unit 11. The GW controller unit 11 thereby aggregates the information items of the wakeup patterns of the first to third WUFs to prepare a wakeup pattern for port corresponding to the first GW communicator unit 15a; ¶ 0100: In S170, since the GW 3 is not in sleep, each GW communicator unit 15 initializes the value (that is, the register value) of the storage area that stores the data received from each ECU 7, and the process returns to the S100; ¶ 0174: In S360, since the GW 33 is not in sleep, the register value is initialized and the process returns to S300 as in the first embodiment).
Tokunaga does not explicitly disclose the gateway generate a WUP while the gateway software is being initialized.
However, Park discloses a wake-up pulse (WUP) generator configured to generate a WUP while the gateway software is being initialized (see Park, ¶ 0058: the gateway 100, which has received the NM message, may transition from the sleep mode to the normal mode through the system booting procedure; ¶ 0059: After transitioning to the normal mode, the gateway 100 may transmit a wakeup pulse to the Ethernet node A 310 and the Ethernet node B 320 in response to the NM message; ¶ 0084: When the gateway 100 has completed the system booting procedure in response to the NM message, the gateway 100 may transmit a wakeup pulse to the Ethernet network 350 (S20). The Ethernet node 300-1 to 300-M receiving the wakeup pulse may perform the system booting procedure in response to the wakeup pulse). Obviously, the wakeup pulse cane be generated during booting procedure based on user design preference toa achieve desired design goals.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the above teaching as taught by Park and incorporate it into the system of Tokunaga to achieve efficient in-vehicle message transmission by preventing message omission phenomenon (see Park, ¶ 0006).
To show well-known teaching of generating WUP while software is being initialized to achieve desired message transmission goals, see US 2011/0141898 (see ¶ 0085: it is necessary to transmit a wakeup signal before the data clock is generated during the initialization sequence).
Regarding claim 5, Tokunaga in view of Park discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the WUP generator is configured to generate the WUP over a controller area network (CAN) bus using a TXD pin of a transceiver of the networked device (see Tokunaga, ¶ 0078: the first GW communicator unit 15a that has received the first to third WUF transmits the received information items to the GW controller unit 11. The GW controller unit 11 thereby aggregates the information items of the wakeup patterns of the first to third WUFs to prepare a wakeup pattern for port corresponding to the first GW communicator unit 15a).
Regarding claim 6, Tokunaga in view of Park discloses the system of claim 5, wherein the WUP generator is configured to toggle the TXD pin to generate a dominant-recessive-dominant pulse sequence for the WUP in accordance with a wake-up pattern specification as defined in International Standards Organization (ISO) 11898-2:2016 (see Tokunaga, ¶ 0046: the ECU 7 can transition to the wakeup mode (that is, wakeup) by detecting the dominant pulse on the bus 5 while the operating mode is the sleep state; ¶ 0075: a wakeup frame (that is, a first WUF) having a wakeup pattern of “1000 1000” is transmitted from the first ECU 7a to the first GW communicator unit 15a via the first bus 5a; ¶ 0080: for each wakeup pattern, the OR of the signal state (that is, “1” or “0”) of each bit position B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8 is taken to prepare a wakeup pattern for port; ¶ 0084: a wakeup pattern for port is described at the “receive” position, and a wakeup pattern for transmission is described at the “transmit” position. For example, suppose a case where a wakeup frame is transmitted from the first GW communicator unit 15a. Such a case aggregates information items of the wakeup patterns for port (that is, see “receive”) corresponding to three ports of the second GW communicator unit 15b, the third GW communicator unit 15c, and the fourth GW communicator unit 15d, except for the wakeup pattern for port corresponding to the first GW communicator unit 15a).
Regarding claim 7, Tokunaga in view of Park discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the networked device is a central gateway of a vehicle (see Tokunaga, ¶ 0021: a communication system 1 in the first embodiment is a communication system mounted on a vehicle. The communication system 1 includes a gateway device 3 (hereinafter, GW 3), a plurality of communication lines 5 (hereinafter, buses 5) connected to the GW 3, and a plurality of electronic control units 7 (hereinafter, ECUs 7) connected to each bus 5; ¶ 0022: the GW 3 corresponds to a relay device that relays communication; the ECUs 7 corresponds to communication devices. That is, the GW 3 and the ECUs 7 are nodes in the communication system 1).
Regarding claim 8, Tokunaga in view of Park discloses the system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of vehicle buses includes one or more controller area network (CAN) buses (see Tokunaga, ¶ 0024: communication is performed between each ECU 7 and the GW 3 via each bus 5 according to a CAN protocol (for example, ISO11898-6). That is, the communication frame is transmitted and received. The CAN is an abbreviation for Controller Area Network; ¶ 0030: When the GW 3 includes at least a well-known gateway function for realizing communication between the ECUs 7 individually connected to different buses 5, while realizing communication according to the CAN protocol on each bus 5).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-20 are allowed.
Claims 2-4 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2016/0366646 to Yun et al, discloses operation method of communication node in automotive network. In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a controller of a communication node, which includes a physical (PHY) layer block and the controller includes: a controller interface part receiving a wakeup signal for waking up the controller from the PHY layer block; a core performing an operating system (OS) booting operation according to the wakeup signal; a memory control logic controlling a storage part to store at least one of data for the OS booting operation and data transmitted from the PHY layer block; and the storage part storing the at least one of data for the OS booting operation and data transmitted from the PHY layer block according to control of the memory control logic.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RASHEED GIDADO whose telephone number is (571)270-7645. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8AM-5PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricky Ngo can be reached at 571-272-3139. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/RASHEED GIDADO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
Prosecution Insights