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 .
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.
Claims 1, 2, and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sundararajan et al. (US 2018/0354444) in view of Szawarski et al. (US 2018/0272977).
With respect to claim 1, Sundararajan et al. disclose the claimed vehicle except that they are silent on the inclusion of a seatbelt device. Sundararajan et al. disclose a vehicle, comprising:
a vehicle body 12 having a cabin in which a passenger rides (as shown in Fig. 3B of Sundararajan et al.), and
a side door opening portion, which is opened and closed by a side door 24, formed at a side in a transverse direction of the vehicle body 12 (as show in Fig. 3B of Sundararajan et al.);
and a
a seat 80, the seat 80 being attached to a floor 34 of the cabin so as to be rotatable about a rotation axis that extends in a vehicle vertical direction (Sundararajan et al., paragraph [0086]), and the seat 80 being disposed at a position at which, in a state in which the seat is oriented toward a vehicle rear side (“When rotated, the base can be configured to allow the rear seat 80 to be fixed at any location throughout a rotation relative to an initial location,” Sundararajan et al., paragraph [0088]), a side of the seat at which a seat buckle is attachable, in the transverse direction of the seat 80, is disposed at the side in the transverse direction of the vehicle body,
wherein the seat 80 comprises a left side seat and a right side seat (“one or more seats can be disposed on the rear portion 40,” Sundararajan et al., paragraph [0086]), the left side seat and the right side seat are lined-up in the vehicle transverse direction (although Sundararajan et al. does not explicitly state that the left side seat and the right side seat are lined-up in a vehicle transverse direction, such an arrangement would be obvious as is arranged in the middle seat 76,78 of Sundararajan et al. or as is arranged in the rear row of seats 28,30 of Szawarski et al., see Figs. 2-3).
Szawarski et al. teach a similar vehicle including seat 30,28 that is rotatable about a rotation axis that extends in a vehicle vertical direction z (Szawarski et al., paragraph [0032]; Fig. 5) at which a seatbelt device 52 a seatbelt 54,56 formed in a belt-shape, a tongue plate 60 through which the seatbelt 54,56 is inserted (as shown in Fig. 5 of Szawarski et al.), and
a buckle 58 with which the tongue plate engages, the buckle 58 being fixed at one side in a transverse direction of the seat 24 (as shown in Fig. 5 of Szawarski et al.),
In the combination of Sundararajan et al. and Szawarski et al., the buckle 58 (taught by Szawarski et al.) and the side door opening portion do not overlap in a vehicle transverse direction as shown in the below image taken from Fig. 3A of Sundararajan et al.:
[AltContent: textbox (buckle location in combination )][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: ][AltContent: textbox (side door opening)][AltContent: connector][AltContent: connector]
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It 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, with a reasonable expectation of success, to combine the teaching of. with the vehicle disclosed by Sundararajan et al. for the advantage a safety restraint provided on the seat in case of a vehicle collision.
With respect to claim 2, Sundararajan et al. disclose an alternate embodiment in which the base and the seat bottom can be slidably connected, e.g., with slidable rails (not shown–Sundararajan et al., paragraph [0065]). Thus, the original embodiment must, by differentiation, be directed to an embodiment in which each of the left side seat 80 and the right side seat 80 is attached to the floor 34 of the cabin in a state in which movement of the seat in a vehicle front-rear direction with respect to the floor 34 of the cabin is prohibited.
With respect to claim 5, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that the front-rear slide supporting portion disclosed by Sundararajan et al. only allows each of the left side seat 80 and right side seat 80 to slide when it is activated. Thus, in a state in which each of the left side seat 80 and right side seat 80 is oriented toward a vehicle front side, each of the left side seat 80 and right side seat 80 is movable by the front-rear slide supporting portion (for example, when the slide supporting portion is activated), and in a state in which the seat is oriented toward the vehicle rear side, the seat is not movable by the front-rear slide supporting portion (for example, when the slid supporting portion is not activated).
With respect to claim 6, Sundararajan et al. disclose that in a state in which each of the left side seat 80 and right side seat 80 is oriented toward the vehicle rear side (Sundararajan et al., paragraph [088]), each of the left side seat 80 and right side seat 80 is disposed at a position at which (in the combination) the buckle 58 and a vehicle body frame portion, which structures a frame at a side in the transverse direction of the vehicle body, overlap in the vehicle transverse direction (shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2B of Sundararajan et al.).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 is allowed.
Claims 3-4 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim 4 has been indicated as containing allowable subject matter primarily for, in a state in which at least one of the left side seat and the right side seat is oriented toward the vehicle rear side, a range of movement of the at least one seat that is permitted by the front-rear slide supporting portion is limited to a range within which the buckle and the side door opening portion do not overlap in the vehicle transverse direction.
Claim 10 has been indicated as containing allowable subject matter primarily for the seat control unit configured to control the front-rear sliding actuator, wherein, the seat control unit comprising a memory and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to, when the processor detects that the seat is oriented toward the vehicle rear side, operate the front-rear sliding actuator such that the seat is moved to a position at which the buckle and the side door opening portion do not overlap in the vehicle transverse direction.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 5/14/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive of any error in the above rejection.
Applicant has amended the claims so that the previously recited seat now includes a left side seat and a right side seat. Applicant then argues that Sundararajan et al. does not teach the left side seat and right side seat. However, as outlined above, the rear row of seats disclosed by Sundararajan et al. discloses such an arrangement.
Applicant continues to argue that, in the combination, the respective buckles of the seats, are not located at an outer side, in the vehicle transverse direction of the seat. However, it is noted that none of the claims require the buckles of the seats to be located at an outer side of the seat.
In view of the new interpretation of Sundararajan et al., the rejection has been made final.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 DANIEL J COLILLA whose telephone number is (571)272-2157. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30 - 4:00.
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/Daniel J Colilla/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3612
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