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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "…a plurality of controllers…comprising: a plurality of controllers". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For purposes of examination, it will be assumed the components in the latter recitation of “a plurality of controllers” is identical to the original recitation.
Claims 2-10 are rejected under identical grounds for dependency on claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3. The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by Liu (US 2019/0100105).
Regarding claim 1, as best understood, Liu discloses a network for actuating a plurality of controllers to perform one of a plurality of selected functions, the plurality of controllers communicatively coupled to each other by a network of communication lines (plurality of vehicle controllers, each with a primary task for vehicle control, interconnected via wired or wireless communication lines; Liu at 0028, 0041, 0058) the network comprising:
A plurality of controllers (e.g. controllers 1-5 in Fig. 8), each of the plurality of controllers being a programmable chip having a software manager, the software manager having a first data processing hardware and a first memory hardware, the first memory hardware storing instructions that when executed on the first data processing hardware cause the first data processing hardware to perform a primary function (controller comprises equivalent memory and processing to implement programmed functionality; Liu at 0045, 0070, 0071, 0078).
An activation profile stored in the first memory hardware, the activation profile including a list of software entities having at least one identifier each of the at least one identifier being a primary function and/or a dependent function (a controller fails, one or more stored functionalities activated in response to failed controller in the redundant network, and the failed controller’s responsibilities are redistributed, Liu at 0079).
Wherein the software manager of at least one of the plurality of controllers is further configured to process the activation profile and perform activation of the software entities by determining each of the plurality of controllers that hosts the software entities having the primary function and/or dependent function needed to perform the desired function (functionality of failed controller is redistributed among controllers, controllers can issue or receive commands based on redundancy strategy; Liu at 0081-0084).
Allowable Subject Matter
4. Claims 11-20 are allowed.
Potential Claim Objections
5. Upon resolution of the above 35 U.S.C. 112 issues, claims 2 and 4-6 will be 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.
Subsequently, claims 3 and 7-10 would be objected due to dependency on their respective claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN M DAGER whose telephone number is (571)270-1332. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 0830-1730.
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/JONATHAN M DAGER/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3663
05 January 2025