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 .
Status of the Claims
This Office Action is in response to the Applicants’ filing on 01/08/2026. Claims 1-5 were previously pending, of which claims 1 and 3-5 have been amended, claim 8 has been newly added. Claim 2 has been marked as previously presented, but the language was removed in the new claim set and the claim was stated in the remarks as cancelled, and will be treated as such. Accordingly, claims 1, 3-5, and 8 are currently pending and are being examined below.
Response to Arguments
With respect to Applicant's remarks, see pages 5-12, filed 01/08/2026; Applicant’s “Amendment and Remarks” have been fully considered. Applicant’s remarks will be addressed in sequential order as they were presented.
With respect to the claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112(a), the amendment and remarks have been fully considered and are persuasive. Consideration was given by further analysis of the prior art of record and in view of the specification and remarks. It has been determined that, although the specification does not explicitly disclose the method by which the passing lane is assigned and the completion is determined, it would be reasonable to one skilled in the art to apply the most commonly used metric to determine the passing lane (i.e. local convention) and completion determination (i.e. longitudinal vehicle distance). The amendments have integrated that which is explicitly cited and would be used as the basis for those determinations. Therefore, the rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112(a) are withdrawn.
With respect to the claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b), the claims have similarly been assessed as described in the response to the 112(a) rejections above. In light of the remarks, prior art of record, and the interpretation of the examiner, the amended claims are no longer rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b).
With respect to the claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 102/103, applicant’s “Amendment and Remarks” have been fully considered and they are not persuasive. Due to the nature of the applicant’s amendments, the scope of the applicant’s invention has changed. Further consideration of the prior art of record determined that Kanda does appear to disclose the newly added limitations, as amended in claim 1. Kanda in view of Fujita further teach the limitations in claims 5 and 8. New application of prior art addresses the amended language, as mapped below. Therefore, the amended claims are still rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103, and have been updated in the final office action below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 3-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kanda et al. (US 2016/0325750 A1), hereinafter Kanda.
With respect to claim 1, Kanda discloses a platoon traveling system comprising an electronic control unit (ECU 10), provided in an own vehicle, that performs automatic driving control the own vehicle, the electronic control unit comprising a microcomputer programmed to execute the automatic driving control, which comprises: ([0047] “the travel control unit 15 performs the travel control on the vehicle so as to follow the preceding vehicle at a vehicle distance set in advance.”)
acquiring position information of each of the own vehicle and a surrounding vehicle around the own vehicle; (see at least [0021] “The communication device may be a vehicle-to-vehicle communication device” [0026] “and a device that can acquire at least speed information of the preceding vehicle and position information of the preceding vehicle is used.”)
determining, based on the acquired position information and map information stored in a database, whether the surrounding vehicle is traveling on a passing lane, the passing land being a leftmost or a right most lane of a plurality of adjacent lanes on a same side of a road on which the own vehicle is traveling; (see at least [0054-0055] “the process proceeds to S12, and it is determined whether or not a preceding vehicle is present in an overtaking lane… For example, in a case of left-hand traffic on an express way or on a motor highway, the most right lane is the overtaking lane.” [0037-0039] “The vehicle position recognition unit 12 recognizes the position of the vehicle (hereinafter, referred to as “vehicle position”) on, the map based on the position information of the vehicle… the travelling state recognition unit 13 recognizes the travelling state of a preceding vehicle… a travelling position, a travelling lane”)
and outputting at least on command for: causing the own vehicle to follow the surrounding vehicle if the surrounding vehicle is determined to be not traveling on the passing lane; (see at least [0047] “in a case where a preceding vehicle is present in the lane in which the vehicle travels, in principle, the travel control unit 15 performs the travel control on the vehicle so as to follow the preceding vehicle at a vehicle distance set in advance.”)
and causing the own vehicle not to follow the surrounding vehicle if the surrounding vehicle is determined to be traveling on the passing lane. ([0057] “In a case where it is determined that the preceding vehicle is present in the overtaking lane in S12… it is determined that the preceding vehicle is not travelling at the speed lower than the traveling speed of the vehicle in S14, the ordinary travel control processing is performed (S24).”)
With respect to claim 3, Kanda discloses the electronic control unit determines a total number of lanes on a road on which the own vehicle is traveling based on the position information and the map information, ([0030] “In the map information, for example, position information of roads, information on road types (for example, number of lanes, types of lane such as an overtaking lane and a travelling lane)”)
and in a case where (i) the total number of the lanes is two on each side of the road and (ii) the own vehicle is traveling on a lane on a right side in a traveling direction out of the two lanes on one side, the passing lane is a lane of the two lanes on a left side of the own vehicle in the traveling direction. (Fig. 3, [0060] “As illustrated in FIG. 3, a travel control is performed such that a vehicle (host vehicle) 90 changes the lane from an overtaking lane 81 to an adjacent lane and passes a preceding vehicle 91. At this time, the vehicle speed V of the vehicle 90 may be maintained as the previous speed before the overtaking, or may be accelerated.” Note: Although Fig. 3 shows the overtaking lane on the right it is understood that in the origin country, Japan, traffic travels on the left. Reversal of the travel lanes would be expected, in order to align with travel in the US.)
With respect to claim 4, Kanda discloses the own vehicle includes an imaging device that captures an image of a periphery of the own vehicle, and the electronic control unit determines a lane of the plurality of adjacent lanes on which each of the own vehicle and the surrounding vehicle is traveling based on the image captured by the imaging device. ([0036] “The external situation recognition unit 11 recognizes external situations of the vehicle which is the host vehicle based on the detection results (for example, image information from the camera, obstacle information from the radar, and obstacle information from the LIDAR) of the external sensor 2… a situation of another vehicle around the vehicle”)
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.
Claims 5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kanda, in view of Fujita (JP 2010-058546 A), hereinafter Fujita.
With respect to claim 5, Kanda discloses a platoon traveling system comprising an electronic control unit, provided in an own vehicle, that performs automatic driving control for the own vehicle, the electronic control unit comprising a microcomputer programmed to execute the automatic driving control, which comprises:
acquiring position information of each of the own vehicle and a surrounding vehicle around the own vehicle; (see at least [0021] “The communication device may be a vehicle-to-vehicle communication device” [0026] “and a device that can acquire at least speed information of the preceding vehicle and position information of the preceding vehicle is used.”)
determining, based on the acquired position information and map information stored in a database, whether the surrounding vehicle is traveling on a passing lane, the passing land being a leftmost or a right most lane of a plurality of adjacent lanes on a same side of a road on which the own vehicle is traveling; (see at least [0054] “the process proceeds to S12, and it is determined whether or not a preceding vehicle is present in an overtaking lane.” [0037-0039] “The vehicle position recognition unit 12 recognizes the position of the vehicle (hereinafter, referred to as “vehicle position”) on, the map based on the position information of the vehicle… the travelling state recognition unit 13 recognizes the travelling state of a preceding vehicle… a travelling position, a travelling lane”)
and outputting at least one command signal for: causing the own vehicle to follow a surrounding vehicle which is traveling on a lane other than a passing lane, ([0047] “the travel control unit 15 performs the travel control on the vehicle so as to follow the preceding vehicle at a vehicle distance set in advance.”)
causing the own vehicle that has followed the surrounding vehicle to the passing lane to stop following the surrounding vehicle (i) in a case where the surrounding vehicle keeps traveling on the passing lane for a predetermined time or a predetermined distance ([0054] “the process proceeds to S12, and it is determined whether or not a preceding vehicle is present in an overtaking lane.” [0063-0065] “in a case where it is determined that the predetermined time has elapsed in S20… the process proceeds to S26, and the overtaking control processing is performed.” Note: The shift to overtaking control requires follow-up control to be stopped.)
or (ii) in a case where the passing performed by the own vehicle of a low-speed vehicle other than the own and surrounding vehicles is determined to be completed based on a result of an external sensor of the vehicle. ([0054] “the process proceeds to S12, and it is determined whether or not a preceding vehicle is present in an overtaking lane.” [0059] “In a case where it is determined that the preceding vehicle is travelling at the speed lower than the legal minimum speed in S16, overtaking control processing is performed (S26).… to cause the vehicle to change the lane and to travel so as to pass the preceding vehicle. After passing the preceding vehicle, the vehicle may be returned to the original lane by changing the lane, or may not be returned.”)
Kanda discloses a vehicle following a surrounding vehicle in a passing lane, but does not explicitly disclose following a surrounding to a passing lane.
However, Fujita teaches causing the own vehicle to follow the surrounding vehicle in a case where the surrounding vehicle makes a lane change to the passing lane after the electronic control unit causes the own vehicle to follow the surrounding vehicle traveling on the lane other than the passing lane; (see at least [0043] “FIG. 2 shows a case where both the preceding vehicle FV and the host vehicle MV change lanes to overtake the vehicle OV because there is a slow vehicle OV ahead of the preceding vehicle FV during the following control.”)
As both are in the same field of endeavor, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the following control of Kanda to include the lane change of the following disclosed in Fujita, with reasonable expectation of success. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for allowing the own vehicle to follow the surrounding vehicle when there is a slow other vehicle that needs to be passed, see Fujita [0010].
With respect to claim 8, Kanda discloses the automatic driving control comprises outputting at least one command signal for causing the own vehicle (see at least [0054] “the process proceeds to S12, and it is determined whether or not a preceding vehicle is present in an overtaking lane.” [0059] “In a case where it is determined that the preceding vehicle is travelling at the speed lower than the legal minimum speed in S16, overtaking control processing is performed (S26).… to cause the vehicle to change the lane and to travel so as to pass the preceding vehicle. After passing the preceding vehicle, the vehicle may be returned to the original lane by changing the lane, or may not be returned.”)
While Kanda discloses a vehicle overtaking a surrounding vehicle due to the vehicle speed being too slow while performing following control, but does not explicitly disclose following a surrounding to a passing lane then canceling following or passing that vehicle.
However, Fujita teaches in the case where the passing is performed by the own vehicle of the low-speed vehicle other than the own and surrounding vehicles is determined to be completed based on the result of the external sensor of the vehicle. (see at least [0043-0044] “FIG. 2 shows a case where both the preceding vehicle FV and the host vehicle MV change lanes to overtake the vehicle OV because there is a slow vehicle OV ahead of the preceding vehicle FV during the following control… when the lane change ends and the vehicle returns to the normal following travel.”) It is understood that the normal following travel would reinitiate the overtaking determination of Kanda. Which would result in stopping the following control to overtake if the preceding vehicle were going too slow after the lane change.
As both are in the same field of endeavor, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the following control of Kanda to include the lane change of the following disclosed in Fujita, with reasonable expectation of success. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for allowing the own vehicle to follow the surrounding vehicle when there is a slower other vehicle that needs to be passed then pass the forward vehicle if it was also slow, see Fujita [0010].
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHELLEY MARIE OSTERHOUT whose telephone number is (703)756-1595. The examiner can normally be reached Mon to Fri 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Navid Mehdizadeh can be reached on (571) 272-7691. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/S.M.O./Examiner, Art Unit 3669
/NAVID Z. MEHDIZADEH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3669