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 § 112
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.
Claim 1 and 4 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim one discloses “a floor movement section of a parking lot,” the Examiner is unsure if the applicant is referring to the portions of the parking lot that a pedestrian or vehicle would traverse (i.e. a driving lane) or if the applicant is referring to something like a retractable bollard or an automatic gate. For the sake of prosecution, the Examiner will assume a portion of a parking lot used for traversal.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1, 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kerecsen (US 20200294401 A1).
Regarding claim 1 Kerecsen discloses
A method of analyzing a location of a vehicle in a navigation device, the vehicle location analysis method (Paragraph 0237, "The vehicle transmits an event indicator and correlated vehicle location data to a central facility for further management of the information"; Paragraph 0013, "Autonomous car. An autonomous car (also known as a driverless car, self-driving car, or robotic car) is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input”) comprising: collecting, by a driving information collection unit, driving information of the vehicle through an on board diagnosis (OBD) scanner of the vehicle (Paragraph 0617, "Any one of the apparatuses described herein, such as a vehicle, device, module, ECU, or system, may be integrated or communicating with, or connected to, the vehicle self-diagnostics and reporting capability, commonly referred to as On-Board Diagnostics (OBD), to a Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL), or to any other vehicle network, sensors, or actuators that may provide the vehicle owner or a repair technician access to health or state information of the various vehicle sub-systems and to the various computers in the vehicle."); collecting, by a terrain information collection unit, terrain information with respect to topographic features located around the vehicle (Paragraph 0013, "Autonomous car. An autonomous car (also known as a driverless car, self-driving car, or robotic car) is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Autonomous cars use a variety of techniques to detect their surroundings, such as radar, laser light, GPS, odometry, and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage. Autonomous cars have control systems that are capable of analyzing sensory data to distinguish between different cars on the road, which is very useful in planning a path to the desired destination"); analyzing, by a vehicle location analysis unit, the location of the vehicle based on the driving information and the terrain information, when the terrain information is collected (Paragraph 0013, "Autonomous car. An autonomous car (also known as a driverless car, self-driving car, or robotic car) is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Autonomous cars use a variety of techniques to detect their surroundings, such as radar, laser light, GPS, odometry, and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage. Autonomous cars have control systems that are capable of analyzing sensory data to distinguish between different cars on the road, which is very useful in planning a path to the desired destination"; Paragraph 0015, "The term ‘Dynamic driving task’ includes the operational (steering, braking, accelerating, monitoring the vehicle and roadway) and tactical (responding to events, determining when to change lanes, turn, use signals, etc.) aspects of the driving task"; Paragraph 0017, "A key distinction is between level 2, where the human driver performs part of the dynamic driving task, and level 3, where the automated driving system performs the entire dynamic driving task" where Autonomous driving level 3 which needs radar also does dynamic driving so it uses the internal driving information); and correcting, by the vehicle location analysis unit, the location of the vehicle when driving on a road bump or a floor movement section of a parking lot among the topographic features (Paragraph 0013, "Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage" where the process of navigating necessitates constantly correcting the location of the vehicle and a road bump can be considered an obstacle).
Regarding claim 4 Kerecsen discloses
A navigation device, comprising: a driving information collection unit configured to collect driving information of a vehicle through an on board diagnosis (OBD) scanner of the vehicle (Paragraph 0617, "Any one of the apparatuses described herein, such as a vehicle, device, module, ECU, or system, may be integrated or communicating with, or connected to, the vehicle self-diagnostics and reporting capability, commonly referred to as On-Board Diagnostics (OBD), to a Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL), or to any other vehicle network, sensors, or actuators that may provide the vehicle owner or a repair technician access to health or state information of the various vehicle sub-systems and to the various computers in the vehicle."); a terrain information collection unit configured to collect terrain information on topographic features located around the vehicle (Paragraph 0013, "Autonomous car. An autonomous car (also known as a driverless car, self-driving car, or robotic car) is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Autonomous cars use a variety of techniques to detect their surroundings, such as radar, laser light, GPS, odometry, and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage. Autonomous cars have control systems that are capable of analyzing sensory data to distinguish between different cars on the road, which is very useful in planning a path to the desired destination"); and a vehicle location analysis unit configured to analyze a location of the vehicle based on the driving information and the terrain information, when the terrain information is collected (Paragraph 0013, "Autonomous car. An autonomous car (also known as a driverless car, self-driving car, or robotic car) is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Autonomous cars use a variety of techniques to detect their surroundings, such as radar, laser light, GPS, odometry, and computer vision. Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage. Autonomous cars have control systems that are capable of analyzing sensory data to distinguish between different cars on the road, which is very useful in planning a path to the desired destination"; Paragraph 0015, "The term ‘Dynamic driving task’ includes the operational (steering, braking, accelerating, monitoring the vehicle and roadway) and tactical (responding to events, determining when to change lanes, turn, use signals, etc.) aspects of the driving task"; Paragraph 0017, "A key distinction is between level 2, where the human driver performs part of the dynamic driving task, and level 3, where the automated driving system performs the entire dynamic driving task" where Autonomous driving level 3 which needs radar also does dynamic driving so it uses the internal driving information) and correct the location of the vehicle when driving on a road bump or a floor movement section of a parking lot among the topographic features (Paragraph 0013, "Advanced control systems interpret sensory information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage" where the process of navigating necessitates constantly correcting the location of the vehicle and a road bump can be considered an obstacle).
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.
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 2, 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kerecsen (US 20200294401 A1).
Regarding claim 2 Kerecsen discloses
The method of claim 1, further comprising performing, by a payment service processing unit, a payment service for the license plate number when the vehicle visits a specific payment service place and requests payment (Paragraph 0087, "The system may be integrated with pricing and payment systems such as toll collection, pricing management, and parking payments…electronic parking payments"; Paragraph 0271, “Any vehicle identifier herein may comprise a set of characters or numbers uniquely identifying the vehicle, and any vehicle identifier herein may comprise a license plate”).
Kerecsen discloses license plates and an electronic payment system but it does not explicitly state that the payment system uses the license plate information. As the invention can be used for electronic parking payments and electronic toll collection, the invention also needs to know who it is charging, for accuracy. Kerecsen does not specify the details of how it determines who is being charged. Therefore, it would be advantageous to base the identification off the license plate as it is a preexisting identification system that is already available, instead of creating a new system to identify an individual. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the license plate disclosed in Kerecsen with the electronic payment system, so that transportation authorities know who is paying a toll and that individual doesn’t get a ticket.
Regarding claim 5 Kerecsen discloses
The navigation device of claim 5, further comprising a payment service processing unit that performs a payment service for the license plate number when the vehicle visits a specific payment service place and requests payment (Paragraph 0087, "The system may be integrated with pricing and payment systems such as toll collection, pricing management, and parking payments…electronic parking payments"; Paragraph 0271, “Any vehicle identifier herein may comprise a set of characters or numbers uniquely identifying the vehicle, and any vehicle identifier herein may comprise a license plate”).
Kerecsen discloses license plates and an electronic payment system but it does not explicitly state that the payment system uses the license plate information. As the invention can be used for electronic parking payments and electronic toll collection, the invention also needs to know who it is charging, for accuracy. Kerecsen does not specify the details of how it determines who is being charged. Therefore, it would be advantageous to base the identification off the license plate as it is a preexisting identification system that is already available, instead of creating a new system to identify an individual. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the license plate disclosed in Kerecsen with the electronic payment system, so that transportation authorities know who is paying a toll and that individual doesn’t get a ticket.
Claims 3, 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kerecsen (US 20200294401 A1) in view of Dermosessian (US 20170206471 A1).
Regarding claim 3 Kerecsen discloses
The method of claim 1 including a location of a vehicle and a license plate number. Kerecsen does not disclose further comprising collecting, by the vehicle location analysis unit, the location and license plate number of the vehicle when the vehicle parks in or leaves a parking lot in a building, and transmitting the same to a map information providing server so that the server guides a parking location and empty space in the parking lot.
Dermosessian discloses
Collecting, by the vehicle location analysis unit, the location and license plate number of the vehicle when the vehicle parks in or leaves a parking lot in a building (Paragraph 0011, "to determine if a parking space is occupied or not. The technical solution to this problem involve the comparison of the position given by the positioning system (of the web-enabled computing device or of the vehicle) with the geo-location information for a given (e.g., selected) parking space"; Paragraph 0167, "According to another embodiment, the method further comprises registering an identity for each of a plurality of vehicles on the parking system database wherein the reservation signal comprises a vehicle identity which is matched to the ID of the selected parking space for which the status is occupied thereby providing a capability to determine whether a vehicle is parked in the parking space for which it is intended…Comparing the information from the parking system database with the license plate number of the vehicle occupying a parking space makes it easy to determine if the vehicle is authorized to be there"), and transmitting the same to a map information providing server so that the server guides a parking location and empty space in the parking lot (Paragraph 0183, "a method for reserving a parking space for a vehicle using a mobile computing device 516 having a display and a user interface. The method comprising: showing, on the display, a map taking into account a present location of the mobile computing device 516; the mobile computing device 516 accessing a parking system database to obtain: a status of parking spaces on the map indicative of: an occupancy, thereby defining occupied parking spaces and unoccupied parking spaces").
Kerecsen discloses the location of a vehicle but does not disclose the location of a vehicle in conjunction with a parking spot occupancy. A device that can relate a vehicle location with a parking space occupancy would be advantageous in crowded urban environments (such as a mall) where finding a parking spot is difficult. The user or vehicle operator can see where an open parking spot is and go to the location instead of circling the parking lot for an extended amount of time searching for a spot. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kerecsen with Dermosessian to add a parking tracking feature so that the device can use the vehicle location to ease the task of finding a parking spot.
Regarding claim 6 Kerecsen discloses
The navigation device of claim 5 including a location of a vehicle and a license plate number. Kerecsen does not disclose further comprising collecting, by the vehicle location analysis unit, the location and license plate number of the vehicle when the vehicle parks in or leaves a parking lot in a building, and transmitting the same to a map information providing server so that the server guides a parking location and empty space in the parking lot.
Dermosessian discloses
Collecting, by the vehicle location analysis unit, the location and license plate number of the vehicle when the vehicle parks in or leaves a parking lot in a building (Paragraph 0011, "to determine if a parking space is occupied or not. The technical solution to this problem involve the comparison of the position given by the positioning system (of the web-enabled computing device or of the vehicle) with the geo-location information for a given (e.g., selected) parking space"; Paragraph 0167, "According to another embodiment, the method further comprises registering an identity for each of a plurality of vehicles on the parking system database wherein the reservation signal comprises a vehicle identity which is matched to the ID of the selected parking space for which the status is occupied thereby providing a capability to determine whether a vehicle is parked in the parking space for which it is intended…Comparing the information from the parking system database with the license plate number of the vehicle occupying a parking space makes it easy to determine if the vehicle is authorized to be there"), and transmitting the same to a map information providing server so that the server guides a parking location and empty space in the parking lot (Paragraph 0183, "a method for reserving a parking space for a vehicle using a mobile computing device 516 having a display and a user interface. The method comprising: showing, on the display, a map taking into account a present location of the mobile computing device 516; the mobile computing device 516 accessing a parking system database to obtain: a status of parking spaces on the map indicative of: an occupancy, thereby defining occupied parking spaces and unoccupied parking spaces").
Kerecsen discloses the location of a vehicle but does not disclose the location of a vehicle in conjunction with a parking spot occupancy. A device that can relate a vehicle location with a parking space occupancy would be advantageous in crowded urban environments (such as a mall) where finding a parking spot is difficult. The user or vehicle operator can see where an open parking spot is and go to the location instead of circling the parking lot for an extended amount of time searching for a spot. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kerecsen with Dermosessian to add a parking tracking feature so that the device can use the vehicle location to ease the task of finding a parking spot.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Zhao (US 20190367021 A1) is pertinent as the application is related to parking lot spaces, speed bumps, environmental information, and location information of a vehicle.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER D DOZE whose telephone number is (571)272-0392. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:40am - 5:40pm ET .
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, Vladimir Magloire can be reached at (571) 270-5144. 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.
/PETER DAVON DOZE/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648