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 Claims
This Office Action is in response to the RCE filed 05/05/2026. Claims 1-13 and 15-30 are presently pending and are presented for examination. Claim 14 is canceled.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 03/20/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-13 and 15-30 remain pending in the application. Claim 14 is canceled. Applicant’s amendments to the claims have overcome the rejections of claims 1-11 and 24-26 under 35 U.S.C 112(a) and claims 4-8 under 35 U.S.C 112(b) previously set forth in the Final Office Action mailed 02/06/2026.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03/20/2026 has been entered.
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-11, and 24-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Young et. al. (U.S. Patent No. 11,749,116 B1) in view of Nister et. al. (U.S. Publication No. 2019/0243371).
Regarding claim 24 and similarly with respect to claim 1
Young discloses “An apparatus, comprising: at least one memory;” (See Young Fig. 1, Chars. 125, 109 & 111 disclosing database for a vehicle apparatus in communication with on-board units of the vehicle. The on-board units additionally comprising memories, see Young Col. 5, L. 65-67 and Col. 6, L. 1-3 & L. 29-31.).
Young discloses “obtain one or more operation parameters for a vehicle selected from a group comprising driver age, driver fatigue, vehicle steering angle, vehicle route information, pedestrian route information, and regional driver behavior;” (See Young Col. 11, L. 16-24 disclosing obtaining information including determining if a driver is drowsy, which is an indicator of fatigue.).
Young discloses “compute an asymmetric safety margin perimeter profile around the vehicle based at least in part on the one or more operation parameters;” (See Young Col. 11, L. 25-27 disclosing a parking assistance platform alters the virtual zone based on an environment in which the vehicle is located. The virtual zone may be asymmetric (the width of the virtual zone at the right side of the vehicle may be greater than the width of the virtual zone at the left side of the vehicle), see Young Col. 12, L. 64-67.).
Young discloses all the elements of claim 24 except “and activate a safety function for the vehicle based at least in part on a location of an object relative to the asymmetric safety margin perimeter profile.” (Young discloses automated braking and lane keeping for collision avoidance, however a notification is output in response to the zone and an object intersecting, see Young Abstract and Col. 4, L. 52-57.).
Nister discloses “and activate a safety function for the vehicle based at least in part on a location of an object relative to the asymmetric safety margin perimeter profile.” (See Nister [0054] disclosing a system monitoring a vehicle occupied trajectory with a built-in safety margin to predict if an intersection or overlap may occur between the vehicle and the object, and implementing a safety procedure if an overlap occurs. The safety procedure may include lining up with a current lane and braking until completely stopped, see Nister [0052].).
Young and Nister are analogous art, because they are in the same filed of endeavor, vehicle controls. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Young to incorporate the teachings of Nister to include activating a safety function of the vehicle in response to a vehicle safety buffer zone intersecting with an object. Doing so provides a known method in the art for collision avoidance, incorporated with a reasonable expectation of success as doing so advantageously determines whether a set of actions can be implemented to adjust the safety potential of a vehicle to decrease the likelihood and/or imminence of a collision occurring, beyond just sending a notification, see Nister [0051].
Regarding claim 2
Young discloses “The method of claim 1 wherein the asymmetric safety margin perimeter profile is not identical on both sides of a centerline running a length of the vehicle.” (See Young Col. 11, L. 25-27 disclosing a parking assistance platform alters the virtual zone based on an environment in which the vehicle is located. The virtual zone may be asymmetric (the width of the virtual zone at the right side of the vehicle may be greater than the width of the virtual zone at the left side of the vehicle), see Young Col. 12, L. 64-67.).
Regarding claim 3
Young modified discloses all the elements of claim 1 and further discloses all the elements of the claimed invention except “The method of claim 1 wherein the asymmetric safety margin perimeter profile is not identical on both sides of a centerline running a width of the vehicle.”
Nister discloses “The method of claim 1 wherein the asymmetric safety margin perimeter profile is not identical on both sides of a centerline running a width of the vehicle.” (See Nister [0054] disclosing a system monitoring a vehicle occupied trajectory with a built-in safety margin to predict if an intersection or overlap may occur between the vehicle and the object, and Fig. 4A-4D, Char. 402 depicting the vehicle occupied trajectory in a longitudinal travel direction of the vehicle, thus not identical at the front and the rear of the vehicle.).
Young and Nister are analogous art, because they are in the same filed of endeavor, vehicle controls. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Young to incorporate the teachings of Nister to include an asymmetrical vehicle safety buffer zone with respect to the front and rear of the vehicle. Doing so provides a known method in the art for collision avoidance, incorporated with a reasonable expectation of success as doing so advantageously eliminates unnecessary constraints on controlling the vehicle, by separately analyzing the environment of the vehicle longitudinally and laterally, see Nister [0049].
Regarding claim 4
Young discloses “The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more operation parameters include an ego vehicle parameter.” (See Young Col. 5, L. 40-50 disclosing the vehicle sensors may include a velocity and acceleration sensor. A speed at which the driver of the vehicle executes the parking maneuver may be evaluated for determining the driver familiarity level, and correspondingly adapting the virtual zone, see Young Abstract and Col. 9, L. 23-26.).
Regarding claim 5
Young discloses “The method of claim 4 wherein the ego vehicle parameter includes a speed value, an acceleration value, a steering angle value, or combinations thereof.” (See Young Col. 5, L. 40-50 disclosing the vehicle sensors may include a velocity and acceleration sensor. A speed at which the driver of the vehicle executes the parking maneuver may be evaluated for determining the driver familiarity level, and correspondingly adapting the virtual zone, see Young Abstract and Col. 9, L. 23-26.).
Regarding claim 6
Young discloses “The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more operation parameters includes location information.” (See Young Col. 5, L. 59-62 disclosing the vehicle includes GPS receivers to obtain the coordinates of the vehicle and determine its location.).
Regarding claim 7
Young discloses “The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more operation parameters includes an indication of an experience level of an operator of the vehicle.” (See Young Abstract and Fig. 6, disclosing a virtual zone surrounding the vehicle, corresponding to a collision mitigation buffer zone for parking assistance, which may be adjusted based on a driver familiarity level. The virtual zone may be asymmetric (the width of the virtual zone at the right side of the vehicle may be greater than the width of the virtual zone at the left side of the vehicle), see Young Col. 12, L. 64-67.).
Regarding claim 8
Young discloses “The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more operation parameters includes an indication of an environmental condition proximate to the vehicle.” (See Young Col. 11, L. 25-30 disclosing a parking assistance platform alters the virtual zone based on an environment in which the vehicle is located, including weather conditions.).
Regarding claim 9 and similarly with respect to claim 25
Young discloses “The method of claim 1 wherein the computing the asymmetric safety margin perimeter profile around the vehicle includes providing the one or more operation parameters as an input to a neural network configured to output the asymmetric safety margin perimeter profile.” (See Young Col. 11, L. 60-67 and Col. 12, L. 1-3 disclosing a machine learning model provided to output a suitable virtual zone for a driver, trained based on historical data including vehicle attribute data indicating attributes of the vehicles and the environmental conditions associated with locations in which the drivers executed the parking maneuvers.).
Regarding claim 10 and similarly with respect to claim 26
Young discloses “The method of claim 9 further comprising receiving the neural network via a wireless communication link.” (See Young Col. 28, L. 44-48 disclosing computer instructions, software and program code, may be read into memory via the network link.).
Regarding claim 11
Young modified discloses all the elements of claim 1 and further discloses all the elements of the claimed invention except “The method of claim 1 wherein the safety function is one of an autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system or a lane support system (LSS).”
Nister discloses “The method of claim 1 wherein the safety function is one of an autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system or a lane support system (LSS).” (See Nister [0054] disclosing a system monitoring a vehicle occupied trajectory with a built-in safety margin to predict if an intersection or overlap may occur between the vehicle and the object, and implementing a safety procedure if an overlap occurs. The safety procedure may include lining up with a current lane and braking until completely stopped, see Nister [0052].).
Rationale for combination is similar with respect to the rejection of claims 1 and 24.
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claim 12 and similarly with respect to claim 27
The amendment to incorporate the recitation “obtaining location information associated with a geographic location corresponding to a country, a county, a city, or a combination thereof; obtaining vehicle information associated with the vehicle operating proximate to the geographic location, the vehicle information including at least one of steering angle, driver age, and continuous hours of vehicle operation by the driver; computing a safety margin perimeter profile for the vehicle customized for the geographic location based at least in part on the location information and the vehicle information;” overcomes the art of record, rendering the claims in manner specific enough to overcome the closest prior art, Young et. al. (U.S. Patent No. 11,749,116 B1). The claims specifically overcome the art of record, because of the limitations directed obtaining the recited location information, vehicle information, and using the combination of information to compute a safety perimeter surrounding a vehicle customized for the current geographic location of the vehicle. For example, Young in view of Nister et. al. (U.S. Publication No. 2019/0243371) [0180]-[0181], discloses computing a safety force field as a trajectory which may constrain a vehicle from performing a dangerous maneuver, including in accordance to the right of way rules corresponding to a country and region, however customization of a profile, either surrounding the vehicle or as a trajectory, on the basis of both the rules of the current location and the recited vehicle information is neither disclosed or rendered reasonably obvious in view of the art of record. The subject matter of the claims is therefore allowable.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JERROD IRVIN DAVIS whose telephone number is (571)272-7083. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 am - 7:00 pm.
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/JERROD IRVIN DAVIS/Examiner, Art Unit 3656
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