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 Objections
1. Claims 14 and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claims 14 and 15 are independent claims but are dependent on Independent claim 1. These claims should be re-written so that they contain all their claim limitations within the claim itself rather than referring to other independent (or dependent) claims. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
2. Claims 1-15 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..
With regards to Claim 1, this claim contains a limitation that defines the "actual trajectory" as being represented by the "observed trajectory" in this context that they are the same trajectory and therefore the claim is indefinite. Dependent Claims are rejected based on their dependency on this claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
3. Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The independent claim recites “”determining a cost functon…”, “determining a side constraint function…”, and “solving an optimization problem…”. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional elements recited (a computer) amount to merely generic computing components performing routine well-understood functions. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the recited additional elements add no meaningful limitations on the abstract idea as presented in the claims and therefore are not sufficient to cause the claim as-a-whole to represent significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
4. 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, 5-7, and 9-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kabirazadeh (US 11,150,660).
As per Claim 1:
Kabirazadeh discloses the following limitations:
“A computer implemented method for generating trajectory information of a plurality of road users, the method comprising: determining a cost function which maps the trajectory information of the plurality of road users to a cost value”
Kabirzadeh Column 4 Line 62-Column 5 Line 23 discloses associating trajectories with cost values. (See Also Column 2 Lines 27-35)
“determining a side constraint function which maps the trajectory information of the plurality of road users to a side constraint value”
Kabirzadeh Column 4 Line 62-Column 5 Line 23 discloses multiple types of cost (i.e. cost or time) either one of these can arbitrarily represent a "side constraint".
“and solving an optimization problem for the trajectory information based on the cost function and based on the side constraint function”
Kabirzadeh Column 21 Lines 33-46 discloses optimizing costs.
“wherein the trajectory information of the plurality of road users comprises a plurality of parameters, wherein the plurality of parameters define a respective actual trajectory for each road user of the plurality of road users and a respective observed trajectory for each road user of the plurality of road users, wherein the respective observed trajectory for each road user of the plurality of road users represents the respective actual trajectory for each road user of the plurality of road users as observed by a sensor; and wherein the cost function and/ or the side constraint function comprises a term based on both the actual trajectory or trajectories for at least one road user of the plurality of road users and the corresponding observed trajectory or trajectories for the at least one road user of the plurality of road users.”
Kabirazadeh Column 1 Line 51-Column 2 Line 9 discloses trajectory information comprising information generated from recorded sensor data. As actual trajectory is defined as being represented by observed trajectory, these two values represent the same thing and therefore the inclusion of either constitutes representation of both.
With regards to Claim 5, Kabirzadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 and further discloses the following limitations:
“wherein the parameters further comprise static environment parameters.”
Kabirazadeh Column 2 Lines 44-67 discloses simulations containing static environments.
With regards to Claim 6, Kabirzadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 and further discloses the following limitations:
“wherein the cost function and/ or the side constraint function is based on a severity of a scenario represented by the trajectory information.”
Kabirazadeh Column 17 Lines 1-23 discloses filtering out (i.e. assigning an infinite cost) to objects based on the "level of interaction". In scenarios in which an object has a lower "level of interaction" with the instant vehicle the impact such an object would have would be less severe given the broadest reasonable interpretation of that term and therefore represents the limitation presented in this claim.
With regards to Claim 7, Kabirzadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 and further discloses the following limitations:
“wherein the cost function and/ or the side constraint function is based on a plausibility of a scenario represented by the trajectory information.”
Kabirazadeh Column 17 Lines 1-23 discloses filtering out (i.e. assigning an infinite cost) to objects based on the "confidence level". Such a confidence level represents a likelihood that an object has been accurately identified, therefore filtering out objects (an correspondingly scenario involving said objects) represents a filtering based on the likelihood that the scenario is accurate (i.e. the plausibility of the scenario).
With regards to Claim 9, Kabirzadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 and further discloses the following limitations:
“wherein the cost function and/ or the side constraint function comprises a term related to a desired output of a scenario represented by the trajectory information.”
Kabirazadeh Column 14 Lines 9-23 discloses prioritizing trajectories that result in safe stops avoiding collisions.
With regards to Claim 10, Kabirzadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 and further discloses the following limitations:
“further comprising the following step carried out by the computer hardware components: training a machine-learning model for driving assistance based on the trajectory information.”
Kabirazadeh Column 20 Lines 4-8 discloses incorporating machine learning models into the system disclosed, the implementation of machine learning models would require their training as well.
With regards to Claim 11, Kabirzadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 and further discloses the following limitations:
“further comprising the following step carried out by the computer hardware components :testing a machine-learning model for driving assistance based on the trajectory information.”
Kabirazadeh Column 20 Lines 4-8 discloses incorporating machine learning models into the system disclosed, the implementation of machine learning models would require their testing as well.
With regards to Claim 12, Kabirzadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 10 and further discloses the following limitations:
“wherein the training and/ or the testing comprises evaluating a driving policy for an at least partially autonomous vehicle.”
Kabirazadeh [Abstract] discloses using the simulation scenarios to test and validate vehicle controller behaviors.
With regards to Claim 13, Kabirzadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 12 and further discloses the following limitations:
“The computer implemented method according to wherein the driving policy acts based on observed trajectories for the plurality of road users; and wherein the driving policy is evaluated based on actual trajectories for the plurality of road users.”
Kabirazadeh Column 22 Lines 26-45 discloses evaluating simulation behaviors compared to real-world data.
As per Claim 14: this claim is substantially similar to Claim 1 and is therefore rejected using the same references and rationale.
As per Claim 15: this claim is substantially similar to Claim 1 and is therefore rejected using the same references and rationale.
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 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kabirazadeh in view of Alesiani (US 2019/0272752).
With regards to Claim 2, Kabirazadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 but does not disclose the following limitations that Alesiani does disclose:
“wherein the optimization problem is solved iteratively.”
Alesiani Paragraph [0014] discloses iteratively solving an optimization problem.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the system disclosed by Kabirazadeh with the iterative solving of optimization problems disclosed by Alesiani. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification, with a reasonable expectation of success, in order to make the system more effective by utilizing converging solving techniques.
With regards to Claim 3, Kabirazadeh in view of Alesiani discloses all of the limitations of Claim 2 and further discloses the following limitations:
“wherein an initial trajectory information for the optimization problem is determined randomly.”
Alesiani Paragraph [0042] discloses setting random initial values for optimization problems.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the system disclosed by Kabirazadeh with the initial value randomization disclosed by Alesiani. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification, with a reasonable expectation of success, in order to make the system more effective by eliminating bias in sampling for the simulation
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kabirazadeh in view of Bonawitz (US 2014/0188377).
With regards to Claim 4, Kabirazadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 but does not disclose the following limitations that Bonawitz does disclose:
“wherein the optimization problem is solved based on a gradient-free stochastic method, preferably a particle swarm optimization method or a covariance matrix adaptation evolution method.”
Bonawitz Paragraph [0100] discloses using stochastic optimization as an alternative to gradient based methods.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the system disclosed by Kabirazadeh with the optimization techniques disclosed by Bonawitz. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification, with a reasonable expectation of success, in order to make the system more effective by utilizing known problem solving mechanics.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kabirazadeh in view of Pedersen (US 2022/0198107).
With regards to Claim 8, Kabirazadeh discloses all of the limitations of Claim 1 but does not disclose the following limitations that Pedersen does disclose:
“wherein the cost function and/ or the side constraint function is based on a novelty of a scenario represented by the trajectory information.”
Pedersen Paragraph [0027] discloses prioritizing new scenarios for vehicle trajectory simulation.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the system disclosed by Kabirazadeh with the novelty calculations disclosed by Pedersen. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification, with a reasonable expectation of success, in order to make the system more effective by preferentially avoiding simulations of situations that have already been explored.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Examiner Godfrey Maciorowski, whose telephone number is (571) 272-4652. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone 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 examiner by telephone are unsuccessful the examiner’s supervisor, Vivek Koppikar can be reached on (571) 272-5109. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see https://ppair-my.uspto.gov/pair/PrivatePair. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/GODFREY ALEKSANDER MACIOROWSKI/Examiner, Art Unit 3667
/VIVEK D KOPPIKAR/Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 3667
July 25, 2025