Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/499,293

GESTURE DEVICE FOR TURNING ON A ROAD VEHICLE AND RELATIVE ROAD VEHICLE

Non-Final OA §103§112
Filed
Nov 01, 2023
Priority
Nov 04, 2022 — IT 102022000022734
Examiner
CHOI, JISUN
Art Unit
3666
Tech Center
3600 — Transportation & Electronic Commerce
Assignee
Ferrari S.p.a.
OA Round
3 (Non-Final)
73%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 73% — above average
73%
Career Allowance Rate
24 granted / 33 resolved
+20.7% vs TC avg
Strong +64% interview lift
Without
With
+64.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
24 currently pending
Career history
66
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.7%
-36.3% vs TC avg
§103
90.2%
+50.2% vs TC avg
§102
1.8%
-38.2% vs TC avg
§112
1.2%
-38.8% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 33 resolved cases

Office Action

§103 §112
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 . 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 01/26/2026 has been entered. Response to Arguments Applicant Amendments and Remarks filed on 01/26/2026 in response to the Final office action mailed on 10/24/2025 have been fully considered and are addressed as follows: Regarding the Specification Objections: The objections are withdrawn, as the amendments to the specification properly addressed the informalities recited in the Final office action. Regarding the Claim Rejections under 35 USC § 112(b): The rejection of claims 7, 8, and 11 are withdrawn, as the amendments to the claims properly addressed the rejections under 35 USC § 112(b) recited in the Final office action. However, the rejections of claims 9 and 10 for being indefinite are maintained, as no correction or argument was made to address the rejections under 35 USC § 112(b) recited in the Final office action. Regarding the Claim Rejections under 35 USC § 103: With respect to the previous claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103, Applicant has amended the independent claims and these amendments have changed the scope of the original application. Therefore, the Office has supplied new grounds for rejection attached below in the NON-FINAL office action and therefore the prior arguments are considered moot. NON-FINAL OFFICE ACTION Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b) 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 9 and 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claims 9 and 10 recite the limitations “the first colour” and “the second colour.” There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The Office has interpreted the limitations as “any colour” for examining purposes. 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. 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 1 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beauvais (US 2017/0197636 A1) in view of Han et al. (US 2015/0131857 A1) further in view of Hotta et al. (JP 2021-107192 A, hereinafter “Hotta”). The rejections below are based on the machine translation of Hotta, a copy of which is attached to the Office Action as also indicated in the 892 form. Regarding claim 1, Beauvais discloses A road vehicle (1) comprising: four wheels (2), of which at least one pair of wheels (2) is driven (Beauvais at para. [0015]: “The vehicle control system may be included in or otherwise usable with any suitable vehicle, such as (but not limited to): (1) a non-commercial passenger vehicle such as a sedan or a truck; (2) a commercial vehicle such as a tractor-trailer; or (3) a non-civilian vehicle such as a vehicle used by a law enforcement agency, a government agency, an emergency response agency (e.g., a fire response agency), or a medical response agency (e.g., a hospital)”); a passenger compartment (3) (Beauvais at para. [0015]: “The vehicle control system may be included in or otherwise usable with any suitable vehicle, such as (but not limited to): (1) a non-commercial passenger vehicle such as a sedan or a truck; (2) a commercial vehicle such as a tractor-trailer; or (3) a non-civilian vehicle such as a vehicle used by a law enforcement agency, a government agency, an emergency response agency (e.g., a fire response agency), or a medical response agency (e.g., a hospital)”; Any of the listed suitable vehicles include a passenger compartment); a powertrain system (5) (Beauvais at para. [0052]: “the VCS 400 can further include a power train control module (PCM) 406 for controlling and monitoring the engine and transmission of the vehicle”); an ignition system (6) of the powertrain system (5) (Beauvais at para. [0052]: “the PCM 406 can be configured to control starting and stopping of the engine of the vehicle, including receiving commands to start the engine from gesture commands and voice commands from the user”) comprising, in turn, a gesture device (7) integral with the passenger compartment (3) of the road vehicle (1) and comprising an optical sensor (9) configured to detect at least a first gesture and a second gesture made by the driver to change from an off configuration to an on configuration of the road vehicle (1) and vice versa (Beauvais at para. [0026]: “the vehicle control system is configured to operate with various cameras within the vehicle for feature command recognition. That is, a camera recognizes gestures that come from feet, pictures, or hand gestures like a form of sign language. For example, the camera may recognize gestures including, but not limited to, a thumbs up, a clap, an arm raised in a particular direction or at a particular angle”; para. [0032]: “It should be appreciated that to capture the gesture command, in certain embodiments, the vehicle camera system includes a camera on the inside of the vehicle”; para. [0050]: “the VCS 400 includes a camera for obtaining user gesture commands. The camera 416 is in communication with the processor 202 and the memory 204 of a computing device 200 within the VCS (not show in FIG. 3)”; para. [0052]: “the VCS 400 can further include a power train control module (PCM) 406 for controlling and monitoring the engine and transmission of the vehicle” “the PCM 406 can be configured to control starting and stopping of the engine of the vehicle, including receiving commands to start the engine from gesture commands and voice commands from the user”); the ignition system (6) comprising a detection system (10), wherein the detection system (10) comprises a short-range wireless transceiver configured to detect the presence or absence of a physical key-fob inside the passenger compartment (3) (Beauvais at para. [0055]: “commands and/or data transmitted by the key fob to the vehicle may be received at a Bluetooth receiver (not shown) of the wireless communication module 410”), and a control unit (11), which is connected to the detection system (10) and the powertrain system (5) and is configured to enable power to the powertrain system (5) only when both (i) the detection system (10) detects the presence of the physical ley-fob inside the passenger compartment (3) (Beauvais at para. [0023]: “The vehicle body control module sweeps for the key fob with a low-power antenna on the vehicle with a range of only a couple meters from the vehicle. When the user enters the range of the antenna sweep, the vehicle detects the key fob, authenticates the key fob, and if authenticated, initiates feature activation mode”) and (ii) (Beauvais at para. [0052]: “the VCS 400 can further include a power train control module (PCM) 406 for controlling and monitoring the engine and transmission of the vehicle” “the PCM 406 can be configured to control starting and stopping of the engine of the vehicle, including receiving commands to start the engine from gesture commands and voice commands from the user”), and characterized in that the control unit (11) is further configured to enable power to the powertrain system (5) (Beauvais at para. [0023]: “The vehicle body control module sweeps for the key fob with a low-power antenna on the vehicle with a range of only a couple meters from the vehicle. When the user enters the range of the antenna sweep, the vehicle detects the key fob, authenticates the key fob, and if authenticated, initiates feature activation mode”; para. [0052]: “the VCS 400 can further include a power train control module (PCM) 406 for controlling and monitoring the engine and transmission of the vehicle” “the PCM 406 can be configured to control starting and stopping of the engine of the vehicle, including receiving commands to start the engine from gesture commands and voice commands from the user”). However, Beauvais does not explicitly state: only when the gesture device (7) detects the first gesture performed by the driver, and without depressing a brake pedal. In the same field of endeavor, Han et al. teaches only when the gesture device (7) detects the first gesture performed by the driver (Han et al. at para. [0056]: “The image analysis unit 120 may be configured to determine whether the extracted wrist connection pattern a-b has a predefined feature, and determine that a corresponding object 1 of interest is that of the driver when the wrist connection pattern a-b has the predefined feature”; para. [0079]: “when the gesture recognition authority is provided to the driver, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the driver may be identified based on whether the wrist connection pattern a-b starts from the left boundary area L of the gesture area 5 or whether the first finger pattern b-c is located at the left side of the second finger pattern b-d”). 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 road vehicle of Beauvais by adding the first gesture performed by the driver of Han et al. with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. is to provide a restricted authority to the driver for effective gesture control of vehicles. However, Beauvais in view of Han et al. does not explicitly state: without depressing a brake pedal. In the same field of endeavor, Hotta teaches: without depressing a brake pedal (Hotta at para. [0056]: “the start control unit 175 starts and controls the vehicle travel function control unit 177 to bring at least the travel drive device 6, the brake device 7, and the steering device 8 involved in vehicle travel into an operable state (hereinafter, IG-ON)”; para. [0073]: “If the occupant's action is an action indicating that the occupant can drive, such as a predetermined hand gesture or presentation of a driver's license, the occupant determines that the driver can drive and the "IG activation condition" is satisfied”; para. [0079]: “the vehicle start control device 17 described with reference to FIG. 6E. The "IG activation condition" is established by an action such as presenting the driver's license. Therefore, the self-driving vehicle M can be turned on IG-ON even from the passenger seat”; The passenger seat does not provide a brake pedal, and thus the vehicle can turn on ignition (i.e., “enable power to the powertrain system”) without depressing a brake pedal when the hand gesture satisfies the IG activation condition). 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 road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. by adding without depressing the brake pedal of Hotta with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta is to provide smooth operation of a vehicle based on the state of occupants of the vehicle. Regarding claim 4, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 1. Beauvais further discloses wherein the gesture device (7) comprises a camera (15) facing the driver (Beauvais at para. [0026]: “the vehicle control system is configured to operate with various cameras within the vehicle for feature command recognition. That is, a camera recognizes gestures that come from feet, pictures, or hand gestures like a form of sign language. For example, the camera may recognize gestures including, but not limited to, a thumbs up, a clap, an arm raised in a particular direction or at a particular angle”; para. [0032]: “It should be appreciated that to capture the gesture command, in certain embodiments, the vehicle camera system includes a camera on the inside of the vehicle”; para. [0050]: “the VCS 400 includes a camera for obtaining user gesture commands. The camera 416 is in communication with the processor 202 and the memory 204 of a computing device 200 within the VCS (not show in FIG. 3)”). Claims 2 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Largue (US 2012/0050010 A1). Regarding claim 2, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 1. Beauvais further discloses wherein: the gesture device (7) comprises a display device (27) (Beauvais at para. [0032]: “display system inside the vehicle displays the user's gesture so that the user may verify that the camera is accurately capturing the gesture command”). However, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta does not explicitly state: a display device (27) configured to, at least partially, selectively assume a first colour or a second colour; wherein the display device (27) is configured to switch between the first colour and the second colour when the gesture device (7) detects the first gesture, and vice versa when the gesture device (7) detects the second gesture. In the same field of endeavor, Largue teaches: a display device (27) configured to, at least partially, selectively assume a first colour or a second colour (Largue at para. [0043]: “the light emitting diode devices 403”); wherein the display device (27) is configured to switch between the first colour and the second colour when the gesture device (7) detects the first gesture, and vice versa when the gesture device (7) detects the second gesture (Largue at para. [0044]: “A red device for example could indicate that a palm image is required. An amber light could indicate that a palm has been detected but is not being held in the correct position to enable an appropriate image capture to take place. Thereafter, having relocated the position of the palm, a green LED could indicate that an image capture has taken place”). 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 road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta by adding the display device of Largue with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Largue is to provide a visual notification to a user of an operation status (see Largue at para. [0044]). Regarding claim 3, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Largue teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 2. Beauvais further discloses wherein the display device (27) comprises a screen (28) (Beauvais at para. [0032]: “display system inside the vehicle displays the user's gesture so that the user may verify that the camera is accurately capturing the gesture command”). Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beauvais in view of Han et al. in further view of Hotta and Kuznetsov et al. (KR 20170119224 A). The rejections below are based on the machine translation of the Kuznetsov et al. reference. Regarding claim 5, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 1. However, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta does not explicitly state wherein the first gesture is a clockwise rotation of a hand (H) of the driver from a substantially vertical position, to a substantially horizontal position; and/or wherein the second gesture is a counter clockwise rotation of the hand (H) of the driver from a substantially vertical position, to a substantially horizontal position . In the same field of endeavor, Kuznetsov et al. teaches wherein the first gesture is a clockwise rotation of a hand (H) of the driver from a substantially vertical position, to a substantially horizontal position (Kuznetsov et al. at FIG. 10F and para. [0300]: “The processor 370 of the vehicle display apparatus 400 recognizes the case where the finger of the driver's hand 1000 is pointing in the direction tilted to the right by about 45 degrees as the second position, It can be recognized as the third position”; para. [0301]: “the processor 370 of the vehicle display apparatus 400 can control the output of the start-on signal of the vehicle when the palm moves from the second position to the third position”); and/or wherein the second gesture is a counter clockwise rotation of the hand (H) of the driver from a substantially vertical position, to a substantially horizontal position (Kuznetsov et al. at FIG. 11C and para. [0309]: “Fig. 11C illustrates that the finger of the driver's hand 1000 moves upward and moves in the direction tilted to the left by approximately 45 degrees”; para. [0310]: “The processor 370 of the display device 400 of the vehicle recognizes the case where the finger of the driver's hand 1000 faces upward and the case where the finger of the driver's hand 1000 faces the left side in the direction tilted by about 45 degrees”; para. [0311]: “the processor 370 of the vehicle display apparatus 400 can control the output of the start-off signal of the vehicle when the palm moves from the first position to the fourth position. Accordingly, the starting of the vehicle can be turned off”). 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 road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta by adding the first and second gestures of Kuznetsov et al. with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Kuznetsov et al. is to provide effective gesture control of vehicles. Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Kim et al. (US 2017/0228126 A1). Regarding claim 6, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 1. However, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta does not explicitly state wherein the gesture device (7) comprises a locking system (14), which is configured to selectively disable the optical sensor (9) in case the speed of the road vehicle (1) is greater than zero and/or a gear is engaged. In the same field of endeavor, Kim et al. teaches wherein the gesture device (7) comprises a locking system (14), which is configured to selectively disable the (Kim et al. at para. [0274]: “Upon receiving the gear lever position information indicative of the drive position D or the reverse position R when the vehicle is turned on, the processor 270 controls the light emitting unit 254 not to generate light” “The processor 270 also controls the touch sensor 213a to be inactivated, as shown in 1821”). 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 gesture device of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta by adding the locking system that selectively disable the sensor as taught by Kim et al. with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the gesture device of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Kim et al. is to prevent the vehicle from accidently being turned off while traveling (see Kim et al. at para. [0230]). Claims 7-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill (US 2020/0262340 A1). Regarding claim 7, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 1. Beauvais further discloses further comprising a luminous element (16) inside the passenger compartment (3) (Beauvais at para. [0045]: “the I/O devices 206 may also include output devices 218, for example but not limited to, … lights (e.g., LEDs; such as, for example, the output devices 117)”), However, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta does not explicitly state which is configured to assume a third colour when the vehicle (1) is in the on configuration and a fourth colour when the vehicle (1) is in the off configuration, the third colour and the fourth colour being different from each other. In the same field of endeavor, Prill teaches which is configured to assume a third colour when the vehicle (1) is in the on configuration and a fourth colour when the vehicle (1) is in the off configuration, the third colour and the fourth colour being different from each other (Prill at para. [0049]: “The light emitting elements 2 may switch to blue as soon as the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched on by the driver 9 and continue to glow blue until the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched off again” “When the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched off, the light emitting elements 2 may return to glow in white, possibly after displaying another circle animation”). 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 luminous element of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta by adding the configuration that assumes the third color when in the on configuration and assumes fourth color when in the off configuration as taught by Prill with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the luminous element of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill is to provide visual notifications regarding the system operating status (see Prill at para. [0049]). Regarding claim 8, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 7. Prill further teaches wherein the ignition system (6) is configured to emit a signal that causes at least part (17) of the gesture device (7) to change colour (Prill at para. [0049]: “The light emitting elements 2 may switch to blue as soon as the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched on by the driver 9 and continue to glow blue until the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched off again” “When the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched off, the light emitting elements 2 may return to glow in white, possibly after displaying another circle animation”). 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 ignition system of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill by adding color change as taught by Prill with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the ignition system of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill is to provide colorful notifications regarding the system operating status (see Prill at para. [0049]). Regarding claim 9, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 7. Prill further teaches wherein the third colour is equal to the second colour and the fourth colour is equal to the first colour (Prill at para. [0049]: “The light emitting elements 2 may switch to blue as soon as the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched on by the driver 9 and continue to glow blue until the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched off again” “When the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched off, the light emitting elements 2 may return to glow in white, possibly after displaying another circle animation”). 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 road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill by adding color change as taught by Prill with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill is to provide colorful notifications regarding the system operating status (see Prill at para. [0049]). Regarding claim 10, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 7. Prill further teaches wherein the third colour is equal to the first colour and the fourth colour is equal to the second colour (Prill at para. [0049]: “The light emitting elements 2 may switch to blue as soon as the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched on by the driver 9 and continue to glow blue until the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched off again” “When the assisted/autonomous driving system is switched off, the light emitting elements 2 may return to glow in white, possibly after displaying another circle animation”). 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 road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill by adding color change as taught by Prill with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill is to provide colorful notifications regarding the system operating status (see Prill at para. [0049]). Regarding claim 11, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 7. Han et al. further teaches wherein the luminous element (16) inside the passenger compartment (3) is a part (19) of the steering (20) wheel and/or a part of the dashboard (4) and/or a part of a vehicular roof (30); and/or indirect passenger compartment lighting devices (3) (Han et al. at para. [0045]: “An audio video navigation (AYN) device 140 including an AVN display 141 and an AYN input unit 142 may be provided on a center fascia 11 which is a substantially central area of the dashboard 10. The AYN device 140 is a device configured to integrally perform audio, video and navigation functions, and the AYN display 141 may be configured to selectively display at least one of audio, video and navigation screens and may be implemented as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED), a plasma display panel (PDP), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a cathode ray tube (CRT), etc.”). 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 road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill by adding luminous element as taught by Han et al. with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the road vehicle of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Prill is to provide visual notifications. Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Nakamichi (JP H 11342849 A). The rejections below are based on the machine translation of Nakamichi. Regarding claim 12, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta teaches the road vehicle (1) according to claim 1. However, Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta does not explicitly state wherein the ignition system (6) does not comprise means for sensing the pressure of a pedal. In the same field of endeavor, Nakamichi teaches wherein the ignition system (6) does not comprise means for sensing the pressure of a pedal (Nakamichi at para. [0018]: “when the brake lever 22 rotates around the support shaft 23, the rotating shaft 30 of the potentiometer 30 rotates together with the arm 32 whose pin 33 is pressed into the slit 22, so that the potentiometer 30 outputs an electrical signal according to the amount of operation of the brake lever 22”). 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 ignition system of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta by adding the brake lever as taught by Nakamichi to eliminate the means for sensing the pressure of the pedal with a reasonable expectation of success. The motivation to modify the ignition system of Beauvais in view of Han et al. further in view of Hotta and Nakamichi is “to eliminate the mistake of stepping on the brake pedal instead of the accelerator pedal and to ensure a large space at the driver’s feet” (see Nakamichi at para. [0026]). Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and can be found in the attached PTO-892 form. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JISUN CHOI whose telephone number is (571)270-0710. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. 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, Scott Browne can be reached at (571)270-0151. 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. /JISUN CHOI/Examiner, Art Unit 3666 /SCOTT A BROWNE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3666
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Nov 01, 2023
Application Filed
May 27, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103, §112
Aug 26, 2025
Response Filed
Oct 24, 2025
Final Rejection mailed — §103, §112
Jan 26, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Feb 18, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Mar 06, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Jun 30, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103, §112 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
73%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+64.3%)
2y 8m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 33 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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