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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 for RCE has been acknowledged.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's amendments filed 07/22/2026 have been fully considered. Claim 1-6; 8-21 remain pending in the application. The Applicant amended claim language to overcome previous rejection.
Applicant's arguments filed 07/22/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regard to Part I of the Remarks on page 9, Applicant argues that, Independent claims 1, 12, and 19 were amended and believed to overcome the rejection.
However, Examiner respectfully disagrees. The combination of Michell and Berry as cited in previous Office Action still reads on the amended claims 1, 12, and 19.
Regard to remark on page 10 about independent claim 1, 12, and 19: applicant argues that, the combination of Michell and Berry does not teach or suggest at lease the highlighted feature of amended claim 1, 12 and 19. Amended claim 1 partial recited:
“determining, based upon the first subscriber profile, the destination address of the emergency contact of the first UE and a first attribute of the one or more authorized attributes that the user authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact;
determining accident information about a vehicular accident associated with the first UE;
generating a first emergency message, based upon the set of one or more authorized attributes and the accident information, to (i) include a value, from the accident information, corresponding to the first attribute of the set of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact but (ii) not include one or more values, from the accident information, corresponding to one or more attributes not included in the set of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact; and
providing, based upon the first attribute, a first emergency message to the destination address of the emergency contact.”
Applicant state that, Mitchell and/or Berry seem to be silent with regard to at least the portion of Applicant's claim 1 that recites: determining accident information about a vehicular accident associated with the first UE; generating a first emergency message, based upon the set of one or more authorized attributes and the accident information, to (i) include a value, from the accident information, corresponding to the first attribute ... but (ii) not include one or more values, from the accident information, corresponding to one or more attributes not included in the set of one or more authorized attributes.
Rather, Mitchell seems to provide for furnishing pre-stored subscriber-profile information, such as identification information, health-profile information, emergency- contact information, and potential-location information, according to subscriber preferences associated with that stored profile information, and Berry seems to provide for collecting and reporting emergency information relating to a vehicle emergency and, in some circumstances, providing emergency information to additional contacts.
Applicant further state that, Mitchell and/or Berry do not seem to provide for using a user-selected authorization set stored in a subscriber profile to govern which values, from separately determined accident information associated with a vehicular accident, are included in and excluded from a generated emergency message to an emergency contact.
However, Examiner respectfully disagrees. The combination of Michell, Berry and Biegel does teach all the feature on claim 1.
Biegel teach that, “determining, based upon the first subscriber profile, the destination address of the emergency contact of the first UE and a first attribute of the one or more authorized attributes that the user authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact; (i.e., [0049] In some non-emergency situations, there is a need to access location data, user data, emergency data or sensor data. For example, in some embodiments, a user of an electronic device 110 grants authorization to family members to access location data for the user. Accordingly, when a family member requests location data for a user, access is granted if there is proper authorization. As described on paragraph [0049])
and Biegel further discloses:
generating a first emergency message, based upon the set of one or more authorized attributes and the accident information, to (i) include a value, from the accident information, corresponding to the first attribute of the set of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact but (ii) not include one or more values, from the accident information, corresponding to one or more attributes not included in the set of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact; (i.e., [0044] In some embodiments, as described above, emergency data includes locations and additional data. In some embodiments, emergency data includes one or more emergency data categories (also referred to as “data categories”). … In some embodiments, medical information protected under HIPAA are encrypted and/or anonymized. In some embodiments, some data are tagged as “general” or another similar tag, wherein access is not specifically restricted.
[0054] For example, some intelligent vehicle systems generate and send data regarding a crash, such as the speed at which the vehicle was moving just before the collision, where the vehicle was struck, the number of occupants, etc. As described in paragraph [0044] and [0054]).”
Subsequently the dependent claims are rejected as stated below in details. Please see the rejection below for further details of claim 1-6; 8-21.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Michell, JR. et al (hereinafter “Mitchell”, US 20130143517), in view of BERRY JOSEPH J (hereinafter “Berry”, WO 2009002729) and further in view of BIEGEL et al. (Hereinafter “Biegel”, US 20220279331.)
Regarding claim 1, 12, 17, and 19, Michell discloses: A method, comprising:
receiving, via an emergency alert provisioning interface, a user submission of an emergency contact entry indicative of a destination address of an emergency contact associated with a first user equipment (UE); (i.e., In particular, a subscriber provisions personal information associated with users of a subscribing communications device 100 in to a subscriber profile via a secure subscriber information provisioning interface 110. As further described in paragraph [0030] and Fig. 1.
[0058] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative example of a subscriber profile provisioned for a subscribing communications device, in accordance with the principles of the present invention. As described in paragraph [0058].)
receiving, via the emergency alert provisioning interface, a user submission of a second emergency contact entry indicative of a second destination address of a second emergency contact associated with the first UE; (i.e., Further yet, a subscriber profile 500 may contain an emergency contact list 520. An emergency contact list 520 lists identification credentials 522 for communications recipients that a subscriber wishes to notify upon initiation of an emergency communications event (e.g. a 911 call). As described in paragraph [0064].)
receiving, via the emergency alert provisioning interface, a user selection of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact; (i.e., The present invention permits a subscriber to provision subscriber preferences (i.e. restrictive conditions) and subscriber (person, machine, and/or sensor) information associated with users of a communications device in to a subscriber profile. As described in paragraph [0027].)
generating a first subscriber profile, associated with the first UE, to include (i) the emergency contact based upon the emergency contact entry, (ii) the second emergency contact based upon the second emergency contact entry, and (iii) the one or more authorized attributes; (i.e., FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative example of a subscriber profile provisioned for a subscribing communications device, in accordance with the principles of the present invention. As described in paragraph [0058]. In addition, a subscriber profile 500 defined for a subscribing communications device 502 may contain a contact list 504. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a contact list 504 lists identification credentials. As further described in paragraph [0059] through [0065].)
storing the first subscriber profile in a subscriber profile database; (i.e., In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a subscriber profile provisioned for a communications device 100 is stored in a subscriber information reference database 120 for use during a communications event. As described in paragraph [0031].)
receiving, from the first UE, an emergency communication session request; (i.e., In step 303, the public safety answering point (PSAP) 300 receives the initiated 911 call and requests conventional phase II data. As described in paragraph [0049].)
Michell discloses all limitations recited within claims as described above. But Michell does not expressly disclose features of these claims:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, and an emergency system: in response to the emergency communication session request:
establishing a communication session between the first UE and a first public safety answering point (PSAP);
retrieving the first subscriber profile, associated with the first UE, from the subscriber profile database;
determining, based upon the first subscriber profile, the destination address of the emergency contact of the first UE and a first attribute of the one or more authorized attributes that the user authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact;
determining accident information about a vehicular accident associated with the first UE;
generating a first emergency message, based upon the set of one or more authorized attributes and the accident information, to (i) include a value, from the accident information, corresponding to the first attribute of the set of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact but (ii) not include one or more values, from the accident information, corresponding to one or more attributes not included in the set of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact; and
providing, based upon the first attribute, a first emergency message to the destination address of the emergency contact.
In similarly endeavor, Berry discloses a method, a non-transitory computer-readable medium, and an emergency system comprising a processor; (i.e., A method for notifying an emergency ' responder of a vehicle emergency; and a data storage device in communication with the data processor for storing, as shown in Fig 1 & Fig. 3, and described in claim 1 and 11) comprising:
in response to the emergency communication session request:
establishing a communication session between the first UE and a first public safety answering point (PSAP); (i.e., establishing a first communication link with a first cellular telephone as shown in Fig. 3 and described in claim 1).
retrieving the first subscriber profile, associated with the first UE, from the subscriber profile database; (i.e., presenting the emergency responder with voice menu options for selecting one or more items of the plurality of occupant or vehicle information. As described in claim 2, and further described in line 6-16 page 16).
determining accident information about a vehicular accident associated with the first UE; (i.e., If the emergency call is not terminated at 114, emergency information is collected at step 118. Emergency information may include vehicle information 116 and occupant information 120. Vehicle information 116 may include latitude, longitude, direction, last velocity, etc from GPS receiver/processor 14, street location if the vehicle is equipped with map data 20, vehicle type/color, vehicle emergency condition (e.g., impact, fire, rollover, fire, gasoline leak, etc.), number of occupants, seat belt status, etc. As described in page 15 line 1-14)
Berry further discloses:
providing, based upon the first attribute, a first emergency message to the destination address of the emergency contact; (i.e., activating the cellular telephone to dial a telephone number of a predefined contact other than an emergency responder as described in claim 8).
In addition, Biegel discloses:
determining, based upon the first subscriber profile, the destination address of the emergency contact of the first UE and a first attribute of the one or more authorized attributes that the user authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact; (i.e., [0049] In some non-emergency situations, there is a need to access location data, user data, emergency data or sensor data. For example, in some embodiments, a user of an electronic device 110 grants authorization to family members to access location data for the user. Accordingly, when a family member requests location data for a user, access is granted if there is proper authorization. As described on paragraph [0049])
and Biegel further discloses:
generating a first emergency message, based upon the set of one or more authorized attributes and the accident information, to (i) include a value, from the accident information, corresponding to the first attribute of the set of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact but (ii) not include one or more values, from the accident information, corresponding to one or more attributes not included in the set of one or more authorized attributes authorized to be shared with the emergency contact and the second emergency contact; (i.e., [0044] In some embodiments, as described above, emergency data includes locations and additional data. In some embodiments, emergency data includes one or more emergency data categories (also referred to as “data categories”). … In some embodiments, medical information protected under HIPAA are encrypted and/or anonymized. In some embodiments, some data are tagged as “general” or another similar tag, wherein access is not specifically restricted.
[0054] For example, some intelligent vehicle systems generate and send data regarding a crash, such as the speed at which the vehicle was moving just before the collision, where the vehicle was struck, the number of occupants, etc. As described in paragraph [0044] and [0054]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Berry and Biegel into the invention of Michell in order to provide an optimal level of services to users.
Regarding claim 2, and 13, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above.
Berry further discloses: the emergency communication session request is received in response to a vehicular accident associated with the first UE. (i.e., An objective of one or more embodiments of the present invention is to provide an improved emergency notification system that can promptly communicate emergency information to emergency responders in the event of an automobile accident or other emergency. As described in page 3 line 15-20. At step 108, an emergency notification signal is received from vehicle emergency sensors 110. As further described in line 24-32 page 13).
Regarding claim 3, 14, and 21, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above.
And Berry further discloses the first UE is an in-vehicle system (IVS) UE of a vehicle involved in a vehicular accident. (i.e., Figure 1 illustrates a physical system architecture which may be implemented to practice one or more aspects of the present invention. Block 10 generally comprises vehicle sub-systems, some of which may be interconnected by a vehicle network 12 such as a Controller Area Network or other suitable communication network . As described in page 7 line 8-14).
Regarding claim 5, 9, and 16, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above.
And Michell further discloses comprising:
in response to the emergency communication session request, providing a second emergency message to the first PSAP. (i.e., additionally forwards a customized caller information message to each recipient device. As described in paragraph [0043]).
Regarding claim 6, and 18, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above.
And Michell further discloses: wherein the destination address of the emergency contact comprises a mobile directory number (MDN) of the emergency contact; (i.e., In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a content collection node facilitates stored subscriber information to a communications recipient device with a communications event, based on: communication recipient credentials (e.g. IP address, Mobile Directory Number, etc.) As described in paragraph [0009]). and
providing the first emergency message to the destination address of the emergency contact comprises transmitting a text message to the MDN (i.e., A method and apparatus for dynamically selecting and transmitting stored caller (person, machine, and/or sensor) information to a communications recipient device (e.g. emergency dispatch personnel) with a communications event (e.g. a voice over IP call, an SMS message, an IP message, an MMS message, etc.), comprises a content collection node. As described in paragraph [0009]).
Regarding claim 7, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above.
And Michell further discloses: wherein: the first subscriber profile indicates authorization to share the first attribute with the emergency contact; (i.e., Moreover, a subscriber profile 500 preferably contains subscriber preferences 524. As described in paragraph [0065]). and the method comprises:
determining a value corresponding to the first attribute; and generating the first emergency message to include the value. (i.e., In particular, a subscriber profile 500 may contain subscriber preferences 524 that permit only certain data 526 defined in a subscriber profile 500 to be furnished to certain communications recipients 506 specified in a communications event. As described in paragraph [0065]).
Regarding claim 8, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above.
And Berry further discloses the emergency communication session request is received in response to a vehicular accident of a vehicle; and the first attribute corresponds to at least one of: a quantity of occupants of the vehicle; a time of the vehicular accident; a location of the vehicular accident; a travel direction of the vehicle; or a vehicle description of the vehicle. (i.e., the most urgent information, such as vehicle location, number of persons, etc. may be reported/received, as described in page 4 line 3-5).
Regarding claim 10, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above.
And Michell further discloses comprising: displaying an emergency alert provisioning interface; (i.e., Relevant subscriber information is ultimately displayed on the requesting 911 dispatch agency's ALI screen. As described in paragraph [0046]).
Regarding claim 11, and 20, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above.
And Berry further discloses the communication session corresponds to at least one of a voice call or a video call (i.e., communicate the voice/speech signals to the predefined contact, as described in page 6 line 8-12 and/or claim 15).
Claims 4, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Michell, JR. et al (hereinafter “Mitchell”, US 20130143517), in view of BERRY JOSEPH J (hereinafter “Berry”, WO 2009002729) and further in view of BIEGEL et al. (Hereinafter “Biegel”, US 20220279331), and PATEL SUBODH M. (hereinafter “Patel”, WO 2007087077).
Regarding claim 4, and 15, Michell, Berry and Biegel disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. But do not expressly disclose features of these claims:
establishing the communication session and providing the first emergency message are performed concurrently.
In similarly endeavor Patel discloses wherein: establishing the communication session and providing the first emergency message are performed concurrently. (i.e., a message can be sent to any contact(s) retrieved in the subscriber's associated medical and contact information at substantially the same time the 911 call is initiated, as described in paragraph [0010]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Patel into the invention of Michell, Berry and Biegel in order to provide an optimal level of services to users.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC M. VO whose telephone number is (571)272-9854. The examiner can normally be reached T-F; 7:30 - 5:30.
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/Eric M. Vo/Examiner, Art Unit 2644
/KATHY W WANG-HURST/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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