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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 March 11, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This office action is in response to the amendments filed March 11, 2026. Claim 1 is amended. Claims 1 and 3-8 are pending and addressed below.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been fully considered but are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that Odaka does not teach engaging the pawl in response to the electric motor sweeping the angle of rotation. However, Odaka does disclose an engaged pawl (Figs. 4, 9, 23A, and 23B) that prevents the motion of the gear from rotating further. Furthermore, examiner notes that claim 1 of Odaka claims “(c) an engaging member mechanically linked with a shift lever such that said engaging member is engaged with said parking lock pawl to bring said pawl into said lock position when said shift lever is operated to a parking position”, where the lock position is defined to lock the wheel by said lock pawl (Abstract). Regarding the electric motor sweeping the angle of rotation, Odaka discloses from an embodiment in column 6, lines 41-46, “The means for controlling the rotary position of the electric motor may be adapted to rotate the lock gear and detect an angle of play of the lock gear with respect to the lock pawl, so that the rotary position of the electric motor is controlled so as to position the lock gear within the detected angle of play”, where examiner interprets that the control of the rotary position sweeps the angle of rotation with respect to the lock pawl, where the lock pawl would not be able to be engaged without the rotation to the tooth space. For at least these reasons, examiner maintains the rejection of claim 1.
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 1 and 3-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
US5807205A (Odaka).
Regarding claim 1, Odaka discloses a method for rolling an electrically driven vehicle (10) into a locked position in which a pawl (48) of a parking lock device (44) engages a tooth space (60) of an outer toothing (56) from an unlocked position in which the pawl (48) is prevented from engaging the tooth space (60, comprising:
biasing a biasing spring (54) by an actuator (52) when the parking lock device (44) is activated;
Column 2, lines 17-27 of Odaka, “Normally, the engaging member 26 is held in abutting contact with the head 32 of the rod 24 under a biasing force of the coil spring 30. This arrangement permits the shift lever 22 to be operated to the parking position, even when the tooth 18 of the lock pawl 14 is in contact with the top face of one of the teeth of the lock gear 12. The biasing action of the compression coil spring 30 causes the lock pawl 14 to be moved to the lock position if the lock gear 12 is rotated in the above condition, due to rotation of the wheel of the vehicle when it is parked on a slope, for example.”
transmitting to a control unit (40) a position of a parking lock gear (46) accommodated in a rotationally fixed manner, sensed by a position sensing system (36);
Odaka discloses an apparatus for controlling a mechanical parking lock device that includes the use of a parking lock gear and pawl system (see Fig. 4 of Odaka). Odaka discloses that “The output of signal of the rotary position sensor represents a rotary position θ of the parking lock gear 12.” (column 6, lines 22-26).
determining an angle of rotation of a rotor shaft (34) of an electric motor (14) to reach a nearest tooth space (60) of an outer toothing (56) of the parking lock gear (46);
While Odaka does not explicitly disclose the ability to determine the angle of rotation to reach a nearest tooth space of the parking lock gear, Odaka discloses, “The means for controlling the rotary position of the electric motor may be adapted to rotate the lock gear and detect an angle of play of the lock gear with respect to the lock pawl, so that the rotary position of the electric motor is controlled so as to position the lock gear within the detected angle of play. Where the angle of play between the lock gear and the lock pawl is known, the means for controlling the rotary position of the electric motor may be adapted to control the electric motor for rotating the lock gear by an angle within the known angle of play.”
One of ordinary skill in the art would find it obvious to try, prior to the applicant’s effective filing date, and modify the system of Odaka to determine the angle of rotation for the nearest tooth space of the parking lock gear as the selection for the “nearest tooth space” is an intended choice for a rotatable component with a finite number of spaces in between teeth of a gear.
actuating the electric motor (14) for sweeping the angle of rotation determined and controlling an approach to a position of the nearest tooth space (60),
See Figs. 4 and 9. In light of the limitation above regarding “determining an angle of rotation…”, the parking gear 12 is rotated to line up with the tooth 18 of pawl 14 for engaging member 16 to control an approach to the nearest tooth space.
wherein a direction of rotation of the electric motor (14) for sweeping the angle of rotation determined is obtained from information as to
whether the electric motor (14) has delivered a torque when the electrically driven vehicle (10) reaches a standstill position, or
Column 2, lines 43-47 of Odaka provides an exemplary situation, “Where the motor vehicle provided with the conventional mechanical parking lock mechanism as described above is parked on a slope, a load acts on the vehicle in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, whereby a moment acts on the parking lock gear 12.” Furthermore, column 11, lines 56-64 of Odaka et al. state that, “Further, the output torque of the electric motor 112 is controlled depending upon the vehicle inclination angle Φ detected by the vehicle inclination sensor 52, so as to substantially zero the engagement load Fpp, so that the required operating force of the shift lever 22 upon releasing of the shift lock of the drive wheels can be effectively and efficiently reduced with high stability.”, where column 14, lines 31-32 of Odaka define engagement load FPP as “the load between the lock gear 12 and lock pawl 14.”.
engaging the pawl (48) with the tooth space (60) of the outer toothing (56) in response to the electric motor sweeping the angle of rotation.
Column 12, lines 39-44 of Odaka discloses, “The angle of rotation Δθ is an angle of rotation of the lock gear 12 from the rotary position in which the lock gear 12 engages the lock pawl 14, to a rotary position in which the lock gear 12 is disengaged from the tooth 18 of the lock pawl, as shown in FIG. 9 namely, to a rotary position in which the engagement load FPP is zero.”, where Fig. 9 shows a configuration of the pawl engaged with the tooth space between two teeth of the outer toothing.
In light of the statements from the response to arguments above, one of ordinary skill in the art would find it obvious that the pawl was engaged with the tooth space of the outer toothing in response to the electric motor sweeping the angle of rotation as Odaka discloses a system configured to engage a pawl, detect the rotary position of the lock gear with respect to the lock pawl, and control the rotary position to be at a desired or target rotary position.
Regarding claim 3, with all the limitations of claim 1, the method further comprises:
wherein a rotary movement of the pawl (48) about an axis of rotation (62) is initiated by a translatory movement of an actuating mechanism (50).
See Figs. 4 and 9 of Odaka. It is clearly shown that as engaging member 16 translates between stationary suitable support member 34 and pawl 14, where the translation of engaging member 16 engages the pawl 14 to the gear 12.
Regarding claim 4, with all the limitations of claim 1, the method further comprises:
wherein the biasing of the biasing spring (54) adjusts a translationally movable slider (68) against an actuating surface (70).
In light of the rationale of claim 3, Odaka discloses in column 2, lines 13-15, “The engaging member 16 is disposed on the rod 24 such that the engaging member 16 is axially movable relative to the rod 24. The rod 24 has a head 32 at one end thereof, and is provided with an elastic member in the form of a compression coil spring 30. Normally, the engaging member 26 is held in abutting contact with the head 32 of the rod 24 under a biasing force of the coil spring 30.” See Figs. 4 and 9 for an exemplary embodiment and Figs. 23A and 23B for a more detailed view of the previously listed figures.
Regarding claim 5, with all the limitations of claim 1, the method further comprises:
wherein the position of the parking lock gear (46) is detected by a position sensing system (36) configured as a resolver.
Odaka discloses that “The output of signal of the rotary position sensor represents a rotary position .theta. of the parking lock gear 12.” (column 6, lines 22-26).
Regarding claim 6, with all the limitations of claim 1, the method further comprises:
wherein during the biasing, the transmitting, the determining, and the actuating, the pawl (48) is held in a position set against the outer toothing (56) of the parking lock gear (46).
Column 2, lines 20-23, “This arrangement permits the shift lever 22 to be operated to the parking position, even when the tooth 18 of the lock pawl 14 is in contact with the top face of one of the teeth of the lock gear 12.”
Regarding claim 7, with all the limitations of claim 4, the method further comprises:
wherein the pawl (48) remains locked by the slider (68) after engaging in the nearest tooth space (60) of the outer toothing (56).
In light of the rationale of claim 1 regarding “determining an angle of rotation …” showing that the system of Odaka is capable of moving the angle of the parking gear to line up with respect to the pawl, Odaka further discloses that, “A stationary suitable support member 34 is disposed on one side of the engaging member 16 remote from the lock pawl 14, so that the engaging member 16 is prevented from moving in a direction away from the lock pawl 14. (column 2, lines 27-31).
One of ordinary skill in the art would find it obvious, prior to the applicant’s effective filing date, that the engaging member 16 would be unable to move perpendicular to its direction of motion due to the stationary support 34, locking the pawl in the tooth space so long as the engaging member 16 remains engaged.
Regarding claim 8, with all the limitations of claim 4, the method further comprises:
wherein the pawl (48) is released by a translatory movement of the slider (68) after renewed activation of the parking lock device (44) after a controlled rolling process.
See Fig. 4 of Odaka. Mechanical parking device 40 is shown, where “an operation of the shift lever 22 to the parking position will cause the rod 24 and engaging member 16 to be linearly moved in a direction perpendicular to the axes 01, 02, that is, in the left direction as seen in Fig. 4, where by the lock pawl 14 is pivoted to the lock position,” (column 9, lines 23-28).
Conclusion
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAEWOOK JUNG whose telephone number is (571)272-5470. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wade Miles can be reached on (571) 270-7777. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/J.J./Examiner, Art Unit 3656
/WADE MILES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3656
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