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 .
Response to Amendments
The amendment and response filed on October 27, 2025, to the Non-Final Office Action dated July 29, 2025 has been entered. Claims 1, 5, and 17 are amended; Claims 6, 16, and 19 are cancelled; Claim 21-23 have been added. Claims 1-5, 7-15, 17-18, and 20-23 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments and amendments, see pages 7-9, filed October 27, 2025, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection based on Piper et al (US-10737652-B1) and Lu et al (US-20210188252- A1) have been considered and are not persuasive as explained below. The 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection of claims 1-5, 7-15, 17-18, and 20-23 is maintained and additional rejection is made in view of further limiting amendments made, changing the scope of the claimed invention.
Applicant’s central argument is that “Piper relates to determining a tire rupture caused by an accident in which a tire impacts an object, resulting in a sudden increase in pressure within the tire before the tire bursts. The only disclosure of temperature monitoring in Piper relates to temperature associated with a sudden loss in tire pressure, which would be a sudden decrease in temperature, or perhaps a rate of change of temperature (an increase with increasing pressure and decrease with decreasing pressure) without regard to a threshold temperature as set forth in claim 1. See e.g. column 5, lines 1-3 referencing the ideal gas law.
As noted by Piper, Column 13 lines 28-30, when the tire exceeds a parameter such as pressure it is an indication of a failure/fault in the cavity of the wheel which would require activation of a safety system. Further in Lines 44-47, Piper teaches that this exceedance could be a result of “temperatures, volumes, stresses, strains, and the like of the wheel or cavity.” As applicant notes in the above citation the temperature and pressure of the cavity are related through the ideal gas law so those in the art would know to substitute one for the other and obtain a predictable result.
Additionally, Applicant seeks to distinguish between the claimed invention and Piper by emphasizing that Piper is motivated to monitor pressure or temperature because of the tire’s impact with an object. How and why the tire changes is not been claimed; thus, the claims are more broadly claimed than how applicant interprets them and applicant's argument is not deemed persuasive to overcome the rejection, and the rejection is maintained.
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. § 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 1-5, 7-15, 17-18, and 20-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Piper et al (US-10737652-B1)(“Piper”) and Lu et al (US-20210188252- A1)(“Lu”), supplied by Applicant in the IDS filed on 3/15/2024.
As per claim 1, Piper discloses a method of controlling a vehicle during a tire instability incident (Figure 5), comprising:
detecting a tire instability incident as a function of one or both of tire pressure outside of a threshold pressure (), and tire temperature above a threshold temperature (Piper at Column 13, Lines 18-47, discloses monitoring pressure and change in pressure for determining an instability incident such as the tire colliding with an object:” signals may also be otherwise indicative of a large and sudden deformation of a tire or cavity, such as, for example, temperatures, volumes, stresses, strains, and the like of the wheel or cavity.” Further, using the relationship of pressure and temperature a change in pressure would indicate a change in temperature; see Piper at Column 13, Lines 18-47, discloses monitoring pressure and change in pressure for determining an instability incident such as the tire colliding with an object:” the information may be an indication that the pressure of a cavity associated with a specific sensor has exceeded a threshold pressure or has increased more than a threshold amount.” ); and
activating a vehicle control measure including one or a combination of two or more (Piper at Column 16, Lines 19-22, discloses activation of a vehicle control measure:” method 500 also includes, at 508, causing activation of a safety system. When at step 506 it is determined that the safety system should be activated, the safety system controller 138, 228, 426 may cause this activation.”) of:
a) actuating a safety system (Piper at Column 8, Lines 63-67, discloses activation of a safety system:” information about the increased pressure P.sub.2, P.sub.3 may be sufficient to trigger the safety system. However, other information may also be used to make that determination, e.g., to avoid activating a safety system in instances in which such is not required.”);
b)
c) reducing a vehicle speed (Piper at Column7, Lines 18-21, disc loses braking which under broadest interpretation is a reduction in vehicle speed:” vehicle safety system 226 may including a handling system that controls one or more vehicular functions, including but not limited to steering, braking, acceleration, or the like.”).
While Piper discloses generating an alert to the driver at Column 5, Lines 60-61; Piper, however, does not discloses actuating an external alert.
Lu in the same field of endeavor discloses a system where a tire instability such as determining that a flat tire has occurred through changes in tire pressure to adopt a car tire burst safety and stability control mode.
In particular, Lu discloses a process of actuating an external alert (Lu at Claim 28 discloses providing an external alert to other vehicles by:” Tire burst vehicle and peripheral vehicles each other can exchange traffic information by means of tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle, or/and by means of vehicle traffic network, or/and mobile communication.”).
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 vehicle control as taught by Piper with the tire burst warning to other vehicles as taught by Lu with a reasonable expectation of success in order for the one or more method steps to inform other vehicle within a zone of possible vehicle problems that may affect safety. The teaching suggestion/motivation to combine is that by generating an external alert, collision avoidance can be enhanced since coordinated control for abnormal state can be implemented by the host vehicle and other vehicles by actively avoiding the tire-burst vehicle by control of their vehicle as taught by Lu at Para. [0126].
As per claim 2, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 wherein activating the safety system is accomplished by deploying at least one airbag in the vehicle (Piper at Column 5, Lines 8-11, discloses activating certain safety equipment like an airbag:” the safety system controller 138 may receive information from the pressure sensor(s) 136 and, based on the information, cause the vehicle safety system 140 to take some action, e.g., deploy an airbag or tighten a restraint.”).
As per claim 3, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 wherein activating the safety system is accomplished by actuating at least one seat belt pretensioner (Piper at Column 5, Lines 8-11, discloses activating certain safety equipment like belt tensioner:” the safety system controller 138 may receive information from the pressure sensor(s) 136 and, based on the information, cause the vehicle safety system 140 to take some action, e.g., deploy an airbag or tighten a restraint.”).
As per claim 4, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 wherein actuating an external alert is accomplished by actuating at least one light visible from outside of the vehicle (Lu at Claim 28 discloses providing an external alert to other vehicles by:” Tire burst vehicle and peripheral vehicles each other can exchange traffic information by means of tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle, or/and by means of vehicle traffic network, or/and mobile communication.”).
As per claim 5, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 4 wherein the at least one light includes hazard signals of the vehicle (Lu at Claim 28 discloses emitting “tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle“ would include the hazard lights.), or vehicle headlights or vehicle taillights (Lu at Claim 28 discloses emitting “tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle“ would include the rear and headlights.).
As per claim 6, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 4 wherein the at least one light includes one or more of vehicle headlights and vehicle taillights (Lu at Claim 28 discloses emitting “tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle“ would include the rear and headlights.).
As per claim 7, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 wherein actuating an external alert is accomplished by actuating an audio output device to create a sound detectable outside the vehicle (Lu at Claim 28 discloses providing an external alert to other vehicles by:” Tire burst vehicle and peripheral vehicles each other can exchange traffic information by means of tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle, or/and by means of vehicle traffic network, or/and mobile communication.”).
As per claim 8, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 7 wherein the audio output device is a vehicle horn (Lu at Claim 28 discloses emitting “tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle“ would include a vehicle horn.).
As per claim 9, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 wherein the vehicle control measure includes providing an alert within an interior of the vehicle (Lu at Para. [0047] discloses notifying the driver of tire pressure changes like during a blowout:” the tire pressure detection signal is transmitted once according to the set time value of the period H.sub.e1, so that the driver can know the working state of the tire pressure sensor and the tire pressure state regularly.”).
As per claim 10, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 9 wherein the alert includes illuminating a warning indicator on a vehicle display, actuating an audible alarm or both (Lu at Claim 28 discloses emitting “tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle“ would include an in-cabin light.).
As per claim 11, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 9 wherein the alert includes directions for driver control of the vehicle (Piper at Column 7, Lines 6-11, discloses interacting with the occupants of vehicle:” the vehicle safety system 140 may include an internal safety system, e.g., designed to directly interact with passengers and/or cargo carried by the vehicle, and/or an external safety system, which may be designed to deploy or otherwise activate outside the vehicle to protect the vehicle and/or the passengers/cargo in the vehicle.”).
As per claim 12, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 wherein reducing the vehicle speed is accomplished by actuating one or more brake assemblies of the vehicle (Piper at Column 7, Lines 17-20, discloses applying braking control to slow the vehicle:” the vehicle safety system 226 may including a handling system that controls one or more vehicular functions, including but not limited to steering, braking, acceleration, or the like.”).
As per claim 13, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 12 wherein the one or more brake assemblies includes a parking brake system (Lu at Para. [0153] discloses the use of multiple braking arrangements:” actuator adopts the same control or independent braking of four wheels with front and rear axles or two balance wheel pairs arranged diagonally. The front and rear axles or two wheelset of diagonally arranged braking systems are set up. When one of the braking systems fails, the other system independently performs emergency braking. Under normal and tire burst working condition, the controller adopts other parameter form of braking force.”)
As per claim 14, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 wherein the vehicle control measure includes reducing the vehicle speed and also includes controlling a steering direction of the vehicle (Piper at Column 7, Lines 17-20, discloses applying braking/steering control to slow the vehicle:” the vehicle safety system 226 may including a handling system that controls one or more vehicular functions, including but not limited to steering, braking, acceleration, or the like.”).
As per claim 15, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 14 which includes monitoring the location of obstacles above a threshold size that are outside the vehicle (Lu at Para. [0088] discloses monitoring obstacles such as other vehicles outside the host vehicle:” location and distribution of road, vehicles, obstacles and traffic conditions are determined to realize locating and navigation of vehicle, target recognition and path tracking of vehicle.”), and wherein controlling the steering direction includes changing the steering angle of the vehicle to move the vehicle to an area without obstacles above the threshold size (Lu at Para. [0145] discloses steering/navigating the vehicle to a safe location:” collision-avoidance control of tire burst vehicle includes collision-avoidance control of the vehicle and front, rear, left right vehicles, and around obstacles. According to the route planned by the controller, path tracking of the tire burst vehicle is carried, to arrive safe parking position of the vehicle.”).
As per claim 17, Piper discloses a method of controlling a vehicle during a tire instability incident (Figure 5), comprising:
detecting a tire instability incident as a function of both of tire pressure outside of a threshold pressure (Piper at Column 13, Lines 18-47, discloses monitoring pressure and change in pressure for determining an instability incident such as the tire colliding with an object:” the information may be an indication that the pressure of a cavity associated with a specific sensor has exceeded a threshold pressure or has increased more than a threshold amount.”) and tire temperature above a threshold temperature (Piper at Column 13, Lines 18-47, discloses monitoring pressure and change in pressure for determining an instability incident such as the tire colliding with an object:” signals may also be otherwise indicative of a large and sudden deformation of a tire or cavity, such as, for example, temperatures, volumes, stresses, strains, and the like of the wheel or cavity.”); and
and reducing a speed of the vehicle (Piper at Column7, Lines 18-21, disc loses braking which under broadest interpretation is a reduction in vehicle speed:” vehicle safety system 226 may including a handling system that controls one or more vehicular functions, including but not limited to steering, braking, acceleration, or the like.”).
While Piper discloses generating an alert to the driver at Column 5, Lines 60-61; Piper, however, does not discloses activating an external alert detectable outside of the vehicle.
Lu in the same field of endeavor discloses a system where a tire instability such as determining that a flat tire has occurred through changes in tire pressure to adopt a car tire burst safety and stability control mode.
In particular, Lu discloses a process of activating an external alert detectable outside of the vehicle (Lu at Claim 28 discloses providing an external alert to other vehicles by:” Tire burst vehicle and peripheral vehicles each other can exchange traffic information by means of tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle, or/and by means of vehicle traffic network, or/and mobile communication.”).
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 vehicle control as taught by Piper with the tire burst warning to other vehicles as taught by Lu with a reasonable expectation of success in order for the one or more method steps to inform other vehicle within a zone of possible vehicle problems that may affect safety. The teaching suggestion/motivation to combine is that by generating an external alert, collision avoidance can be enhanced since coordinated control for abnormal state can be implemented by the host vehicle and other vehicles by actively avoiding the tire-burst vehicle by control of their vehicle as taught by Lu at Para. [0126].
ng but not limited to steering, braking, acceleration, or the like.”).
As per claim 18, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 17 wherein the activating step also includes activating a safety system of the vehicle (Piper at Column 8, Lines 63-67, discloses activation of a safety system:” information about the increased pressure P.sub.2, P.sub.3 may be sufficient to trigger the safety system. However, other information may also be used to make that determination, e.g., to avoid activating a safety system in instances in which such is not required.”).
As per claim 20, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 17 wherein activating the external alert includes one or both of actuating one or more lights of the vehicle or actuating one or more audible alarms (Lu at Claim 28 discloses emitting “tire-burst warning of sound and light emitted by tire-burst vehicle“ would include activation of lights and alarm.).
As per claim 21, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 wherein the threshold temperature is a first threshold that is less than a second threshold temperature, and wherein when a tire temperature is detected that is above the second threshold temperature (Piper at Column 6, Lines 38-43, discloses calculating the rate of change in pressure/temperature :” the pressure-related information may be an actual pressure sensed by the sensor, a rate of pressure change, or may include information indicating a threshold change in the pressure or in the rate of pressure change of the internal cavity 214 of the associated tire 206, e.g., over a specific timeframe.”), the method includes stopping the vehicle or preventing operation of the vehicle until the tire temperature is below the second threshold temperature (Lu at Para. [0101] discloses brining the vehicle to a stop during a burst condition:” tire burst control entry signal i.sub.a arrives, the engine or electric vehicle drive device stops its output, and the normal condition brake control of vehicle is stopped, and the tire burst brake control is started.”).
As per claim 22, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 which also includes determining a vehicle speed and wherein, when the tire temperature is above the threshold temperature and the vehicle speed is above a speed threshold, the activating step includes reducing vehicle speed and limiting a maximum speed at which the vehicle can be operated to a speed below the speed threshold (Piper at Column 8, Lines 19-22, discloses a change in acceleration which results from a change in speed to activate the airbag:” When the front of a vehicle collides with an object, e.g., in a head-on collision, the accelerometers sense a drastic change in acceleration, and an airbag is deployed.”).
As per claim 23, Piper and Lu disclose a method of claim 1 which includes reducing the vehicle speed includes limiting a maximum speed at which the vehicle can be operated (Piper at Column7, Lines 18-21, discloses braking which under broadest interpretation is a reduction in vehicle speed:” vehicle safety system 226 may including a handling system that controls one or more vehicular functions, including but not limited to steering, braking, acceleration, or the like.”).
Claims 1-5, 7-15, 17-18, and 20-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Poeppel et al (US-9811086-B1)(“Poeppel”) and Breed et al (US-20060180371-A1)(“Breed”).
Poeppel discloses the invention substantially as claimed. In particular, Poeppel discloses a system and method where the operational state of the vehicle is determine to ascertain whether the autonomous vehicle is in condition to provide a vehicle service to one or more users. To this end, Poeppel monitors various vehicle parameters and based on their value determine the severity to take corrective action including steering, speed, braking, acceleration, and the like. Poeppel monitors parameters such as fuel level, charge level, engine conditions, tire pressure, and the like to ascertain a fault condition. See Figure 7 and Column 3, Lines 22-55.
Poeppel, however, does not monitor the claimed “tire temperature above a threshold temperature” to determine if a fault condition exist at least one of the tires that would cause a corrective action to be implemented.
Breed in the same field of endeavor discloses a system for monitoring the health of a vehicle by monitoring parameters for fault detection and identification, failure prediction. In particular, Breed monitors signal containing pressure, temperature or other tire information. See Para. [0076].
In particular, Breed discloses determining if time temperature is above a threshold temperature (Breed at Para. [0457] discloses monitoring the pressure and temperature of a tire and generating an alarm signal when it deviates from a specification range:” interrogator transfers the decoded information to a central processor that determines whether the temperature and/or pressure of each of the tires exceed specifications. If so, a warning light can be displayed informing the vehicle driver of the condition. Other notification devices such as a sound generator, alarm and the like could also be used.”
A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to make the mere substitution and the outcome would have been predictable to that same person. Mainly, substituting one for the other achieves the predictable result of allowing a tire to be monitored for pressure and temperature and when it exceeds a predetermined value generating a fault condition, i.e., an alarm, that the condition may be fatal.
Based on the above findings, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have substituted the monitoring of tire temperature and pressure and the determining that such values exceed predetermined specifications for the tire as taught by Breed according to known methods to yield the predictable result of providing a fault condition.
Based on the above findings, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have substituted the interrogator and processing logic of Breed for the tire sensor forming part of the suite of sensors 128 of Poeppel according to known methods to yield the predictable result of providing a mechanism for ascertaining if there is an exceedance of tire temperature or pressure for identifying a tire fault condition. See, Ruiz v. AB Chance Co., 357 F.3d 1270, 69 USPQ2d 1686 (Fed. Cir. 2004) and MPEP § 2143(B).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
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.
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/ELLIS B. RAMIREZ/Examiner, Art Unit 3658