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 .
Response to Amendment
This Office Action is responsive to Applicant’s amendment and request for reconsideration of application 18/659,284 filed on February 12, 2026.
The amendment contains amended claims: 1-6, 8-12.
Applicant's request for reconsideration of the 112(b) of the rejection of the last Office action is persuasive and, therefore, the 112(b) of that action is withdrawn.
Claims 1-6, 8-12 are amended.
Claims 7, 13-20 were previously.
Claims 1-20 were rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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.
Claims 1-6, 8-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HAN, MIN-HO (WO 2015141931 A1) in view of Han Ji (US 20190080356 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Han discloses a server for providing information (page 61, line 28-30, “delivery server”), comprising:
A communication device (page 2, line 1, “advertisement service apparatus”) configured to collect service provider usage information of consumers regarding each of a plurality of service providers present in each preset area (page 2, lines 1-8, “scheduling advertisements on the basis of the usage rate… a plurality of advertisements are allocated to a plurality of advertising mediums”;
At least one memory configured to program instructions that perform operations of providing a service provide information to at least one vehicle (¶0026, “ The memory is configured to store the modules and the processor is specifically configured to execute said modules to perform one or more processes”);
And at least one processor configured, by executing the program instructions to
bidding for each area based on the service provider usage information collected by the communication device (page 8, line 34, page 9, line 1, “an advertisement bidding apparatus for transmitting advertisement bidding information, a method of scheduling an advertisement based on a utilization rate”); and
control a display device provided in at least one vehicle to output service provider information on a successful bidder (page 32, lines 22-29, “The advertisement bidding device … to deliver the bidding information to the advertisement service device 100 to transmit the advertisement to the advertisement output device 120. For example, the advertisement bidding device 140 may be a terminal of an advertiser for delivering advertisement bidding information to the advertisement service device … to deliver the successful advertisement to the advertisement service apparatus 100 … delivers the successful advertisement to the advertisement output apparatus 120”).
Han does not explicitly disclose but, Ji teaches present in an area in which the bidding has been performed, among a plurality of service providers to the at least one vehicle, based on determination that the display device provided in the at least one vehicle displays the area in which the bidding has been performed, wherein the at least one vehicle is configured to communicate with the server. (¶0011, “The advertisers may provide the advertisement server with advertisement contents using a bidding system, and may receive advertisement contents classified according to individual regions and peripheral environment characteristics… The advertisement controller may then be configured to transmit vehicle status information, which includes at least one of a current position of the vehicle, peripheral point of interest (POI) information…to the advertisement server”, ¶0016, “ an advertisement method using a vehicle may include dividing a region to be used for advertisement in a parking state of the vehicle into a plurality of sub-regions, allowing a plurality of advertisers to participate in auction bidding for advertisement based on the respective sub-regions, allocating advertisement contents classified according to the respective sub-regions and peripheral environment characteristics to advertisers acting as successful bidders, storing successfully sold advertisement contents in an advertisement server, when playback of the advertisement is selected, selecting advertisement contents based on parking sub-regions in which the vehicle is parked, selecting an advertisement playback unit of the vehicle, transmitting the selected advertisement contents to the vehicle”).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the bidding regions taught in Ji with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted allowing the advertising company to obtain advertising effectiveness that is proportional to the advertising cost.
Regarding claim 2, Ji further teaches wherein the communication device is further configured to collect the service provider usage information on each of the plurality of service providers from the at least one vehicle (¶0039, ‘The vehicle status information supplied to the advertisement server 100 may then be used by the advertisement server 100 to select advertisement contents to be allocated to a parking region of the vehicle 200 and the advertisement server 100 may be configured to calculate a usage fee of the advertisement.”).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the bidding regions taught in Ji with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted allowing the advertising company to obtain advertising effectiveness that is proportional to the advertising cost.
Regarding claim 3, Ji further teaches wherein the communication device is further configured to collect the service provider usage information from the at least one vehicle based on information on use of an in-vehicle payment function provided in the at least one vehicle (¶0039, ‘The vehicle status information supplied to the advertisement server 100 may then be used by the advertisement server 100 to select advertisement contents to be allocated to a parking region of the vehicle 200 and the advertisement server 100 may be configured to calculate a usage fee of the advertisement.”).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the bidding regions taught in Ji with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted allowing the advertising company to obtain advertising effectiveness that is proportional to the advertising cost.
Regarding claim 4, Ji further teaches wherein the communication device is further configured to collect the service provider usage information from the at least one vehicle based on at least one of preset point of interest (POI) information, location information, or information on a time spent at a specific location with respect to the at least one vehicle, in response to a determination that the communication device is not able to collect the service provider usage information from the at least one vehicle based on the information on use of the in-vehicle payment function (¶0039, “ advertisement server 100 may be configured to calculate a usage fee of the advertisement. The fee calculation unit 140 of the advertisement server 100 may be configured to calculate the usage fee of the advertisement and use the calculated advertisement usage fee as the parking fee of the vehicle 200 having been used for the advertisement when the vehicle 200 arrives at an exit of the parking region or may be configured to transmit the calculated advertisement usage fee to a pre-registered account of an owner (or user) of the vehicle 200. In particular, the advertisement usage fee may be accumulated as points and the accumulated points may also be used as a payment method for paying the parking fee, prices of articles (e.g., consumer goods), etc.”).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the bidding regions taught in Ji with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted allowing the advertising company to obtain advertising effectiveness that is proportional to the advertising cost.
Regarding claim 5, Ji further teaches wherein the at least one processor is further configured to analyze the collected service provider usage information and perform bidding for each area based on the analyzed information (¶0016, “an advertisement method using a vehicle may include dividing a region to be used for advertisement in a parking state of the vehicle into a plurality of sub-regions, allowing a plurality of advertisers to participate in auction bidding for advertisement based on the respective sub-regions, allocating advertisement contents classified according to the respective sub-regions”).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the bidding regions taught in Ji with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted allowing the advertising company to obtain advertising effectiveness that is proportional to the advertising cost.
Regarding claim 6, Ji further teaches wherein the at least one processor is further configured to provide the analyzed information to advertisers related to the plurality of service providers and perform bidding for each area through the advertisers (¶0047, ‘advertisers to participate in bidding for advertisement contents in a parking lot located in a zone A …the advertisement server 100 may be configured to divide the parking zone A into a plurality of sub-zones A-1 to A-8, provide the advertisers with information for each sub-zone, and guide the advertisers to participate in auction bidding for advertisement. In particular, several advertisers may participate in bidding for advertisement in desired parking sub-zones”).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the bidding regions taught in Ji with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted allowing the advertising company to obtain advertising effectiveness that is proportional to the advertising cost.
Regarding claim 8, Han discloses in response to a determination that there is a successful bidder among the plurality of service providers for each area in the bidding, the at least one processor is further configured to store service provider information on the successful bidder in a separately provided memory (page 32, line 22-32, “the advertisement bidding apparatus 140 may be implemented to deliver the successful advertisement to the advertisement service apparatus 100 so that the advertisement service apparatus 100 delivers the successful advertisement to the advertisement output apparatus 120. When the advertisement service apparatus 100 stores the advertisement in advance, an operation of separately delivering an advertisement from the advertisement bidding apparatus 140 to the advertisement service apparatus 100 may not be performed.”).
Regarding claim 9, JI teaches wherein the at least one processor is further configured to collect display information of the display device provided in the at least one vehicle and determine whether the area in which the bidding has been performed is displayed on the display device (¶0050).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the bidding regions taught in Ji with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted allowing the advertising company to obtain advertising effectiveness that is proportional to the advertising cost.
Regarding claim 10, Ji teaches wherein the at least one processor is further configured to control the display device provided in the at least one vehicle to visually or audibly output the service provider information on the successful bidder to the at least one vehicle (¶0011).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the bidding regions taught in Ji with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted allowing the advertising company to obtain advertising effectiveness that is proportional to the advertising cost.
Regarding claim 11, Han discloses wherein the at least one processor is further configured to control the display device to display, in the area in which the bidding has been performed, only service provider information on only one successful bidder in response to the determination that the display device provided in the at least one vehicle displays the area in which the bidding has been performed (page 32, lines 26-34, “the advertisement bidding apparatus 140 may be implemented to deliver the successful advertisement to the advertisement service apparatus 100 so that the advertisement service apparatus 100 delivers the successful advertisement to the advertisement output apparatus 120”).
Regarding claim 12, claim 12 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 1.
Regarding claim 13, claim 13 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 2.
Regarding claim 14, claim 14 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 3.
Regarding claim 15, claim 15 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 4.
Regarding claim 16, claim 16 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 5.
Regarding claim 17, claim 17 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 6.
Regarding claim 18, claim 18 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 8.
Regarding claim 19, claim 19 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 9.
Regarding claim 20, claim 20 is rejected using the same art and rationale used to reject claim 10.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HAN, MIN-HO (WO 2015141931 A1) in view of Han Ji (US 20190080356 A1) as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Rathod (US 20220179665 A1).
Regarding claim 7, Han does not explicitly disclose but, Rathod teaches wherein the service provider information includes at least one of brand information or location information of the plurality of service providers (¶0778).
Accordingly, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the advertising apparatus disclosed in Han with the brand or location type taught in Rathod with a reasonable expectation of success because it would have targeted a highly contextual and personalized Ads based on a consumer's immediate surroundings, making them more relevant and effective.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered but are not persuasive. In particular the applicant argues:
A) Han and Ji are silent on perform bidding for each area. Thus, Han fails to teach or suggest at least one processor configured to "perform bidding for each area based on the collected service provider usage information," as recited by claim 1.
B) Han and Ji are silent on outputting service provider information in a vehicle based on an area displayed on a display device and silent on triggering advertisement output based on whether a bid area is displayed on the vehicle's display device.
In response to A) examiner respectively disagrees. Applicant is reminded that claims must be given their broadest reasonable interpretation. Given the broadest interpretation, as claimed it is the examiner’s position, the reference of record teaches what he is argued.. As noted in JI, ¶0011, Ji teaches The advertisement playback unit may include at least one of a display... The advertisers may provide the advertisement server with advertisement contents using a bidding system… according to individual regions and peripheral environment characteristics. The advertisement controller may then be configured to transmit vehicle status information…to the advertisement server. Furthermore, ¶0016 teaches allowing a plurality of advertisers to participate in auction bidding for advertisement based on the respective sub-regions, allocating advertisement contents classified according to the respective sub-regions and peripheral environment characteristics to advertisers acting as successful bidders… and when the playback of the advertisement is completed, calculating a usage fee of the advertisement, and paying a parking fee of the vehicle using the advertisement usage fee when the vehicle arrives at an exit of the parked region.
In response to B) examiner respectively disagrees. Applicant is reminded that claims must be given their broadest reasonable interpretation. Given the broadest interpretation, as claimed it is the examiner’s position, the reference of record teaches what he is argued.. As noted in in at least ¶0011, The display may be mounted…The advertisers may provide the advertisement server with advertisement contents using a bidding system, and may receive advertisement contents classified according to individual regions and peripheral environment characteristics. Furthermore, Ji in at least ¶0016, teaches selecting an advertisement playback unit of the vehicle, transmitting the selected advertisement contents to the vehicle, and playing back the transmitted advertisement contents through the vehicle, and when the playback of the advertisement is completed. Examiner construes the fact that Ji teaches display and transmitting/outputting information to the vehicle, and thus the information will be displayed on the vehicle.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Hannaford (US 20110102605 A1) discloses Technology for augmenting reality using image matching is described. The technology can receive a captured image, determine location information relating to the received image, and transmit the location information to a server computing device. The technology may then receive one or more tags from the server computing device, wherein each tag can include one or more patches and supplementary information corresponding to at least one of the patches and each patch can be associated with the location information. The technology can then determine using an image matching process whether at least one of the received one or more patches appears in the received image, and if a patch appears in the received image, render the supplementary information corresponding to the patch (abstract).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to REDHWAN K MAWARI whose telephone number is (571)270-1535. The examiner can normally be reached mon-Fri 8-5.
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/REDHWAN K MAWARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667