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 .
This Office Action is in response to Applicant’s amendment and request for continued examination filed 01/15/2026. Claims 1-3, 7, 9, and 13-15 are currently pending in this application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Claims 14-15 recite a ratio of (i) a first distance between the front back beam and the front side of the vehicle with respect to (ii) a second distance between the front back beam and the rear side of the vehicle, which is not explicitly or inherently defined in the Applicant’s specification. In Paragraphs [0042-0043] of the Applicant’s published Application (U.S. 2025/0153635 A1), the specification defines the sound pressure of the synthetic signal to be a logarithmic function of L1 and L2, i.e. the first distance and the second distance, however, not explicitly the ratio between the first and second distances. Additionally, claims 14 and 15 define a second control signal based on the ratio, whereas the specification defines the sound pressures to be based on the logarithmic function.
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, 3, 7, 9, and 13-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Smith (U.S. 2009/0080672 A1).
Claim 1, Smith teaches:
A virtual engine signal system for a vehicle (Smith, Fig. 1), the virtual engine signal system comprising:
a first speaker disposed at a front of the vehicle (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n “FRONT SPEAKER”), the first speaker being oriented toward a front side of the vehicle (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n “FRONT SPEAKER”) and configured to output a first virtual engine signal to an outside of the vehicle (Smith, Paragraph [0023], Based on the direction of travel, the front, rear, or a combination of speakers 40a-40n are selected to output the vehicle sound. The generated sound is an engine sound (see Smith, Paragraph [0005]).);
a second speaker disposed rearward relative to the first speaker (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n “REAR SPEAKER”), the second speaker being oriented toward a rear side of the vehicle (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n “REAR SPEAKER”) and configured to output a second virtual engine signal to the outside (Smith, Paragraph [0023], Based on the direction of travel, the front, rear, or a combination of speakers 40a-40n are selected to output the vehicle sound. The generated sound is an engine sound (see Smith, Paragraph [0005]).); and
a controller (Smith, Fig. 1: 50) configured to transmit first and second control signals to the first and second speakers to thereby cause the first and second speakers to output the first and second virtual engine signals in response to the first and second control signals, respectively (Smith, Paragraphs [0020-0021], The outputted sounds are based on stored sound data 35 in storage device 33. The speakers may be selected based on the direction of travel of the vehicle, or several speakers may be selected at one time (see Smith, Paragraph [0023]).),
wherein the controller is configured to:
set a reference level corresponding to an engine signal (Smith, Paragraphs [0025] and [0030], A control sound, which is used to determine a discrepancy between the sound generated by the speakers 40a-n and what is expected as the control sound.) capable of being recognized by a pedestrian at the front or rear side of the vehicle (Smith, Paragraph [0025], The speakers 40a-n may be positioned outside of the cabin portion of the vehicle so that pedestrians and others outside of the vehicle may more easily hear and feel the sound produced by the vehicle enunciator 1.),
determine the first control signal to be transmitted to the first speaker to thereby cause the first speaker to output the first virtual engine signal having (i) a first magnitude that is less than the reference level (Smith, Paragraph [0030], It is within the teachings of Smith for the outputted signal from a speaker 40a-n to have a magnitude, e.g. amplitude, that is greater or less than the control sound, which is generated in response to the control signal for the speaker 40a-40n (see Smith, Paragraphs [0020-0021]).) and (ii) a phase that is inverted with respect to the second virtual engine signal (Smith, Paragraph [0022], The processing portion 50 is capable of changing the frequency of the outputted signals. Additionally, different waveforms may be selected by the user based on user preference (see Smith, Paragraph [0020]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, for the system to be capable of outputting a sound from one speaker that has an inverted phase as another speaker based on the type of waveform and the frequency of the sound selected by the user.), and
determine the second control signal to be transmitted to the second speaker to thereby cause the second speaker to output the second virtual engine signal having a second magnitude that is greater than the reference level (Smith, Paragraph [0030], It is within the teachings of Smith for the outputted signal from a speaker 40a-n to have a magnitude, e.g. amplitude, that is greater or less than the control sound, which is generated in response to the control signal for the speaker 40a-40n (see Smith, Paragraphs [0020-0021]).), to thereby cause sound pressures of synthetic signals of the first and second virtual engine signals at the front and rear sides of the vehicle to be equal to each other (Smith, Paragraph [0022], The processing portion 50 selects one of a plurality of amplitudes for the processor 55 to output as engine sound data 35, selected from a storage device 33 (see Smith, Fig. 1) and directly related to the accelerator portion 20. The sound data 35 may be sent to several speakers 40a-n, and additionally the sound produced by each speaker 40a-n may be at different amplitudes depending on the direction of travel (see Smith, Paragraph [0023]). One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize, however, that it is also within the scope of the teachings of Smith for the amplitudes generated by each speaker 40a-n to be the same, as the teachings of Smith only recites that the amplitudes “may” be different.).
Smith does not explicitly teach:
A front back beam of the vehicle.
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, to modify the location of a front speaker to be on a front back beam of the vehicle. Smith discloses that the speakers 40a-n may be positioned anywhere within or on the outside of the vehicle (see Smith, Paragraph [0025]). Thus, placing at least one front speaker on the front back beam of the vehicle would not change the principal operation of the system, as a whole, and would yield predictable results. See MPEP 2144.04.
Claim 3, Smith further teaches:
The virtual engine signal system of claim 1, wherein the second speaker is disposed adjacent to the first speaker (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n, Paragraph [0025], The speakers 40a-n may be positioned anywhere within or on the outside of the vehicle, and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art for the speakers to be adjacent to each other.).
Claim 7, Smith further teaches:
The virtual engine signal system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the first and second control signals for the first and second speakers, respectively, based on a distance between the front back beam of the vehicle and the front or rear side of the vehicle (Smith, Paragraph [0023], The speakers 40a-n may be selected based on the direction of travel, and several speakers 40a-40n may be activated. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, for the selected speakers 40a-n to be based on a distance between the speakers. For example, if speaker 40a is in the front of the vehicle and speaker 40b is in the rear of the vehicle, when the processor portion 50 determines that the vehicle is moving in a forward direction, only speaker 40a would be activated. The activation of speaker 40a in lieu of speaker 40b would be based on the distance between speaker 40a and 40b. If the distance between speakers 40a and 40b were negligible, i.e. speaker 40b was also located in the front of the vehicle, it is within the scope of Smith for both speakers 40a and 40b to be activated when the vehicle is traveling in the forward direction, since multiple speakers may be used.).
Claim 9, Smith teaches:
A method for controlling a virtual engine signal for a vehicle (Smith, Fig. 1), the vehicle including (i) a first speaker disposed at a front of the vehicle (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n “FRONT SPEAKER”), the first speaker being oriented toward a front side of the vehicle (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n “FRONT SPEAKER”) and configured to output a first virtual engine signal to an outside of the vehicle (Smith, Paragraph [0023], Based on the direction of travel, the front, rear, or a combination of speakers 40a-40n are selected to output the vehicle sound. The generated sound is an engine sound (see Smith, Paragraph [0005]).), and (ii) a second speaker disposed rearward relative to the first speaker (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n “REAR SPEAKER”), the second speaker being oriented toward a rear side of the vehicle (Smith, Fig. 1: 40a-n “REAR SPEAKER”) and configured to output a second virtual engine signal to the outside (Smith, Paragraph [0023], Based on the direction of travel, the front, rear, or a combination of speakers 40a-40n are selected to output the vehicle sound. The generated sound is an engine sound (see Smith, Paragraph [0005]).), the method comprising:
setting a reference level corresponding to an engine signal (Smith, Paragraphs [0025] and [0030], A control sound, which is used to determine a discrepancy between the sound generated by the speakers 40a-n and what is expected as the control sound.) capable of being recognized by a pedestrian at the front or rear side of the vehicle (Smith, Paragraph [0025], The speakers 40a-n may be positioned outside of the cabin portion of the vehicle so that pedestrians and others outside of the vehicle may more easily hear and feel the sound produced by the vehicle enunciator 1.);
determining a first control signal to be transmitted to the first speaker to thereby cause the first speaker to output the first virtual engine signal having (i) a first magnitude that is less than the reference level (Smith, Paragraph [0030], It is within the teachings of Smith for the outputted signal from a speaker 40a-n to have a magnitude, e.g. amplitude, that is greater or less than the control sound, which is generated in response to the control signal for the speaker 40a-40n (see Smith, Paragraphs [0020-0021]).) and (ii) a phase that is inverted with respect to the second virtual engine signal (Smith, Paragraph [0022], The processing portion 50 is capable of changing the frequency of the outputted signals. Additionally, different waveforms may be selected by the user based on user preference (see Smith, Paragraph [0020]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, for the system to be capable of outputting a sound from one speaker that has an inverted phase as another speaker based on the type of waveform and the frequency of the sound selected by the user.);
determining a second control signal to be transmitted to the second speaker to thereby cause the second speaker to output the second virtual engine signal having a second magnitude that is greater than the reference level (Smith, Paragraph [0030], It is within the teachings of Smith for the outputted signal from a speaker 40a-n to have a magnitude, e.g. amplitude, that is greater or less than the control sound, which is generated in response to the control signal for the speaker 40a-40n (see Smith, Paragraphs [0020-0021]).);
transmitting the first and second control signals to the first and second speakers, respectively (Smith, Paragraphs [0020-0021], The outputted sounds are based on stored sound data 35 in storage device 33. The speakers may be selected based on the direction of travel of the vehicle, or several speakers may be selected at one time (see Smith, Paragraph [0023]).); and
outputting, by the first and second speakers, the first and second virtual engine signals in response to the first and second control signals, respectively (Smith, Paragraphs [0020-0021], The outputted sounds are based on stored sound data 35 in storage device 33. The speakers may be selected based on the direction of travel of the vehicle, or several speakers may be selected at one time (see Smith, Paragraph [0023]).);
to thereby cause sound pressures of synthetic signals of the first and second virtual engine signals at the front and rear sides of the vehicle to be equal to each other (Smith, Paragraph [0022], The processing portion 50 selects one of a plurality of amplitudes for the processor 55 to output as engine sound data 35, selected from a storage device 33 (see Smith, Fig. 1) and directly related to the accelerator portion 20. The sound data 35 may be sent to several speakers 40a-n, and additionally the sound produced by each speaker 40a-n may be at different amplitudes depending on the direction of travel (see Smith, Paragraph [0023]). One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize, however, that it is also within the scope of the teachings of Smith for the amplitudes generated by each speaker 40a-n to be the same, as the teachings of Smith only recites that the amplitudes “may” be different.).
Smith does not explicitly teach:
A front back beam of the vehicle.
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, to modify the location of a front speaker to be on a front back beam of the vehicle. Smith discloses that the speakers 40a-n may be positioned anywhere within or on the outside of the vehicle (see Smith, Paragraph [0025]). Thus, placing at least one front speaker on the front back beam of the vehicle would not change the principal operation of the system, as a whole, and would yield predictable results. See MPEP 2144.04.
Claim 13, Smith further teaches:
The method of claim 9,
wherein the first and second control signals for the first and second speakers are determined respectively based on a distance between the front back beam of the vehicle and the front or rear side of the vehicle (Smith, Paragraph [0023], The speakers 40a-n may be selected based on the direction of travel, and several speakers 40a-40n may be activated. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, for the selected speakers 40a-n to be based on a distance between the speakers. For example, if speaker 40a is in the front of the vehicle and speaker 40b is in the rear of the vehicle, when the processor portion 50 determines that the vehicle is moving in a forward direction, only speaker 40a would be activated. The activation of speaker 40a in lieu of speaker 40b would be based on the distance between speaker 40a and 40b. If the distance between speakers 40a and 40b were negligible, i.e. speaker 40b was also located in the front of the vehicle, it is within the scope of Smith for both speakers 40a and 40b to be activated when the vehicle is traveling in the forward direction, since multiple speakers may be used.).
Claim 14, Smith Further teaches:
The virtual engine signal system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the second control signal based on a ratio of (i) a first distance between the front back beam and the front side of the vehicle with respect to (ii) a second distance between the front back beam and the rear side of the vehicle (Smith, Paragraph [0023], The speakers 40a-n may be selected based on the direction of travel, and several speakers 40a-40n may be activated. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, for the selected speakers 40a-n to be based on a ratio of the distances which establishes the relative position of the speakers being closer to the front or the rear of the vehicle. For example, if speaker 40a is in the front of the vehicle and speaker 40b is in the rear of the vehicle, when the processor portion 50 determines that the vehicle is moving in a forward direction, only speaker 40a would be activated. The activation of speaker 40a in lieu of speaker 40b would be based on the distance between speaker 40a and 40b. If the ratio between speakers 40a and 40b were negligible, i.e. speaker 40b was also located in the front of the vehicle and thus having a similar ratio, it is within the scope of Smith for both speakers 40a and 40b to be activated when the vehicle is traveling in the forward direction, since multiple speakers may be used.).
Claim 15, Smith Further teaches:
The method of claim 9, wherein the second control signal is determined based on a ratio of (i) a first distance between the front back beam and the front side of the vehicle with respect to (ii) a second distance between the front back beam and the rear side of the vehicle (Smith, Paragraph [0023], The speakers 40a-n may be selected based on the direction of travel, and several speakers 40a-40n may be activated. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, for the selected speakers 40a-n to be based on a ratio of the distances which establishes the relative position of the speakers being closer to the front or the rear of the vehicle. For example, if speaker 40a is in the front of the vehicle and speaker 40b is in the rear of the vehicle, when the processor portion 50 determines that the vehicle is moving in a forward direction, only speaker 40a would be activated. The activation of speaker 40a in lieu of speaker 40b would be based on the distance between speaker 40a and 40b. If the ratio between speakers 40a and 40b were negligible, i.e. speaker 40b was also located in the front of the vehicle and thus having a similar ratio, it is within the scope of Smith for both speakers 40a and 40b to be activated when the vehicle is traveling in the forward direction, since multiple speakers may be used.).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Smith (U.S. 2009/0080672 A1) in view of Sako et al. (U.S. 2014/0085470 A1).
Claim 2, Smith teaches:
The virtual engine signal system of claim 1, wherein the first speaker comprises a directional speaker that is configured to output the first virtual engine signal toward one side thereof (Smith, Paragraph [0023], Each speaker 40a-n outputs the corresponding data in the direction that the speaker is installed, e.g. front and directional.).
Smith does not specifically teach:
Wherein the second speaker comprises an omnidirectional speaker that is configured to output the second virtual engine signal toward two opposite sides thereof.
Sako teaches:
Wherein the second speaker comprises an omnidirectional speaker that is configured to output toward two opposite sides thereof (Sako, Paragraph [0033]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of filing, to modify the speakers in Smith by integrating the teaching of the speaker in Sako.
The motivation would be to utilize a speaker that is capable of enhancing safety and additionally producing entertainment omni-directionally to thereby further enhance the functionality of the vehicle and its speaker(s) in the combination of Smith in view of Sako (see Sako, Paragraph [0033]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 01/15/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., “magnitude”, “a phase that is inverted”) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993). It appears that the Applicant has a different interpretation of the claimed “magnitude”, “phase”, and “reference level”. The Applicant’s arguments on Page 6 address the disclosures of Smith, e.g. Paragraph [0023], however, do not address the interpretation of the Applicant’s limitations with respect to the disclosure of Smith. The claims, as currently amended, to not inherently or explicitly define Applicant’s invention away from the above interpretation. For example, with respect to a first magnitude that is less than the reference level, Smith discloses a control sound which is compared with a detected sound, generated by the speaker(s), in order to determine whether there is a discrepancy between the detected sound and the control sound (see Smith, Paragraph [0030]). The discrepancy includes frequency, amplitude, or other features of the sound. As disclosed in the rejection above, a discrepancy in amplitude is functionally equivalent to a magnitude, as claimed, and one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that a discrepancy includes amplitudes of the detected signal that are above or below the amplitude of the control sound.
In response to applicant's argument that the examiner's conclusion of obviousness is based upon improper hindsight reasoning, it must be recognized that any judgment on obviousness is in a sense necessarily a reconstruction based upon hindsight reasoning. But so long as it takes into account only knowledge which was within the level of ordinary skill at the time the claimed invention was made, and does not include knowledge gleaned only from the applicant's disclosure, such a reconstruction is proper. See In re McLaughlin, 443 F.2d 1392, 170 USPQ 209 (CCPA 1971).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES J YANG whose telephone number is (571)270-5170. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30am-6:00p M-F.
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/JAMES J YANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2686