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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on March 4, 2024 and May 20, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In claims 2-9 and 13, the term "elongate heating element(s)" lacks proper antecedent basis in the claim. It is unclear whether the claim term(s) refer to the elongate heating elements of the set, the at least one subset, or both.
Claims 10-12 and 14-18 include the same issue due to their dependency on the claims rejected above, and are rejected for the same reasons.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-16, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Meiler et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2006/0086710).
Meiler, in figures 1-3, discloses:
Claims 1 and 19: An antenna assembly comprising a vehicle part (7) intended to be placed facing an emission cone (2) of a radar sensor (8) of the vehicle, the radar sensor being configured to emit an electromagnetic wave in the emission cone (para. [0031]), the electric field of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the radar sensor includes a component oscillating in a direction of interest (6), the electromagnetic wave propagating in a main propagation direction, the part having on one of its faces a system (1) for deicing the part; with the deicing system including a set of elongate heating elements (4, 5), at least one subset (4) of the set of elongate heating elements being located in the emission cone of the radar sensor when the part is placed facing the radar sensor and being configured such that each elongate heating element of the subset is arranged on the part in such a way as to extend in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of interest of the electric field of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the radar sensor when the part is placed facing the radar sensor (fig. 1).
Claim 2: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 1, wherein the elongate heating elements (4) extend in the same plane, the plane extending perpendicular to the main propagation direction of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the radar sensor (figs. 1 and 3).
Claim 3: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 2, wherein the elongate heating elements extend parallel to one another in the plane, the set of elongate heating elements forming a grid wave polarizer (figs. 1 and 3).
Claim 4: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 3, wherein the elongate heating elements are arranged such that the distance separating two adjacent elongate heating elements is constant (fig. 1).
Claim 5: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 4, wherein the distance separating two adjacent elongate heating elements is less than the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the radar sensor (para. [0032]).
Claim 6: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 4, wherein the distance separating two adjacent elongate heating elements is less than 5 mm (para. [0032]).
Claim 7: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 6, wherein the ratio between the width of each elongate heating element and the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the radar sensor is less than 1/10 (para. [0032]).
Claim 8: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 7, wherein the width of each elongate heating element is less than 0.5 mm (para. [0032]).
Claim 9: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 2, wherein a first subset (4) of elongate heating elements is located in the emission cone of the radar sensor when the part is placed facing the radar sensor, and a second subset (5) of elongate heating elements is located outside the emission cone of the radar sensor when the part is placed facing the radar sensor, the elongate heating elements of the first and second subsets being arranged such that, considering a direction of travel from the second subset to the first subset perpendicular to the main propagation direction of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the radar sensor, and from the outside of the emission cone of the radar sensor to the center of the emission cone, the distance separating two adjacent elongate heating elements is non-constant and follows an increasing distance profile function (fig. 1).
Claim 10: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 9, wherein the increasing distance profile function is a linear function, or a piecewise linear function (fig. 1).
Claim 11: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 9, wherein the minimum distance separating two adjacent elongate heating elements of the first subset of elongate heating elements is greater than 2 mm (para. [0032]).
Claim 12: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 9, wherein the width of each elongate heating element of the first subset of elongate heating elements is less than 0.5 mm (para. [0032]).
Claim 13: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 1, wherein the elongate heating elements are heating metal strips or wires (fig. 1).
Claim 14: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 13, wherein each heating metal strip or wire is coated with a layer of a dielectric material (12) or is arranged in a dielectric protection and insulation element.
Claim 15: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 14, wherein the dielectric material has a refractive index and a thickness which is between 0.8 times and 1.2 times an ideal thickness, the ideal thickness being equal to a natural number multiplied by the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the radar sensor and divided by twice the refractive index of the dielectric material, for a zero angle of incidence of the electromagnetic wave (para. [0036]).
Claim 16: The vehicle part as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vehicle part is a style part intended to conceal the radar sensor (para. [0038]).
Claim 20: The assembly as claimed in claim 19, wherein the radar sensor is a millimeter radar sensor (para. [0036]) polarized in a horizontal or vertical polarization direction (6).
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.
Claims 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meiler et al. in view of DUBOST et al. (FR 3104834 A1).
Claims 17 and 18: Meiler fails to disclose wherein the style part is a logo; or wherein the vehicle part is an outer lens that closes off a lighting and/or signalling element in which the radar sensor is integrated. However, DUBOST discloses a backlit radome with defrost device for a motor vehicle radar comprising a style part being a logo (pg. 17, para. 8); and an outer lens (5, fig. 1) that closes off a lighting (9, fig. 1) and/or signalling element in which the radar sensor is integrated (fig. 1). The popularity of autonomous vehicles is driving auto manufactures to find solutions for locating multiple radar sensor devices on vehicles. Auto manufactures searching for ideas on where to locate radar sensors need only turn to conventional solutions such as those disclosed by DUBOST. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have combined the teachings of DUBOST with the invention of Meiler, and located the radar sensor in a vehicle logo; and/or in an outer lens that closes off a lighting element in which the radar sensor is integrated.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT KARACSONY whose telephone number is (571)270-1268. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Monday - Friday.
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/Robert Karacsony/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845