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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in reply to the Application Number 18/719,405 filed on 06/13/2024.
Claims 18-19 have been cancelled.
Claims 17 and 20-35 are currently pending and have been examined.
This action is made FINAL in response to the “Amendment” and “Remarks” filed on 03/04/2026.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on February 20, 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 17 and 20-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Doraiswamy (WO 2020205703 A1) in view of Iizuka (JP 2018034608 A).
Regarding Claim 17:
Doraiswamy teaches:
A computer-implemented method for calculating a tire wear rate of a vehicle, the method comprising:, (“In a first exemplary embodiment as disclosed herein, the aforementioned objects may be attained via a computer-implemented method for modeling and predicting of tire performance and the provision of feedback based thereon. […] A Bayesian estimation of a tire wear status at a given time is generated for at least one tire associated with the vehicle, based at least on the at least one generated observation and the stored information regarding probability distributions.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
obtaining data of at least one in-operational measurement of at least one property of at least one tire of the vehicle;, (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
and calculating a tire wear rate based at least in part on the obtained technical data of the at least one tire of the vehicle, the obtained technical data of the vehicle and the obtained data of the at least one in-operational measurement of at least one property of the at least one tire of the vehicle according to a self-tuning mathematical tire wear model,, (“Additional advantageous features are further realized in another exemplary variant on the above-referenced first embodiment, wherein a third embodiment of the computer-implemented method is disclosed herein for an analytical tire wear model utilizing a brush-type model. […] In another aspect of the aforementioned third embodiment, the measured one or more tire conditions comprise detected contact areas and void areas corresponding to tire tread depths.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “For example, one of skill may appreciate that a predicted tire wear according to the third embodiment or the fourth embodiment may be provided as an output to a traction model according to the seventh embodiment, complementary to each other without altering the scope of the respective steps or features. Further, one of skill in the art may appreciate that extracted data according to the fifth embodiment may be provided as input to tire wear models according to one or more other embodiments as disclosed herein.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
wherein calculating a tire wear rate further comprises: running a plurality of pre-stored algorithms for calculating the tire wear rate; and choosing an algorithm of the plurality of pre-stored algorithms which yields a calculated value for the tire wear rate that is closest to a tire wear rate based on, (“The vehicle data and/or tire data, once transmitted via a communications network to the hosted server 130, may be stored for example in a database 132 associated therewith. […] The terms“tire wear” and“tread wear” may be used herein interchangeably for the purpose of illustration.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
the obtained data of the at least one in-operational measurement., (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Doraiswamy does not teach but Iizuka teaches:
obtaining technical data of at least one tire of a vehicle; obtaining technical data of the vehicle;, (“FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the tire management table 120 stored in the storage device 12. […] The tire life management device 1 may acquire the vehicle identification information of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted and the mounting position of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted from each terminal device.” (Iizuka: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Doraiswamy with these above aforementioned teachings from Iizuka in order to create an effective apparatus and method for calculating and/or monitoring a tire wear rate of a tire. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Doraiswamy’s system and method for vehicle tire performance modeling and feedback with Iizuka’s tire life management device and system in order to obtain and transmit technical data of a vehicle and a tire of the vehicle including the tire mounting position. Combining Doraiswamy and Iizuka would thus provide “a tire life management device and a tire life management system capable of managing each tire and determining and notifying the life of each tire.” (Iizuka: Description)
Regarding Claim 20:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 17. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The method of claim 17, wherein the self-tuning mathematical tire wear model is tuned based on data of at least one in- operational measurement of at least one tire of the vehicle., (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 21:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 17. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The method of claim 17, wherein the self-tuning mathematical tire wear model is tuned based on a plurality of calculated tire wear rates,, (“Referring in particular to the rear tire progression curves in Fig. 23, a central curve represents a nominal toe angle/ camber angle setting, wherein the surrounding region represents ten thousand individual wear progression curves corresponding to respective initial wear rates Ew. […] By implementing periodic measurements of values for the underlying factors, an appropriate subset of the individual wear progression curves can be identified with increasing certainty over time, wherein the tire wear status can be accurately predicted with only a relatively small number of actual measurements.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
[…] wherein the plurality of calculated tire wear rates is based on data obtained from a plurality of vehicles, […], (“A system may be provided in accordance with the above-referenced second embodiment to estimate a tire wear status. […] A server-based computing network is provided comprising computer readable media having instructions residing thereon and executable by one or more processors to direct the performance of aspects previously recited with respect to the second embodiment.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
[…] and data of at least one in-operational measurement of at least one property of at least one tire of each of the vehicles., (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Doraiswamy does not teach but Iizuka teaches:
[…] wherein the obtained data comprise technical data of at least one tire of each of the vehicles, technical data of each of the vehicles […], (“FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the tire management table 120 stored in the storage device 12. […] The tire life management device 1 may acquire the vehicle identification information of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted and the mounting position of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted from each terminal device.” (Iizuka: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Doraiswamy with these above aforementioned teachings from Iizuka in order to create an effective apparatus and method for calculating and/or monitoring a tire wear rate of a tire. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Doraiswamy’s system and method for vehicle tire performance modeling and feedback with Iizuka’s tire life management device and system in order to obtain and transmit technical data of a vehicle and a tire of the vehicle including the tire mounting position. Combining Doraiswamy and Iizuka would thus provide “a tire life management device and a tire life management system capable of managing each tire and determining and notifying the life of each tire.” (Iizuka: Description)
Regarding Claim 22:
Doraiswamy teaches:
A computer-implemented method for calculating a tire wear rate of a vehicle, the method comprising:, (“In a first exemplary embodiment as disclosed herein, the aforementioned objects may be attained via a computer-implemented method for modeling and predicting of tire performance and the provision of feedback based thereon. […] A Bayesian estimation of a tire wear status at a given time is generated for at least one tire associated with the vehicle, based at least on the at least one generated observation and the stored information regarding probability distributions.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
transmitting data of at least one in-operational measurement of at least one property of at least one tire of the vehicle;, (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] In one exemplary aspect of the system according to the third embodiment, the wear rate may be modeled using a brush-type tire wear model for a contact interface between a base material of the tire and a road surface, wherein the interface is represented as a plurality of independently deformable elements. Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
and obtaining a calculated tire wear rate based at least in part on the transmitted technical data of the at least one tire of the vehicle, the transmitted technical data of the vehicle, and the transmitted data of the at least one in-operational measurement of at least one property of the at least one tire of the vehicle, wherein the calculated tire wear rate is calculated according to a self- tuning mathematical tire wear model,, (“Additional advantageous features are further realized in another exemplary variant on the above-referenced first embodiment, wherein a third embodiment of the computer-implemented method is disclosed herein for an analytical tire wear model utilizing a brush-type model. […] In another aspect of the aforementioned third embodiment, the measured one or more tire conditions comprise detected contact areas and void areas corresponding to tire tread depths.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “For example, one of skill may appreciate that a predicted tire wear according to the third embodiment or the fourth embodiment may be provided as an output to a traction model according to the seventh embodiment, complementary to each other without altering the scope of the respective steps or features. Further, one of skill in the art may appreciate that extracted data according to the fifth embodiment may be provided as input to tire wear models according to one or more other embodiments as disclosed herein.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
wherein obtaining a calculated tire wear rate further comprises: running a plurality of pre-stored algorithms for calculating the tire wear rate; choosing an algorithm of the plurality of pre-stored algorithms which yields a calculated value for the tire wear rate that is closest to a tire wear rate based on, (“The vehicle data and/or tire data, once transmitted via a communications network to the hosted server 130, may be stored for example in a database 132 associated therewith. […] The terms“tire wear” and“tread wear” may be used herein interchangeably for the purpose of illustration.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
the obtained data of the at least one in-operational measurement., (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Doraiswamy does not teach but Iizuka teaches:
transmitting technical data of at least one tire of a vehicle; transmitting technical data of the vehicle;, (“FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the tire management table 120 stored in the storage device 12. […] The tire life management device 1 may acquire the vehicle identification information of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted and the mounting position of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted from each terminal device.” (Iizuka: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Doraiswamy with these above aforementioned teachings from Iizuka in order to create an effective apparatus and method for calculating and/or monitoring a tire wear rate of a tire. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Doraiswamy’s system and method for vehicle tire performance modeling and feedback with Iizuka’s tire life management device and system in order to obtain and transmit technical data of a vehicle and a tire of the vehicle including the tire mounting position. Combining Doraiswamy and Iizuka would thus provide “a tire life management device and a tire life management system capable of managing each tire and determining and notifying the life of each tire.” (Iizuka: Description)
Regarding Claim 23:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 17. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The method of claim 17, further comprising: estimating a residual tread depth and/or a remaining mileage of the tire and/or a remaining time before change according to a configured minimum tread depth, based on the calculated tire wear rate., (“In another embodiment, a ride-sharing autonomous fleet could use output data 160 from the traction model 134B to disable or otherwise selectively remove vehicles with low tread depth from use during inclement weather, or potentially to limit their maximum speeds. […] The system may be configured to act upon a minimum tire tread value for each of a plurality of tires associated with a vehicle, or in an embodiment may calculate an aggregated tread status for the plurality of tires for comparison against a minimum threshold.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 24:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 23. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The method of claim 23, further comprising: reporting at least one of the calculated tire wear rate, the estimated residual tread depth, the remaining mileage of the tire, and the remaining time before change according to a configured minimum tread depth to a control system., (“In another exemplary aspect of the above-referenced seventh embodiment, one or more tire wear input values are received from a user via a user interface. […] In another exemplary aspect of this system, the fleet management server is configured to determine a maximum speed and/or stopping distance potential for a given vehicle based on at least on the transmitted vehicle data and a determined tire wear status for each tire associated with the respective vehicle, determine whether the vehicle satisfies threshold traction characteristics, and interact with the vehicle control system to prevent deployment of, or otherwise remove from use, the respective vehicle if the vehicle does not satisfy the threshold traction characteristics.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In another embodiment, a ride-sharing autonomous fleet could use output data 160 from the traction model 134B to disable or otherwise selectively remove vehicles with low tread depth from use during inclement weather, or potentially to limit their maximum speeds. […] The system may be configured to act upon a minimum tire tread value for each of a plurality of tires associated with a vehicle, or in an embodiment may calculate an aggregated tread status for the plurality of tires for comparison against a minimum threshold.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 25:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 24. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The method of claim 24, wherein the control system is arranged in the vehicle., (“In other exemplary aspects of the system according to the seventh embodiment, the active safety unit may comprise a collision avoidance system and/or an autonomous vehicle control system. […] In another exemplary aspect of this system, the fleet management server is further configured to determine an optimal following distance for each of a plurality of vehicles associated with a platoon of vehicles travelling in sequence, and transmit the determined optimal following distance for each one of the plurality of vehicles to the respective vehicle control system.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 26:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 24. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The method of claim 24, wherein the control system is arranged outside the vehicle,, (“In another exemplary aspect of the above-referenced seventh embodiment, the step of determining the tire wear status comprises predicting one or more tire wear input values based on at least the transmitted vehicle data and on tire data generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on a respective tire of the at least one tire. […] In one exemplary aspect of this system, a user interface is associated with the remote server and/or the fleet management server and/or the vehicle control system, and configured to receive one or more tire wear input values from a user.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
[…] enabling collecting, from a plurality of vehicles, at least of the calculated tire wear rate, the estimated residual tread depth, the remaining mileage of the tire, and the remaining time before change according to a configured minimum tread depth., (“In another exemplary aspect of the above-referenced seventh embodiment, one or more tire wear input values are received from a user via a user interface. […] In another exemplary aspect of this system, the fleet management server is configured to determine a maximum speed and/or stopping distance potential for a given vehicle based on at least on the transmitted vehicle data and a determined tire wear status for each tire associated with the respective vehicle, determine whether the vehicle satisfies threshold traction characteristics, and interact with the vehicle control system to prevent deployment of, or otherwise remove from use, the respective vehicle if the vehicle does not satisfy the threshold traction characteristics.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In another embodiment, a ride-sharing autonomous fleet could use output data 160 from the traction model 134B to disable or otherwise selectively remove vehicles with low tread depth from use during inclement weather, or potentially to limit their maximum speeds. […] The system may be configured to act upon a minimum tire tread value for each of a plurality of tires associated with a vehicle, or in an embodiment may calculate an aggregated tread status for the plurality of tires for comparison against a minimum threshold.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 27:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 17. Doraiswamy does not teach but Iizuka teaches:
The method of claim 17, wherein the technical data of the at least one tire of a vehicle include at least one of the tire manufacturer, the tire model, the tire pattern, the tire specification, the tire size, the tire mounting position, retread information, and batch number of the tire., (“FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the tire management table 120 stored in the storage device 12. […] The tire life management device 1 may acquire the vehicle identification information of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted and the mounting position of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted from each terminal device.” (Iizuka: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Doraiswamy with these above aforementioned teachings from Iizuka in order to create an effective apparatus and method for calculating and/or monitoring a tire wear rate of a tire. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Doraiswamy’s system and method for vehicle tire performance modeling and feedback with Iizuka’s tire life management device and system in order to obtain and transmit technical data of a vehicle and a tire of the vehicle including the tire mounting position. Combining Doraiswamy and Iizuka would thus provide “a tire life management device and a tire life management system capable of managing each tire and determining and notifying the life of each tire.” (Iizuka: Description)
Regarding Claim 28:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 17. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The method of claim 17, wherein performing the in-operational measurement of the at least one property of the at least one tire of the vehicle includes measuring a residual tread depth in operation, and, preferably, associating the measured residual tread depth with a status of an odometer of the vehicle., (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 29:
Doraiswamy teaches:
A system for monitoring a tire wear rate of a vehicle, the system comprising one or more computing devices configured to:, (“A system may be provided in accordance with the above-referenced second embodiment to estimate a tire wear status. […] A server-based computing network is provided comprising computer readable media having instructions residing thereon and executable by one or more processors to direct the performance of aspects previously recited with respect to the second embodiment.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
obtain data of at least one in-operational measurement of at least one property of the at least one tire of the vehicle;, (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
and calculate a tire wear rate based at least in part on the obtained technical data of the at least one tire of the vehicle, the obtained technical data of the vehicle, and the obtained data of the at least one in-operational measurement of at least one property of the at least one tire of the vehicle according to a self-tuning mathematical tire wear model,, (“Additional advantageous features are further realized in another exemplary variant on the above-referenced first embodiment, wherein a third embodiment of the computer-implemented method is disclosed herein for an analytical tire wear model utilizing a brush-type model. […] In another aspect of the aforementioned third embodiment, the measured one or more tire conditions comprise detected contact areas and void areas corresponding to tire tread depths.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “For example, one of skill may appreciate that a predicted tire wear according to the third embodiment or the fourth embodiment may be provided as an output to a traction model according to the seventh embodiment, complementary to each other without altering the scope of the respective steps or features. Further, one of skill in the art may appreciate that extracted data according to the fifth embodiment may be provided as input to tire wear models according to one or more other embodiments as disclosed herein.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
wherein one or more computer devices configured to calculate a tire wear rate are further configured to: run a plurality of pre-stored algorithms for calculating tire wear rate; choose an algorithm of the plurality of pre-stored algorithms which yields a calculated value for the tire wear rate that is closest to a tire wear rate based on, (“The vehicle data and/or tire data, once transmitted via a communications network to the hosted server 130, may be stored for example in a database 132 associated therewith. […] The terms“tire wear” and“tread wear” may be used herein interchangeably for the purpose of illustration.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
the obtained data of the at least one in-operational measurement., (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Doraiswamy does not teach but Iizuka teaches:
obtain technical data of at least one tire of a vehicle; obtain technical data of the vehicle;, (“FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the tire management table 120 stored in the storage device 12. […] The tire life management device 1 may acquire the vehicle identification information of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted and the mounting position of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted from each terminal device.” (Iizuka: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Doraiswamy with these above aforementioned teachings from Iizuka in order to create an effective apparatus and method for calculating and/or monitoring a tire wear rate of a tire. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Doraiswamy’s system and method for vehicle tire performance modeling and feedback with Iizuka’s tire life management device and system in order to obtain and transmit technical data of a vehicle and a tire of the vehicle including the tire mounting position. Combining Doraiswamy and Iizuka would thus provide “a tire life management device and a tire life management system capable of managing each tire and determining and notifying the life of each tire.” (Iizuka: Description)
Regarding Claim 30:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 29. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The system of claim 29, wherein the one or more computing devices are configured to:, (“A system may be provided in accordance with the above-referenced second embodiment to estimate a tire wear status. […] A server-based computing network is provided comprising computer readable media having instructions residing thereon and executable by one or more processors to direct the performance of aspects previously recited with respect to the second embodiment.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
[…] estimate a residual tread depth and/or a remaining mileage of the tire and/or a remaining time before change according to a configured minimum tread depth, based on the calculated tire wear rate., (“In another embodiment, a ride-sharing autonomous fleet could use output data 160 from the traction model 134B to disable or otherwise selectively remove vehicles with low tread depth from use during inclement weather, or potentially to limit their maximum speeds. […] The system may be configured to act upon a minimum tire tread value for each of a plurality of tires associated with a vehicle, or in an embodiment may calculate an aggregated tread status for the plurality of tires for comparison against a minimum threshold.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 31:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 30. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The system of claim 30, wherein the one or more computing devices are configured to:, (“A system may be provided in accordance with the above-referenced second embodiment to estimate a tire wear status. […] A server-based computing network is provided comprising computer readable media having instructions residing thereon and executable by one or more processors to direct the performance of aspects previously recited with respect to the second embodiment.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
[…] report at least one of the calculated tire wear rate, the estimated residual tread depth, the remaining mileage of the tire, and the remaining time before change according to a configured minimum tread depth to a control system., (“In another embodiment, a ride-sharing autonomous fleet could use output data 160 from the traction model 134B to disable or otherwise selectively remove vehicles with low tread depth from use during inclement weather, or potentially to limit their maximum speeds. […] The system may be configured to act upon a minimum tire tread value for each of a plurality of tires associated with a vehicle, or in an embodiment may calculate an aggregated tread status for the plurality of tires for comparison against a minimum threshold.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 32:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 31. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The system of claim 31, wherein the control system is arranged in the vehicle., (“In other exemplary aspects of the system according to the seventh embodiment, the active safety unit may comprise a collision avoidance system and/or an autonomous vehicle control system. […] In another exemplary aspect of this system, the fleet management server is further configured to determine an optimal following distance for each of a plurality of vehicles associated with a platoon of vehicles travelling in sequence, and transmit the determined optimal following distance for each one of the plurality of vehicles to the respective vehicle control system.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 33:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 31. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The system of claim 31, wherein the control system is arranged outside the vehicle, and configured to, (“In another exemplary aspect of the above-referenced seventh embodiment, the step of determining the tire wear status comprises predicting one or more tire wear input values based on at least the transmitted vehicle data and on tire data generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on a respective tire of the at least one tire. […] In one exemplary aspect of this system, a user interface is associated with the remote server and/or the fleet management server and/or the vehicle control system, and configured to receive one or more tire wear input values from a user.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
[…] collect, from a plurality of vehicles, at least the calculated tire wear rate, the estimated residual tread depth, the remaining mileage of the tire, and the remaining time before change according to a configured minimum tread depth., (“In another exemplary aspect of the above-referenced seventh embodiment, one or more tire wear input values are received from a user via a user interface. […] In another exemplary aspect of this system, the fleet management server is configured to determine a maximum speed and/or stopping distance potential for a given vehicle based on at least on the transmitted vehicle data and a determined tire wear status for each tire associated with the respective vehicle, determine whether the vehicle satisfies threshold traction characteristics, and interact with the vehicle control system to prevent deployment of, or otherwise remove from use, the respective vehicle if the vehicle does not satisfy the threshold traction characteristics.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In another embodiment, a ride-sharing autonomous fleet could use output data 160 from the traction model 134B to disable or otherwise selectively remove vehicles with low tread depth from use during inclement weather, or potentially to limit their maximum speeds. […] The system may be configured to act upon a minimum tire tread value for each of a plurality of tires associated with a vehicle, or in an embodiment may calculate an aggregated tread status for the plurality of tires for comparison against a minimum threshold.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 34:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 29. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The system of claim 29, wherein the self-tuning mathematical tire wear model is tuned based on data of at least one in- operational measurement of at least one tire of the vehicle., (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Regarding Claim 35:
Doraiswamy in view of Iizuka, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 29. Doraiswamy further teaches:
The system of claim 29, wherein the self-tuning mathematical tire wear model is tuned based on a plurality of calculated tire wear rates,, (“Referring in particular to the rear tire progression curves in Fig. 23, a central curve represents a nominal toe angle/ camber angle setting, wherein the surrounding region represents ten thousand individual wear progression curves corresponding to respective initial wear rates Ew. […] By implementing periodic measurements of values for the underlying factors, an appropriate subset of the individual wear progression curves can be identified with increasing certainty over time, wherein the tire wear status can be accurately predicted with only a relatively small number of actual measurements.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
[…] wherein the plurality of calculated tire wear rates is based on data obtained from a plurality of vehicles, […], (“A system may be provided in accordance with the above-referenced second embodiment to estimate a tire wear status. […] A server-based computing network is provided comprising computer readable media having instructions residing thereon and executable by one or more processors to direct the performance of aspects previously recited with respect to the second embodiment.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
[…] and data of at least one in-operational measurement of at least one property of at least one tire of each of the vehicles., (“one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description))
Doraiswamy does not teach but Iizuka teaches:
[…] wherein the obtained data comprise technical data of at least one tire of each of the vehicles, technical data of each of the vehicles […], (“FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the tire management table 120 stored in the storage device 12. […] The tire life management device 1 may acquire the vehicle identification information of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted and the mounting position of the vehicle on which each tire 5 is mounted from each terminal device.” (Iizuka: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Doraiswamy with these above aforementioned teachings from Iizuka in order to create an effective apparatus and method for calculating and/or monitoring a tire wear rate of a tire. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Doraiswamy’s system and method for vehicle tire performance modeling and feedback with Iizuka’s tire life management device and system in order to obtain and transmit technical data of a vehicle and a tire of the vehicle including the tire mounting position. Combining Doraiswamy and Iizuka would thus provide “a tire life management device and a tire life management system capable of managing each tire and determining and notifying the life of each tire.” (Iizuka: Description)
Response to Arguments
The 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection set forth in the Non-Final Rejection mailed on November 6th, 2025 has been withdrawn as the “Amendments” and “Remarks” filed by the Applicant on March 4th, 2026 satisfactorily overcome this rejection.
Applicant’s arguments filed on March 4th, 2026 with regard to the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection have been fully considered but are not persuasive.
With regard to the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection, the limitations are taught in Doraiswamy as has been set forth above, contrary to the Applicant’s assertions. Therefore, the Applicant’s amendments and arguments are insufficient to overcome these prior art rejections.
More specifically, Doraiswamy mentions “The vehicle data and/or tire data, once transmitted via a communications network to the hosted server 130, may be stored for example in a database 132 associated therewith. […] The terms“tire wear” and“tread wear” may be used herein interchangeably for the purpose of illustration.” (Doraiswamy: Description) In doing so, Doraiswamy addresses the Applicant’s limitation of “wherein calculating a tire wear rate further comprises: running a plurality of pre-stored algorithms for calculating the tire wear rate; and choosing an algorithm of the plurality of pre-stored algorithms which yields a calculated value for the tire wear rate that is closest to a tire wear rate based on” as set forth in claim 17 and similarly in claims 22 and 29.
Furthermore, Doraiswamy states “one or more of the measured conditions are generated by one or more sensors mounted in or on the tire and received therefrom. […] Alternative physics-based tire wear models may also be implemented within the scope of the present disclosure, including but not limited to FEA models.” (Doraiswamy: Description) Doraiswamy further mentions “In one embodiment, tire wear (tread) measurements 150 may be made manually by the user and provided as user input into an app or equivalent interface associated with the onboard computing device 102 or directly with the hosted server 130. […] As one example, the one or more sensors may include a drive-over optical sensor comprising a laser emitter configured to capture tire tread information by projecting laser light onto or across a surface of the tire passing over the sensor, and one or more laser receiving elements configured to capture reflected energy and thereby acquire a profile of the tire from which the tire tread may be determined.” (Doraiswamy: Description) In doing so, Doraiswamy addresses the Applicant’s limitation of “the obtained data of the at least one in-operational measurement” as set forth in claim 17 and similarly in claims 22 and 29.
As a result, Doraiswamy addresses “calculating a tire wear rate further comprises: running a plurality of pre-stored algorithms for calculating the tire wear rate; and choosing an algorithm of the plurality of pre-stored algorithms which yields a calculated value for the tire wear rate that is closest to a tire wear rate based on the obtained data of the at least one in-operational measurement” as set forth by the Applicant in claim 17 and similarly in claims 22 and 29.
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 extension fee 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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/J.R.C./Examiner, Art Unit 3663
/ANGELA Y ORTIZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3663
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