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 .
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 1-10 and 13 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 1-10 and 13 recite generally subjecting a data set to statistical processing, but the Specification does not enhance the specificity of this statistical processing in a manner which gives a person having ordinary skill in the art a proper understanding of the possible methods of statistical processing actual used to perform the functions of the invention; and since the statistical processing appears to be used as the main inventive element in performing the required functions, possession of the claimed invention is very much dependent on possession of adequate modes of statistical processing, of which none are clearly presented in the disclosure of the invention by applicant.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because they are directed to a data structure, which may be reasonably interpreted as software or signal, which the courts have held do not fall within any of the patent eligible categories.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Uchida (US 11,161,508 B2).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Uchida teaches a rider-assistance system (3) that assists with driving by a rider of a straddle-type vehicle (2a) (Figures 1-4 and 6-9; Col. 10, lines 10-17), the rider-assistance system comprising: an electronic controller configured to execute a rider-assistance operation to assist with driving by the rider (Col. 10, line 63 to Col. 11, line 20+ describes the controller and general configuration for this function), and further configured to: generate travel guide information on a curved road (illustrated in Figures 1 and 4) by subjecting a data set, which includes turning travel information of each of plural straddle-type vehicles on the curved road acquired by each of the vehicles, to statistical processing (Col. 6, line 45 to Col. 8, line 31; Col. 11, lines 16 to 67; Col. 14, lines 16 to 62), wherein before the straddle-type vehicle enters the curved road, the electronic controller executes the rider-assistance operation based on travel guide information that is generated by the generation section (Col. 8, line 32 to Col. 10, line 9; Col. 12-13).
Regarding claim 2, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 1 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the statistical processing includes processing to extract the turning travel information from the data set based on a parameter (the previously cited sections describe the turning travel information extracted in great detail, based on a variety of parameters [some measured directly, some calculated, some stored, some related to one or multiple vehicles, some related to the environment, etc.]).
Regarding claim 3, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 1 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the statistical processing includes processing to weight the data set based on a parameter (the previously cited sections describe "weighting" the data based on various parameters [note that the claim does not recite calculating specific weights or gains for specific data]).
Regarding claims 4 and 11, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 2 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the parameter includes newness/oldness degree information of the turning travel information (the previously cited sections describe differing use of new data from host vehicle vs old data from other vehicles which have already traveled on a particular curve; additionally, Col. 2, lines 32-57, and Col. 13, lines 19-55 discuss timing of the turning travel information [i.e., newness/oldness] used in extracting).
Regarding claim 5, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 2 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the parameter includes environment information (See previously cited sections for several examples of parameters including environment information which are used in the "extraction").
Regarding claim 6, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 2 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the parameter includes vehicle information (See previously cited sections for several examples of parameters including vehicle information which are used in the "extraction").
Regarding claim 7, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 1 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the travel guide information includes information on a swept path (the subject curve is interpreted as a swept path).
Regarding claim 8, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 1 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the travel guide information includes information on a vehicle speed (See previously cited sections, where speed is discussed extensively in this regard).
Regarding claim 9, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 1 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the travel guide information includes information on a body lean angle (See previously cited sections, where lean angle is discussed extensively in this regard).
Regarding claim 10, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 1 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the rider-assistance operation is operation to inform the rider of the travel guide information (as described in the previously cited sections).
Regarding claim 12, Uchida discloses the invention of claim 11 as discussed above, and Uchida teaches that the turning travel information is associated with at least one of environment information and vehicle information (See previously cited sections for many examples of each type of information being used).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN R STECKBAUER whose telephone number is (571)270-0433. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 9:30-7:30 PST.
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/KEVIN R STECKBAUER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747