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
The amendment of 12/04/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-3 and 5-6 are currently pending in the application.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers filed on 07/09/2024 as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/04/2024 and 10/29/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Analysis - 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 1-6 are eligible under 35 U.S.C. 101 at step 2A prong 2 because the lighting request output process applies the recited mental process of the abnormality detection process in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception - see MPEP 2106.05(e) and Vanda Memo.
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by VANDEMOTTER (EP 0407385, provided by Applicant on 10/29/2024 IDS).
Regarding claim 1, VANDEMOTTER discloses a control device for an in-vehicle unit (Fig. 2) that is applied to the in-vehicle unit installed in a vehicle having a warning light (Fig. 1, col. 1 lines 41-46) and that is configured to output a lighting request to the warning light to notify a driver of a state of the in-vehicle unit (col. 1 lines 44-46), the control device comprising:
a control circuit (18) configured to execute at least a process relating to the output of the lighting request (col. 3 line 58 - col. 4 line 6); and
a storage circuit (24) configured to store at least information that is used in the process executed by the control circuit (col. 2 lines 17-24), wherein:
the control circuit is configured to execute an abnormality detection process for detecting an abnormality of the in-vehicle unit (col. 3 line 58 - col. 4 line 3), a detection result write-in process for, when the abnormality of the in-vehicle unit is detected by the abnormality detection process, writing a detection history showing the detection of the abnormality into history information of the storage circuit (col. 4 lines 16-18), and a lighting request output process for outputting the lighting request (col. 4 lines 3-6);
the storage circuit is configured to retain contents of the history information even when the in-vehicle unit is powered on or powered off (col. 4 lines 18-21);
the control circuit is configured to retrieve the contents of the history information from the storage circuit when the in-vehicle unit is powered on (col. 4 lines 18-21); and
the control circuit is configured to, when the detection history is written in the retrieved contents, output the lighting request even when the abnormality of the in-vehicle unit fails to be detected by the abnormality detection process (col. 4 lines 12-21).
the control circuit is configured to execute a starting process when the in-vehicle unit is powered on (Fig. 7, col. 7 lines 29-34); and
the control circuit is configured to retrieve the contents of the history information (old failures and new failures, col. 5 lines 12-17) from the storage circuit (NVRAM) during the starting process (S104, Fig. 7, col. 7 lines 31-32).
Regarding claim 2, VANDEMOTTER discloses the control device for the in-vehicle unit according to claim 1.
VANDEMOTTER further discloses wherein:
the control circuit is configured to, when the abnormality of the in-vehicle unit is detected by the abnormality detection process, retrieve the contents of the history information (S106, Fig. 7, col. 7 lines 29-34; n.b. one of ordinary skill would recognize that the stored data would need to be initialized to old failures section of internal memory for the invention to perform the disclosed function as otherwise the initialized data would be immediately cleared at S38 in Fig. 4, i.a. Figs. 4 and 7, col. 2 lines 17-24, col. 4 lines 16-21, etc.) from the storage circuit (faults stored in NV memory 24 at powerdown, col. 2 lines 17-24 and col. 4 lines 16-21, ); and
the control circuit is configured to output the lighting request based on the detection history written in the retrieved contents (col. 5 lines 41-44).
Regarding claim 6, VANDEMOTTER discloses a control method of an in-vehicle unit installed in a vehicle having a warning light (Fig. 1, col. 1 lines 41-46), the in-vehicle unit including a control circuit (18) configured to execute at least a process relating to output of a lighting request to the warning light for notifying a driver of a state of the in-vehicle unit (col. 1 lines 44-46), and a storage circuit (24) configured to store at least information that is used in the process executed by the control circuit (col. 2 lines 17-24), the control method comprising:
detecting, by the control circuit, an abnormality of the in-vehicle unit (col. 3 line 58 - col. 4 line 3);
when the abnormality of the in-vehicle unit is detected, writing, by the control circuit, a detection history showing the detection of the abnormality into history information of the storage circuit (col. 4 lines 16-18);
outputting, by the control circuit, the lighting request (col. 4 lines 3-6);
retaining, by the storage circuit, contents of the history information even when the in-vehicle unit is powered on or powered off (col. 4 lines 18-21);
when the in-vehicle unit is powered on, retrieving, by the control circuit, the contents of the history information from the storage circuit (col. 4 lines 18-21); and
when the detection history is written in the retrieved contents, outputting, by the control circuit, the lighting request even when the abnormality of the in-vehicle unit fails to be detected (col. 4 lines 12-21).
executing a starting process when the in-vehicle unit is powered on (Fig. 7, col. 7 lines 29-34); and
retrieving the contents of the history information (old failures and new failures, col. 5 lines 12-17) from the storage circuit (NVRAM) during the starting process (S104, Fig. 7, col. 7 lines 31-32).
Claims 1 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by SMITH (US 5,671,141).
Regarding claim 1, SMITH discloses a control device (PCC, col. 1 lines 12-15 and 52-55) for an in-vehicle unit that is applied to the in-vehicle unit installed in a vehicle having a warning light and that is configured to output a lighting request to the warning light to notify a driver of a state of the in-vehicle unit (col. 8 lines 24-27), the control device comprising:
a control circuit (implied by “computer”, col. 1 lines 12-15 and 52-55) configured to execute at least a process relating to the output of the lighting request (col. 8 lines 22-24); and
a storage circuit (KAM, i.a. Fig. 6) configured to store at least information that is used in the process executed by the control circuit (col. 10 lines 20-21), wherein:
the control circuit is configured to execute an abnormality detection process for detecting an abnormality of the in-vehicle unit (i.a. col. 2 lines 60-62), a detection result write-in process for, when the abnormality of the in-vehicle unit is detected by the abnormality detection process, writing a detection history showing the detection of the abnormality into history information of the storage circuit (col. 10 lines 20-21), and a lighting request output process for outputting the lighting request (i.a. col. 10 lines 20-21);
the storage circuit is configured to retain contents of the history information even when the in-vehicle unit is powered on or powered off (implied/inherent in keep alive memory KAM, c.f. col. 6 line 3);
the control circuit is configured to retrieve the contents of the history information from the storage circuit when the in-vehicle unit is powered on (implied, col. 10 lines 21-22, col. 15 lines 5-10); and
the control circuit is configured to, when the detection history is written in the retrieved contents, output the lighting request even when the abnormality of the in-vehicle unit fails to be detected by the abnormality detection process (implied, i.a. col. 15 lines 5-10, illuminates light until malfunction does not recur within three sequential trips).
Regarding claim 5, SMITH discloses the control device for the in-vehicle unit according to claim 1.
SMITH further teaches the storage circuit is configured to store diagnostic information (col. 6 lines 2-3), the diagnostic information (fault codes, i.a. col. 2 line 3) being information which is not used in the process executed by the control circuit (inasmuch as Applicant’s disclosed invention since MIL is lit based on sys_MIL_ON flag, col. 10 lines 20-23) and into which, when the abnormality of the in-vehicle unit is detected by the abnormality detection process, a diagnosis (fault codes, i.a. col. 2 line 3) indicating the detection of the abnormality is written (col. 2 lines 1-3); and
the storage circuit is configured to delete contents of the diagnostic information and the history information through operation from a diagnostic tool that is connected to the vehicle from an outside (col. 3 lines 6-10, col. 9 lines 49-52, col. 10 lines 9-10, Fig. 5).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 3 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
The following remarks respond to Applicant’s arguments filed 12/04/2025.
Applicant’s arguments regarding VANDEMOTTER and SMITH failing to teach the limitations of former claim 4, see 2nd and 3rd para. on pg. 7, have been fully considered but are not persuasive. VANDEMOTTER clearly teaches an initialization process in Fig. 7 that reads on the limitations of the claim.
Additionally, Applicant’s statement “the history information contents necessarily are retrieved during a starting process” in the 1st para. on pg. 7 is taken as an admission that reading history data from memory upon startup is inherent in a processor-based system with stored fault codes.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
NAITOU (US 4,968,965) discloses subject matter similar to claim 1 but does not disclose the limitation “retrieve the contents of the history information from the storage circuit during the starting process” as claimed (NAITOU col. 6 lines 18-23).
WON (KR 2000-0025130) discloses subject matter similar to claim 3 but neither explicitly discloses nor clearly implies the limitation “when recovery of the in-vehicle unit from the abnormality is detected by the abnormality detection process, retrieve the contents of the history information from the storage circuit” as claimed (WON pg. 5 lines 20-32). It would not be obvious, absent hindsight of Applicant’s disclosure, to modify WON to retrieve the history information absent a secondary teaching reference.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARK L. GREENE whose telephone number is (571)270-7555. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-4:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Logan Kraft can be reached at (571) 270-5065. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARK L. GREENE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747