herNotice 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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-9 are pending in this office action.
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 required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on August 21, 2024, 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 § 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 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. (U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2020/0211301).
Regarding claims 1 and 8, Zhang et al. teaches a vehicle control system comprising a plurality of electronic control units that are mounted in a vehicle and connected to an in-vehicle network, wherein the plurality of electronic control units include (fig. 3, ref. num 330): a plurality of functional blocks each configured to execute a predetermined process and at least in part configured to provide a function for controlling motion of a vehicle (paragraph 0035); and a coordination controller configured to implement coordination between the plurality of functional blocks (fig. 3, ref. num 320), at least a part of the plurality of functional blocks includes a functional interface that is an interface configured to provide an own function to a different functional block (paragraph 0065), the coordination controller includes: a policy storage configured to store an authorization policy indicating a rule for authorizing access of an access request from at least one of the plurality of functional blocks to at least one of the functional interface (paragraph 0120); and an access controller configured to, upon receiving an access request from one of the plurality of functional blocks, determine whether to authorize access from a request source block to a request destination interface according the authorization policy (paragraph 0107), and transmit the access request to the request destination interface when the access is authorized (paragraph 0091), the request source block is one of the plurality of functional blocks and is an access request source of the access request (paragraph 0074), the request destination interface is the functional interface and is an access request destination of the access request (paragraph 0074), the authorization policy is set using a provision level and a request level (paragraph 0063 and 0068), the provision level is a safety level indicating safety of the function guaranteed by the request source block (paragraph 0068), and the request level is the safety level requested by the request destination interface to the request source block (paragraph 0120).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang et al. teaches wherein the authorization policy is set to authorize access when the provision level is equal to or higher than the request level and deny the access when the provision level is lower than the request level (paragraph 0079).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang et al. teaches wherein an automotive safety integrity level is used as the safety level (paragraph 0032 and 0039).
Regarding claim 4, Zhang et al. teaches wherein the functional block incudes at least one micro functional block, and the provision level of the functional block is configured to achieve a highest level among the safety level requested for each of the at least one micro functional block (paragraph 0078).
Regarding claim 5, Zhang et al. teaches comprising a correspondence table indicating the provision level of the request source block and the request level of the request destination interface, and the access controller is configured to refer to the correspondence table according to the request source block and the request destination interface extracted from the access request to extract the provision level of the request source block and the request level of the request destination interface, and determine whether to authorize access from the request source block to the request destination interface using the authorization policy from the extracted provision level and the extracted request level (table 1).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang et al. teaches comprising a correspondence table indicating the provision level of the request source block and the request level of the request destination interface, and whether to permit access for all combinations of the request source block and the request destination interface according to the authorization policy, wherein the access controller is configured to determine whether to authorize access from the request source block to the request destination interface by referring to the correspondence table according to the request source block and the request destination interface extracted from the access request (paragraph 0038).
Regarding claim 7, Zhang et al. teaches wherein the functional block and the functional interface are identified by a process ID provided by an operating system at activation of the vehicle control system, and the correspondence table is generated by the operating system after the process ID is provided, and is configured to identify the request source block and the request destination interface by the process ID (paragraph 0066).
Regarding claim 9, Zhang et al. teaches an access control method comprising: determining whether to authorize access from a request source block to a request destination interface according to an authorization policy in response to an access request to the request destination interface (paragraph 0107), wherein the request destination interface is a request destination of the access request and is a functional interface (paragraph 0107), at least a part of a plurality of functional blocks each configured to execute a predetermined process includes the functional interface that is an interface for providing an own function to a different functional block (paragraph 0065), the request source block is at least one of the functional blocks and is an access request source of the access request (paragraph 0074); and transmitting the access request to the request destination interface when the access is authorized (paragraph 0091), wherein the authorization policy is set using a provision level and a request level (paragraph 0063 and 0068), the provision level is a safety level indicating safety of the function provided by the request source block (paragraph 0068), and the request level is the safety level requested by the request destination interface to the request source block (paragraph 0120).
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/BRANDON HOFFMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2433