CTNF 18/812,307 CTNF 87213 DETAILED ACTION 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Claim status Claims 1-15 are currently pending for examination. Election/Restrictions 08-08 AIA 3. Restriction to one of the following inventions is required under 35 U.S.C. 121: I. Claim s 1-11 are drawn to “A method of communicating with a target vehicle, comprising: determining an identifier for a target vehicle; providing an interface by which a user-generated communication can be created; sending the user-generated communication through a communication network to the target vehicle ” classified in H04M 1/72436, G06V 20/625 and G06V 2201/08 . II. Claim s 12-15 are drawn to “A system of a vehicle for communication with a target vehicle, comprising: a frontend portion that includes a data storage unit, an electronic control unit, and a communications unit by which communications are sent and received at the frontend portion; and a backend portion of a cloud-based system , wherein the backend portion includes a processor and memory, wherein the frontend portion includes programming to determine an identifier of a target vehicle, transmit the identifier to the backend portion, receive information from the backend portion, and transmit a user-generated communication to the backend portion, and wherein the backend portion includes programming to determine if the target vehicle is within a communication network including the backend portion , and to send the user-generated communication through the communication network to the target vehicle..” classified in H04W 4/46, H04M 1/2757 and G06V 2201/08 . 08-21 4. Restriction for the examination purposes as indicated is proper because all these invention listed in this action are independent or distinct for the reasons given above and there would be a serious search and examination burden if restriction were not required because one or more of the following reasons apply: (a). the inventions have acquired a separate status in the art in view of their different classification; (b). the inventions have acquired a separate status in the art due to their recognized divergent subject matter; (c). the inventions require a different field of search (for example, searching different classes/subclasses or electronic resources, or employing different search quires); (d). the prior art applicable to one invention would not likely be applicable to another invention; (e). the inventions are likely to raise different non-prior art issues under 35 U.S.C. 101 and/or 35 U.S.C. 112, first paragraph. 5. Applicant is advised that the reply to this requirement to be complete must include (i) an election of an invention to be examined even though the requirement may be traversed (37 CFR 1.143) and (ii) identification of the claims encompassing the elected invention . 6. The election of an invention may be made with or without traverse. To reserve a right to petition, the election must be made with traverse. If the reply does not distinctly and specifically point out supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election shall be treated as an election without traverse. Traversal must be presented at the time of election in order to be considered timely. Failure to timely traverse the requirement will result in the loss of right to petition under 37 CFR 1.144. If claims are added after the election, applicant must indicate which of these claims are readable on the elected invention. If claims are added after the election, applicant must indicate which of these claims are readable upon the elected invention. Should applicant traverse on the ground that the inventions are not patentably distinct, applicant should submit evidence or identify such evidence now of record showing the inventions to be obvious variants or clearly admit on the record that this is the case. In either instance, if the examiner finds one of the inventions unpatentable over the prior art, the evidence or admission may be used in a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) of the other invention. 08-23-02 AIA 7. Applicant is reminded that upon the cancellation of claims to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be amended in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(b) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. Any amendment of inventorship must be accompanied by a request under 37 CFR 1.48(b) and by the fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i). 8. The Examiner has required restriction between combination and subcombination inventions. During a telephone interview with Mr. Jeremy Klobucar on 26 May 2026 an election to prosecute the invention of claims 1-11 of group I was made. Affirmation of this must be made by the Applicant in replying to this Office action. Claims 12-15 (in group II) are withdrawn from further consideration by the Examiner, 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a non-elected invention. Claim Objections 07-29-01 AIA 9. Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: “The method of claim 9 which also includes filtering…” should be “The method of claim 9 further comprising filtering…” . Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 10. 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. 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 11. 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-15 AIA 12. Claim s 1, 3-4, 7, 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1 ) as being anticipated by Cai et al. (Cai; US 2015/0381551) . For claim 1, Cai discloses a method of communicating with a target vehicle [ E.g. 0004: framework for vehicle-to-vehicle communication is described herein. In accordance with one aspect, a send message to a receiving driver of a receiving vehicle is generated from a sending end-user device in response to a user event from a sending driver. The send message may be generated to include an image of the receiving vehicle of the receiving driver, and a voice message created by the sending driver. The send message may be sent to a server using the sending end-user device. The send message may further be processed by the server, which includes identifying the receiving vehicle, searching to find information of a receiving end-user device, and sending the send message to the receiving end-user device if information of the receiving end-user device is found, 0018: the environment 100 includes a vehicle-to-vehicle communication application system 140 . The system, in one implementation, is a software tool for facilitating vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Vehicles may be any type of vehicles, such as automobiles, trucks, vans, motorcycles as well as other types of vehicles. For example, any type of vehicles that may have a registration number, such as a plate number may be applicable], comprising: determining an identifier for a target vehicle [ E.g. 0028: image module 184 , in one implementation, processes a digital image from the camera. In one implementation, the image module 184 includes image detection. For example, the image module includes a routine for recognizing or detecting the location of a license plate on vehicles in the digital image. For example, the module 184 detects the location of numbers, which indicates the location of the license plate, 0034: The voice message, in one implementation, contains a vehicle ID, message body and driver rating. Providing other elements in the voice message may also be useful. The vehicle ID may be the license plate or vehicle registration number. The message body may include the message to the receiving driver, 0047: a process 200 for generating and sending a message using the V2V App. As discussed, in one implementation, when the App is running, the camera is continuously operating to pick up image frames of the road. The image frames are analyzed to detect vehicle registration or plate numbers of vehicles in the images. For example, the image module 184 of the mobile device analyzes the image to detect the vehicle registration number of vehicles in the image. The registration number is cropped from the image. For example, a portion of the vehicle and its registration number may be cropped from the image, 0004]; providing an interface by which a user-generated communication can be created [ E.g. 0026: App interface 188 , in one implementation, is a voice-based interface. For example, the App interface displays information on the screen or display of the mobile device and interacts with the driver using voice. The App interface may also include command or select buttons which the driver may select, 0035: App interface 188 may facilitate in creating the voice message. The interface may include a voice, instructing or requesting the desired information from the driver. For example, the voice interface may verbally request the vehicle ID. After the vehicle ID is recorded, the interface may verbally request the message body. After the message body is recorded, the interface may request the driver rating. In some implementations, the voice interface may just request the driver to input the voice message. Alternatively, the interface may display the requested information on the device display]; sending the user-generated communication through a communication network to the target vehicle [ E.g. 0037: The completed voice message and image are sent to the backend subsystem on the cloud. For example, the message sent may include the voice component, image component, location information and time stamp. The interface may request confirmation from the driver before sending the message. Alternatively, the App automatically sends the message once it is completed. A user may configure the App to either automatically send or wait for confirmation before sending the message. The message interface of the backend subsystem receives the message, 0044: The vehicle identification module 163 searches the database module to determine if the vehicle ID of the receiving vehicle exists or is contained in the database. For example, the vehicle ID from the image processing and voice recognition module may be used to query the database module. If the receiving vehicle's contact information is contained in the database, the message from the sending driver is sent to the receiving driver by the communication module 161 . The communication module may push the message to the receiving driver's mobile device with the App installed]. For claim 3, Cai discloses wherein the identifier is a vehicle license plate [ E.g. 0028, 0032, 0034, 0041]. For claim 4, Cai discloses wherein the identifier is a tag on or in the vehicle and visible from an exterior of the vehicle [ E.g. 0028, 0032, 0034, 0041; a tag is the license plate which is visible from an exterior of the vehicle]. For claim 7, Cai discloses wherein the step of determining an identifier is accomplished with a camera of a smartphone [ E.g. 0021-0028, 0051]. For claim 9, Cai discloses wherein the user-generated communication includes an image [ E.g. 0032-0033, 0049, 0061] or video, a text message, or a gift or other transfer from an account of a giver to the account of a recipient associated with the target vehicle. For claim 10, The examiner elected the embodiment of “an image or video” as selected from the embodiments of “an image or video, a text message, or a gift or other transfer from an account of a giver to the account of a recipient associated with the target vehicle” in claim 9. Therefore, those limitations are not examined . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 13. 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. 07-20-aia AIA 14. 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. 07-21-aia AIA 15. Claim s 2, 5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai . For claim 2, although Cai fails to expressly disclose the identifier is a vehicle identification number of the target vehicle, Cai teaches determining an identifier of a vehicle [ see claim 1 analysis ]. However, having the identifier is a vehicle identification number fails to yield unexpected results; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cai to include the identifier as a vehicle identification number of the target vehicle in order to satisfy system needs and/or environment requirement, also because such modification would have been considered a mere design consideration which fails to patentable distinguish over Cai. For claim 5, although Cai fails to expressly disclose wherein the tag includes a code that can be read by a smartphone, Cai teaches the tag includes a text that can be read by a smartphone [ see claims 4 and 7 analysis ]. However, having the tag includes a code fails to yield unexpected results; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cai to have the tag including a code in order to satisfy system needs and/or environment requirement, also because such modification would have been considered a mere design consideration which fails to patentable distinguish over Cai. For claim 8, although Cai fails to expressly disclose wherein the identifier is a vehicle identification number that is determined by a program using image data from the camera., Cai teaches the identifier is determined by a program using image data from the camera [ see claims 1 and 7 analysis ]. However, having the identifier is a vehicle identification number that is determined by a program using image data from the camera fails to yield unexpected results; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cai to have the identifier is a vehicle identification number that is determined by a program using image data from the camera in order to satisfy system needs and/or environment requirement, also because such modification would have been considered a mere design consideration which fails to patentable distinguish over Cai . 07-21-aia AIA 16. Claim s 6 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai in view of Official Notice . For claim 6, Cai fails to expressly disclose wherein the tag is a NFC tag or a RFID tag. However, examiner takes official notice that having the tag as a NFC tag or a RFID tag is well-known in the art of tags and would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art because an RFID tag or an NFC tag can provide an efficient and reliable communication. For claim 11, Cai fails to expressly disclose filtering the content of the user-generated communication to remove any profanity from the communication. However, examiner takes official notice that filtering content of user-generated communication to remove any profanity from the communication is well-known in the art of communication filtering and would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in order to improve user engagement and overall communication experience . Conclusion 07-96 AIA 17. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure : see PTO-892 Notice of Reference Cited . 18. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMED BARAKAT whose telephone number is (571)270-3696. The examiner can normally be reached on 9:00am-5:00PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta Goins can be reached on (571) 272-2957. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /MOHAMED BARAKAT/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 2 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 3 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 4 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 5 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 6 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 7 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 8 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 9 Art Unit: 2689 Application/Control Number: 18/812,307 Page 10 Art Unit: 2689
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