CTFR 18/825,330 CTFR 96686 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 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. 12-151 AIA 26-51 12-51 Status of Claims Claims 1-4 have been amended. Claim 5 has been cancelled. Claim 6 has been newly added. Claims 1-4 and 6 are currently pending and addressed below. Priority 02-26 AIA Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Information Disclosure Statement The Information Disclosure Statement that was filed on 27 April 2026 is in compliance with 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS has been considered by the Examiner. Claim Objections 07-29-01 AIA Claim s 2 and 4 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 2 recites “extracting stations where provided energy source is providable…” on line 3. The examiner recommends amending this portion of claim 2 to instead recite “extracting stations where a provided energy source is providable…”, to improve grammatical clarity. Claim 4 similarly recites “extracting stations where provided energy source is providable…” on line 4, and the examiner amending this portion of claim 4 in the same manner as claim 2 as set forth above . Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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 Claim s 1 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nikulin et al. (US 2018/0143029), hereinafter referred to as Nikulin , in view of Park (US 2021/0382492), hereinafter referred to as Park . Nikulin and Park are considered analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of managing a power source of a vehicle . Regarding claim 1 , Nikulin teaches: An information processing device comprising a memory and a processor configured to: receive a destination (“Some examples are directed to a system for determining a route for a vehicle, comprising: one or more processors; and a memory including instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising: receiving a specified destination for the vehicle” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0006), a present position of a target vehicle (“Vehicle control system 500 can include a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver 508 capable of determining the location of the vehicle the position and/or time information of the vehicle.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0065), and a remaining power amount of the target vehicle (“The system can be integrated with status indicators of a vehicles dashboard to include alerts and vehicle status; such as remaining charge” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0019) from a user terminal (“FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary dashboard 102 with integrated features of the intelligent route planning system 100. Dashboard 102 can include an indicator console 120, one or more sensors (e.g. camera 106, microphone 108), and a display 200. As depicted, the indicator console 120 includes indicators for the status of the vehicle, such as a speedometer 122, a power gage 124, a vehicle status panel 126, a battery charge gauge 128A, and a fossil fuel gauge 128B. The vehicle status panel 126 can be configured to include some aspects that are also presented for display in display 200 such as; alerts, (e.g., insufficient charge alert 241, low charge alert 242, etc.) as well as the remaining charge, estimated distance to destination, estimated range of remaining charge, and the like.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0020); generate a route based on the present position and the destination of the target vehicle (“FIG. 2A is a display illustrating an example of a route generated from the intelligent route planning system 100” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0025) determine whether energy replenishment is required for the target vehicle to travel to the destination based on the remaining power amount (“In this example, an occupant has specified a destination and the intelligent route planning system 100 determines that the remaining charge of the battery is estimated to have insufficient charge to reach the specified destination.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0025); wherein in response to determining that energy replenishment is required for the target vehicle to travel to the destination, the processor is further configured to perform at predetermined intervals: determining a replenishment timing, at which the remaining power amount is estimated to become equal to or less than a threshold (“In some examples, the low charge alert 242 is a marker positioned at the location along the route where it is estimated that the charge drops below the charge threshold.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0032); acquiring station information from the memory on stations that are within a predetermined range from an estimated position of the target vehicle at the replenishment timing (“The intelligent route planning system 100 further identifies charging stations 211-215 that are within range of vehicle 220 for charging... As such, along the route the intelligent route planning system 100 alerts the occupant of low charge and prompts the occupant with a list of potential charging stations.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0040); correcting the route to include a stop at one or more of the specific stations during the route (“As depicted in FIG. 2B, the route planning system 100 automatically determines that charging station 215 is the top choice for charging and selects route 252.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0033); transmitting the corrected route to the user terminal, and wherein the user terminal displays the corrected route to the destination that includes the stop at the one or more of the specific stations (“FIG. 2B is a display illustrating an example of a route generated using the intelligent route planning system 100. In this example, an occupant has been identified and has specified a destination. The intelligent route planning system 100 determines that the battery is estimated to have sufficient charge to reach the specified destination and will arrive with an estimated 2% charge. However, the estimated remaining charge is below a charge threshold (e.g., 10%).” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0032) ( The examiner notes that Fig. 2B of Nikulin as shown below illustrates an example of a display of a corrected route 252 which stops at charging station 215 before proceeding to destination 231) ; PNG media_image1.png 791 435 media_image1.png Greyscale receives the corrected route at the predetermined intervals, and updates the corrected route that is displayed to reflect the corrected route latest received (“The intelligent route planning system 100 can also obtain en route information and adjusts the route based on the en route information… In some examples, the en route information includes additional information that can be used to assist in determining a route, these include; traffic congestion, terrain, weather conditions, and traffic control mechanisms... It should be appreciated that the estimates for travel time, charging time, remaining battery charge upon arrival, and cost depicted in any one of the status information blocks 221-225 (FIGS. 2A-2D) can be updated based on en route information.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraphs 0038-0039). Nikulin does not explicitly disclose, but Park teaches: identify a type of a vehicle energy source of the target vehicle ("The processor 30 may estimate a charging amount of a power source that drives a driving device or an available driving distance of the vehicles included in a platoon in real time. The driving device of the vehicle may be a device that generates various power, such as an engine or a motor, and the power source is a fuel or energy source of the driving device, and may be gasoline, diesel, electricity, or hydrogen." – see at least Park : paragraph 0052); identifying one or more specific stations among the stations that provide the identified type of the vehicle energy source ("In addition, a charging station may be searched based on the type of the power source preset for the vehicle included in a platoon. In other words, in the case of an electric vehicle (EV), an electric charging station can be searched, in the case of an engine vehicle, a gas station can be searched, in the case of a hydrogen vehicle (FCEV), a hydrogen station can be searched, and in the case of a rechargeable hybrid vehicle (PHEV), an electric charging station and gas station can be searched, respectively." – see at least Park : paragraph 0059). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nikulin with these above aforementioned teachings from Park to identify a type of a vehicle energy source of the target vehicle, and to identify one or more specific stations among the stations that provide the identified type of the vehicle energy source. At the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Park ’s method of searching for a particular type of charging station with Nikulin ’s intelligent route planning system in order to search for a charging station along a route based on the type of charging station required for a particular type of vehicle energy source (“In addition, a charging station may be searched based on the type of the power source preset for the vehicle included in a platoon” – see at least Park : paragraph 0059). Doing so would provide the benefit of allowing an appropriate charging station to be identified for vehicles with a variety of different types of power sources (“In addition, when the types of the power sources of the vehicles included in a platoon are various, the charging station of each power source may be respectively searched.” – see at least Park : paragraph 0060). The examiner notes that Nikulin already teaches aspects related to identifying a type of a vehicle energy source and a type of charging station (“Charging times vary based on how depleted the battery is, how much energy the battery holds, the type of battery, and the type of charging station... When using an EV or a PHEV for planned activities, it would be helpful to know in advance the services offered at a particular charging station (e.g., battery swap), the cost of charging, the type of charging equipment a particular charging station has, and the estimated time to charge a particular battery, as well as any characteristics an occupant has that might affect the route.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0003). As such, Park merely provides additional teachings to adapt the system of Nikulin for vehicle energy source types other than battery types (e.g., gas or hydrogen). Regarding claim 4 , Nikulin in view of Park teaches all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Nikulin further teaches: wherein the identifying of the one or more specific stations includes: extracting stations where provided energy source is providable to the target vehicle ("The present disclosure describes a system and method for vehicles (e.g., automobiles) that detects and gathers information about a vehicle to determine a route that accounts for charging the vehicle, especially; accounting for services offered at a particular charging station (e.g., battery swap), the cost of charging, the type of charging equipment a particular charging station has, estimated time to charge a particular battery, as well as any one or more characteristics of the occupants (e.g., driving habits) have that effect the route." – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0019); acquiring unit prices of the provided energy source at the extracted stations ("For example, in some instances, the intelligent route planning system 100 interfaces and searches a database (e.g., cloud) for; charging costs, wait times, compatibility, and the like, for each identified charging station." – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0030); and identifying the one or more specific stations based on the acquired unit prices ("As depicted in FIG. 2C, charging station 211 is estimated to cost less than charging station 212. For instances where the intelligent route planning system 100 is configured to place more weight on the cost, the intelligent route planning system 100 will determine a route to charging station 211 over charging station 212." – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0034) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 2-3 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nikulin in view of Park , further in view of Bostick et al. (US 2018/0081360), hereinafter referred to as Bostick . Bostick is considered analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of managing a power source of a vehicle . Regarding claim 2 , Nikulin in view of Park teaches all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Nikulin further teaches: wherein the identifying of the one or more specific stations includes: extracting stations where provided energy source is providable to the target vehicle ("The present disclosure describes a system and method for vehicles (e.g., automobiles) that detects and gathers information about a vehicle to determine a route that accounts for charging the vehicle, especially; accounting for services offered at a particular charging station (e.g., battery swap), the cost of charging, the type of charging equipment a particular charging station has, estimated time to charge a particular battery, as well as any one or more characteristics of the occupants (e.g., driving habits) have that effect the route." – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0019); acquiring providable times at which the provided energy source is providable at the extracted stations ("In some examples, the one or more characteristics of the one or more charging stations includes a wait time estimate associated with vehicles already scheduled for charging.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0047); Nikulin does not explicitly disclose, but Bostick teaches: and identifying the one or more specific stations to be visited by the target vehicle at the acquired providable times ("Based on the current time to replenish energy for corresponding autonomous vehicles, the server assigns an appropriate energy station. The server assigns the autonomous vehicles to an appropriate energy station in such a way that there is no or minimum queue time to replenish energy." – see at least Bostick : paragraph 0086). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nikulin with these above aforementioned teachings from Bostick to include acquiring providable times at which the provided energy source is providable at the extracted stations and identifying the one or more specific stations to be visited by the target vehicle at the acquired providable times. At the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Bostick ’s consideration of queue times for energy replenishment with Nikulin ’s intelligent route planning system in order to account for the additional travel time added due to other vehicles using a provided power source to replenish energy (“Existing solutions for autonomous or non-autonomous vehicles determine current energy levels and identify service stations along travel paths for recharging or fueling. However, these existing solutions do not determine how long it will take for an electric vehicle to recharge given that other electric vehicles may already be recharging. In addition, these existing solutions do not determine availability of alternative recharging stations that do not have a waiting time while considering passenger-defined travel destination time constraints.” – see at least Bostick : paragraph 0067). Doing so would provide the benefit of scheduling a vehicle to replenish its power source at a time and location with a minimal queue time (“A server, such as autonomous vehicle energy management server 504 in FIG. 5, automatically assigns registered autonomous vehicles needing to replenish an onboard energy source to a particular energy station so that no or minimal queue time exists based on vehicle ranking. The server proactively schedules a slot for each autonomous vehicle needing energy replenishment at the selected energy station and ensures there is no or minimum queue time.” – see at least Bostick : paragraph 0087). The examiner notes that Nikulin already teaches aspects related to considering wait times (i.e., queue times) associated with a charging station (“For example, the intelligent route planning system 100 of vehicle 220 can connect to a service that provides the cost and wait time associated with each charge station. Such a service can provide additional information such as supported batteries, connector types, facilities (e.g., restrooms, showers, eateries, etc.). In some examples, the one or more characteristics of the one or more charging stations includes a wait time estimate associated with vehicles already scheduled for charging.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0047) and selecting a specific charging station based on the corresponding wait time (“For instance, in some examples, more weight can be placed on wait time. For instance, in some examples, the reason route planning system 100 selects charging station 215 over charging station 214 because charging station 215 has a shorter wait time or has a shorter average wait time based on historical data.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0033). As such, Bostick merely provides additional teachings to further expand on the feature of identifying available time slots based on the wait times, and scheduling the vehicle to visit a specific charging station at a time which minimizes the wait time. Regarding claim 3 , Nikulin in view of Park and Bostick teaches all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Nikulin further teaches: wherein the acquiring of the providable times includes acquiring a time at which charging of another vehicle is to be completed when the target vehicle is a battery electric vehicle and the other vehicle is being charged at a station where electricity is providable ("In some examples, the one or more characteristics of the one or more charging stations includes a wait time estimate associated with vehicles already scheduled for charging.” – see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0047). Regarding claim 6 , Nikulin in view of Park and Bostick teaches all of the elements of the current invention as stated above. Nikulin does not explicitly disclose, but Bostick teaches: wherein the acquiring of the providable times includes, when the target vehicle is a fuel cell electric vehicle and another vehicle is being replenished with hydrogen fuel at a station where the hydrogen fuel is providable, acquiring a time obtained by adding a period for refill with the hydrogen fuel at the station to a time at which replenishment of the other vehicle with the hydrogen fuel is to be completed ("Illustrative embodiments consider several factors while determining when an autonomous vehicle should recharge or refuel. Factors that illustrative embodiments consider may include, for example:... 6) queue time and number of other autonomous vehicles at a specific recharging or fueling station to avoid travel delays; 7) rate at which the autonomous vehicle can recharge or refuel at a given service station" – see at least Bostick : paragraph 0070) ( The examiner notes that Bostick teaches an embodiment in which the power source is hydrogen fuel ("Energy source 516 may be, for example, electricity stored in a set of one or more batteries of an electric engine autonomous vehicle or any type of combustible fuel, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, compressed natural gas, compressed hydrogen, and the like, stored in a fuel tank or reserve of a combustion engine autonomous vehicle." – see at least Bostick : paragraph 0077) ). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nikulin with these above aforementioned teachings from Bostick such that the acquiring of the providable times includes, when the target vehicle is a fuel cell electric vehicle and another vehicle is being replenished with hydrogen fuel at a station where the hydrogen fuel is providable, acquiring a time obtained by adding a period for refill with the hydrogen fuel at the station to a time at which replenishment of the other vehicle with the hydrogen fuel is to be completed. At the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Bostick ’s consideration of queue times for energy replenishment with Nikulin ’s intelligent route planning system in order to account for the additional travel time added due to other vehicles using a provided power source to replenish energy (“Existing solutions for autonomous or non-autonomous vehicles determine current energy levels and identify service stations along travel paths for recharging or fueling. However, these existing solutions do not determine how long it will take for an electric vehicle to recharge given that other electric vehicles may already be recharging. In addition, these existing solutions do not determine availability of alternative recharging stations that do not have a waiting time while considering passenger-defined travel destination time constraints.” – see at least Bostick : paragraph 0067). Doing so would provide the benefit of scheduling a vehicle to replenish its power source at a time and location with a minimal queue time (“A server, such as autonomous vehicle energy management server 504 in FIG. 5, automatically assigns registered autonomous vehicles needing to replenish an onboard energy source to a particular energy station so that no or minimal queue time exists based on vehicle ranking. The server proactively schedules a slot for each autonomous vehicle needing energy replenishment at the selected energy station and ensures there is no or minimum queue time.” – see at least Bostick : paragraph 0087). Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments filed 25 March 2026 have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection based on the teachings of the newly relied upon reference by Nikulin , which has been introduced to address the amended claims. In particular, the amended claims add limitations which recite the features of determining a replenishment timing, at which the remaining power amount is estimated to become equal to or less than a threshold, and acquiring station information from the memory on stations that are within a predetermined range from an estimated position of the target vehicle at the replenishment timing. The examiner acknowledges that while Park teaches relevant aspects of the claimed invention, as set forth in further detail in the Non-Final Rejection filed 29 December 2025, Park does not explicitly teach each of the limitations of the amended independent claims. To address the Applicant’s Response, the examiner has introduced the reference by Nikulin which explicitly teaches a low charge alert marker positioned at a location along a route where it is estimated that the charge drops below a charge threshold (see at least Nikulin : paragraph 0032), which corresponds to the claimed estimated position of the target vehicle at the replenishment timing at which the remaining power amount is estimated to become equal to or less than a threshold. Nikulin further teaches identifying potential charging locations within a range of the vehicle at a location where it is estimated to experience low charge (see at least Nikulin : Abstract and paragraph 0040). As such, and as set forth in further detail above in the section for claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103, Nikulin is considered to cure the deficiencies of Park as set forth in the Applicant’s Response. The examiner notes that since Nikulin is considered to more closely teach the amended claims than Park , Nikulin is now being applied as the primary reference instead of Park . As per claim 6, the Applicant’s arguments assert that Bostick does not teach the features of the newly added claim 6, which originate from original claim 3. However, the Applicant’s arguments do not clearly identify the deficiencies in the grounds of rejection as previously presented in the Non-Final Rejection filed 29 December 2025 for original claim 3 in view of Bostick . As such, claim 6 is rejected based on substantially the same grounds of rejection in view of Bostick as previously applied for original claim 3. Namely, Bostick explicitly teaches determining queue times and available time slots (i.e., providable times) based on other vehicles using a given charging station (see at least Bostick : paragraph 0042), and wherein the vehicle energy source and the provided energy source at the charging station may be hydrogen fuel (see at least Bostick : paragraph 0077). The examiner notes that the references by Whaling et al. (US 2020/0074372), hereinafter referred to as Whaling , and Zhang (US 2022/0341744), hereinafter referred to as Zhang , teach relevant aspects of the amended claims related to determining an energy replenishment timing at which a vehicle is estimated to drop below a threshold value, and planning a visit to a charging station accordingly (“Additionally or alternatively, if the fuel level and/or vehicle range is greater than or at the predetermined threshold, the evaluation component 230 may determine a fueling time and/or fueling location for when the fuel level and/or vehicle range is projected to be less than the predetermined threshold.” – see at least paragraph 0029 of Whaling ; and “The power assurance module 340 further determines whether a difference obtained by subtracting an estimated power consumption required by the safe alternative route from the current remaining power of the service vehicle is greater than the safe power threshold. If yes, the service vehicle continues to execute the order. The vehicle information obtaining module 310 continues to monitor the remaining power and the location of the service vehicle. In a process in which the service vehicle continues to execute the order, the power assurance module 340 continuously tracks the remaining power of the service vehicle, periodically calculates whether a difference obtained by subtracting an estimated power consumption required by a refreshed safe alternative route from a remaining power of the service vehicle is greater than the safe power threshold, and if yes, continues monitoring, until the order is completed. If determining that a difference obtained by subtracting an estimated power consumption required by the safe alternative route from the current remaining power of the service vehicle is less than the safe power threshold, the power assurance module 340 notifies the order management module 350 to send the safe alternative route to the service vehicle, and notifies the service vehicle to terminate the order and go to the safe point for charging according to the safe alternative route.” – see at least Zhang: paragraph 0082). As per the pending rejections under 35 U.S.C. 101, the Applicant’s Response has provided sufficient evidence that the claims as a whole amount to significantly more than an abstract idea which could be reasonably performed in the human mind. The amended claims require that the information processing device generates a corrected route based on a determined energy replenishment timing and locations of charging stations, and displays the corrected route on a user terminal. Further, in view of the specification of the instant application, the claims are considered to provide an improvement to the technological field of route planning and vehicle charge planning based on real-time information (see at least paragraph 0056 of the specification of the instant application). As such, the pending rejections under 35 U.S.C. 101 have been withdrawn. As per the pending rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), the amendments to the claims have addressed the pending issues related to indefiniteness in the claim language. As such, the pending rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) have been withdrawn. Further, in view of the amendments to the claims, the claim language is no longer considered to invoke claim interpretation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f). Conclusion 07-40 AIA 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 DOMINICK ANTHONY MULDER whose telephone number is (571)272-3610. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 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, RAMYA P BURGESS can be reached at (571)272-6011. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /D.M./Examiner, Art Unit 3661 /TUAN C TO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3661 Application/Control Number: 18/825,330 Page 2 Art Unit: 3661 Application/Control Number: 18/825,330 Page 3 Art Unit: 3661 Application/Control Number: 18/825,330 Page 4 Art Unit: 3661
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