DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
This action is in response to the filing of the Restriction Requirement on 01/26/26. The Applicant has elected to prosecute Claim 1 – 3. Claims 4 – 9 are non-elected and therefore not included in this 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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Thompson (US 20170030731 A1).
Claim 1, Thompson discloses a method for activating an alert in a vehicle when approaching a point of interest (POI) [see (fig. 4; para [0021] ; FIG. 4 is flowchart illustrating operation of the method; for activating an alert in a vehicle when approaching a point of interest (POI) (para [0019] In any of FIGS. 1-3, in place of a traffic light icon, an icon of a different POI, i.e., of a school or the barrier of a railway crossing can be displayed when the vehicle is respectively approaching a school or a railway crossing. In addition to the display of one or more Icons, a warning audible alarm can optionally be sounded]
while on a hands-free voice call [active voice mode, para [0018] "The telephone icon indicates that someone in the car is using a phone, either a telephone installed in the car or a mobile phone connected by Bluetooth to the navigation system display. An active Bluetooth connection can itself be used to indicate that the user in on the phone in an active voice mode];
comprising downloading to a memory device data comprising the latitude and longitude location of one or more selected POis within a predetermined distance from the vehicle, [see (para [0020] "Latitude and Longitude coordinates for signal light-controlled intersections or schools or railway crossings, are obtained from a provider of such GPS coordinates such as deCarta, an LBS (location based services) platform company. When the navigation system device is in use, the device's current coordinates are continually read from the GPS unit that is contained in, attached to, or otherwise linked with the device. If a change in coordinates indicates that the speed of the device exceeds a certain level, say 10 mph, or that the current coordinates of the device are within a certain distance, say 250 feet (very roughly one half to one quarter of a city block) of the coordinates of the location of a POI such as a traffic light (the "warning coordinates"), that the change in coordinates indicates that the vehicle is moving towards the POI, the navigation system displays the appropriate icon on its map)];
determining the location of the vehicle from a navigation global positioning system (GPS) [see (para [0021] "At the start, a software program in the car is started and updates the current GPS location of the car."),
comparing the GPS location of the vehicle to data in the memory device [see (para [0021] "Using a downloaded database of traffic light GPS vector map locations, such as maintained by deCarta, and current location information, the software determines whether the user is near e.g., 250 feet) one of the POis. If not, then the software continues to update the current location. If the software determines that the user is near one of the POis, the software displays the relevant icon for the traffic light, school zone, or railway crossing. Either before or after the foregoing display, the software detects whether a phone is in voice mode. If it is, then the icon of a phone is also displayed, at the top of the navigation map."]
and,
when the vehicle is within a predetermined distance from the selected POI [see (para [0021] "Using a downloaded database of traffic light GPS vector map locations, such as maintained by deCarta, and current location information, the software determines whether the user is near e.g., 250 feet) one of the POis."),
activating the alert [see (para [0019] "In any of FIGS. 1-3, in place of a traffic light icon, an icon of a different POI, i.e., of a school or the barrier of a railway crossing can be displayed when the vehicle is respectively approaching a school or a railway crossing. In addition to the display of one or more icons, a warning audible alarm can optionally be sounded.")].
Claim 3, Thompson discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the POI is selected from a traffic light, school zone, or railway crossing [see (para 0022) - The software then determines whether the user has crossed the traffic light, school zone or railway crossing. If not, then the current location is updated. If yes, then the POI icon is cleared and if the phone icon was displayed, it also is cleared, as well as is any marker line].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thompson (US 20170030731 A1) in view of Liu (US 20180151065).
Claim 2, Thompson discloses the method of claim 1, wherein to avoid replaying an alert multiple times for the same POI, the method includes remembering the last POI played until information is obtained that the POI is behind the device indicating that the user has passed the POI.
Thompson teaches the method includes remembering the last POI played until information is obtained that the POI is behind the device indicating that the user has passed
The POI (icon cleared after POI is passed, [see para [0022] "The software then determines whether the user has crossed the traffic light, school zone or railway crossing. If not, then
The current location is updated. If yes, then the POI icon is cleared and if the phone icon
was displayed, it also is cleared, as well as is any marker line.")].
Thompson is silent to wherein to avoid replaying an alert multiple times for the same POI, the method includes remembering the last POI.
However, Liu discloses a data processing field, and in particular, to a traffic information update method and apparatus. Further discloses, wherein to avoid replaying an alert multiple times for the same POI, the method includes remembering the last POI [see (para [0070]-[0071] "Step 202. The server generates the second alert information corresponding to the traffic sign adding instruction. After receiving the traffic sign adding instruction, the server may directly generate the second alert information corresponding to the traffic sign adding instruction. To avoid repeatedly adding same alert information, the server determines whether the traffic information of the server includes alert information corresponding to the first traffic sign. Only when the traffic information of the server does not include the alert information corresponding to the first traffic sign, the server generates the second alert information corresponding to the traffic sign adding instruction.")].
It would have been obvious before the effective date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the device in Thompson to include wherein to avoid replaying an alert multiple times for the same POI, the method includes remembering the last POI, as suggested and taught by Liu, with a reasonable expectation of success, for the purpose of avoiding unwanted redundancy possibly causing confusion and error due to multiple alerts.
Conclusion
The examiner has pointed out particular references contained in the prior art of record in the body of this action for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. Applicant should consider the entire prior art as applicable as to the limitations of the claims. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing the response, to consider fully the entire references as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
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/Renee LaRose/Examiner, Art Unit 3657