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 .
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) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a(1) as being anticipated by Konishi et al. (US 2006/0192687).
Referring to Claim 1, Konishi teaches an information processing device mounted on a first vehicle, the information processing device comprising a control unit configured to:
acquire, through vehicle-to-vehicle communication, one or more pieces of first information including a travel route from one or more vehicles present on a periphery (see paragraph 30 which shows vehicle information being sent which includes the traveling direction of the vehicle which implies the route and fig. 1 which shows the vehicle information sent between vehicles and paragraph 41 which shows communication with vehicles within a predetermined range); select, based on the one or more pieces of first information, a second vehicle from among the one or more vehicles as a relay device for connection through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication, the second vehicle being a vehicle expected to travel at least partially on the same route as a first route on which the first vehicle is expected to travel; and connect to the relay device (see paragraph 25 which shows a vehicle selecting another vehicle as the vehicle for relaying a signal and paragraph 34 which shows the basis of determining the same traveling direction of another vehicle based on information received from another vehicle and fig. 1 which shows vehicle-to-vehicle communication).
Claim 5 has similar limitations as claim 1.
Referring to Claim 2, Konishi also teaches acquiring, through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication, one or more pieces of second information on vehicle travel from the one or more vehicles (see paragraph 30 which shows exchanging information including vehicle position and lane information as additional information); and select, when the second vehicle is not present, a third vehicle from among the one or more vehicles as the relay device based on the one or more pieces of second information, the third vehicle being a vehicle traveling in the same traveling direction as the first vehicle (see paragraph 41 which shows the process of selecting from a plurality of other vehicles including only vehicles which are within a predetermined range which implies the selecting of another vehicle as the relay device when the second vehicle is not present or not within a predetermined range).
Referring to Claim 3, Konishi also teaches the control unit configured to when a plurality of the second vehicles is present, a plurality of the third vehicles is present, or neither the second vehicle nor the third vehicle is present, select, as the relay device, a vehicle satisfying at least one of a condition that the vehicle is traveling in a lane of the same type as a type of a lane in which the first vehicle is traveling (see paragraph 37 which shows the selecting of a relay vehicle based on the lane condition of the vehicle) and a condition that a traveling speed is within a predetermined range from a speed of the first vehicle from among the second vehicles, the third vehicles, or the one or more vehicles based on the one or more pieces of second information (see paragraph 30 which shows vehicle speed as part of the shared vehicle information).
Referring to Claim 4, Konishi also teaches acquire, through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication, one or more pieces of third information on communication from the one or more vehicles (see paragraph 30 which shows exchanging information including vehicle position and lane information as additional information); and when a plurality of the second vehicles is present, a plurality of the third vehicles is present, or neither the second vehicle nor the third vehicle is present, select, as the relay device, a vehicle having a smaller number of hops to a base station or an access point, a vehicle having a smaller number of currently connected vehicles, or a vehicle having a stronger intensity of a received radio wave from a base station, an access point (no patentable weight since “or” is used), or a surrounding vehicle from among the second vehicles, the third vehicles, or the one or more vehicles based on the one or more pieces of third information (see paragraph 41 which shows the selected vehicle as the farthest apart of the existing vehicles which implies that the vehicle is a surrounding vehicle).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EUGENE YUN whose telephone number is (571)272-7860. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wesley Kim can be reached at 5712727867. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/EUGENE YUN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648
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