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 .
Examiner Notes: The applicant elected Species I, fig. 4 and pages 10-14 (first embodiment) without traverse which refer to claims 1-6 and 19, where claims 1 and 19 are generic claims. Claims 7-18 are hereby withdrawn from consideration.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noguchi US Pg. Pub. No. (2020/0361464) referred to hereinafter as Noguchi in view of Schmidt et al., US pg. Pub. No. (2005/01251070 referred to hereinafter as Schmidt.
As per claim 1, Noguchi teaches a control device for a vehicle (see at least Para 0016, 0020, figs. 1-2), comprising: a drive force acquisition unit that acquires a drive force which the vehicle is applying to a road surface (see at least Para21, 24-25, 31-33, figs. 2-3); an acceleration acquisition unit that acquires an acceleration along a travel direction of the vehicle (see at least Para 0019, figs. 1);
Although Noguchi teaches step-equivalent angle alpha (see at least Para 40-41), Noguchi does not expressly teach an angle calculation unit that calculates a trajectory angle which is an angle between a trajectory of a rotation center axis of a wheel of the vehicle and the road surface, based on the drive force and the acceleration, However Schmidt teaches an angle calculation unit that calculates a trajectory angle (see at least Para 33-34, fig. 1) which is an angle between a trajectory of a rotation center axis of a wheel of the vehicle and the road surface (see at least Para 33-43), based on the drive force and the acceleration (see at least Para 33-43, 38-43). It would be have bene obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Schmidt into the disclosure of Noguchi in order to account for the dynamic forces acting on the vehicle.
As per claim 2, Noguchi teaches a control device according to claim 1, further comprising a ride-over determination unit (see at least Para 23, 26-27, fig. 2) that determines whether the vehicle should ride over a bump (see at least Para 45-48, fig. 6) based on the trajectory angle (see at least 40-41, 45-48, 38-43).
As per claim 3, Noguchi teaches a control device according to claim 2, further comprising a brake/drive force control unit (see at least Para 21-23, 30, figs. 2, 8) that controls a brake/drive force of the vehicle, wherein the brake/drive force control unit controls the brake/drive force to cause the vehicle to ride over the bump, when the ride-over determination unit determines that the vehicle should ride over the bump, and the brake/drive force control unit controls the brake/drive force to cause the vehicle to not ride over the bump, when the ride-over determination unit determines that the vehicle should not ride over the bump (see at least Para 56-58, 54-55, fig. 8).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noguchi in view of Schmidt in further view of Kollner et al., US Pg. Pub. No. (2010/0026224) referred to hereinafter as Kollner.
As per claim 6, Noguchi in view of Schmidt teache vehicle includes a rotating electric machine for generating the drive force (see Noguchi Para 16, fig. 1), However Noguchi in view of Schmidt do not expressly teach the drive force acquisition unit acquires the drive force based on a magnitude of current flowing through the rotating electric machine , However Kollner teaches the drive force acquisition unit acquires the drive force based on a magnitude of current flowing through the rotating electric machine (see at least fig. 2 equation 1). It would have bene obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Kollner into the disclosure of Noguchi in view of Schmidt in order to account for the dynamic forces acting on the vehicle.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Please refer to form 892 for cited references.
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/MUSSA A SHAAWAT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3669
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