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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 11-12 of Remarks, filed 04/01/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1-6, 8-15 and 17-18 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are not persuasive. Applicant argues “WANG does not appear to disclose that any icon indicates the orientation of the vehicle on the traveling route... While the trail of waypoints 120 is constituted by a plurality of circular images as shown in FIG. lE of WANG, such images merely indicate geographical points between the start position 102 and a destination (i.e., a parking garage 108). In other words, these images are fundamentally different from the icon of amended independent claim 1, which indicates the orientation of the vehicle on the traveling route”. In response to applicant’s argument, Fig. 1E, icons 120 (waypoints) does indicate the orientation of the vehicle on the traveling route, and the icon being constituted by a plurality of icons.
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.
Claims 1,3-6, 8-10, 12-15, 17-18, 20-22 and 24-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang et al. (US 2018/0194344 A1).
As to claims 1 and 10, Wang discloses a parking support device/method for performing automatic traveling of a vehicle based on teacher traveling performed by a driver (Fig. 1, Abstract), the parking support device comprising: a processor (Fig. 5, 510); and a memory (Fig. 5, 516) including a computer program, the computer program causing the processor to implement processing, the processing including: storing a traveling route in the teacher traveling performed by a driver (Fig. 3, para. 0018); storing an orientation of the vehicle on the traveling route in the teacher traveling (Fig. 1E, icons 120) and displaying an icon indicating the orientation of the vehicle on the traveling route, the icon being constituted by a plurality of icons (Fig. 1E, each icon 120 indicating the orientation of the vehicle).
As to claims 3 and 12, Wang further discloses wherein the storing includes storing (Fig. 1E and 3) a traveling route for parking the vehicle at a parking position based on first sensor information on surroundings of the vehicle acquired by a sensor (para. 0027) mounted on the vehicle during the parking operation performed in the past, the target position (start position 102) is where the vehicle is able to move to the parking position by the automatic traveling, and the parking support method further comprises estimating a position of the vehicle and the target position based on second sensor information obtained by acquiring the surroundings of the vehicle (para. 0011, 0027).
As to claims 4 and 13, Wang further discloses wherein the target position includes a start position of the traveling route (start position 102).
As to claims 5 and 14, Wang further discloses wherein the target position includes a region in which the vehicle is able to merge into the traveling route (Fig. 1B).
As to claims 6 and 15, Wang further discloses wherein the region includes a belt-shaped region along the traveling route (Fig. 1B).
As to claims 8 and 17, Wang further discloses notifying a user that starting the automatic traveling is able to be started when the vehicle is positioned within a prescribed distance from the target position and when the orientation of the vehicle satisfies prescribed conditions (Fig. 1B).
As to claims 9 and 18, Wang further discloses controlling the vehicle to move to the target position (Fig. 1B).
As to claims 20 and 24, Wang further discloses wherein the icon is displayed together with an image representing the traveling route, and the icon is displayed on the image representing the traveling route (Fig. 1E).
As to claims 21 and 25, Wang further discloses wherein the icon is displayed together with a vehicle image representing a position of a vehicle body of the vehicle (Fig. 1E).
As to claims 22 and 26, Wang further discloses wherein the plurality of icons includes a first icon and a second icon whose orientations are different (Fig. 1E).
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.
Claims 19 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Yu et al. (US 2020/0149916 A1).
As to claims 19 and 23, Wang does not explicitly disclose wherein the plurality of icons indicating the orientation of the vehicle is displayed by an arrow-feathers pattern. However, Yu teaches the plurality of icons indicating the orientation of the vehicle is displayed by an arrow-feathers pattern (Fig. 4A-4B, para. 0057). Therefore, given the teaching of Yu, it would have been obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of present application to modify the device/method of Wang, by incorporating the well-known feature of arrow-feathers pattern as icons, to show the driver the travelling direction of the vehicle.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 16 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the Double Patenting rejection, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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 Ce Li Li whose telephone number is (571)270-5564. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 10AM-7PM.
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CE LI . LI
Examiner
Art Unit 3661
/PETER D NOLAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3661
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