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 .
Claims filed 11-13-2024
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 4-22-2026 was filed after the mailing date of the application filed on 11-13-2024. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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) 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Obara Kazuya JP2021/179552
Regarding claim 1, Obara Kazuya JP2021/179552 discloses a battery electric vehicle (para [0002] discloses electric vehicle) including an electric motor as a driving source (para [11-13] discloses drive unit is, for example, an engine or a motor) the battery electric vehicle comprising one or more processors configured to generate a pseudo engine sound and output the pseudo engine sound from a speaker mounted on the battery electric vehicle (para [10] discloses configuration of pseudo-engine-sound generation system 1 includes a number of revolution detection unit 2, a load correlation information detection unit 3, a vehicle total weight storage unit 7, a pseudo engine sound generation device 8, speaker 9 and speaker 10. Para [46] discloses the pseudo engine sound generating unit output an audio signal of the generated pseudo engine sound to the speakers 9 and speaker 10),
wherein the one or more processors (para [67-70] discloses processing circuit is the processor 101 shown in 4B of Fig 3, the processor 101 reads and executes the program stored in the memory 102 to implement the functions of vehicle travel information acquisition unit 20, the vehicle total weight calculation unit 21, the vehicle total weight change amount calculation unit 22, the load correction information acquisition unit 23, the audio sound acquisition unit 26, and the pseudo engine sound generation unit 27 in the pseudo engine sound generation device 8, the processing of each step shown in Fig 2 is eventually executed when each of these functions is executed by the processor 101), are configured to acquire a load weight of the battery electric vehicle, and change the pseudo engine sound according to the load weight (para [5, 19, 74-77] discloses the pseudo engine sound generating unit 27 may be configure to generate the sound signal of the pseudo engine sound based on at least the total weight change amount calculated by the vehicle total weight change amount calculating unit 22. The sound pressure level of the pseudo engine sound increases when a plurality of occupants including a driver are riding in a vehicle, para [80] discloses when the gross weight of the vehicle changes, it is possible to suppress the variation in the fake engine sound caused by the change in the load applied to the drive unit of the vehicle due to the change in the gross weight of the vehicle).
Regarding claim 2, Obara Kazuya JP2021/179552 discloses the battery electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are configured to increase a sound pressure of the pseudo engine sound as the load weight increases (para [5, 19, 26, 74-77] discloses the pseudo engine sound generating unit 27 may be configure to generate the sound signal of the pseudo engine sound based on at least the total weight change amount calculated by the vehicle total weight change amount calculating unit 22. The sound pressure level of the pseudo engine sound increases when a plurality of occupants including a driver are riding in a vehicle, para [80] discloses when the gross weight of the vehicle changes, it is possible to suppress the variation in the fake engine sound caused by the change in the load applied to the drive unit of the vehicle due to the change in the gross weight of the vehicle).
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 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Obara Kazuya JP2021/179552 in view of Isami 2021/0229550
Regarding claim 4, Obara Kazuya JP2021/179552 does not explicitly disclose the claimed limitation as recited in claim 4.
Isami teaches the battery electric vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising: an accelerator pedal (para [44] teaches accelerator pedal 22),
a pseudo shifter (the electric vehicle 10 further includes a shift lever 26 and a clutch pedal 28 as the operation request input device. However, since the electric vehicle 10 of the present embodiment is a vehicle driven by the electric motor 2 and does not include an engine, it does not include a transmission and a clutch mechanism provided by an MT vehicle. Therefore, the shift lever 26 and the clutch pedal 28 are given the following functions as a pseudo-shift lever and a pseudo-clutch pedal in place of the actual functions of mechanically operating the actual transmission and the clutch mechanism, para [45]) imitating an operation member that is used to perform a shifting operation of a manual transmission vehicle (para [65-66], the driver of the electric vehicle 10 performs a manual gear change operation at any timing during operation. Fig 6 is an operation flow chart showing a procedure of a pseudo manual gear change operation performed by the driver); and
a control device configured to perform torque control for controlling motor torque that is output from the electric motor (para [51-53, 64] teaches torque control of the electric motor 2),
wherein the torque control includes a manual mode in which the motor torque is changed in response to operation states of the accelerator pedal and the pseudo shifter torque (para [24-25, 46-48] teaches torque controller controls torque of the electric motor in response to the operation amount of the clutch device. Thus, since the torque of the electric motor is controlled in response to the operation of the clutch device of the driver, it is possible to simulated the manual gear change operation of the MT vehicle). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to implement the teaching of Isami in Obara Kazuya’s invention in order to increase the comfort of the driving feeling of a driver seeking pleasure to operate MT vehicle, and to provide an electric vehicle capable of pseudo-reproducing a manual gear change operation of a manual transmission vehicle. See Isami’s para [0006].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 5 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.
Claim 3 objected because the prior art Obara Kazuya JP2021/179552 in view of Isami 2021/0229550 fails to teach the claimed limitation “the battery electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein: the battery electric vehicle is configured to execute towing of another vehicle; and the one or more processors is configured to determine an execution status of the towing by the battery electric vehicle, and when the battery electric vehicle is executing the towing, increase a sound pressure of the pseudo engine sound.”
Claim 5 objected because the prior art Obara Kazuya JP2021/179552 in view of Isami 2021/0229550 fails to teach the claimed limitation “the battery electric vehicle according to claim 4, wherein the control device is configured to, when in the manual mode, change an output characteristic of the electric motor in such a manner that the motor torque increases in a low speed range as the load weight increases.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JULIE X DANG whose telephone number is (571)272-0040. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5.
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/JULIE X DANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2692
/CAROLYN R EDWARDS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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