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 .
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 November 2, 2024 is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the surrounding" in line 2, “the positional” and “the front end position” in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 1, line 4, applicant claims for "provide driver assist" is ambiguous. It is unclear that the vehicle will take controlling the vehicle or alerting the driver when the moving body enters the assist area?
Claim 5 recites the limitation "the vehicle front-back direction" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 6 recites the limitation "the end position of the assist area” in line 2 and “the front end position of the vehicle” in lines 2-3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 10 recites the limitation "the rear" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 12 recites the limitation "the driver" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 13 recites the limitation "the surrounding" in line 4, “the positional” and “the front end” in line 6. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 13, line 6, applicant claims for "providing driver assist" is ambiguous. It is unclear that the vehicle will take controlling the vehicle or alerting the driver when the moving body enters the assist area?
Claim 14 recites the limitation "the surrounding" in line 4, “the positional” and “the front end” in line 7. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 14, line 5, applicant claims for "providing driver assist" is ambiguous. It is unclear that the vehicle will take controlling the vehicle or alerting the driver when the moving body enters the assist area?
Note: Claims 2-4 and 6-9, and 11 should have been rejected for the same reason for their dependency.
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) 1-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by MASAKAZU et al. (JP 2022094063).
As per claim 1, MASAKAZU et al. disclose control device in a form of a support system (2, figures 1-6) configured:
to detect a moving body (44, figure 5) present in surroundings of a vehicle (4) entering an assist area (28a) set in the surroundings of the vehicle (see entire document); and
to provide driver assist when the moving body enters the assist area from a front part of the assist area (figure 5) based on the positional relationship between a front end position of the moving body and the vehicle and an eyellipse reference line set for each vehicle (see entire document).
As per claim 2, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured to provide driver assist when the front end position of the moving body and the front end position of the assist area become the same position (figure 5).
As per claim 3, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured to provide provide driver assist when the moving body has completely entered the assist area (figure 8).
As per claim 4, as shown in figure 8, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured judge that the moving body has completely entered the assist area when the front end position of the moving body and the front end position of the assist area become the same position (see entire document).
As per claim 5, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured to provide driver assist when a distance in a vehicle front-back direction between the front end position of the moving body and the front end position of the assist area becomes less than or equal to a predetermined distance (see entire document).
As per claim 6, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the front end position of the assist area is the same position as the front end position of the vehicle (figure 5).
As per claim 7, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the front end position of the assist area is positioned in a span from the front end position of the vehicle to the eyellipse reference line set for each vehicle.
As per claim 8, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured to provide driver assist when the moving body is positioned on the eyellipse reference line (figure 2, when the moving object positioned in a third detection region (28c)).
As per claim 9, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured to provide driver assist when the front end position of the moving body and the eyellipse reference line become the same position (a third radar 6c outputs a radio wave toward the third detection region 28c set on the left side of the vehicle 4, and the radio wave reflects the reflected wave reflected by the moving body existing in the third detection region 28c. Upon reception, the target information indicating that the moving body exists in the third detection area 28c is output to the moving body detection unit 10).
As per claim 10, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured so as to provide driver assist when the moving body is positioned at a rear from the eyellipse reference line (refer to claim 9 above).
As per claim 11, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured to judge that the moving body is positioned at the rear from the eyellipse reference line when the front end position of the moving body and the eyellipse reference line become the same position (see entire document).
As per claim 12, MASAKAZU et al. disclose the control device configured to, as driver assist, provide alert notification to the driver through a notification device (display device 18) for providing notifications to the driver of the vehicle (figure 3).
As per claims 13-14, The method claims and their associated computer program products claims 13-14 are essentially the same in scope as system claim 1 above and are rejected similarly.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TAI T. NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2961. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Quan-Zhen Wang can be reached at 571-272-7114. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/TAI T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685 March 19, 2026
Prosecution Insights