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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 4-8 of US Application No. 18/966,993 are currently pending and have been examined. Applicant canceled claims 1-3.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 21 July 2026 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.97(d) because it lacks a timing statement as specified in 37 CFR 1.97(e). It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered. The Examiner notes that the statement filed under 37 CFR 1.704(d) will not substitute for compliance with any of the requirements of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98, as indicated in the PATENT TERM ADJUSTMENT STATEMENT UNDER 37 CFR 1.704(d) filed on 21 July 2026.
Response to Arguments/Amendments
The previous rejections of claims 1-3 under 35 U.S.C. 101 are withdrawn in consideration of canceled claims 1-3.
The previous indication of claims 4-8 as allowable is withdrawn in consideration of new prior art indicated below in the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 102.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 4-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Han et al. (US 2023/0289334 A1, “Han”).
Regarding claims 4 and 8, Han discloses a method and apparatus for managing a vehicle calibration database and teaches:
a vehicle (vehicle – see at least ¶ [0033]);
a mobile information terminal in which a digital key of the vehicle is registered (terminal device 30 having a digital key function, which may include a wearable electronic device such as a smart watch, a smart bracelet, a smart necklace, or a smart key, or a mobile terminal such as a smartphone – see at least Fig. 3 and ¶ [0072]); and
an information processing device (data processing apparatus 20 – see at least Fig. 2 and ¶ [0069]), wherein the vehicle, the mobile information terminal and the information processing device are connected to communicate with each other (communications unit 210 for communication between apparatus 20 and vehicle end or digital key end – see at least Fig. 2 and ¶ [0070]; communications unit 310 for communication between terminal device 30 and vehicle end or calibration database end – see at least Fig. 3 and ¶ [0074]),
wherein
the information processing device includes
a processing circuit (processor 230 – see at least Fig. 2 and ¶ [0069]), and
a storage device in which a database is stored, in which a correction value for calibration of ranging, performed by the vehicle to determine that the mobile information terminal is within an operating area of the digital key, is recorded in advance for each model of the mobile information terminal (calibration database includes calibration data – see at least ¶ [0038]; calibration data refers to a threshold distance parameter for determining whether to perform vehicle state switching, e.g., a key activation determination threshold, a vehicle start determination threshold, a vehicle keyless entry determination threshold, a vehicle welcome determination threshold, a vehicle auto unlock determination threshold, a vehicle auto lock determination threshold, and a trunk opening determination threshold – see at least ¶ [0039]; calibration data of each vehicle model that matches different digital key ends and stored in the calibration database – see at least ¶ [0040]), in which the processing circuit is configured to execute
acquiring of information for identifying the model from the mobile information terminal (at S120, a current label set associated with a user account is obtained from a vehicle end and a digital key end – see at least Fig. 1 and ¶ [0042]; current label set may include vehicle model label, a device type label, a device model label, an operating system version label, an application version label, or an antenna performance label – see at least ¶ [0045]),
extracting of the correction value corresponding to the model of the mobile information terminal, from the database, based on the information that is acquired (at S130, relevances between the current label set and default label sets in calibration database may be calculated – see at least Fig. 1 and ¶ [0046]; at S140, a set of calibration data is selected from the calibration database based on the relevances to be distributed– see at least Fig. 1 and ¶ [0056]), and
transmitting of the correction value that is extracted, to the vehicle (calibration data downloaded by vehicle end from the calibration database – see at least ¶ [0065]), and
the vehicle is configured to perform calibration of the ranging based on the correction value that is received (vehicle end and digital key end may perform calibration based on the calibration data downloaded from the calibration database – see at least ¶ [0065]).
Regarding claim 5, Han further teaches:
wherein the vehicle is configured to perform ranging through communication with the mobile information terminal by Bluetooth Low Energy (digital key uses a mobile phone for positioning via Bluetooth – see at least ¶ [0003], [0065]), and the processing circuit is configured to execute transmitting of a correction value regarding the communication by the Bluetooth Low Energy, as the correction value (vehicle end may determine whether the digital key end is outside or inside the vehicle, as well as a distance between the digital key end and the vehicle end, based on an RSSI value of the current digital key end and the calibration data – see at least ¶ [0065]).
Regarding claim 6, Han further teaches:
wherein the vehicle is configured to perform ranging through communication with the mobile information terminal by ultra wideband (data communication via ultra wideband to determine position of the digital key end by the vehicle end – see at least ¶ [0065]), and the processing circuit is configured to execute transmitting of a correction value regarding the communication by the ultra wide band, as the correction value (vehicle end may determine whether the digital key end is outside or inside the vehicle, as well as a distance between the digital key end and the vehicle end, based on an RSSI value of the current digital key end and the calibration data – see at least ¶ [0065]).
Regarding claim 7, Han further teaches:
wherein the processing circuit is configured to, when pairing between an owner terminal that is the mobile information terminal owned by an owner of the vehicle and the vehicle is completed (calibration database end may verify identify information of the vehicle end and the digital key end – see at least ¶ [0044]) and an owner key that is the digital key for the owner of the vehicle is generated and enabled in the owner terminal (user starts a smart key program on the digital key end – see at least ¶ [0043]), execute transmitting of the correction value regarding the owner terminal to the vehicle (after successful identity verification, the vehicle end and digital key end may send the current label to the database and the database may determine calibration data – see at least ¶ [0044]-[0056]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AARON L TROOST whose telephone number is (571)270-5779. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:30am-4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anne Antonucci can be reached at 313-446-6519. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AARON L TROOST/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3666
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