Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/969,757

METHOD AND DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING OPENING AND CLOSING OF VEHICLE DOOR, VEHICLE, AND COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Dec 05, 2024
Priority
Sep 30, 2022 — CN 202211216842.1 +1 more
Examiner
HOQUE, FARHANA AKHTER
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
86%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
9m
Est. Remaining
97%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 86% — above average
86%
Career Allowance Rate
751 granted / 874 resolved
+25.9% vs TC avg
Moderate +11% lift
Without
With
+11.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 5m
Avg Prosecution
24 currently pending
Career history
892
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.0%
-38.0% vs TC avg
§103
70.1%
+30.1% vs TC avg
§102
24.0%
-16.0% vs TC avg
§112
1.9%
-38.1% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 874 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 . Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2, 3 and 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. With respect to claim 2, the prior art fails to teach in combination with the rest of the limitations in the claim: “acquiring a touch dwell time of the touch sliding operation on a first sensing point among the plurality of capacitive sensing points, wherein the first sensing point is a first capacitive sensing point arranged in a direction corresponding to an opening and closing direction of the vehicle door among the plurality of capacitive sensing points; acquiring a touch sliding speed of the touch sliding operation on two adjacent sensing points among the plurality of capacitive sensing points; acquiring a touch sliding time for the touch sliding operation to complete touching the plurality of capacitive sensing points; and determining the touch dwell time, the touch sliding speed and the touch sliding time as the trigger state information of the touch sliding operation for the plurality of capacitive sensing points.” With respect to claim 5, the prior art fails to teach in combination with the rest of the limitations in the claim: “acquiring a real-time opening and closing state of the vehicle door; controlling the vehicle door to be opened or closed according to the real-time opening and closing state and a corresponding relationship between the triggering sequence and the opening and closing direction of the vehicle door; or according to the real-time opening and closing state and the corresponding relationship between the triggering sequence and the opening and closing direction of the vehicle door, outputting a preset opening and closing instruction prompt of the vehicle door to control the vehicle door to be opened or closed based on a confirmation operation of the opening and closing instruction prompt of the vehicle door.” Claim 3 is objected to due to its dependency on claim 2. 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)(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, 4 and 6-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nishizuka et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2020/0340287 A1). With respect to claim 1, Nishizuka et al. discloses a method for controlling opening and closing of a vehicle door (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle), wherein the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door is applied to a vehicle equipped with a capacitive sensing area (capacitance sensors 20 mounted on a back cover 14 see Fig. 1), and the capacitive sensing area comprises a plurality of capacitive sensing points (para 0031, lines 1-5); the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door comprises: collecting a touch sliding operation performed by a vehicle user through the capacitive sensing area (capacitance sensors 20 mounted on a back cover 14 see Fig. 1); determining whether the touch sliding operation is an accidental touch operation according to trigger state information of the touch sliding operation on the plurality of capacitive sensing points (para 0035, lines 1-8); and in response to that the touch sliding operation is not the accidental touch operation, controlling opening or closing the vehicle door according to a triggering sequence of the touch sliding operation for the plurality of capacitive sensing points (para 0037, lines 1-11; capacitance sensors 20 shown in Fig. 1). With respect to claim 4, Nishizuka et al. discloses the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door according to claim 1, wherein a number of the plurality of capacitive sensing points is greater than or equal to three (para 0037, lines 1-14); the controlling opening or closing the vehicle door according to the triggering sequence of the touch sliding operation for the plurality of capacitive sensing points (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle) comprises: determining a triggering sequence of the touch sliding operation on at least three capacitive sensing points among the plurality of capacitive sensing points (see capacitive sensors 20 mounted on a back cover 14 shown in Fig. 1); and in response to that the triggering sequence corresponds to the opening direction of the vehicle door, controlling the vehicle door to be opened; or, in response to that the triggering sequence corresponds to the closing direction of the vehicle door, controlling the vehicle door to be closed (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle). With respect to claim 6, Nishizuka et al. discloses the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle) according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: collecting a password configuration operation of the vehicle door performed by a vehicle user through the capacitive sensing area (see capacitive sensors 20 mounted on a back cover 14 shown in Fig. 1); configuring the triggering sequence of the password configuration operation of the vehicle door for the plurality of capacitive sensing points as a control password of the vehicle door (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle); and in response to that the triggering sequence of the touch sliding operation collected by the capacitive sensing area for the plurality of capacitive sensing points is consistent with the control password of the vehicle door, controlling the vehicle door to be opened or closed (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle). With respect to claim 7, Nishizuka et al. discloses the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle is further provided with a protection electrode area (each of the electrostatic capacitance sensors 20 mainly includes a sensor electrode 21 and a control board 22 shown in Fig. 1), and the protection electrode area is provided at a peripheral position of the capacitive sensing area (para 0028, lines 1-7); the method further comprises: collecting a protection capacitance value around the capacitive sensing area through the protection electrode area (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle), and detecting whether the protection capacitance value exceeds a preset protection capacitance threshold (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle); and in response to that the protection capacitance value exceeds the protection capacitance threshold, shielding an induction signal collected by the capacitive sensing area (see capacitive sensors 20 mounted on a back cover 14 shown in Fig. 1). With respect to claim 8, Nishizuka et al. discloses a device for controlling opening and closing of a vehicle door (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle), wherein the device for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door is applied to a vehicle equipped with a capacitive sensing area (see capacitive sensors 20 mounted on a back cover 14 shown in Fig. 1), and the capacitive sensing area comprises a plurality of capacitive sensing points (para 0032, lines 1-11); the device for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door comprises: a collection module, configured for collecting a touch sliding operation performed by a vehicle user through the capacitive sensing area (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle); an accidental touch determination module, configured to determine whether the touch sliding operation is an accidental touch operation according to trigger state information of the touch sliding operation on the plurality of capacitive sensing points (para 0036, lines 1-11); and a control module, configured to control opening or closing of the vehicle door according to a triggering sequence of the touch sliding operation for the plurality of the capacitive sensing points in response to that the touch sliding operation is not the accidental touch operation (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle). With respect to claim 9, Nishizuka et al. discloses a vehicle, comprising: a memory (para 0047, lines 1-2); a processor (para 0032, lines 1-11); and a program stored in the memory for implementing a method for controlling opening and closing of a vehicle door (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle);wherein the memory is configured to store the program for implementing the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door(para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle); and the processor is configured to execute the program for implementing the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door, SO as to implement the steps of the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door according to claim 1 (para 0035, lines 1-9). With respect to claim 10, Nishizuka et al. discloses a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, wherein a program for implementing a method for controlling opening and closing of a vehicle door is stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium (para 0020, lines 1-10; the vehicle door opening/closing device 1 is a device that controls opening/closing of the sliding door 2 provided in a vehicle), and the program for implementing the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door is executed by a processor to implement the steps of the method for controlling opening and closing of the vehicle door according to claim 1 (para 0043, lines 1-8). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FARHANA AKHTER HOQUE whose telephone number is (571)270-7543. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 7:30am-4:00pm. 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, Eman A Alkafawi can be reached at 571-272-4448. 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. /FARHANA A HOQUE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Dec 05, 2024
Application Filed
Jun 26, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
86%
Grant Probability
97%
With Interview (+11.2%)
2y 5m (~9m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 874 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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