DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Drawings
3. Applicant’s Drawings submitted December 9, 2024 are acceptable.
Priority
4. No Priority has been asserted by Applicant.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 & 112
5. The 103 and 112 rejections from the previous Office Action are withdrawn pursuant to Applicant’s June 30, 2026 Amendment and REMARKS
6. A further pertinent reference of interest is noted on the attached PT)-892.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 & 112
7. 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.
8. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gyllehammar et al., US 2025/0002056.
Gyllehammar discloses, e.g. Figs. 1-4 and related text, a prediction system/method for a fleet, e.g. [0071], of autonomous vehicles, e.g. 100, comprising memory, e.g. 12, processor, e.g. 28,50, 3304, LIDAR sensor data, e.g. [0004], predict the behavior, e.g. [0051], of perceived events, e.g. hazard traffic situations. [0007, 0039, 0051, 0072], behavior probability, e.g. real time reaction [0012, 0054, 0056, 0064, 0072-0077, 0088, 0103], associated with the environment, e.g. [005, 0011, 0013, 0024, 0038-42, 0048-0056, 0071, 0087-89].
Gyllehammar does not disclose the term planning model nor a time period., nor crowdsourced.
However, a planning model associated with planning the trajectory of a vehicle over an environment, e.g. period of time (e.g. night time versus day time), along with
crowdsourced data has been common knowledge in the autonomous vehicle art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Official Notice of such is taken.
To have provided discrete a method/system containing these features for Gyllehammar would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, as to modify Gyllehammar to include these multiple discrete system/steps with a reasonable expectation of success as the motivation for doing such is to provide a workable vehicle management system/method to avoid collisions.
Regarding claim 6, the term emergency is a relative term that Gyllehammar is deemed to include with the parameters disclosed when vehicle, e.g. 1, follows its trajectory/path.
Regarding claim 7, the LIDAR sensors of Gyllehammar may inherently include images of light, as this is common knowledge in the application of LIDAR sensing.
To have provided each Official Notice cited above would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. To have provided discrete method/system for Gyllehammar would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, for to modify Gyllehammar to include multiple discrete steps with a reasonable expectation of success as the motivation for doing such is to provide a workable vehicle energy management.
Conclusion
9. 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.
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW JOSEPH RUDY whose telephone number is
571-272-6789. The examiner can generally be reached on Monday thru Friday from about 10am-6pm EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful the examiner’s supervisor, Fadey Jabr, can be reached on 571-272-1516. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Andrew Joseph Rudy/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3668
571-272-6789
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