Detailed Action
1. This Office Action is responsive to the Amendment filed 06/11/2026. Claims 1-2 have been amended. Claim 3 has been cancelled. Claims 1, 2 and 4 are pending for examination. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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 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.
3. Claim(s) 1, 2 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KIM (US 2020/0029191 A1), in view of Laux et al. (US 7,207,044 B2), hereinafter “Laux”.
4. As to claim 1, KIM teaches a communication system [0291] comprising:
a communication device mounted on a vehicle;
a load balancer; and
a plurality of distribution systems, wherein
the communication device is configured to transmit a vehicle message indicating a connection request to the load balancer ([0301] and [0328]: the vehicle transmits set information through the base station to the connected MEC server; [0368], [0382] and [0409]: receives set information [including driving path information and data information about a type and a size of first data] of the vehicle and a request message for generating the server bridge from the vehicle),
the load balancer is configured to determine whether to transfer the vehicle message to one distribution system out of the plurality of distribution systems based on location information assigned to the vehicle message ([0409]: sets as a server for receiving first data from the vehicle, determines an expected time for processing the first data based on the set information, generates the server bridge based on the set information, generates the server bridge based on the set information and the expected time; [0305]: The MEC server may determine whether the MEC server is a MEC server constituting the server bridge, via the link-server information; [0320]: The MEC server of the server bridge receives and processes data executed in the existing server bridge according to the performance. The performance of the MEC server may be determined on the basis of a hardware specification, and maybe determined on the basis of a processing speed performed at the single server and a distributed-processing speed at a plurality of servers), and
the one distribution system is configured to, when determination is made to transfer the vehicle message to the one distribution system, transmit a reply message to the vehicle message ([0011]: transmitting the result value of the first data processed through the server bridge to the vehicle; [0305]: If the MEC server is the DL server, constituting the server bridge, and the MEC server receives a data processing result, this may be transmitted to the vehicle) and store connection state information indicating that the vehicle is connected to the one distribution system ([0434]: the computer readable medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by the computer system is stored; [0325]: the existing data processing result may be stored in the cloud server),
each of the plurality of distribution systems is configured to store the distribution message directed to the vehicle ([0434]: the computer readable medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by the computer system is stored; [0325]: the existing data processing result may be stored in the cloud server),
the one distribution system connected to the vehicle based on the connection state information is configured to transmit the stored distribution message to the vehicle ([0011]: transmitting the result value of the first data processed through the server bridge to the vehicle; [0305]: If the MEC server is the DL server, constituting the server bridge, and the MEC server receives a data processing result, this may be transmitted to the vehicle), and
another distribution system from the plurality of distribution systems not connected to the vehicle is configured to discard the stored distribution message (in case of the driving path of the vehicle is changed, any servers constituting the network, that are NOT connected to the vehicle, can be set NOT to store the distribution message and/or discard the stored distribution message by one of ordinary skill in the art).
KIM does not explicitly discloses “wherein the load balancer determines the one distribution system based on a load of each of the plurality of distribution systems”.
In an analogous art, Laux discloses the use of a Load Balancer for Routing Messages, wherein the clients send request messages 430 over communication network 418 to the servers. En route, the request messages arrive at the load balancer 426, which distributes the request messages to individual servers on the server network. The load balancer comprises a balancer control unit 436 controls load determining unit 432 and a message distribution unit 434, which distributes the request messages from the plurality of clients to the plurality of servers dependent on the processing loads of said individual servers (Laux, col. 4, lines 18-50).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Laux, into the KIM’s to achieve the claimed invention to allow the distribution system to avoid servers from becoming overloaded with request messages, which could delay server response times, by providing an even load distribution among servers (Laux, col. 4, lines 57-60).
5. As to claim 2, KIM-Laux teaches the communication system according to claim 1, wherein: each of the plurality of the distribution systems is configured to transmit the distribution message to the vehicle via the load balancer (Laux, col. 4, lines 42-45: the load balancer comprises a load determining unit 432 for determining the server’s processing loads, a message distribution unit 434 for distributing received messages to the clients and servers) and (KIM, [0011]: transmitting the result value of the first data processed through the server bridge to the vehicle; [0305]: If the MEC server is the DL server, constituting the server bridge, and the MEC server receives a data processing result, this may be transmitted to the vehicle).
6. As to claim 4, KIM-Laux teaches the communication system according to claim 2, wherein a first distribution system out of the plurality of distribution systems is configured to transmit the distribution message to a second distribution system out of the plurality of distribution systems (KIM, [0010]: determining a server role of the second server, based on the server bridge; transmitting and receiving data to and from the second server, based on the server role; [0334-0336]: The first server receiving the first data processes the first data, according to the role of the UL server. The second data is the first data processing result may be transmitted through the first base station and the second base station to the second server that is a next server constituting the server bridge. The second server may process the received second data and the processing result may be transmitted to the next server constituting the server bridge, so that the server bridge may be operated and thereby distributed processing of the first data is possible).
Response to Arguments
7. Applicant’s arguments, see pages 4-5, filed 06/11/2026, with respect to claim 1 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The Rejections under 35 USC 101 of claim 1 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the Art Rejection of claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
8. 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.
9. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
FURUSAWA (2025/0106278 A1) discloses an information processing device for performing load balancing between a plurality of edge servers.
Vukovic et al. (US 12,703,397 B2) discloses a method including receipt of a marshaling request, the identification of a channel load threshold, the determination of whether a vehicle of one or more vehicles satisfies a distribution-related criterion, and the assignment of the vehicle to a road-side unit of a plurality of road-side units.
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUANG N NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-3886.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, KAMAL B. DIVECHA, can be reached at (571) 272-5863. The fax phone number for the organization is (571) 273-8300.
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/QUANG N NGUYEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2441
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