DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information disclosure statement has been received and considered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1- is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shirai 8,776,958 in view of Park U.S. 2023/0145033.
Regarding claim 1 Shirai shows one of applicant’s prior brake designs with which they are well familiar.
Lacking in Shirai is a specific description of controlling the release of the parking brake based upon brake temperature.
Park shows a parking brake release method and states in paras 0008-0009:
[0008] The controller determines whether or not the electronic parking brake is normally releasable based on the temperature of the electronic parking brake when parking is released, and controls the electric motor to supply hydraulic pressure to the hydraulic cylinder via the ESC actuator and start parking release control when normal release is not possible.
[0009] The controller may estimate a change in an apply force of the electronic parking brake based on a temperature of the electronic parking brake upon a parking release and a temperature upon a parking apply, and may determine whether or not a normal release of the electronic parking brake is possible based on the estimated change in the apply force of the electronic parking brake.
One having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention would have found it obvious to have controlled the release of the parking brake of Shirai, based upon the temperature of the parking brake, as taught by Park since it is well known that the braking force changes with changes in temperature and may not require as much torque from the electric motor to release the brake.
Regarding claim 5 as readily apparent from the drawings these limitations are met.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER P SCHWARTZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7123. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 A.M.-7:00P.M..
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/CHRISTOPHER P SCHWARTZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3616
9/16/26
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