DETAILED ACTION
This application has been examined. Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 .
Making Final
Applicant's arguments filed 5/27/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of the new grounds for rejection.
The claim amendments regarding -- ‘based on the vehicle signals catalog, builds a vehicle signals filesystem tree in the memory whose leaf-nodes do not correspond to files and instead correspond to vehicle signals’ -- and -- ‘wherein the request identifies the vehicle signal using a full path filename associated with one of the leaf-nodes of the vehicle signals filesystem tree corresponding to the vehicle signal’ -- clearly change the literal scope of the independent and dependent claims and/or the range of equivalents for such claims. The said amendments alter the scope of the claims but do not overcome the disclosure by the prior art as shown below.
The Examiner is presenting new grounds for rejection as necessitated by the claim amendments and is thus making this action FINAL.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 5/27/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of the new grounds for rejection.
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 1)‘based on the vehicle signals catalog, builds a vehicle signals filesystem tree in the memory whose leaf-nodes do not correspond to files and instead correspond to vehicle signals’ (Ramnani-Paragraph 55, vehicle model configuration having a hierarchical tree structure that uses a vehicle signal catalog and enables a unified signal representation to be used) -- and -- ‘wherein the request identifies the vehicle signal using a full path filename (Quinn- Paragraph 19,The data directory may provide for topic access directly by name , Paragraph 85, At least one first file from a subdirectory or layer of the hierarchical data structure may be accessed, at operation 1004 in response to a request to access the data received by the autonomous vehicle service 102, 302 or reader 308.) associated with one of the leaf-nodes of the vehicle signals filesystem tree corresponding to the vehicle signal’ (Ramnani-Paragraph 57, a query 352 of vehicle model configuration 300 for “Drivetrain.Transmission.Speed” returns the relevant type of “sensor” for the signal “speed” 336 that is under “drivetrain” 332 and “transmission” 334.)
Priority
The effective date of the claims described in this application is December 20, 2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 5/27/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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) 1-3,6-15,18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramnani (USPGPUB 2025/0140040) further in view of Zhou (USPGPUB 2024/0217459) further in view of Quinn (USPGPUB 2020/0192872)
Regarding Claim 1
Ramnani Figure 2,Paragraph 26-27 disclosed wherein vehicle data extraction service de-couples a vehicle model configuration from an in-vehicle communication signal configuration specific to individual vehicles. De-coupling the vehicle model configuration from the in-vehicle communication signal configuration specific to individual vehicles furthermore allows different users to work on different parts of the model independently and allows unified signal representations to be used across a heterogenous fleet of vehicle models.
Ramnani disclosed (re. Claim 1) an in-vehicle electronic unit comprising a communication service layer, (Ramnani-Paragraph 35, the decoder rules may be applied not in the vehicle information extraction service 102, but rather in the in-vehicle computing device 150 of the vehicle (or other vehicle edge device) to send a decoded signal to the vehicle information extraction service 102) comprising: a processor; a memory, wherein a non-transitory portion of the memory stores a vehicle signals catalog that defines vehicle signals as full path filenames,(Ramnani-Paragraph 36, There may be one unique path per signal of the signal catalog) wherein each full path filename comprises one or more encompassing directory names and a filename identifying a vehicle signal; (Ramnani-Paragraph 36, the data collection scheme controller 108 may manage a signal catalog. A signal catalog may contain signal attributes that are used by the OEMs across multiple models of their vehicles or sensors)
an application stored in the non-transitory portion of the memory that, when executed by the processor, processes at least one vehicle signal; (Ramnani-Paragraph 41, Vehicle scheme packages 146 may be used by a software application 152 executing on the in-vehicle computing device 150 to determine the conditions controlling the vehicle 142 and sending its data.)
a communication service layer stored in the non-transitory portion of the memory that, when executed by the processor, reads the vehicle signals catalog from the non-transitory portion of the memory upon initialization of the communication service layer, (Ramnani-Paragraph 37, vehicle communication interface 180 configured to establish a secure connection with respective vehicles, such as vehicle 142, 143, 144 to send software package 146 and to receive extracted vehicle data 148.)
receives a request from the application to access a vehicle signal, (Ramnani-Paragraph 53, data collection scheme controller 108 may receive from the customer various data collection schemes or configurations that instruct vehicles what data to collect from the vehicle), obtains a first value of the vehicle signal, (Ramnani-Paragraph 54, extracted raw data engine 184 may use the vehicle model configuration to decode the raw extracted data ) maps the first value of the vehicle signal to a second value based on a definition of normalized values for the vehicle signal in the catalog, and returns the second value to the application.(Ramnani-Paragraph 54, extracted raw data engine 184 may use the vehicle model configuration to decode the raw extracted data to physical telemetry messages, which may be accessible to the customer using the service user interface 106.)
While Ramnani substantially disclosed the claimed invention Ramnani does not disclose (re. Claim 1) an operating system (OS) stored in the non-transitory portion of the memory that, when executed by the processor, manages access to the memory and manages access to the processor.
While Ramnani substantially disclosed the claimed invention Ramnani does not disclose (re. Claim 1) wherein the request identifies the vehicle signal using a full path filename associated with the vehicle signal.
Zhou Paragraph 60 disclosed wherein a platform is provided for development and application of domain controllers. In this way, domain controllers with different functions can be independently developed and implement different functions, to form a vehicle control system with complete functions.
Zhou disclosed (re. Claim 1) an operating system (OS) stored in the non-transitory portion of the memory that, when executed by the processor, manages access to the memory and manages access to the processor.(Zhou-Paragraph 67, operating system interface may be a portable operating system interface (POSIX).)
Ramnani and Zhou are analogous art because they present concepts and practices regarding vehicle data management. Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to combine Zhou into Ramnani. The motivation for the said combination would have been to enable domain controllers with different functions to be independently developed and implement different functions, to form a vehicle control system with complete functions.(Zhou-Paragraph 60)
While Ramnani-Zhou substantially disclosed the claimed invention Ramnani-Zhou does not disclose (re. Claim 1) wherein the request identifies the vehicle signal using a full path filename associated with the vehicle signal.
Quinn Paragraph 19 disclosed wherein a data directory may provide small, granular files that are easy to locate and access. The data directory may provide for topic access directly by name, thus providing an intuitive and efficient way to access the data on a very granular level.
Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 1) wherein the request identifies the vehicle signal using a full path filename associated with the vehicle signal.(Quinn- Paragraph 19,The data directory may provide for topic access directly by name , Paragraph 85, At least one first file from a subdirectory or layer of the hierarchical data structure may be accessed, at operation 1004 in response to a request to access the data received by the autonomous vehicle service 102, 302 or reader 308.)
Ramnani,Zhou and Quinn are analogous art because they present concepts and practices regarding vehicle data management. Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to combine Quinn into Ramnani-Zhou. The motivation for the said combination would have been to enable the ability to store robotic or vehicle data in separate trees or subdirectories, according to a unified data hierarchy and allow efficient local caching of certain files that are accessed more frequently than others. It may also be beneficial to store certain topics in separate trees to facilitate contemporaneous access to different data. Storing different files for different topics in different tress may be used to associate different permission schemes to different data.(Quinn-Paragraph 63)
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 1)‘based on the vehicle signals catalog, builds a vehicle signals filesystem tree in the memory whose leaf-nodes do not correspond to files and instead correspond to vehicle signals’ (Ramnani-Paragraph 55, vehicle model configuration having a hierarchical tree structure that uses a vehicle signal catalog and enables a unified signal representation to be used) -- and -- ‘wherein the request identifies the vehicle signal using a full path filename (Quinn- Paragraph 19,The data directory may provide for topic access directly by name , Paragraph 85, At least one first file from a subdirectory or layer of the hierarchical data structure may be accessed, at operation 1004 in response to a request to access the data received by the autonomous vehicle service 102, 302 or reader 308.) associated with one of the leaf-nodes of the vehicle signals filesystem tree corresponding to the vehicle signal’ (Ramnani-Paragraph 57, a query 352 of vehicle model configuration 300 for “Drivetrain.Transmission.Speed” returns the relevant type of “sensor” for the signal “speed” 336 that is under “drivetrain” 332 and “transmission” 334.)
Regarding Claim 2
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 2) wherein the communication service layer, before obtaining the first value of the vehicle signal, looks up an access privilege definition for the full path filename identified in the request in the vehicle signals catalog, (Ramnani-Paragraph 92, Vehicle information monitoring and extraction software application 152 may use these definitions and access credentials included in the binary files to access and decode messages sent over encoded vehicle communications bus 1108 ) compares an identity of the application with the access privilege definition, and determines, based on comparing the identity of the application with the access privilege definition, that the application has permission to access the vehicle signal. (Quinn-Paragraph 90, the request or account associated with the request may be associated with a first permission level. The service 302 and/or permissions manager 304, may determine whether the permission level associated with the request meets or exceeds a permission level associated with one or more of the files requested.)
Regarding Claim 3
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 3) wherein the vehicle signals catalog defines access privileges for directories in addition to filenames defining vehicle signals.(Ramnani-Paragraph 45, dictionary file/associated access credential file of customer 122a, and the dictionary file/associated access credential file of customer 122n may each be stored in a separate physical or logical container that has restricted access. For example, customer 122n may not able to view customer 122a's dictionary file and access credential file and vice-versa.)
Regarding Claim 6
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 6) wherein the communication service layer provides a POSIX interface and receives the request from the application via the POSIX interface and returns the second value to the application via the POSIX interface.( Zhou-Paragraph 67,operating system interface may be a portable operating system interface (POSIX).)
Regarding Claim 7
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 7) wherein the in-vehicle electronic unit is one of a telematics unit, an engine control unit, (Ramnani-Paragraph 26, vehicle speed information may be available in a vehicle model wherein the vehicle's engine control unit (ECU) ) a body control unit, an airbag control unit, a cabin air control unit, a highway situation awareness unit, or a navigation unit.
Regarding Claim 8
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 8) wherein the in-vehicle electronic unit is located in a passenger car,(Ramnani-Paragraph 36, a catalog may be generated for cars, a catalog for trucks, a catalog for motorcycles etc) a pickup truck, a sport utility vehicle (SUV), a mini-van, a delivery van, a delivery truck, a motorhome, a moving van, a moving truck, or a tractor for a semi-trailer.
Regarding Claim 9
Claim 9 (re. method) recites substantially similar limitations as Claims 1 and 6. Claim 9 is rejected on the same basis as Claims 1 and 6.
Regarding Claim 10
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 10) wherein the computer system is an electronics unit located in a motor vehicle. (Ramnani-Paragraph 35, the decoder rules may be applied not in the vehicle information extraction service 102, but rather in the in-vehicle computing device 150 of the vehicle (or other vehicle edge device) to send a decoded signal to the vehicle information extraction service 102)
Regarding Claim 11
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 11) wherein the computer system is a virtual execution platform.(Zhou-Figure 3, Paragraph 47, vehicle development platform )
Regarding Claim 12
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 12) determining an access definition for the vehicle signal by the communication service layer application based on the vehicle signals catalog; (Quinn-Paragraph 90, the request or account associated with the request may be associated with a first permission level. The service 302 and/or permissions manager 304, may determine whether the permission level associated with the request meets or exceeds a permission level associated with one or more of the files requested.)
determining by the communication service layer application that the second application has read access permission for the vehicle signal identified in the request based on the access definition for the vehicle signal and based on an identity of the second application, (Quinn-Paragraph 90, the request or account associated with the request may be associated with a first permission level. The service 302 and/or permissions manager 304, may determine whether the permission level associated with the request meets or exceeds a permission level associated with one or more of the files requested.)
wherein the full path filenames in the vehicle signals catalog are compatible with a POSIX directory structure and wherein the access definition of the vehicle signal is defined in the vehicle signals catalog using POSIX filename access permissions. (Quinn-Paragraph 19,The data directory may provide for topic access directly by name , Paragraph 85, At least one first file from a subdirectory or layer of the hierarchical data structure may be accessed, at operation 1004 in response to a request to access the data received by the autonomous vehicle service 102, 302 or reader 308.)
Regarding Claim 13
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 13) wherein the vehicle signals catalog comprises metadata associated with the directory names and with the filenames. (Quinn-Paragraph 19,The data directory may provide for topic access directly by name , Paragraph 85, At least one first file from a subdirectory or layer of the hierarchical data structure may be accessed, at operation 1004 in response to a request to access the data received by the autonomous vehicle service 102, 302 or reader 308.)
Regarding Claim 14
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 14) wherein metadata associated with the directory names and the filenames of the vehicle signals are defined in a separate file in the memory of the computer system.(Ramnani-Paragraph 44, customer 122n may provide submission 120 comprising a separate component supplier dictionary file and data extraction criteria for vehicle information formatted according to the component supplier dictionary.)
Regarding Claim 15
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 15) a method of obtaining vehicle signal data by an application executing on a processor, comprising: reading a vehicle signals catalog by a communication service layer application that executes on a computer system, wherein the vehicle signals catalog defines vehicle signals as full path filenames, (Ramnani-Paragraph 36, There may be one unique path per signal of the signal catalog) wherein each full path filename comprises one or more encompassing directory names and a filename identifying a vehicle signal;
receiving a first request for a value of a vehicle signal by the communication service layer application from a second application executing on the computer system, wherein the first request identifies the vehicle signal as a full path filename; (Quinn-Paragraph 19,The data directory may provide for topic access directly by name , Paragraph 85, At least one first file from a subdirectory or layer of the hierarchical data structure may be accessed, at operation 1004 in response to a request to access the data received by the autonomous vehicle service 102, 302 or reader 308.)
in response to receiving the first request, determining a first access definition for the vehicle signal by the communication service layer application based on the vehicle signals catalog; (Quinn-Paragraph 90, the request or account associated with the request may be associated with a first permission level. The service 302 and/or permissions manager 304, may determine whether the permission level associated with the request meets or exceeds a permission level associated with one or more of the files requested.)
determining by the communication service layer application that the second application has read access permission for the vehicle signal identified in the first request based on the first access definition for the vehicle signal and based on an identity of the second application; (Quinn-Paragraph 90, the request or account associated with the request may be associated with a first permission level. The service 302 and/or permissions manager 304, may determine whether the permission level associated with the request meets or exceeds a permission level associated with one or more of the files requested.)
obtaining the value of the vehicle signal identified in the first request by the communication service layer application; returning the value of the vehicle signal identified in the first request to the second application; (Ramnani-Paragraph 54, extracted raw data engine 184 may use the vehicle model configuration to decode the raw extracted data to physical telemetry messages, which may be accessible to the customer using the service user interface 106.)
executing an access control list (ACL) command by the communication service layer application, (Quinn-Paragraph 90, the request or account associated with the request may be associated with a first permission level. The service 302 and/or permissions manager 304, may determine whether the permission level associated with the request meets or exceeds a permission level associated with one or more of the files requested.) wherein the ACL command replaces the first access definition for the vehicle signal with a second access definition in the vehicle signals catalog;( Quinn-Paragraph 45, permissions manager 304 may then associate permissions to the different groups of data based on who is likely to need to access that specific subset of the vehicle data 310, or to restrict access to one or more groups or accounts)
receiving a second request for a value of the vehicle signal by the communication service layer application from the second application, wherein the second request identifies the vehicle signal as a full path filename; in response to receiving the second request, determining the second access definition for the vehicle signal by the communication service layer application based on the vehicle signals catalog;
determining by the communication service layer application that the second application does not have read access permission for the vehicle signal identified in the second request based on the second access definition for the vehicle signal and based on the identity of the second application; (Quinn-Paragraph 90, the request or account associated with the request may be associated with a first permission level. The service 302 and/or permissions manager 304, may determine whether the permission level associated with the request meets or exceeds a permission level associated with one or more of the files requested.) and returning a rejection of the second request to the second application.
The Examiner notes wherein Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn does not disclose ‘returning a rejection of the read request”.
Official Notice (see MPEP 2144.03) is taken that at the time of the invention it would have been well-known in the networking art to respond to requests with an error or failure message when the authorization/permission level is not sufficient for the initiator of the request. In the context of the Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn since authorization/permission is required, it would have been obvious to issue a rejection message indicating that the read request does not have sufficient permission for the file being requested.
Regarding Claim 18
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 18) wherein the full path filenames in the vehicle signals catalog (Ramnani-Paragraph 36, There may be one unique path per signal of the signal catalog) are compatible with a POSIX directory structure (Quinn-Paragraph 30, hierarchical data structure, or directory, may be used by the service 102 to store and provide access to specific files by root, device, topic, and time ) and wherein the access definition of the vehicle signal is defined in the vehicle signals catalog using POSIX filename access permissions. (Quinn-Paragraph 90, the request or account associated with the request may be associated with a first permission level. The service 302 and/or permissions manager 304, may determine whether the permission level associated with the request meets or exceeds a permission level associated with one or more of the files requested.)
Regarding Claim 19
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 19) providing a data format type to the communication service layer application when it is initialized, wherein a data format of the value of the vehicle signal identified in the first request returned to the second application is defined by the data format type provided during initialization of the communication service layer application.(Ramnani-Paragraph 44, customers may provide a dictionary file describing proprietary protocols and encoding formats used to communicate vehicle information over a bus from components designed by the customer)
Regarding Claim 20
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 20) wherein the data format type is one of a binary data type,(Ramnani-Paragraph 40, raw extracted vehicle data may be binary resources containing data such as video frames, images, radar amplitude, temperature data, engine speed, and other information about the vehicle) a float data type, an ASCII data type, and an EBCIDIC data type.
Claim(s) 4-5,16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramnani (USPGPUB 2025/0140040) further in view of Zhou (USPGPUB 2024/0217459) further in view of Quinn (USPGPUB 2020/0192872)
Regarding Claim 4
While Ramnani substantially disclosed the claimed invention Ramnani does not disclose (re. Claim 4) wherein the OS is a QNX operating system.
Zhou disclosed (re. Claim 4) wherein the OS is a QNX operating system.(Zhou-Paragraph 57, a QNX operating system may be selected)
Ramnani and Zhou are analogous art because they present concepts and practices regarding vehicle data management. Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to combine Zhou into Ramnani. The motivation for the said combination would have been to enable vehicle data collection with different stability and real-time performance requirements (Zhou-Paragraph 57)
Regarding Claim 5
Ramnani-Zhou-Quinn disclosed (re. Claim 5) wherein the communication service layer executes an access control list (ACL) command to add a vehicle signal to the vehicle signals catalog.(Ramnani-Paragraph 36, customers 122a, 122n may create multiple signal catalogs. The multiple signal catalogs may encompass signal attributes that may be used to model different types of vehicles. A catalog may be generated for cars, a catalog for trucks, a catalog for motorcycles)
Regarding Claim 16
While Ramnani substantially disclosed the claimed invention Ramnani does not disclose (re. Claim 16) wherein the communication service layer application executes on top of a QNX operating system installed on the computer system.
Zhou disclosed (re. Claim 16) wherein the communication service layer application executes on top of a QNX operating system installed on the computer system. (Zhou-Figure 5, Figure 6,Paragraph 57, a QNX operating system may be selected)
Ramnani and Zhou are analogous art because they present concepts and practices regarding vehicle data management. Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to combine Zhou into Ramnani. The motivation for the said combination would have been to enable vehicle data collection with different stability and real-time performance requirements (Zhou-Paragraph 57)
Regarding Claim 17
While Ramnani substantially disclosed the claimed invention Ramnani does not disclose (re. Claim 17) wherein the communication service layer application obtains the value of the vehicle signal identified in the first request using a QNX resource manager application programming interface (API).
Zhou disclosed (re. Claim 17) wherein the communication service layer application obtains the value of the vehicle signal identified in the first request using a QNX resource manager application programming interface (API).(Zhou- Figure 5, Figure 6,Paragraph 57, a QNX operating system may be selected , Paragraph 61, operating system interface module is configured to process an upper-layer service and apply a function of invoking an operating system and a driver.)
Ramnani and Zhou are analogous art because they present concepts and practices regarding vehicle data management. Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to combine Zhou into Ramnani. The motivation for the said combination would have been to enable vehicle data collection with different stability and real-time performance requirements (Zhou-Paragraph 57)
Conclusion
Examiner’s Note: In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREG C BENGZON whose telephone number is (571)272-3944. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 8 AM - 4:30 PM.
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, John Follansbee can be reached on (571) 272-3964. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GREG C BENGZON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444
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