Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 19/088,282

VEHICLE APPLICATION ACTIVATION METHOD, VEHICLE-MOUNTED DEVICE, AND VEHICLE

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Mar 24, 2025
Priority
Sep 30, 2022 — CN 202211215678.2 +1 more
Examiner
SARKER, SANCHIT K
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
BYD Company Limited
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
78%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 4m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 78% — above average
78%
Career Allowance Rate
313 granted / 399 resolved
+18.4% vs TC avg
Strong +48% interview lift
Without
With
+47.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
18 currently pending
Career history
417
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.7%
-38.3% vs TC avg
§103
89.1%
+49.1% vs TC avg
§102
2.8%
-37.2% vs TC avg
§112
4.3%
-35.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 399 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . DETAILED ACTION This Office Action is in response to the application 19/088,282 filed on 03/24/2025. Claims 1-11 have been examined and are pending in this application. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 03/24/2025 and 07/28/2025, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Priority This application is a continuation application of PCT application No. PCT/CN2023/090772, filed on April 26, 2023, which claims priority to and benefits of Chinese Patent Application No. 202211215678.2, filed on September 30, 2022. Claim Objections Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: Regarding claim 11; claim 11 recites the limitation “A vehicle, comprising the vehicle-mounted device according to claim 10………”. It should read as “The vehicle-mounted device according to claim 10, further comprising…….…” Appropriate correction(s) is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 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 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 of this title, 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. Claims 1 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ma (CN 111199030) and in view of Ren (US 2024/0267840). Regarding claim 1, Ma discloses an in-vehicle application activation method (Ma abstract; This invention relates to the technical field of vehicle, it claims a vehicle, machine equipment and vehicle third-party application software automatic activation method. See also fig. 3), comprising: acquiring a virtual code, the virtual code being configured to identify vehicle (Ma page 2; lines 23-26 and page 4; lines 26-28; Retrieve the activation code saved in the activation type file; Compare the activation code with the identification code of the vehicle equipment; If the activation code matches the identification code, the third-party application software activation verification succeeds. In this embodiment, the step of retrieving the activation type file to verify the activation of the third-party application software may specifically include: retrieving the activation code saved in the activation type file; converting the activation code Compare with the identification code of the vehicle equipment. See also page 7; lines 1-10); and sending the virtual code to an in-vehicle application, to enable the in-vehicle application to perform an activation operation based on the virtual code (Ma page 4; lines 26-28 Step S105; If an activation type file of a preset type is read, the activation type file is called to perform activation verification on the third-party application software. See also page 5; lines 21-22). Ma discloses acquiring a virtual code, the virtual code being configured to identify vehicle (Ma page 2; lines 23-26 and page 4; lines 26-28). However, Ma does not explicitly disclose identify vehicle manufacturer information. However, in an analogous art, Ren discloses identify vehicle manufacturer information (Ren par. 0101 and 0104; Operator servers of different operators may store one or more pieces of APN information negotiated with a vehicle manufacturer. A user applies to the operator server for handling a service by using a smart device associated with a vehicle or an in-vehicle application running on the vehicle, and delivers target APN information to an in-vehicle terminal of the vehicle. For different operators, a vehicle manufacturer, as a vehicle service provider, may determine, by using a vehicle server through negotiation with each operator server that provides a network connection service for a vehicle, a vehicle identifier (for example, a vehicle identification number (Vehicle Identification Number, or vehicle identification number), referred to as a VIN for short), and one or more pieces of APN information corresponding to the vehicle identifier, and the operator server may store the one or more pieces of APN information determined through negotiation and the related vehicle identifier in association. See also par. 0142). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the identify vehicle manufacturer information of Ma using the identify vehicle manufacturer information taught in Ren in order to provide a network connection service for a vehicle, one or more pieces of APN information corresponding to a VIN of the vehicle (Ren par. 0170). Regarding claim 10; claim 10 is directed to a device associated with the method claimed in claim 1. Claim 10 is similar in scope to claim 1, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale. Regarding claim 11, Ma and Ren disclose a vehicle, comprising the vehicle-mounted device according to claim 10, Ren further discloses vehicle, comprising the vehicle-mounted device (Ren par. 0010; the first node is an in-vehicle terminal of a vehicle). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the identify vehicle manufacturer information of Ma using the identify vehicle manufacturer information taught in Ren in order to provide a network connection service for a vehicle, one or more pieces of APN information corresponding to a VIN of the vehicle (Ren par. 0170). Claims 2-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ma (CN 111199030) and in view of Ren (US 2024/0267840) and further in view of Ma (CN 111835505) hereinafter Ma505. Regarding claim 2, Ma and Ren disclose the in-vehicle application activation method according to claim 1, Ma and Ren failed to disclose but Ma505 discloses wherein the virtual code comprises an encrypted code and an activation verification code, the encrypted code is obtained by encrypting information other than the vehicle manufacturer information, and the activation verification code is configured to identify a name of a vehicle manufacturer (Ma505 Step S207; The generating process of the activation code is specifically described by specific example, firstly, the activation code format, using the encryption algorithm and so on to limit. the activation code is a character string composed of 16 bits of hexadecimal characters of 0-F. The encryption algorithm uses advanced encryption standard algorithm, and the mode is ECB. when the last bit of the PDSN is 0/2/4/8, using the character string generated after performing MD5 operation on the VIN as the key. See also abstract). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the activation verification code of Ma and Ren using the activation verification code taught in Ma505 in order to provide effectively improve the security of the activation code (Ma505 abstract). Regarding claim 3, Ma and Ren disclose the in-vehicle application activation method according to claim 1, Ma and Ren failed to disclose but Ma505 discloses wherein the acquiring a virtual code comprises: acquiring a vehicle identification number; performing an encryption operation on the vehicle identification number to obtain a first sequence code; and acquiring an activation verification code, and generating the virtual code based on the activation verification code and the first sequence code (Ma505 Step S207; The generating process of the activation code is specifically described by specific example, firstly, the activation code format, using the encryption algorithm and so on to limit. the activation code is a character string composed of 16 bits of hexadecimal characters of 0-F. The encryption algorithm uses advanced encryption standard algorithm, and the mode is ECB. when the last bit of the PDSN is 0/2/4/8, using the character string generated after performing MD5 operation on the VIN as the key. See also abstract). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the activation verification code of Ma and Ren using the activation verification code taught in Ma505 in order to provide effectively improve the security of the activation code (Ma505 abstract). Regarding claim 4, Ma, Ren and Ma505 disclose the in-vehicle application activation method according to claim 2, Ma505 further discloses wherein the acquiring a virtual code comprises: acquiring a vehicle identification number; acquiring a random code, and generating a second sequence code based on the random code and the vehicle identification number; performing an encryption operation on the second sequence code to obtain a third sequence code; and acquiring an activation verification code, and generating the virtual code based on the activation verification code and the third sequence code (Ma505 abstract, claim 5 and S207; The activation code generating method comprises: obtaining vehicle identification code of vehicle, product sequence number and International Mobile Subscriber Identity of the vehicle, the vehicle identification code of the vehicle, the product sequence number of the vehicle and the International Mobile Subscriber Identity combination, obtaining the target character string generated after permutation and combination; based on the target character string, generating the activation code according to the set activation code generation mode. The activation code generating method provided by the invention, device and computer storage medium, by binding the vehicle identification code of the vehicle, the product sequence number and the International Mobile Subscriber Identity of the vehicle to generate the corresponding activation code. wherein the step of arranging and combining the first activation code sub-string and the second activation code sub-string according to the arrangement combination sequence is as follows: generating an activation code, comprising: arranging and combining the first activation code sub-string according to the arrangement combination order, the second activation code sub-string and the third activation code sub-string are arranged and combined, generating an activation code, the third activation code sub-string is a random character string of the length of the third length value set. See also Step S207). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the activation verification code of Ma and Ren using the activation verification code taught in Ma505 in order to provide effectively improve the security of the activation code (Ma505 abstract). Regarding claim 5, Ma, Ren and Ma505 disclose the in-vehicle application activation method according to claim 4, Ma505 further discloses wherein the acquiring a random code comprises: determining a vehicle model; and generating the random code based on the vehicle model (Ma505 Step S101; Receiving an activation request instruction for activating the car machine; in response to the activation request instruction, obtaining the vehicle identification code of the vehicle, the product sequence number and International Mobile Subscriber Identity of the vehicle). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the activation verification code of Ma and Ren using the activation verification code taught in Ma505 in order to provide effectively improve the security of the activation code (Ma505 abstract). Regarding claim 6, Ma, Ren and Ma505 disclose the in-vehicle application activation method according to claim 2, Ren further discloses wherein the acquiring an activation verification code comprises: determining a vehicle manufacturer identifier, the vehicle manufacturer identifier indicating the vehicle manufacturer information; and determining the activation verification code based on the vehicle manufacturer identifier (Ren par. 0101 and 0104; Operator servers of different operators may store one or more pieces of APN information negotiated with a vehicle manufacturer. A user applies to the operator server for handling a service by using a smart device associated with a vehicle or an in-vehicle application running on the vehicle, and delivers target APN information to an in-vehicle terminal of the vehicle. For different operators, a vehicle manufacturer, as a vehicle service provider, may determine, by using a vehicle server through negotiation with each operator server that provides a network connection service for a vehicle, a vehicle identifier (for example, a vehicle identification number (Vehicle Identification Number, or vehicle identification number), referred to as a VIN for short), and one or more pieces of APN information corresponding to the vehicle identifier, and the operator server may store the one or more pieces of APN information determined through negotiation and the related vehicle identifier in association. See also par. 0142). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the identify vehicle manufacturer information of Ma using the identify vehicle manufacturer information taught in Ren in order to provide a network connection service for a vehicle, one or more pieces of APN information corresponding to a VIN of the vehicle (Ren par. 0170). Regarding claim 7, Ma, Ren and Ma505 disclose the in-vehicle application activation method according to claim 2, Ma and Ren failed to disclose but Ma505 discloses wherein the encryption operation is performed by using an MD5 encryption algorithm (Ma505 Step S207; The generating process of the activation code is specifically described by specific example, firstly, the activation code format, using the encryption algorithm and so on to limit. the activation code is a character string composed of 16 bits of hexadecimal characters of 0-F. The encryption algorithm uses advanced encryption standard algorithm, and the mode is ECB. when the last bit of the PDSN is 0/2/4/8, using the character string generated after performing MD5 operation on the VIN as the key. See also abstract). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the activation verification code of Ma and Ren using the activation verification code taught in Ma505 in order to provide effectively improve the security of the activation code (Ma505 abstract). Regarding claim 8, Ma, Ren and Ma505 disclose the in-vehicle application activation method according to claim 3, Ren further discloses wherein the acquiring a vehicle identification number comprises: receiving, in response to a sending request from a vehicle, the vehicle identification number sent by the vehicle, the sending request being generated by the vehicle each time the vehicle is powered on or reconnects to a network after disconnection and when the virtual code is not detected (Ren par. 0029; With reference to the second aspect, in an embodiment, the second node is an operator server that provides the service, and the method further includes: receiving a first request from a third node, where the first request is used to apply for the service for the first node; and in response to the first request, sending target activation code to the first node through the third node, where the target activation code is associated with the information about the operator and the target APN information). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the identify vehicle manufacturer information of Ma using the identify vehicle manufacturer information taught in Ren in order to provide a network connection service for a vehicle, one or more pieces of APN information corresponding to a VIN of the vehicle (Ren par. 0170). Regarding claim 9, Ma and Ren disclose the in-vehicle application activation method according to claim 1, Ma further discloses wherein the sending the virtual code to the in-vehicle application comprises: sending the virtual code to the in-vehicle application when the in-vehicle application is started for the first time (Ma page 8; last line; When the vehicle is turned on, the vehicle equipment starts). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SANCHIT K SARKER whose telephone number is (571)270-7907. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 AM-5:30 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, FARID HOMAYOUNMEHR can be reached at 571-272-3739. 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. /SANCHIT K SARKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2495
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Mar 24, 2025
Application Filed
Jun 17, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12675605
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A TRUST EVALUATION AND SHARING SYSTEM
1y 8m to grant Granted Jul 07, 2026
Patent 12657328
DATA QUERY METHODS, APPARATUSES, AND SYSTEMS FOR MULTI-PARTY SECURE DATABASE
2y 7m to grant Granted Jun 16, 2026
Patent 12641086
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REGISTRATION DATA RETRIEVAL
3y 9m to grant Granted May 26, 2026
Patent 12634137
DATE AND TIME TOKENIZATION WITH FORMAT PRESERVATION
2y 1m to grant Granted May 19, 2026
Patent 12634289
NETWORK RESOURCE PRIVACY NEGOTIATION SYSTEM AND METHOD
1y 7m to grant Granted May 19, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

Strategy Recommendation AI-generated — please review before filing

Get a prosecution strategy drawn from examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Typically takes 5-10 seconds — AI-generated, attorney review required before filing

Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
78%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+47.9%)
2y 8m (~1y 4m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 399 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month