DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claims 1-19 are presented for examination.
Priority
The Applicants’ claim for priority based upon Japanese Patent Application JP2022-159744 filed on October 3, 2022 is duly noted by the examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 31, 2025 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claim 17 recites:
acquiring observation information obtained by observation by the autonomous traveling device that searches for the traveling area where a hazard is estimated to occur (human activity of observing an environment);
outputting the evacuation information according to the observation information (human activity of communicating directions for travel)
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because there is no particular machine, particular transformation and no meaningful limitations that would amount to significantly more. The claims do not include additional elements.
MPEP 2106.05(e) states that the claim should add meaningful limitations beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment to transform the judicial exception into patent-eligible subject matter. MPEP 2106.05(h) states that limitations that amount to merely indicating a field of use or technological environment in which to apply a judicial exception do not amount to significantly more than the exception itself, and cannot integrate a judicial exception into a practical application.
The outputting step recite an abstract idea.
The acquiring step recites additional elements. However, the aforementioned steps are a mere insignificant extra solution activity that does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. The recited autonomous device merely applies an abstract idea "with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea". Thus, the limitations do not amount to significantly more as it is an application to generic computer components to which the idea is applied.
Dependent claims 18 and 19 recite further human activity and hence do not add any particular machine, particular transformation or meaningful limitations that would amount to significantly more and therefore they are rejected as well.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-16 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The most similar art of record, Yusuke [Japanese Patent Application JP2018146474A] discloses a road information service system and navigation system where a travel history obtaining unit obtains a travel history of the vehicle and a travel history acquisition unit that specifies a first road that is a trafficable road that surrounds the disaster related facility based on the travel history (paragraph 0005). The second most similar art of record, Kislovskiy et al. [U.S. Patent Publication 2018/0340790] discloses a routing for human drivers where a new risk regressor to aggregate fractional risk quantities across routes to determine an aggregate risk value for a particular trip (paragraph 0056). However, no art of record discloses observation information obtained by observation by the autonomous traveling device that searches for the traveling area where a hazard is estimated to occur.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent Publication 2021/0089040 to Ebrahimi Afrouzi et al. discloses an obstacle recognition method for autonomous robots.
U.S. Patent 11,274,929 to Afrouzi et al. discloses a method for constructing a map while performing work.
U.S. Patent Publication 2018/0342033 to Kislovskiy et al. discloses a trip classification system for on-demand transportation services.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAMESHANAND MAHASE whose telephone number is (571) 270-7223. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday- Friday 8:00AM - 5:00PM. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta Goins can be reached on 571-272-2957. 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.
/PAMESHANAND MAHASE/Examiner, Art Unit 2689
/DAVETTA W GOINS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2689
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