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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on April 22, 2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on April 22, 2026 was filed after the mailing date of the Notice of Allowance on April 6, 2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, and 4-11 are allowed.
Claims 14-20 are 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.
Prosecution on the merits of this application is reopened on claim 12 is considered unpatentable for the reasons indicated below: the indicated allowability of claim 12 is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference to Galasso (U.S. 2013/0144489). Rejections based on the newly cited reference(s) follow.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Galasso (U.S. 2013/0144489) as cited by applicant in IDS filed April 22, 2026.
Galasso discloses a system comprising: a sensor data receiver (65) configured to receive sensor data (acceleration) from one or more sensors (5), said sensor data is indicative of a terrain traversed by a vehicle; a sensor data evaluator (310) configured to: utilize an acceleration data from said received sensor data to determine a derivative of acceleration (see paragraph 0045), Jerk and identify a terrain type (bump or dip) being traversed by said vehicle to obtain an identified terrain type; and obtain a terrain appropriate set of operational values (rebound damping and compression settings) for at least one damping characteristic of a suspension (shock absorbers) of said vehicle based on said identified terrain type (bump or dip); and wherein said sensor data evaluator (310) is further configured to generate an adjustment command for said suspension (adjust damping for shock absorbers) based on said identified terrain type.
Conclusion
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/TOAN C TO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3614 June 6, 2026
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