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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-6 are presented for examination.
Claims 1-6 are rejected.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims 1-4 in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “unit”.
A review of the specification shows that the following appears to be the corresponding structure described in the specification for the 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), sixth paragraph limitations: “As shown in FIG. 3, the vehicle 10 includes a sensor group 16, a navigation device 18, a control electronic control unit (ECU) 20, an electric power steering (EPS) system 22, and a communication unit 24. The vehicle 10 further includes a driving force control system 26 and a braking force control system 28. A calculation unit 52 is an example of a control device of the present invention…”, as disclosed in Pages 5-6 of the specification.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
Obviousness Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the claims at issue are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); and In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
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Claims 1-6 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-12 of US Patent No. 12,365,331 B2. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other, take an example of claims 1, 5-6 of the instant application and claims 1, 11-12 of the US Patent No. 12,365,331 B2 (Please see the Table below):
Claims of US Pat. No.: 12,365,331 B2 (hereinafter ‘331)
Claims of Pending Application No.: 19/253971
Reasoning
1. A control device comprising: an external environment recognition unit configured to acquire recognition data of an external environment of a moving body; a reception unit configured to receive selection of a parking position from a user of the moving body; and a control unit configured to execute automatic parking control for parking the moving body al the parking position based on the recognition data and the parking position and to register the parking position as a designated parking position, wherein the external environment recognition unit acquires first recognition data and second recognition data different from the first recognition data as the recognition data, and the control unit executes first registration of registering the designated parking position based on the first recognition data and executes second registration of registering the designated parking position based on the second recognition data, the control unit continues the second registration without executing automatic movement control when execution of the automatic movement control of the moving body is instructed from the user of the moving body during execution of the second registration in new registration of the designated parking position, and the control unit suspends the second registration and executes the automatic movement control when execution of the automatic movement control is instructed from the user of the moving body during execution of the second registration in update of the designated parking position.
11. A control method performed by a control device including an external environment recognition unit configured to acquire recognition data of an external environment of a moving body, a reception unit configured to receive selection of a parking position from a user of the moving body, and a control unit configured to execute automatic parking control for parking the moving body at the parking position based on the recognition data and the parking position and register the parking position as a designated parking position, the control method comprising: acquiring first recognition data and second recognition data different from the first recognition data as the recognition data, the step being performed by the external environment recognition unit, and executing first registration of registering the designated parking position based on the first recognition data and second registration of registering the designated parking position based on the second recognition data, the step being performed by the control unit, continuing the second registration without executing automatic movement control when execution of the automatic movement control of the moving body is instructed from the user of the moving body during execution of the second registration in new registration of the designated parking position, the step being performed by the control unit, and suspending the second registration and executing the automatic movement control when execution of the automatic movement control is instructed from the user of the moving body during execution of the second registration in update of the designated parking position, the step being performed by the control unit.
12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a control program for a control device including an external environment recognition unit configured to acquire recognition data of an external environment of a moving body, a reception unit configured to receive selection of a parking position from a user of the moving body, and a control unit configured to execute automatic parking control for parking the moving body at the parking position based on the recognition data and the parking position and register the parking position as a designated parking position, wherein the external environment recognition unit acquires first recognition data and second recognition data different from the first recognition data as the recognition data, the control program for causing the control unit to execute processing of: executing first registration of registering the designated parking position based on the first recognition data and second registration of registering the designated parking position based on the second recognition data, continuing the second registration without executing automatic movement control when execution of the automatic movement control of the moving body is instructed from the user of the moving body during execution of the second registration in new registration of the designated parking position, and suspending the second registration and executing the automatic movement control when execution of the automatic movement control is instructed from the user of the moving body during execution of the second registration in update of the designated parking position.
1. A control device comprising: an external environment recognition unit configured to acquire recognition data of an external environment of a moving body; a reception unit configured to receive selection of a parking position from a user of the moving body; and a control unit configured to execute automatic parking control for parking the moving body at the parking position based on the recognition data and the parking position and to register the parking position as a designated parking position, wherein the control unit executes registration of the designated parking position and executes an update of data of the designated parking position registered by the registration, the control unit continues the registration when execution of automatic movement control of the moving body is instructed from the user during execution of the registration, and the control unit suspends the update when execution of the automatic movement control is instructed from the user during execution of the update.
5. A control method performed by a control device including an external environment recognition unit configured to acquire recognition data of an external environment of a moving body, a reception unit configured to receive selection of a parking position from a user of the moving body, and a control unit configured to execute automatic parking control for parking the moving body at the parking position based on the recognition data and the parking position and register the parking position as a designated parking position, the control method comprising: executing registration of the designated parking position and executing an update of data of the designated parking position registered by the registration, the step being performed by the control unit, continuing the registration when execution of automatic movement control of the moving body is instructed from the user during execution of the registration, the step being performed by the control unit, and suspending the update when execution of the automatic movement control is instructed from the user during execution of the update, the step being performed by the control unit.
6. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a control program for a control device including an external environment recognition unit configured to acquire recognition data of an external environment of a moving body, a reception unit configured to receive selection of a parking position from a user of the moving body, and a control unit configured to execute automatic parking control for parking the moving body at the parking position based on the recognition data and the parking position and register the parking position as a designated parking position, wherein the control program for causing the control unit to execute processing of: executing registration of the designated parking position and executing an update of the designated parking position registered by the registration, continuing the registration when execution of automatic movement control of the moving body is instructed from the user during execution of the registration, and suspending the update when execution of the automatic movement control is instructed from the user during execution of the update.
Claims 1, 11-12 of ‘331 only differ from the instant application, in that the claims 1, 11-12 of ‘331 specify “continuing the second registration without executing automatic movement control when execution of the automatic movement control of the moving body is instructed from the user of the moving body during execution of the second registration in new registration of the designated parking position, the step being performed by the control unit, and suspending the second registration and executing the automatic movement control when execution of the automatic movement control is instructed from the user of the moving body during execution of the second registration in update of the designated parking position, the step being performed by the control unit.”. Nonetheless, the removal of said limitations from claims 1, 5-6 of the instant application made claims 1, 5-6 a broader version of claims 1, 11-12 of ‘331. Therefore, since omission of an element and its function in combination is an obvious expedient if the remaining elements perform the same function as before (In re Karlson (CCPA) 136 USPQ 184 (1963)), claims 1, 5-6 are not patentably distinct from claims 1, 11-12 of '331.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-6 will be allowed granted that all the pending issues are rendered moot.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Consider Claim 5:
Independent claim 5 recites the same claimed subject matter as the other independent claims 1, 6 do. Therefore, claim 5 will be used as a representative claim for the allowance.
The closest prior art, SUZUKI (US Pub. No.: 2021/0094536 A1) discloses “A parking assistance device includes: a situation information acquisition unit acquiring, when a vehicle is repeatedly parked at a parking target position, peripheral situation information; a storage control unit storing first situation information indicating the peripheral situation information and a movement route for the parking target position; an information updating unit updating, when new information is included in second situation information acquired when newly parking at the parking target position and a region specified by the new information does not interfere with a region where the movement route exists, the first situation information by the second situation information; a current position estimation unit estimating a current position by comparing the first and second situation information; and a guidance control unit guiding the vehicle to the parking target position according to the estimated current position and the movement route.”.
Feijoo et al. (US Pub. No.: 2020/0339195 A1) teaches “A method for automatically parking a vehicle in a parking slot involves manually driving the vehicle into the parking slot in a training step, and thereafter automatically driving the vehicle into the parking slot in a replay step. Automatically driving the vehicle into the parking slot involves detecting information of features of the environment of the vehicle corresponding to the driven trajectory, matching feature descriptors of the detected features of the environment with feature descriptors stored in the digital map, and re-localizing the vehicle against the trajectory stored in the digital map in order to navigate the vehicle along the stored trajectory into the parking slot. Automatically driving the vehicle into the parking slot is repeated multiple times, and involves deleting a feature descriptor stored in the digital map if the number of matches does not exceed a threshold after a predefined number of repetitions.”.
Matsunaga et al. (US Pub. No.: 2020/0242936 A1) teaches “When an automatic parking registration method is selected, a vehicle control ECU performs a pre-registration automatic parking control and stores a position determined based on a position of a vehicle at a time point at which the vehicle is set to a stop state by the pre-registration automatic parking control as a registered parking position in a non-volatile memory. When an execution condition of a post-registration automatic parking control is satisfied, the vehicle control ECU performs the post-registration automatic parking control after setting a target parking position to registered parking position which has been stored in the non-volatile memory.”.
However, the prior art fails to suggest, disclose or teach either in singularity or in combination the underlined limitations of “A control method performed by a control device including an external environment recognition unit configured to acquire recognition data of an external environment of a moving body, a reception unit configured to receive selection of a parking position from a user of the moving body, and a control unit configured to execute automatic parking control for parking the moving body at the parking position based on the recognition data and the parking position and register the parking position as a designated parking position, the control method comprising: executing registration of the designated parking position and executing an update of data of the designated parking position registered by the registration, the step being performed by the control unit, continuing the registration when execution of automatic movement control of the moving body is instructed from the user during execution of the registration, the step being performed by the control unit, and suspending the update when execution of the automatic movement control is instructed from the user during execution of the update, the step being performed by the control unit.” and in combination with other limitations of claim 5.
The claims 1, 6 are allowed as well based on the same rational as implemented above in the allowance of claim 5. The claims 2-4 are also allowed based on their dependency upon the independent claims 1, 5-6.
Therefore, when taken as a whole application, and incorporating all the respective limitations, none of the prior art discloses the features as claimed.
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 submission should be clearly labeled "Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Bettger et al. (US Pub. No.: 2023/0288932 A1) teaches “A method is provided for the automatic unparking of a motor vehicle, with which a parking trajectory is determined on the basis of directly collected data about the motor vehicle surroundings and additionally on the basis of data relating to the motor vehicle surroundings and obtained during the movement of the motor vehicle to the parking position and stored on a memory device of the motor vehicle. A motor vehicle and a system for carrying out the method will also be provided.”
Hayakawa (US Pub. No.: 2018/0308358 A1) teaches “A method of displaying parking assist information is used in a parking assist apparatus comprising a display and a control device. The control device specifies a parking space on the basis of a parking condition that is preliminarily defined, and displays the specified parking space in a predetermined display region defined on a display surface of the display. When the area of a region that is occupied by the parking space and displayed in the display region is less than a predetermined value, the control device displays a specific mark on the display. The mark indicates that the parking space that is not displayed in the display region exists.”
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/BABAR SARWAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667
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