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 the Claims
The Office Action is in response to the application filed 09/25/2026. Claims 1-20 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, see pages 6-11, filed 09/25/2026, regarding the rejection of claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al. US 20210387530 A1 (“Oh”) in combination with Nakadori US 20170015321 A1 (“Nakadori”) have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues that Oh does not teach the “automatic drive control” in claim 1, and that Oh’s “automatic gear shift” is not an automatic drive control. However, the claims do not specify how an automatic gear shift is different from an automatic drive control. The shifting of the gears is a form of drive control, and there is no reason, in light of the broadest reasonable interpretation, to believe that Oh’s disclosure does not read on an “automatic drive control”. Second, applicant argues that Oh’s “automatic gear shift” merely refers to the automatic selection of a virtual gear stage as an alternative to a manual gear shift mode, and that Oh says nothing about a vehicle autonomously regulating its own speed or its distance to a preceding vehicle. However, Oh expressly states that the control method according to the present disclosure may include a virtual gear shift method for generating and realizing the virtual sensation of gear shifting that simulates the multi-speed gear shifting of a conventional multi-speed transmission vehicle through control or operation of the motor during vehicle driving [paragraph 44], which means that Oh is referring to a an automatic gear shift that controls the speed of the vehicle. Applicant then argues on page 8 that Oh does not control the transmission ratio of an actual continuously variable transmission, on the grounds that the purpose of Oh’s control strategy is to artificially simulate gear-shift shock and shifting feel for driver engagement, despite the absence of an actual multi-speed transmission. However, none of the applicant’s arguments regarding the purpose of Oh explain how the disclosure of Oh differs from the claim language of the current application. The details included in the applicant’s arguments at the bottom of page 8 all refer to details that are not claimed, and so they do not have any patentable weight. As for the combination with Nakadori, applicant’s argument that a rational reason for combining the cited references is not persuasive because a reason was previously provided in the prior office action. Specifically, continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art. This would have been obvious to try, as there are a finite number of types of transmissions available and there would have been a high predictability of success. For these reasons, the rejection is upheld.
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) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al. US 20210387530 A1 (“Oh”) in combination with Nakadori US 20170015321 A1 (“Nakadori”).
Regarding Claim 1. Oh teaches a vehicle comprising:
a driving unit (The drive device (motor at 41 of FIG. 1));
a transmission configured to change a rotational output speed of the driving unit (A transmission, wherein the transmission may be one of an automatic transmission (AT), a dual clutch transmission (DCT), or an automated manual transmission (AMT) [paragraph 43]); and
a controller configured to:
control the driving unit based on a set automatic drive control (An automatic gear shift is automatically performed according to a preset gear shifting schedule is operated [paragraph 79]), and
control the transmission according to a virtual gear-shift control based on a state of the driving unit during the set automatic drive control (The driving information used to generate the basic torque command in a torque command generator 21 may further include a vehicle speed as vehicle status information [paragraph 55]).
Oh does not teach:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission.
However, Nakadori teaches:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission (An automatic transmission, which can be a continuously variable transmission [paragraph 2]. This transmission is shown at 19 of FIG. 1 and can control the rotational output power of the internal combustion engine [paragraph 56]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with the transmission is a continuously variable transmission as taught by Nakadori because continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art. This would have been obvious to try, as there are a finite number of types of transmissions available and there would have been a high predictability of success.
Regarding Claim 2. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 1.
Oh also teaches:
wherein the state of the driving unit includes a revolution per minute (RPM) state of the driving unit (the vehicle status information may include a motor speed detected by the motor speed detector [paragraph 55], and that motor speed is measured in RPM [paragraph 123]).
Regarding Claim 3. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 2.
Oh also teaches:
wherein the RPM state includes a state in which an RPM variation greater than or equal to a preset value occurs at least a preset number of times (paragraph 23).
Regarding Claim 4. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 1.
Oh does not teach:
wherein the controller is further configured to determine that a preceding vehicle is present within a preset distance, and to start the virtual gear-shift control.
However, Nakadori teaches:
wherein the controller is further configured to determine that a preceding vehicle is present within a preset distance, and to start the virtual gear-shift control (Paragraph 82 describes how a preceding vehicle detection part detects a preceding vehicle speed of a preceding vehicle located ahead of the vehicle 10 that is an own vehicle and inter-vehicular distance which is distance between and the preceding vehicle the above-mentioned vehicle (own vehicle). In FIG. 6, and paragraph 173, this impacts the gear-shift control, possibly preventing the vehicle from shifting gears).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with wherein the controller is further configured to determine that a preceding vehicle is present within a preset distance, and to start the virtual gear-shift control as taught by Nakadori so as to allow the vehicle to maintain a safe distance from another vehicle in front of the system’s vehicle.
Regarding Claim 5. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 1.
Oh also teaches:
wherein the controller is further configured to start the virtual gear-shift control based on a follow-up state indicative of a degree of correspondence between a current vehicle speed and a target vehicle speed of the vehicle (Paragraph 9 describes the process of gear shifting from a virtual current gear shift stage and the determined virtual target gear shift stage and selecting a virtual gear shift intervention torque profile corresponding to the determined current gear shift class from among the virtual gear shift intervention torque profiles for each preset gear shift class [paragraph 9]. Additionally, there is a vehicle speed detector configured to detect a current driving vehicle speed may be further included, and the vehicle speed detector may be configured to include a wheel speed sensor installed in a driving wheel of a vehicle [paragraph 55]. When it is assumed that a virtual transmission and a virtual engine exist in a vehicle, the “input speed” refers to the virtual engine speed that becomes the input speed of the virtual transmission. Accordingly, the “target input speed based on virtual target gearshift stage” refers to the virtual engine speed of virtual target gear shift stage, and the “target input speed based on virtual current gear shift stage” refers to the virtual engine speed of virtual current gear shift stage [paragraph 63], and paragraphs 62 and 82 describe in further detail how the gear-shift is further controlled based on the correspondence between a current vehicle speed and a target vehicle speed of the vehicle).
Regarding Claim 6. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 1.
Oh also teaches:
wherein the controller is configured to:
divide a transmission ratio of the transmission into a plurality of virtual gears, and
control the transmission based on the plurality of virtual gears (FIG. 14 shows an example of a long gear setting of a virtual final gear ratiorFg and FIG. 15 shows an example of a short gear setting thereof, wherein each gear shift schedule map, virtual engine speed, maximum motor torque curve according to motor speed, and limit torque for each virtual gear shift stage tqLmt are shown [paragraph 171]. In the case of the long gear setting, as shown in FIG. 14, it is necessary to simulate a rare gear shift due to an effect of ratio increase between gear shifts, and in the case of the short gear setting, as shown in FIG. 15, it is necessary to simulate a close gear shift [paragraph 172], which necessitates that the transmission ration is divided into a plurality of virtual gears, and the transmission is controlled based on the plurality of virtual gears. Paragraph 9 also describes the virtual gear shift).
Oh does not teach:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission.
However, Nakadori teaches:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission (An automatic transmission, which can be a continuously variable transmission [paragraph 2]. This transmission is shown at 19 of FIG. 1 and can control the rotational output power of the internal combustion engine [paragraph 56]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with the transmission is a continuously variable transmission as taught by Nakadori because continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art.
Regarding Claim 7. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 6.
Oh also teaches:
when controlling the transmission based on the plurality of virtual gears, the controller is configured to select a virtual gear among the plurality of virtual gears based on a current vehicle speed and a revolution per minute (RPM) of the driving unit (Paragraphs 62-63 explicitly describe controlling the transmission based on virtual gears, which can be based on the current vehicle speed [paragraph 9] and a revolution per minute of the driving unit [paragraphs 55 and 123]).
Oh does not teach:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission.
However, Nakadori teaches:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission (An automatic transmission, which can be a continuously variable transmission [paragraph 2]. This transmission is shown at 19 of FIG. 1 and can control the rotational output power of the internal combustion engine [paragraph 56]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with the transmission is a continuously variable transmission as taught by Nakadori because continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art.
Regarding Claim 8. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 6.
Oh also teaches:
wherein when controlling the transmission based on the plurality of virtual gears, the controller is configured to determine a virtual accelerator pedal sensor (APS) value based on a target torque, and perform a gear shift from a first virtual gear to a second virtual gear, among the plurality of virtual gears, based on the virtual APS value (In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the driving information detector 12 may include: an accelerator pedal detector configured to detect accelerator pedal input information according to a driver's accelerator pedal operation [paragraph 52]. In FIG. 4, the vertical axis represents an accelerator pedal input value (APS value) [paragraph 72], where the gear shift is shown to be related to motor speed. In FIG. 6, we see the inverse relationship between motor speed and torque, which implicitly means that the system can perform a gear shift for a target torque in the same way it can be applied to a target speed, among the plurality of virtual gears, based on the virtual APS value).
Oh does not teach:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission.
However, Nakadori teaches:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission (An automatic transmission, which can be a continuously variable transmission [paragraph 2]. This transmission is shown at 19 of FIG. 1 and can control the rotational output power of the internal combustion engine [paragraph 56]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with the transmission is a continuously variable transmission as taught by Nakadori because continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art.
Regarding Claim 9. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 8.
Oh also teaches:
wherein the gear shift among the plurality of virtual gears includes up-shifting or down- shifting according to the virtual APS value, a current vehicle speed, and a preset shift pattern (FIG. 5 is a view showing the gear shift schedule map that may be used for both upshifting and downshifting in the present disclosure [paragraph 75], according to the APS value along the vertical axis).
Regarding Claim 10. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the vehicle according to claim 1.
Oh does not teach:
wherein the automatic drive control includes a cruise control.
However, Nakadori teaches:
wherein the automatic drive control includes a cruise control (Paragraphs 53-54).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with wherein the automatic drive control includes a cruise control as taught by Nakadori so as to allow the system to work with a cruise control, which is common in the art, and would have been an obvious combination of known elements with a high probability of success.
Regarding Claim 11. Oh teaches a method of controlling a vehicle including a driving unit (The drive device (motor at 41 of FIG. 1)), a transmission configured to change a rotational output speed of the driving unit (A transmission, wherein the transmission may be one of an automatic transmission (AT), a dual clutch transmission (DCT), or an automated manual transmission (AMT) [paragraph 43]), and a controller configured to control the driving unit and the transmission, the method comprising:
controlling, by the controller, the driving unit based on a set automatic drive control (An automatic gear shift is automatically performed according to a preset gear shifting schedule is operated [paragraph 79]); and
controlling the transmission according to a virtual gear-shift control based on a state of the driving unit during the automatic drive control (The driving information used to generate the basic torque command in a torque command generator 21 may further include a vehicle speed as vehicle status information [paragraph 55]).
Oh does not teach:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission.
However, Nakadori teaches:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission (An automatic transmission, which can be a continuously variable transmission [paragraph 2]. This transmission is shown at 19 of FIG. 1 and can control the rotational output power of the internal combustion engine [paragraph 56]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with the transmission is a continuously variable transmission as taught by Nakadori because continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art. This would have been obvious to try, as there are a finite number of types of transmissions available and there would have been a high predictability of success.
Regarding Claim 12. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 11.
Oh also teaches:
wherein the state of the driving unit includes a revolution per minute (RPM) state of the driving unit (the vehicle status information may include a motor speed detected by the motor speed detector [paragraph 55], and that motor speed is measured in RPM [paragraph 123]).
Regarding Claim 13. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 12.
Oh also teaches:
wherein the RPM state includes a state in which an RPM variation greater than or equal to a preset value occurs at least a preset number of times (paragraph 23).
Regarding Claim 14. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 11.
Oh does not teach:
wherein controlling the continuously variable transmission according to the virtual gear- shift control includes: determining that a vehicle traveling in front of the vehicle exists within a preset distance, and starting the virtual gear-shift control.
However, Nakadori teaches:
wherein controlling the continuously variable transmission according to the virtual gear- shift control includes: determining that a vehicle traveling in front of the vehicle exists within a preset distance, and starting the virtual gear-shift control (Paragraph 82 describes how a preceding vehicle detection part detects a preceding vehicle speed of a preceding vehicle located ahead of the vehicle 10 that is an own vehicle and inter-vehicular distance which is distance between and the preceding vehicle the above-mentioned vehicle (own vehicle). In FIG. 6, and paragraph 173, this impacts the gear-shift control, possibly preventing the vehicle from shifting gears).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with wherein controlling the continuously variable transmission according to the virtual gear- shift control includes: determining that a vehicle traveling in front of the vehicle exists within a preset distance, and starting the virtual gear-shift control as taught by Nakadori so as to allow the vehicle to maintain a safe distance from another vehicle in front of the system’s vehicle.
Regarding Claim 15. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 11.
Oh also teaches:
wherein controlling the transmission according to the virtual gear- shift control includes starting the virtual gear-shift control based on a follow-up state indicative of a degree of correspondence between a current vehicle speed and a target vehicle speed (Paragraph 9 describes the process of gear shifting from a virtual current gear shift stage and the determined virtual target gear shift stage and selecting a virtual gear shift intervention torque profile corresponding to the determined current gear shift class from among the virtual gear shift intervention torque profiles for each preset gear shift class [paragraph 9]. Additionally, there is a vehicle speed detector configured to detect a current driving vehicle speed may be further included, and the vehicle speed detector may be configured to include a wheel speed sensor installed in a driving wheel of a vehicle [paragraph 55]. When it is assumed that a virtual transmission and a virtual engine exist in a vehicle, the “input speed” refers to the virtual engine speed that becomes the input speed of the virtual transmission. Accordingly, the “target input speed based on virtual target gearshift stage” refers to the virtual engine speed of virtual target gear shift stage, and the “target input speed based on virtual current gear shift stage” refers to the virtual engine speed of virtual current gear shift stage [paragraph 63], and paragraphs 62 and 82 describe in further detail how the gear-shift is further controlled based on the correspondence between a current vehicle speed and a target vehicle speed of the vehicle).
Oh does not teach:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission.
However, Nakadori teaches:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission (An automatic transmission, which can be a continuously variable transmission [paragraph 2]. This transmission is shown at 19 of FIG. 1 and can control the rotational output power of the internal combustion engine [paragraph 56]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with the transmission is a continuously variable transmission as taught by Nakadori because continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art.
Regarding Claim 16. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 11.
Oh also teaches:
wherein the virtual gear-shift control includes:
dividing a transmission ratio of the transmission into a plurality of virtual gears, and controlling the continuously variable transmission based on the plurality of virtual gears (FIG. 14 shows an example of a long gear setting of a virtual final gear ratiorFg and FIG. 15 shows an example of a short gear setting thereof, wherein each gear shift schedule map, virtual engine speed, maximum motor torque curve according to motor speed, and limit torque for each virtual gear shift stage tqLmt are shown [paragraph 171]. In the case of the long gear setting, as shown in FIG. 14, it is necessary to simulate a rare gear shift due to an effect of ratio increase between gear shifts, and in the case of the short gear setting, as shown in FIG. 15, it is necessary to simulate a close gear shift [paragraph 172], which necessitates that the transmission ration is divided into a plurality of virtual gears, and the transmission is controlled based on the plurality of virtual gears. Paragraph 9 also describes the virtual gear shift).
Oh does not teach:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission.
However, Nakadori teaches:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission (An automatic transmission, which can be a continuously variable transmission [paragraph 2]. This transmission is shown at 19 of FIG. 1 and can control the rotational output power of the internal combustion engine [paragraph 56]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with the transmission is a continuously variable transmission as taught by Nakadori because continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art.
Regarding Claim 17. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 16.
Oh also teaches:
wherein controlling based on the plurality of virtual gears includes controlling the transmission according to a virtual gear selected among the plurality of virtual gears based on a current vehicle speed and a revolution per minute (RPM) of the driving unit (Paragraphs 62-63 explicitly describe controlling the transmission based on virtual gears, which can be based on the current vehicle speed [paragraph 9] and a revolution per minute of the driving unit [paragraphs 55 and 123]).
Oh does not teach:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission.
However, Nakadori teaches:
the transmission is a continuously variable transmission (An automatic transmission, which can be a continuously variable transmission [paragraph 2]. This transmission is shown at 19 of FIG. 1 and can control the rotational output power of the internal combustion engine [paragraph 56]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with the transmission is a continuously variable transmission as taught by Nakadori because continuously variable transmissions are common in the art, and adapting the system of Oh to work with a continuously variable transmission would provide the obvious benefit of allowing the system to work with another type of transmission well-known in the art.
Regarding Claim 18. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 16.
Oh also teaches:
wherein controlling based on the plurality of virtual gears further includes determining a virtual accelerator pedal sensor (APS) value based on a target torque, and shifting from a first virtual gear to a second virtual gear, among the plurality of virtual gears, based on the virtual APS value (In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the driving information detector 12 may include: an accelerator pedal detector configured to detect accelerator pedal input information according to a driver's accelerator pedal operation [paragraph 52]. In FIG. 4, the vertical axis represents an accelerator pedal input value (APS value) [paragraph 72], where the gear shift is shown to be related to motor speed. In FIG. 6, we see the inverse relationship between motor speed and torque, which implicitly means that the system can perform a gear shift for a target torque in the same way it can be applied to a target speed, among the plurality of virtual gears, based on the virtual APS value).
Regarding Claim 19. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 18.
Oh also teaches:
wherein shifting from the first virtual gear to the second virtual gear, among the plurality of virtual gears, includes up-shifting or down-shifting based on the virtual APS value, the current vehicle speed, and a preset shift pattern (FIG. 5 is a view showing the gear shift schedule map that may be used for both upshifting and downshifting in the present disclosure [paragraph 75], according to the APS value along the vertical axis).
Regarding Claim 20. Oh in combination with Nakadori teaches the method to claim 11.
Oh does not teach:
wherein the automatic drive control includes a cruise control.
However, Nakadori teaches:
wherein the automatic drive control includes a cruise control (Paragraphs 53-54).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the invention of Oh with wherein the automatic drive control includes a cruise control as taught by Nakadori so as to allow the system to work with a cruise control, which is common in the art, and would have been an obvious combination of known elements with a high probability of success.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 AARON G CAIN whose telephone number is (571)272-7009. The examiner can normally be reached Monday: 7:30am - 4:30pm EST to Friday 7:30pm - 4:30am.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wade Miles can be reached at (571) 270-7777. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AARON G CAIN/Examiner, Art Unit 3656
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