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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “processor” and the “memory” recited in claim 1, and the “storage unit” recited in claims 2, 5, and 13 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Paragraph [0003], line 2, “an upper ECU” is suggested change to “an upper electronic control unit (ECU)” to define the meaning of ECU.
Appropriate correction is required.
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-14 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 (lines 18 and 25), claim 6 (lines 3 and 6-7), and claim 14 (lines 13 and 19-20), “the relay circuit” should be “the at least one relay circuit”.
Claims 2-5 and 7-13 depend either directly or indirectly from claim 1, therefore they are also objected.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION. —The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 (lines 17, 23, 25, 26, and 27), claim 2 (lines 5-6, 6, and 7-8), claim 3 (line 5), claim 5 (lines 3-4 and 5), claim 7 (lines 2 and 6), claim 8 (lines 2 and 6), claim 9 (lines 5-6 and 7), and claim 14 (lines 10-11, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21-22, and 23), the phrase “the lower control devices” lacks antecedent basis because the same phrase “a plurality of lower control devices” has been recited in both lines 6 and 15 of claim 1, and lines 4 and 8-9 of claim 14.
Claim 5 (line 2) and claim 13 (line 3), the phrase “a storage unit” recited in the claims is vague and indefinite because the same phase is already recited in line 2 of the precedent claim 2. Clarification is required to clarify the differences.
Claims 4, 6, and 10-12 depend either directly or indirectly from claim 1, therefore they are also rejected.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the objection(s) set forth in this Office action.
Claims 1-14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
TOKUNAGA et al. (US 2015/0112510 A1) relates to a vehicle-mounted network system including a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs) communicatively connected to a communication path of a vehicle-mounted network, each of which is configured to selectively perform a normal mode of operation and a sleep mode, and a management apparatus. The plurality of ECUs is configured to be individually powered on and off by a power supply relay of the management apparatus. The management apparatus is configured to acquire information indicative of a vehicle situation and determine a scene from the acquired information, determine control contents for powering on or off at least one specific ECU, of the plurality of ECUs, corresponding to the determined scene, if any, and power on or off the at least one specific ECU based on the determined control contents.
TILLMAN et al. (US 2020/0223376 A1) relates to a vehicle includes a controller powered by a controller power source independent from a vehicle power supply, programmed to responsive to detecting an in-vehicle network wakeup initiated by an electronic controller unit (ECU) requesting to communicate during a vehicle OFF state, record an ECU communication via the in-vehicle network; and responsive to detecting a vehicle ON state, send the recorded ECU communication to a server.
Tada et al. (US 2022/0179663 A1) relates to a network system including at least one transmission path and a plurality of terminal devices each connected to the transmission path. Each of the terminal devices includes a transceiver, a startup processing unit, and a switching unit. The transceiver is configured to operate either one of a first standby unit and a second standby unit according to a switching instruction. The switching unit is configured to output the switching instruction to the transceiver to operate the second standby unit when a transmission path empty period lasts for a predetermined preparation time or more after a non-designation period has lasted for a predetermined operation determination time or more.
Kwon et al. (US 2022/0340152 A1) relates to a vehicle and a method of controlling the same that are capable of detecting a faulty ECU that fails to be switched to a sleep mode and allowing the faulty ECU to be normally switched to the sleep mode through a rest of the faulty ECU. The method includes performing communication monitoring on a plurality of electronic control units (ECUs) connected to each other through a network; detecting a faulty ECU that does not enter a sleep mode under a sleep mode entry condition from among the plurality of ECUs based on a result of the communication monitoring; and performing a reset on the faulty ECU to allow the faulty ECU to enter the sleep mode.
Kwon et al. (US 2025/0289383 A1) relates to an apparatus and a method for detecting an abnormal ECU in a vehicle network are provided. The apparatus detects an abnormal ECU with high accuracy by storing status information of a vehicle and status information of the vehicle network, determining an activation maintenance time of the vehicle network based on status information of the vehicle and status information of the vehicle network, monitoring the vehicle network during the activation maintenance time of the vehicle network, and detecting an ECU that wakes up abnormally first in a plurality of ECUs as an abnormal ECU.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Young T. Tse whose telephone number is (571)272-3051. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10:30am-7pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh M Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Young T. Tse/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632
