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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1, 3, 6-9, 10, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee (US 2022/0275677)
As to claim 1 Lee discloses a method for resetting a control unit controlling a tailgate movement of a tailgate, comprising:
registering a control error of the tailgate of a vehicle (Paragraph 155 “In detail, when the determination unit 107 determines that the tailgate is in a closed state, the error determination unit 108 may receive a motor rotation angle from the motor controller 109 by using controller area network (CAN) communication and may compare the received motor rotation angle with an initial motor rotation angle to determine whether an error occurs in the determination result (a result where the open/close status of the tailgate is determined to be a closed state) of the determination unit 107.”);
simultaneously generating and receiving at least two control signals by the control unit (Paragraph 108 “Referring to FIG. 7, first, in step S710, a process of obtaining temporally continuous rear camera images may be performed. For example, while the tailgate 50 is being opened, a rear camera (FIGS. 3A, 4A, and 5A) equipped in the tailgate of a vehicle may photograph a user disposed in front of the tailgate 50, and thus, rear camera images 11 may be obtained by frame units.”);
wherein based on the simultaneously received control signals at least one value stored in the control unit is deleted and/or reset to an initial value (Paragraph 118 “Subsequently, in step S750, a process of detecting a target opening angle of the tailgate corresponding to the estimated height of the user may be performed. In an embodiment, the process of detecting the target opening angle may be a process of detecting an opening angle, mapped to the estimated height of the user among a plurality of pre-learned opening angles, as the target opening angle with reference to a lookup table which stores the plurality of pre-learned opening angles.”).
As to claim 3 Lee discloses a method wherein the at least two control signals are generated by an input in an infotainment system of the vehicle, wherein the control signals are generated in the form of CAN signals and transmitted to the control unit (Paragraph 121).
As to claim 6 Lee discloses a method wherein after deleting and/or resetting the at least one value, a learning process is initiated upon subsequent actuation of the tailgate (Paragraph 118).
As to claim 7 Lee discloses a method wherein at least one value for a travel speed of the tailgate and/or at least one value for an end stop of the tailgate and/or at least one value for obstacle detection is deleted and/or reset in the control unit (Paragraph 118).
As to claim 8 Lee discloses a control unit configured to carry out a method according to claim 1 (Paragraph 129).
As to claim 9 Lee discloses a vehicle comprising: a tailgate movable by at least one actuator, wherein the at least one actuator can be controlled by a control unit according to claim 8, wherein the control unit is connected to at least one sensor in a data-conducting manner and is configured to receive control signals (Paragraph 129).
As to claim 10 Lee discloses a method wherein the at least two control signals are generated by an input in an infotainment system of the vehicle, wherein the control signals are generated in the form of CAN signals and transmitted to the control unit (Paragraph 155).
As to claim 17 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 6.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 2,4-5, 11-16, 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee (US 2022/0275677) in view of Salter (US 2020/0256113)
As to claim 2 Salter teaches a method wherein the at least two control signals are generated by actuating at least two keys on the vehicle(Paragraph 25). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Lee to include the teachings of generating at least two control signals for the purpose of operating the lift gate.
As to claim 4 discloses a method wherein the at least two control signals are generated by actuating two ground contacts(Paragraph 25).
As to claim 5 discloses a method wherein the at least one value stored in the control unit is deleted and/or reset to an initial value when the at least two control signals are received by the control unit for a predefined period of time (Paragraph 6).
As to claim 11 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 4.
As to claim 12 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 4.
As to claim 13 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 5.
As to claim 14 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 5.
As to claim 15 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 5.
As to claim 16 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 6.
As to claim 18 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 6.
As to claim 19 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 6.
As to claim 20 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 7.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IMRAN K MUSTAFA whose telephone number is (571)270-1471. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9-5.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, James J Lee can be reached at 571-270-5965. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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IMRAN K. MUSTAFA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3668
/IMRAN K MUSTAFA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3668
7/11/2026
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