CONTEST
Competed
$5,000
This contest is closed.
Yogesh Bansal
technologyPavansi A
technologykridha
technologyPARAG PARAG
legalBhaskar_K
technologyTakaaki Furuyama
technologyRamesh varadharaj
technologyJedd Carlo
technologyHoward Pasear
technologyDeepak kumar
technologyPaton Paton
technologyveronica
technologyRagupathy S P
technologyProblem
Update (Oct. 16, 2016): The priority date has been adjusted to August 9, 2011. However, 10 bonus points are given to those submissions with a priority date before January 1, 2005.
Patexia is looking for prior art relating to the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) which includes a transmission buffer and a transmitter to transmit signal burst wirelessly. The system has a control program and is capable of customizing the signal burst.
The transmission buffer stores the tire pressure monitoring data which will be transmitted via the transmitter. The signal burst includes multiple frames and each frame carries the tire pressure monitoring information.
The characteristics of the signal are adjustable to meet government standards, industry requirements, receiver requirements, periodicity requirements, and/or power requirements. This may include the total number of frames in the burst, the relative positioning of the frames within the burst, the number of frames in the burst from each of plurality of manufacturers, and the relative positioning of the frames within the burst wherein at least some of the frames are from different manufacturers.
The characteristics of the frames in the burst cannot be changed without the control program being entirely re-programmed and compilations of the control program that are associated with modifications to the burst pattern are made only by the manufacturer such that tampering with the burst pattern by unauthorized users is discouraged.
The method for transmission of the sensed tire pressure information is by executing a control program and not by using any codes that identify a protocol or format. The term code means a separate, portable entity, (e.g. a manufacturer’s code such as a UPC code).
In other words, since manufacturers’ codes are not used, there is no need to engage a special programming device to select these codes. The tire pressure monitoring devices described herein can be retrofitted into existing tires without the need to select manufacturer’s codes or engage a lengthy and expensive programming process.
Submitted documents describing this tire pressure sensor system must be:
- filed, published, or disclosing the functioning of a system that was in public use or on sale before August 9, 2011 (10 extra bonus points for submissions dated before January 1, 2005)
- not on the known references list
This contest is for a prior art search for US Patents 8,576,060 (‘060) and 8,742,914 (‘914), with a focus on claim 9 and claim 1, respectively.
Questions
| # | Question | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is the reference either a US patent filed, a foreign patent published, a non-patent document published or a description of a system that was in public use or on sale before August 9, 2011? | T/F |
| 2 | Does the reference describe a device for transmitting tire pressure signals which includes a transmission buffer and a transmitter? | 10 |
| 3 | Is the transmitter configured to transmit a signal which includes a burst with multiple frames and each of the frames includes the tire pressure monitoring information? | 10 |
| 4 | Is the signal burst customizable (e.g., by total number of frames in the burst, the relative positioning of the frames within the burst, or the number of frames in the burst from each of plurality of manufacturers)? | 20 |
| 5 | Does the control program need to be entirely re-programmed in order to change the characteristics of the frames in the burst? | 20 |
| 6 | Are compilations of the control program that are associated with modifications to the burst pattern made only by the manufacturer such that tampering with the burst pattern by unauthorized users is discouraged? | 20 |
| 7 | Is the transmission based on a plurality of communication formats so the burst pattern incorporated in the control program not be associated with the manufacturer's code? | 20 |
| 8 | Is the reference either a US patent filed, a foreign patent published, a non-patent document published or a description of a system that was in public use or on sale before January 1, 2005? (Bonus Question) | 10 |
Additional Notes
Prior Art Search
This is a Prior Art Search contest aimed at determining if a patent idea was known and publicly available before a patent was filed.
+5 bonus points will be awarded for non-patent literature and for foreign language references.
This contest will close on Sunday, October 23rd, 2016 at 11:59 PM PT.
Please review the Contest Rules. For more information on how to submit to this Contest type, please read the Intro to Prior Art Search page.
