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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 8/14/25 has been entered.
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.
Claim 1 is 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 contains the phrase in line 4, “setting a previous tentative state, a previous model vehicle state, and a tentative state equal to neutral;” does not make grammatical sense as these are state variables and putting a variable into “neutral” is not a state variables are in.
Claim 1 contains the phrase in line 8, “setting a sample time, a brake, a previous first electric motor voltage, and a previous second electric motor voltage equal to zero;” This is indefinite because these values are not described and for example, “setting a previous first motor voltage and a previous second motor voltage” does not make sense as this does not disclose if this is setting a variable to zero or if they are setting a voltage in the motor to zero.
Claim 1 contains the phrase in line 10, “setting an actuator marker equal to off” which is indefinite because setting a marker to off does not describe what is actually being set to off.
Claim 1 contains the phrase in line 11, “setting ALow, BLow, ALow BFall, ALow BRise, BLow AFall, and BLow ARise equal to zero;”. None of these variables are defined. These variables are further present in pg. 3, lines 4-7, line 9, line 11, line 14, line 17, line 20, pg. 4, lines 6-7, and lines 10-1.
Claim 1 contains the phrase in line 13, “measuring raw variables” what raw variable are being measured and by what? This renders this part indefinite.
Claim 1 contains the phrase in pg. 3, line 1 “determining the tentative state from the raw variables” does not make grammatical sense.
Claim 1 contains the phrase in pg. 3, line 5 “a Thresholdlow” is not defined.
Claim 1 contains the phrase in pg. 3, line 8 “incrementing the brake by one” does not make grammatical sense nor is it implied that brake is a variable.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lee (US 2016/0001670) - system and method for battery management
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES S LAUGHLIN whose telephone number is (571)270-7244. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday.
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, Eduardo Colon-Santana can be reached at (571) 272-2060. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/C.S.L./ Examiner, Art Unit 2846 /KAWING CHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2846
Prosecution Insights