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 . Claims 1-20 are pending and examined below. This action is in response to the claims filed 11/12/25.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s arguments, see Applicant Remarks 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) filed on 11/12/25, regarding 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) interpretations are persuasive in view of amendments filed 11/12/25. 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) interpretations are withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Applicant Remarks 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) filed on 11/12/25, regarding 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) rejections are moot in view of amendments filed 11/12/25. 35 U.S.C. § 112(f) rejections are withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Applicant Remarks 35 USC § 103. filed on 11/12/25, regarding 35 USC § 103 rejections are persuasive in view of amendments filed 11/12/25.
However, upon further consideration, new grounds of rejection are made in view of further citations to the art of record below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ikeda et al. (US 2016/0107534), in view of Hortop et al. (US 2019/0039467).
Regarding claims 1, 9, and 17, Ikeda discloses a power control system for charging and electric vehicle including a data processing system for an electric vehicle comprising (Abstract):
a controller configured to communicate with the location sensor to identify location of a vehicle and the battery sensor to determine state of charge information of a battery, the controller unit including (¶78, ¶122, and ¶455 – charge information detector corresponding to the recited battery sensor, GPS corresponding to the recited location sensor, and computer corresponding to the recited controller unit communicating with the sensors):
a processor (¶83); and
a memory configured to communicate with the processor, the memory located within the electric vehicle, and the memory configured to store computer-executable instructions configured to cause the processor to (Abstract and ¶165-166 - non-transitory computer readable recording medium stores a control program that controls the charging of a rechargeable battery on-board navigation device which stores routing and charge information corresponding to the recited memory located within the electric vehicle. ):
determine a target location (¶78 and ¶127 – location where power is supplied to the electric car corresponding to the recited target location, where the house is the exemplary target location);
receive the identified location of the vehicle (¶127 – current position of the vehicle);
receive the state of charge information (¶127-128 - information pertaining to a current remaining level of the on-board battery);
determine a charging request... based at least on the state of charge of the battery and an amount of energy for the vehicle to reach the determined target location based on the location of the vehicle (¶33 and ¶166 – determine a charging time and arrival at a destination corresponding to the recited charging request in response to the determined target location, the current location and the charge level is sent to the location where the power is supplied to the vehicle corresponding to the recited sending the request to the direct current charging device connectable to the vehicle where the charging information includes route information including the amount of power that is scheduled to be consumed by the on-board battery and charging timeframe to meet that power level corresponding to the recited an amount of energy for the vehicle to reach the determined target location based on the location of the vehicle); and
While Ikeda does disclose changing charging requests based on charge level and locational parameters, it does not explicitly disclose utilizing the a previously stored charge curve.
However, Hortop discloses an EV charging system including identify (i) a previously stored charge curve that is stored within the memory of the electric vehicle and configured for a battery of the electric vehicle (¶17, ¶20-21, ¶25-31, and ¶55 – predetermined functional form of charging scheme utilizing battery usage metrics including historic charge levels as a function of time corresponding to the recited previously stored charging curve over time including SOC, voltage, and current where all computer functionality of the remote monitoring/processing may be carried out at the computer system at the vehicle corresponding to the recited previously stored charge curve that is stored within the memory of the electric vehicle including associations with battery information for the vehicle) and
(ii) a minimized time to charge the battery, the previously stored charge curve to indicate predetermined relationships between one or more amounts of current and one or more state of charge values, and the predetermined relationships based on one or more characteristics of the battery (¶20-21, ¶25-31, and ¶55 – predetermined functional form of charging scheme utilizing battery usage metrics including historic charge levels as a function of time corresponding to the recited previously stored charging curve over time including SOC, voltage, and current and their historic battery usage/charging information corresponding to the recited predetermined relationships based on one or more characteristics of the battery where optimization prioritizing quickest return to maximum range utilizes maximum charging rates corresponding to the recited increased current to make vehicles prepared as quickly as possible for maximum-range use given that the maximum range for a vehicle);
alter, based at least on (a) the minimized time, (b) a location of an electric vehicle, and (c) road condition information, at least a portion of the previously stored charge curve to indicate an increase to a corresponding amount of current of the one or more amounts of current (¶20-21, ¶25-31, and ¶55 – predetermined functional form of charging scheme utilizing battery usage metrics including historic charge levels as a function of time corresponding to the recited previously stored charging curve over time including SOC, voltage, and current which is utilized to optimize the predetermined functional forms to make the charging scheme corresponding to the recited altered charge curve to minimize charging time taking into consideration the vehicle’s location where the previously stored data includes vehicle data such as significant jarring vibration or impacts (e.g., due to poor road conditions) corresponding to the recited road condition information);
send the charging request to a direct current charging device to charge the battery of the electric vehicle within the minimized time and in accordance with the increase to the corresponding amount of current (¶36, ¶55, and Fig. 2 – command to control the computer system 160 of the charging station corresponding to the recited sending the charging request to a direct current charging device to charge the battery based on the charging scheme which is optimized to prioritize quickest return to maximum range utilizes maximum charging rates corresponding to the recited increased current).
The combination of the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop fully discloses the elements as claimed.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date to have combined the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop in order to minimize charging times at high charging rates as well as account for environmental conditions (Hortop -- ¶30).
Regarding claims 2, 10, and 18, Ikeda further discloses continuously determine the charging request based on at least a distance between the location of the electric vehicle and the target location given the road condition information and the weather information, and the state of charge of the battery; and include information from the previously stored charge curve in the charge request (¶223 and ¶232-235 – adjusting the charge time corresponding to the recited altered the charge curve based on the target location, traffic information and weather information corresponding to the recited location information of the vehicle where the adjusted timing information is included in the charge request where the information is updated to be current information throughout the process corresponding to the recited continuously determine the charging request).
Ikeda does not explicitly disclose utilizing previously stored charging curves however Hortop further discloses previously stored charge curve (¶20-21, ¶25-31 – predetermined functional form of charging scheme utilizing battery usage metrics including historic charge levels as a function of time corresponding to the recited previously stored charging curve)
The combination of the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop fully discloses the elements as claimed.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date to have combined the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop in order to minimize charging times at high charging rates as well as account for environmental conditions (Hortop -- ¶30).
Regarding claims 3, 11, and 19, Ikeda further discloses increase a charging current value at a time interval of the previously stored charge curve (¶289-292 – when a large amount of power is required, the charging unit increases the current for the short period of time).
While Ikeda does disclose changing charging requests based on charge level and locational parameters, it does not explicitly disclose utilizing the a previously stored charge curve.
However, Hortop further discloses identify the previously stored charge curve that uses the state of charge of the battery; alter the previously stored charge curve based at least on a temperature of the battery and the state of charge of the battery (¶20-21, ¶25-31, and ¶55 – predetermined functional form of charging scheme utilizing battery usage metrics including historic charge levels as a function of time corresponding to the recited previously stored charging curve over time including SOC, voltage, and current which is utilized to optimize the predetermined functional forms to make the charging scheme corresponding to the recited altered charge curve to minimize charging time taking into consideration temperature of the battery and the state of charge of the battery where optimization prioritizing quickest return to maximum range utilizes maximum charging rates corresponding to the recited increased current);
The combination of the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop fully discloses the elements as claimed.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date to have combined the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop in order to minimize charging times at high charging rates as well as account for environmental conditions (Hortop -- ¶30).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Ikeda further discloses receive the weather information including information on precipitation; and change the previously stored charge curve based on the information on precipitation (¶223 – adjusting the charge time corresponding to the recited changing the charge curve based on the target location, traffic information and weather information where weather information includes rain).
Ikeda does not explicitly disclose utilizing previously stored charging curves however Hortop further discloses previously stored charge curve (¶20-21, ¶25-31 – predetermined functional form of charging scheme utilizing battery usage metrics including historic charge levels as a function of time corresponding to the recited previously stored charging curve)
The combination of the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop fully discloses the elements as claimed.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date to have combined the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop in order to minimize charging times at high charging rates as well as account for environmental conditions (Hortop -- ¶30).
Regarding claims 5 and 13, Ikeda further discloses receive the road condition information including at least one of traffic information or a road status information; and change the previously stored charge curve based on at least one of the traffic information or the road status information (¶223 – adjusting the charge time corresponding to the recited changing the charge curve based on the target location, traffic information and weather information where traffic information corresponding to the recited road condition information).
Ikeda does not explicitly disclose utilizing previously stored charging curves however Hortop further discloses previously stored charge curve (¶20-21, ¶25-31 – predetermined functional form of charging scheme utilizing battery usage metrics including historic charge levels as a function of time corresponding to the recited previously stored charging curve)
The combination of the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop fully discloses the elements as claimed.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date to have combined the power control system for charging and electric vehicle of Ikeda with the utilization of historic charge curves as well as additional data of Hortop in order to minimize charging times at high charging rates as well as account for environmental conditions (Hortop -- ¶30).
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Ikeda further discloses the previously stored charge curve is altered to charge the battery of the electric vehicle within a predetermined time (¶33 – charging time is calculated based on completing the charge by a predetermined time).
Regarding claims 7 and 15, Ikeda further discloses receive route information; and determine, using the route information, the target location (¶53 - predict the next drive, destination, route, and/or arrival time based on the provision of current active route guidance for the vehicle).
Regarding claims 8, 16, and 20, Ikeda further discloses the target location includes a home address associated with the electric vehicle (¶78 and ¶127 – location where power is supplied to the electric car corresponding to the recited target location, where the house is the exemplary target location).
Additional References Cited
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Hortop et al. (US 10,723,238) discloses a battery charging system for EVs including utilizing past battery charging and diagnostic information which is stored in an onboard vehicle computer system (Col 5:9-59).
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 Matthew J Reda whose telephone number is (408)918-7573. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7-4 ET.
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/MATTHEW J. REDA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3665