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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 11/20/2025 has been entered.
Claim Status
Claims 1-6 are pending. Claim 1 is are amended. Claim 3 is previously presented. Claims 2 and 4-6 are original.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 11/20/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to arguments on pages 7-8 of the remarks that primary reference LI does not disclose the amended recitation “allocate the second plurality of power modules on a first-come, first-served basis determined by connection duration”, it is submitted that LI teaches this recitation at least in paragraph 0086, which gives the example of a vehicle that is connected first, and thus having the longest connection duration, having priority to access the “second plurality of power modules” until its charging process is finished. Applicant has not specifically commented on or argued against the relevant portions of LI relied upon in the rejection.
In response to arguments on pages 7-8 of the remarks that primary reference LI fails to disclose “allocating all currently available ones of the second plurality” of power modules as recited, newly found secondary reference NERGAARD discloses this limitation at least in paragraph 0028, which discloses a vehicle that is connected first will receive power from all of the power modules until its demand is met. It is submitted that the combination of LI as modified by NERGAARD teaches the charging system of claim 1, including the amended recitations powering the plurality of charging points via a first plurality of power modules and a second plurality of power modules as explained in the rejection below.
In response to arguments on page 9 of the remarks regarding the rejection of claims 5-6, it is submitted that secondary reference QUATTRINI is not relied upon to teach the recitation “allocate the second plurality of power modules on a first-come, first-served basis determined by connection duration”, as this recitation is taught by LI as modified by NERGAARD. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize the charging system of LI as modified by NERGAARD may be modified to include the considerations of “a power supply available” and “a commercial arrangement” as disclosed in QUATTRINI while implementing the allocation of the power modules “on a first-come, first-served basis determined by connection duration”. It is maintained that LI as modified by NERGAARD and QUATTRINI teaches the charging system of claims 5-6.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in United Kingdom on 2/15/2021. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the GB2102122.5 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the drawings filed on 11/20/2025 do not contain the amendments (i.e., the descriptive labels for the boxes) to the drawings as filed on 6/3/2025. 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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI (US PG Pub 2018/0001780; cited in previous office action) in view of NERGAARD (US 2013/0057209).
Regarding claim 1, LI discloses a charging system for charging a plurality of electric vehicles simultaneously (¶ 0065: FIGS. 4 to 6 also show a matrix-type flexible charging pile in the present invention, which can automatically extract different powers from the “charging piles” according to the actual demands of different types of electric vehicles, and satisfy the electric vehicle charging demands) comprising: a plurality of charging points (“Charging Terminal”, Figs. 4-6; ¶ 0078, 0082); a first plurality of power modules, each one of the first plurality of power modules being permanently connected (¶ 0026: the charging module is fixedly connected) to a respective one of the plurality of charging points (“MK1”, Figs. 4-6, which are located within “Fixed Power Region”; ¶ 0078) for providing a minimum power supply to the respective one of the plurality of charging points (¶ 0026: A fixed power region comprising charging modules that do not participate in the power dynamic allocation, wherein the charging module is fixedly connected to a corresponding charging terminal for satisfying a basic charging function of the charging terminal; the basic charging function can be considered a “minimum power supply” for charging at the charging point, within the broadest reasonable interpretation); a second plurality of power modules, each one of the second plurality of power modules being switchably connectable to any one of the plurality of charging points (“DMK”, Figs. 4-6, which are located within “Dynamic Power Region”; ¶ 0079-0080), and a controller configured to control plurality of switchable connections between the second plurality of power modules and the plurality of charging points (comprising “Charging Terminal” and “Matrix Controller”, Figs. 4-6; ¶ 0081-0082),
wherein the controller is further configured to continually monitor available power and power demand from the electric vehicles to reallocate the second plurality of power modules based on updated demand and power availability (¶ 0015: recalculating, by the charging terminal, the number of charging modules required to be added and delivering it to the matrix controller, when the charging terminal detects that the demand value of the electric vehicle is increased; ¶ 0018: calculating, by the charging terminal, the number of charging modules that can exit and delivering it to the matrix controller, when the charging terminal detects that the demand value of the electric vehicle is decreased; ¶ 0019: the exited charging module automatically returns to a power dynamically allocatable state), and
when the second plurality of power modules is insufficient to meet aggregate demand, allocate the second plurality of power modules on a first-come, first-served basis determined by connection duration (¶0086: If the charging terminal 3# is connected with the electric vehicle in the charging process of the charging terminal 2#, the charging is activated… If the charging demand value of the electric vehicle is 56 kW, the matrix controller will no longer operate since all of the modules in the dynamic power region have been allocated, charging terminal 3# will automatically adjust the output power of each charging module to 15kW. If some charging modules of the charging terminal 2# exit in the charging process of the charging terminal 3#, the matrix controller will inform the charging terminal 3# which then will recalculate the number of charging modules required to be additionally allocated and instruct the matrix controller to control the allocation of the corresponding modules) by: allocating currently available ones of the second plurality to the vehicle that has been connected for the longest period until that vehicle's demand is met (¶ 0087: charging terminal 2# instructs the matrix controller to exit all of the charging modules of the dynamic power region allocated to the present DC bus, after the completion of the charging of the charging terminal 2#. At this point, the corresponding controllable switches in the dynamic allocation array are in disconnect state): then allocating currently available ones of the second plurality to the vehicle connected for the second-longest period until that vehicle's demand is met continuing in descending order of connection duration (¶ 0086: If some charging modules of the charging terminal 2# exit in the charging process of the charging terminal 3#, the matrix controller will inform the charging terminal 3# which then will recalculate the number of charging modules required to be additionally allocated and instruct the matrix controller to control the allocation of the corresponding modules) and, for vehicles to which none of the second plurality is currently allocated, causing those vehicles to continue receiving power from their respective permanently connected power modules until a module of the second plurality becomes available (¶ 0083: in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, the number of charging terminals is 3, and the number of the corresponding DC buses is 3. The number of charging modules of the fixed power region corresponding to each terminal is 2, the number of modules of the dynamic power region is 6, and the rated power of a single charging module is 15 kW; this is implied from paragraphs 0083 and 0086, in that if the third charging terminal is connected to a third vehicle at the time the two vehicles are charging with all 6 of the modules of the dynamic power region, it follows the third vehicle will only be charged with its corresponding two fixed power modules).
LI fails to disclose allocating all currently available ones of the second plurality to the vehicle that has been connected for the longest period until that vehicle's demand is met: then allocating all currently available ones of the second plurality to the vehicle connected for the second-longest period until that vehicle's demand is met continuing in descending order of connection duration.
NERGAARD discloses allocating all currently available ones of the second plurality to the vehicle that has been connected for the longest period until that vehicle's demand is met: then allocating all currently available ones of the second plurality to the vehicle connected for the second-longest period until that vehicle's demand is met continuing in descending order of connection duration (¶ 0027: In a charger with three power blocks as shown in FIG. 3, and assuming that each power block is configured to output the same amount of power, the power can be distributed at four different levels; 0 output, 1/3 P.sub.max, 2/3 P.sub.max, and P.sub.max, where P.sub.max is equal to the maximum available power from charger 300, i.e., with all three power blocks coupled to a single port; ¶ 0028: FIG. 4 graphically illustrates a possible use scenario of charger 300. This scenario is only meant to illustrate, not limit, how a charging system designed in accordance with the invention may be used to distribute power to two vehicles, "A" and "B". The charging power provided to vehicles A and B are represented by curves 401 and 403, respectively. In this example, it is assumed that initially, at time t.sub.0, only vehicle A is coupled to charger 300, for example via charging port 313. As such, initially controller 321 couples the entire output, Pmax, to port 313. This is shown by the first portion of curve 401. Then, at time t1, vehicle B is coupled to charging port 314. In this example, from time t1 to time t2, vehicle B receives no charging power from port 314. This may be due to the priority given to vehicle A or for some other reason… At time t.sub.4 all power, i.e., Pmax, is sent to vehicle B. This may be due, for example, to vehicle A being decoupled from charger 300 as a result of the batteries within vehicle A being completely charged).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include allocating all currently available ones of the second plurality as recited in order to maximize converter utilization and/or minimize space and cost.
Regarding claim 2, LI discloses the controller is configured to receive information about a power demand of an electric vehicle connected to one of the plurality of charging points, and wherein the controller is further configured to control the switchable connections between the second plurality of power modules and the plurality of charging points based on said information received about power demand (¶ 0048-0050).
Regarding claim 3, LI discloses when it is determined that the power demanded by an electric vehicle connected to one of the plurality of charging points exceeds the power that can be supplied by the one of the first plurality of power modules connected to said one of the plurality of charging points, the controller causes at least one of the second plurality of power modules to be connected to said one of the plurality of charging points (¶ 0049-0050, 0054-0055).
Regarding claim 4, LI discloses when it is determined that a power demand by an electric vehicle connected to one of the plurality of charging points does not exceed the power that can be supplied by the one of the first plurality of power modules connected to said one of the plurality of charging points, the controller causes any power module of the second plurality of power modules that is connected to said one of the plurality of charging points to be disconnected (¶ 0061-0064).
Claim(s) 5-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI in view of NERGAARD as applied to claims 1-4 above, and further in view of QUATTRINI (US PG Pub 2018/0001781; cited in previous office action).
Regarding claim 5, LI as modified by NERGAARD teaches a charging system as applied to claim 1 but fails to disclose the controller is configured to receive information about a power supply available to the first and second pluralities of power modules from a source of electrical power, and wherein the controller is further configured to control the switchable connections between the second plurality of power modules and the plurality of charging points based on said information received about power availability.
QUATTRINI discloses the controller is configured to receive information about a power supply available to the first and second pluralities of power modules from a source of electrical power, and wherein the controller is further configured to control the switchable connections between the second plurality of power modules and the plurality of charging points based on said information received about power availability (¶ 0025-0028).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include controlling the switchable connections based on information about power availability in order to provide power within the limits of the power network as known in the art.
Regarding claim 6, LI as modified by NERGAARD teaches a charging system as applied to claim 1 but fails to disclose the controller is configured to receive information about a commercial arrangement made by the user of an electric vehicle connected to one of the plurality of charging points, and wherein the controller is further configured to control the switchable connections between the second plurality of power modules and the plurality of charging points based on said information received about commercial arrangements.
QUATTRINI discloses the controller is configured to receive information about a commercial arrangement made by the user of an electric vehicle connected to one of the plurality of charging points, and wherein the controller is further configured to control the switchable connections between the second plurality of power modules and the plurality of charging points based on said information received about commercial arrangements (¶ 0040, 0050, 0053, 0064).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include controlling the switchable connections based on information about commercial arrangements in order to facilitate and/or expedite the charging process and therefore provide increased user convenience.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANUEL HERNANDEZ whose telephone number is (571)270-7916. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9a-5p ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Drew Dunn can be reached at (571) 272-2312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Manuel Hernandez/Examiner, Art Unit 2859 12/9/2025
/DREW A DUNN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859