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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 2/10/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the references given in the IDS are being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 3/23/2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 3, and 5-12 remain pending in the application, and claims 2 and 4 have been canceled. This Office Action is made Final.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the drawings submitted 1/10/2025 do not appear to be supported by the Specification and are considered new matter over the original drawings submitted 3/25/2022.
Fig. 1 of the 3/25/22 drawings show connections between state-of-charge evaluation means 6 and each one of two boxes respectively downstream of first open loop control 3 and second open-loop control 11. In particular, there is no connection between first open loop control 3 and second open-loop control 11
Fig. 1 of the 1/10/2025 drawing shows the connection between the state-of-charge evaluation means 6 and a box containing both first open loop control 3 and second open-loop control 11. In particular, there is a connection between first open loop control 3 and second open-loop control 11.
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Additionally, the drawings (Fig, 1) submitted 3/25/2022 consist of unlabeled boxes. The unlabeled rectangular box(es) shown in the drawings should be provided with descriptive text labels. Although the boxes in the figures are numbered which allows a correlation to each box as one reads the specification, the numbers by themselves do not allow one to quickly ascertain the concept of the invention which is desirable during a later search of analogous art. The numbers should be complimented, or replaced, with words spelled out to facilitate future searches. Replacement drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.84 and 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required.
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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/23/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
See the rejections for claims 1, 3, and 10 below regarding “the evaluation unit is connected in signal conducting fashion to the open-loop controller.”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 5-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mohajer (“Design of a Model-based Fractional-Order Controller for Optimal Charging of Batteries,” IFAC Conference PapersOnLine, ScienceDirect, presented Sep. 4-6, 2018).
Regarding claim 1, Mohajer teaches a charger (Fig. 6 and Section 4: robust controller) for an electrical energy store (Fig. 6: battery), the charger comprising:
an open loop control having a first open-loop control unit (plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories) and a second open-loop control unit (Jsr trajectories), a closed-loop control unit (controller C(s)), and a summation means arranged between the first open-loop control unit and the closed loop control unit (Fig. 6: the circle by two plus signs, receiving charging currents ICh,FF and IChFB , is placed between the low pass filter LPF and controller C(s)),
wherein the charger is configured to charge the electrical energy store to a defined state of charge within a preset charging time and to set a charging current (Fig. 6: ICh,traj) and a side reaction current (Jsr,traj or Jsr,obs) of the electrical energy store (p. 98, col. 1, par. 1-2, Sec. 2; Fig. 2; and Fig. 6: plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories, are optimized charging profiles over a set period of time that include side reaction current data based on battery SOC, aging, and temperature), the charger further comprising an evaluation unit (Fig. 6: cell observer), which has at least one terminal for a sensor of the electrical energy store (sensors that produce temperature signal T and cell voltage signal Ucell of the battery),
wherein the charging current is one of a first charging current (ICh,traj), a second charging current (ICh,FF), a third charging current (ICh,FB), or a fourth charging current (Icharge),
wherein the side reaction current is one of a first side reaction current (Jsr,traj) or a second side reaction current (Jsr,obs),
wherein the first open-loop control unit (plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories) is configured to select a charging current profile based on a state of charge of the electrical energy store (p. 98, col. 1, par. 1-2, Sec. 2; Fig. 2; and Fig. 6),
wherein the second open-loop control unit is configured to
determine a state of health of the electrical energy store (p. 100, col. 2, par. 1, Sec. 4; and Fig. 6: cell observer determines SOC and aging of the battery producing temperature signal T and cell voltage signal Ucell ) and also the first side reaction current based on a model of the electrical energy store and the charging current profile (Fig. 6: Jsr trajectories are used to determine first side reaction current Jsr,traj ),
wherein the evaluation unit has a state-of-charge evaluation means, the evaluation unit connected in a signal-conducting fashion to the open loop controller (Fig. 6: Cell observer is connected in signal-conducting fashion to Jsr trajectories via a comparator represented by the circle by a plus sign and minus sign) and the evaluation unit configured to determine a state of health of the electrical energy store (Section 4.1 Closed-loop Control: Cell observer indirectly determines state of health by providing Jsr,obs based on the measured cell voltage Ucell and temperature T),
wherein the open-loop control unit is configured to run parallel in time with the first closed-loop control unit (Fig. 6: charging current Ich,FF from Ich trajectories and low pass filter LPF is produced independently from charging current Ich,FB from controller (C(s). As they run independently, the examiner interprets charging current Ich,FF and charging current Ich,FB are produced parallel in time, especially as they later are summed at the circle by two plus signs before being sent to the battery and cell observer), and
wherein the summation means is configured to sum the outputs of the first open-loop control unit and the closed-loop control unit (Fig. 6: the circle by two plus signs, receiving charging currents ICh,FF and IChFB, , is placed between the low pass filter LPF and controller C(s).).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mohajer.
Regarding claim 3, Mohajer teaches the charger as claimed in claim 1,
wherein the state-of-charge evaluation means is connected in signal-conducting fashion to (Fig. 6: Cell observer (comprising the SOC observer) is connected in signal-conducting fashion to Jsr trajectories via a comparator represented by the circle by a plus sign and minus sign).
Mohajer does not explicitly teach wherein the state-of-charge evaluation means is connected in signal-conducting fashion to the first open-loop control unit.
However, since plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories are models based on parameters including current and state of charge, a state of charge would be required for a current to be generated (Figs: 2, 4, 6, Section 4.1 Closed-loop Control). The examiner interprets a state of charge is provided at the current sources represented by the Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories in Figure 4 which provide the overall closed-loop control to provide the optimal current to the battery.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant application to incorporate Mohajer’s battery state-of-charge measurement from the cell observer into the Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories so that appropriate charging and side reaction currents are generated to optimally charge the battery.
Regarding claim 5, Mohajer teaches the charger as claimed in claim 1,
wherein the open-loop control unit (Fig. 6: plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories) is configured to subject the first charging current (ICh,traj) and the first side reaction current (JST,traj) to open-loop control so that the electrical energy store (battery) is charged to the defined state of charge within the preset charging time (p. 98, col. 1, par. 1-2, Sec. 2; Fig. 2; and Fig. 6: plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories, are based on optimized charging profiles over a set period of time that include side reaction current data based on battery SOC, aging, and temperature).
Regarding claim 6, Mohajer teaches the charger as claimed in claim 1,
wherein the closed-loop control unit (Fig. 6: controller C(s)) is designed to subject the third charging current (ICh,FB) so that the second side reaction current of the electrical energy store is minimized (p. 98, col. 2, par. 2, trajectories set to minimize capacity loss).
Regarding claim 7, Mohajer teaches the charger as claimed in claim 5,
wherein the summation means (Fig. 6: the circle by two plus signs and receiving charging currents ICh,FF and IChFB) is arranged between the open-loop control unit (Ich trajectories and low pass filter LPF) and the closed-loop control unit (controller C(s)), on one side, and an output terminal of the charger (the output line where charge current Icharge meets the battery), on an other side, wherein the summation means is configured to add the first charging current or the second charging (ICh,FF) current from the open-loop control unit (Ich trajectories and low pass filter LPF) and the third charging current (ICh,FB) from the closed-loop control unit (controller C(s)) and to generate the fourth charging current (Icharge).
Regarding claim 8, Mohajer teaches the charger as claimed in claim 7,
wherein the charger has a low-pass filter (Fig. 6: LPF), which is arranged between the open-loop control unit and the summation means.
Regarding claim 9, Mohajer teaches the charger as claimed in claim 7,
wherein the charger has a comparison means (Fig. 6: the circle by a plus sign and minus sign and receiving side reaction currents Jsr,traj and Jsr,obs), which is arranged between the open-loop control unit (JST trajectories) and an ageing evaluation means (aging observer in the cell observer), on one side, and the summation means (the circle by two plus signs and receiving ICh,FB and ICh,FF and outputting ICharge), on the other side.
Regarding claim 10, Mohajer teaches a method for charging an electrical energy store (Fig. 6: battery), by means of a charger including an open loop controller having a first open-loop control unit (Ich trajectories), a second open-loop control unit (Jsr trajectories), the charger also including an evaluation unit (Cell observer) and a closed-loop control unit (controller C(s)),
the method comprising an open-loop control step and a closed-loop control step, which run simultaneously (Fig. 6: charging current Ich,FF from Ich trajectories and low pass filter LPF is produced independently from charging current Ich,FB from controller (C(s)),
wherein the electrical energy store is charged to a defined state of charge within a preset charging time and a first charging current (ICh,traj) and a first side reaction current (Jsr,traj) of the electrical energy store are set (p. 98, col. 1, par. 1-2, Sec. 2; Fig. 2; and Fig. 6: plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories, are based on optimized charging profiles over a set period of time that include side reaction current data based on battery SOC, aging, and temperature)
the method further including
selecting a charging current profile based on a state of charge of the electrical energy store (p. 98, col. 1, par. 1-2, Sec. 2; Fig. 2; and Fig. 6: plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories, are optimized charging profiles over a set period of time that include side reaction current data based on battery SOC, aging, and temperature),
determining a state of health of the electrical energy store (p. 100, col. 2, par. 1, Sec. 4; and Fig. 6: cell observer determines SOC and aging of the battery producing temperature signal T and cell voltage signal Ucell ) and also the first side reaction current based on a model of the electrical energy store and the charging current profile (Fig. 6: Jsr trajectories are used to determine first side reaction current Jsr,traj ),
evaluating, with the evaluation unit, the state of the health of the electrical energy store based on the model of the electrical energy store, and estimating a second side reaction current (cell observer indirectly determines state of health by providing Jsr,obs based on the measured cell voltage Ucell and temperature T), and
estimating a second side reaction current,
wherein the open-loop control unit is configured to run parallel in time with the closed-loop control unit (Fig. 6: charging current Ich,FF from Ich trajectories and low pass filter LPF is produced independently from charging current Ich,FB from controller (C(s). As they run independently, the examiner interprets charging current Ich,FF and charging current Ich,FB are produced parallel in time, especially as they later are summed at the circle by two plus signs before being sent to the battery and cell observer), the open-loop control unit is connected in a signal-conducting fashion to the evaluation unit (Fig. 6: Cell observer is connected in signal-conducting fashion to Jsr trajectories via a comparator represented by the circle by a plus sign and minus sign).
Regarding claim 11, Mohajer teaches the method as claimed in claim 10,
wherein a present state of charge and a present state of health and/or a second side reaction current (Jsr,obs) are determined from sensor data of the electrical energy store (cell observer monitors cell voltage Ucell and temperature T to determine state of health of the energy electric store),
wherein the first charging current (Ich,traj) and the first side reaction current (Jsr,traj) are generated by means of a model of the electrical energy store using the present state of charge, the defined state of charge and the preset charging time (p. 98, col. 1, par. 1-2, Sec. 2; Fig. 2; and Fig. 6: plant model current trajectories, Ich trajectories and Jsr trajectories, are optimized charging profiles over a set period of time that include side reaction current data based on battery SOC, aging, and temperature).
Regarding claim 12, Mohajer teaches the method as claimed in claim 11,
wherein the first side reaction current is compared with the second side reaction current (Fig. 6: the circle by a plus sign and minus sign and receiving side reaction currents Jsr,traj and Jsr,obs), and a third charging current is generated (Ich,FB), the third charging current is determined so that an ageing of the electrical energy store is minimized (p. 98, col. 2, par. 2, trajectories set to minimize capacity loss),
wherein the third charging current and a second charging current are added, and a fourth charging current is generated (the circle by two plus signs and receiving charging currents, ICh,FB and ICh,FF , and outputting ICharge), and
wherein the electrical energy store is charged with the fourth charging current (ICharge is sent to the battery).
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 Ryu-Sung P. Weinmann whose telephone number is (703)756-5964. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm ET.
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/Ryu-Sung P. Weinmann/Examiner, Art Unit 2859 April 17, 2026
/JULIAN D HUFFMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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