DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. Claims 1-15 are presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
3. 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
3.1 Claim 1-8. 10-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claims, as currently constructed, are directed/could be interpreted as software per se, as the claims “a an optimization problem creation unit”, “an output combination computation unit”, “a power generation amount calculation unit”; “a parameter estimation unit”; “a sensitivity information calculation unit”; “a convergence condition calculation unit”; “a control instruction unit” appears to software modules running in the claimed DERMS 101A-C of figures 1, 7, and 9 respectively and thus are not statutory.
3.2 Claims 1-15 are further rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Step 2A- Prong One
The claim(s) recite(s) a system (claim 1), a method (claim 9), comprising: The step that: “creates an optimization problem that minimizes or maximizes a cost index of distributed energy resources from power system topology information, coupling busbar information on the distributed energy resources, and facility information on the distributed energy resources obtained from an energy resources management system, and decomposes the optimization problem into a master problem having a linear constraint and a subproblem having a nonlinear constraint”; “estimates a new constraint condition for the master problem based on sensitivity information in a dual problem of the subproblem, adds the new constraint condition to a constraint condition of the master problem to limit a search area for a solution of the master problem, and computes a range of output combinations of distributed energy resources”; and “solves an optimization problem defined as the master problem based on the range of output combinations computed by the output combination computation unit to calculate power generation amounts of the distributed energy resources”, under the broadest reasonable interpretation fall under a mental process or otherwise a mathematical concept / mathematical relationship, as evidenced by the specification. Therefore, the claims are directed to an abstract idea, by use of generic computer components and thus are clearly directed to an abstract idea, as constructed.
Step 2A Prong Two
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional limitation such as: “a an optimization problem creation unit”, “an output combination computation unit”, “a power generation amount calculation unit”; “a parameter estimation unit”; “a sensitivity information calculation unit”; “a convergence condition calculation unit”; “a control instruction unit”, either alone or in combination, all serve to gather and process data and do not add anything more significantly to the judicial exception, but are mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component that are well known, routine, and conventional activities (see fig.1 along with its respective paragaphs) which can be of any type, including general-purpose computer components previously known in the industries. Merely adding a programmable computer to perform generic computer functions does not automatically overcome an eligibility rejection. Alice, 573 U.S. at 223-24. Furthermore, the use of a general-purpose computer to apply an otherwise ineligible algorithm does not qualify as a particular machine. See Ultramerciallnc. v. Hulu, LLC, 772F.3d 709, 716-17 (Fed. Cir. 20l4); In re TLI Commc 'ns LLC v. AV Automotive, LLC, 823 F.3d 607, 613 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (mere recitation of concrete or tangible components is not an inventive concept); Eon Corp. IP Holdings LLC v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 785; the step of: “outputs the calculated power generation amounts to the energy resources management system”, under the broadest reasonable interpretation, reasonable fall under post-solution activities” that are also well-known, routine and conventional activities and are not sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception (See further MPEP 2106.05(d)(i-iv)-f); thus are not patent eligible under 35 USC 101.
Step 2B
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, as previously discussed above with reference to the integration of abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of: “a an optimization problem creation unit”, “an output combination computation unit”, “a power generation amount calculation unit”; “a parameter estimation unit”; “a sensitivity information calculation unit”; “a convergence condition calculation unit”; “a control instruction unit”, either alone or in combination, all serve to gather and process data and do not add anything more significantly to the judicial exception, but are mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component that are well known, routine, and conventional activities (see fig.1 along with its respective paragaphs) which can be of any type, including general-purpose computer components previously known in the industries. Merely adding a programmable computer to perform generic computer functions does not automatically overcome an eligibility rejection. Alice, 573 U.S. at 223-24. Furthermore, the use of a general-purpose computer to apply an otherwise ineligible algorithm does not qualify as a particular machine. See Ultramerciallnc. v. Hulu, LLC, 772F.3d 709, 716-17 (Fed. Cir. 20l4); In re TLI Commc 'ns LLC v. AV Automotive, LLC, 823 F.3d 607, 613 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (mere recitation of concrete or tangible components is not an inventive concept); Eon Corp. IP Holdings LLC v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 785; the step of: “outputs the calculated power generation amounts to the energy resources management system”, under the broadest reasonable interpretation, reasonable fall under post-solution activities” that are also well-known, routine and conventional activities and are not sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception (See further MPEP 2106.05(d)(i-iv)-f); thus are not patent eligible under 35 USC 101. Therefore, using computer components amount to no more than mere instructions to perform the abstract, and thus are not sufficient to amount to significantly more than the recited abstract, as constructed.
3.3 Dependent claims 12-8, 10-15 merely include limitations pertaining to further mathematical computations (claim 2), “wherein until a convergence condition is satisfied in calculation of the master problem, iterative computations are performed in which the output combination computation unit iteratively performs a process of estimating a new constraint condition for the master problem based on sensitivity information in a dual problem of the subproblem, adding the new constraint condition to a constraint condition of the master problem to limit a search area for a solution of the master problem, and computing a range of output combinations of distributed energy resources, and the power generation amount calculation unit iteratively performs a process of solving the master problem based on the range of output combinations computed by the output combination computation unit to calculate power generation amounts of the distributed energy resources, and outputting the calculated power generation amounts to the energy resources management system” (mathematical process). (claim 3); “estimates, based on information obtained from the energy resources management system, a value of a parameter whose value is undetermined among parameters included in an objective function and a constraint condition of the master problem or the subproblem” (mathematical concept); (claim 4); “calculates the sensitivity information based on a parameter included in an objective function and a constraint condition of the master problem or the subproblem and information obtained from the energy resources management system” (mathematical concept); (claim 5); “calculates the convergence condition based on a power distribution system state quantity” (mathematical concept); (claim 6); “outputs an upper bound and a lower bound of an optimal solution of the master problem that indicate a precision of the power generation amounts of the distributed energy resources calculated from the master problem along with the calculated power generation amounts of the distributed energy resources” (WURC post-solution activities); (claim 7) “wherein the power generation amount calculation unit outputs the power generation amounts of the distributed energy resources calculated from the master problem and the upper bound and the lower bound of the optimal solution of the master problem in each of the iterative computations as a calculation log” (WURC post-solution activities); (claim 8) “controls the distributed energy resources based on the power generation amounts of the distributed energy resources calculated by the power generation amount calculation unit” (WURC Post-solution activities); Claims 9-15 recites limitations similar to that of claims 1-8 and thus inherit the same rejection, as they are all further amount to further mathematical concept and/or WURC similar to that already recited by the independent claims and already addressed above and thus are further not patent eligible under 35 USC 101.
Conclusion
4. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
4.1 Pande et al. (USPG_PUB No. 2014/0277599) teaches a system for distributed resource scheduling performed by an advanced resource scheduling (ARS) module implemented on a distributed grid management (DGM) server in a power system.
4.2 Legbedji et al. (USPG_PUB No. 2013/0238294) teaches a method for optimizing a cost of electric power generation in a smart site energy management model, including providing a cost function that models a smart building-grid energy system of a plurality of buildings on a site interconnected with electric power grid energy resources and constraints due to a building model, an electric grid model.
4.3 Wang et al. (USPG_PUB No. 2020/0161858) teaches a system and method for energy crowdsourcing and peer-to-peer energy trading.
4.4 Samaan et al. (USPG_PUB No. 2020/0373759) teaches systems and methods for coordinating volt-var control between sub-transmission and distribution systems in which distributed energy resources of a distribution system are aggregated into virtual power plants from which reactive power can optimally be dispatched to the sub-transmission system.
5. Claims 1-15 are rejected and this action is non-final. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDRE PIERRE-LOUIS whose telephone number is (571)272-8636. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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/ANDRE PIERRE LOUIS/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2187 August 8, 2026
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