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 .
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.
Reissue Applications
For reissue applications filed before September 16, 2012, all references to 35 U.S.C. 251 and 37 CFR 1.172, 1.175, and 3.73 are to the law and rules in effect on September 15, 2012. Where specifically designated, these are “pre-AIA ” provisions.
For reissue applications filed on or after September 16, 2012, all references to 35 U.S.C. 251 and 37 CFR 1.172, 1.175, and 3.73 are to the current provisions.
Applicant is reminded of the continuing obligation under 37 CFR 1.178(b), to timely apprise the Office of any prior or concurrent proceeding in which Patent No. 10,712,515 is or was involved. These proceedings would include any trial before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, interferences, reissues, reexaminations, supplemental examinations, and litigation.
Applicant is further reminded of the continuing obligation under 37 CFR 1.56, to timely apprise the Office of any information which is material to patentability of the claims under consideration in this reissue application.
These obligations rest with each individual associated with the filing and prosecution of this application for reissue. See also MPEP §§ 1404, 1442.01 and 1442.04.
Applicant is notified that any subsequent amendment to the specification and/or claims must comply with 37 CFR 1.173(b). See MPEP § 1414.01.
The instant application is a broadening reissue of U.S. Patent No. 10,712,515 (hereinafter the ‘515 patent) to Chamberlain et al., granted on 14 July 2020. The ‘515 patent was filed on 6 June 2019 as a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 15/971,302, now U.S. Patent No. 10,317,634 (hereinafter the ‘634 patent), filed on 4 May 2018. The ‘634 patent was a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 15/671,226, now U.S. Patent No. 9,964,722 (hereinafter the ‘722 patent), filed on 8 August 2017. The ‘722 patent was filed as a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 14/619,211, now U.S. Patent No. 9,759,880, now U.S. Patent No. 9,759,880 (hereinafter the ‘880 patent), filed on 11 February 2015. The ‘880 patent was filed as a continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Application No. 14/487,329, now U.S. Patent No. 9,281,866 (hereinafter the ‘866 patent), filed on 16 September 2014. The ‘866 patent claimed priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/878,821, filed on 17 September 2013.
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 23 September 2024 has been entered.
In response to the previous office action, Applicant has effectively renumbered claims 37-50 to 31-44, respectively, and amended appropriate claims to maintain respective claim dependencies. Beyond that, claims 19, 21-30, and 39 have been amended. Claims 19-44 have been examined.
Claim Objections
Claims 19 and 45-50 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 19, “a second pair power conductors” in line 15 should be “a second pair of power conductors.”
Claims 45-50 should be marked as (Cancelled).
For the purposes of this office action, claims 45-50 are not being addressed on the merits.
Appropriate correction is required.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 23 September 2024 was filed with the RCE. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The specification is objected to because, in the amendment to column 14, lines 30-59, it incorrectly states that Application No. 14/321,897 was published as U.S. Patent Publication 2019/0285818A1. This application was actually published as U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0234405 and was subsequently issued as U.S. Patent No. 9,448,576. Appropriate correction is required.
The Abstract filed 11 July 2022 is objected to because it should also contain the continuation of the ‘515 patent’s cover sheet on pp. 2-3. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 19-21, 23, 24, 26-28, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 6,693,413 to Lanni (hereinafter Lanni).
As per claim 19, Lanni discloses an apparatus for electrical power delivery (see abstract), the apparatus comprising:
a first input configured to receive a first direct current (DC) power signal having a first DC voltage level from a DC power source (see column 24, lines 12-27 and figure 51, showing an input from a 12 volt DC source);
a converter configured to receive from the first input, the first DC power signal having the first DC voltage level and to convert the first DC power signal to a second DC power signal having a second DC voltage level (a transformer for converting to appropriate operational voltage levels for the output, see column 24, lines 28-52);
a first output electrically coupled to the converter, wherein the first output is configured to provide, to a radio (portable telephone equipment, see column 21, lines 41-65 and column 22, lines 22-42), the second DC power signal having the second DC voltage level and is configured to be coupled to a first pair of power conductors (see column 24, lines 53-67; conductors are in pairs, see figures 27-41) including a distal end that is remotely located from the first output and that is electrically coupled to the radio (the distal end of the cabling and radio are outside of the claimed apparatus and therefore lack patentable weight; however, such cabling is disclosed, see column 24, lines 60-63, figures 23-41, and claims 18, 22, and 24 and supporting devices such as radio telephones, see column 21, lines 41-65 and column 22, lines 22-42);
a second output independent from the first output, the second output providing a third DC power signal and independent of the second DC voltage level, wherein the second output is configured to be coupled to a second pair of power conductors (multiple outputs having different voltages V1 and V2 to provide to various devices using respective regulators, see figures 41(a) and 41(b) and column 21, lines 20-40; conductors are in pairs, see figures 27-41);
wherein the apparatus is configured to receive a first attribute corresponding to the first pair of power conductors coupled to the first output (see column 18, lines 44-56; column 19, lines 43-63; column 23, line 65 to column 24, line 12); and
wherein the apparatus is configured to receive a second attribute corresponding to the second pair of power conductors coupled to the second output (each output is configurable in the appropriate manner of figures 23-41, see column 24, lines 7-12).
Regarding claim 20, each attribute is used relative to the respective output (each output is configurable in the appropriate manner of figures 23-41, see column 24, lines 7-12).
Regarding claim 21, attributes may be used that are to the resistance of a cabling connection (resistively programmed, see column 18, lines 23-35).
As per claim 23, Lanni discloses an apparatus for electrical power delivery (see abstract), the apparatus comprising:
a first input configured to receive a first direct current (DC) power signal having a first DC voltage level from a DC power source (see column 24, lines 12-27 and figure 51, showing an input from a 12 volt DC source);
a converter configured to receive, from the first input, the first DC power signal having the first DC voltage level and to convert the first DC power signal to a second DC power signal having a second DC voltage level (a transformer for converting to appropriate operational voltage levels for the output, see column 24, lines 28-52);
a first output electrically coupled to the converter, wherein the first output is configured to provide, to a radio (portable telephone equipment, see column 21, lines 41-65 and column 22, lines 22-42), the second DC power signal having the second DC voltage level and is configured to be coupled to a first pair of power conductors (see column 24, lines 53-67; conductors are in pairs, see figures 27-41) including a distal end that is remotely located from the first output and that is electrically coupled to the radio (the distal end of the cabling and radio are outside of the claimed apparatus and therefore lack patentable weight; however, such cabling is disclosed, see column 24, lines 60-63, figures 23-41, and claims 18, 22, and 24 and supporting devices such as radio telephones, see column 21, lines 41-65 and column 22, lines 22-42);
a second output independent from the first output, the second output providing a third DC power signal having a third DC voltage level and independent of the second DC voltage level, wherein the second output is configured to be coupled to a second pair of power conductors (multiple outputs having different voltages V1 and V2 to provide to various devices using respective regulators, see figures 41(a) and 41(b) and column 21, lines 20-40; conductors are in pairs, see figures 27-41);
wherein the apparatus associates a first attribute of the first pair of power conductors with the first output (see column 18, lines 44-56; column 19, lines 43-63; column 23, line 65 to column 24, line 12); and
wherein the apparatus associates a second attribute of the second cabling connection with the second output (each output is configurable in the appropriate manner of figures 23-41, see column 24, lines 7-12).
Regarding claim 24, attributes may be used that are to the resistance of a cabling connection (resistively programmed, see column 18, lines 23-35).
Regarding claim 26, output current may be one of the attributes (see column 24, lines 53-67).
Regarding claim 27, voltage can be derived from the resistance of the other connection and another attribute, such as voltage (see column 18, line 44 to column 19, li ne 42).
Regarding claim 28, each of a plurality of attributes (voltage, current) is used relative to the respective output (each output is configurable in the appropriate manner of figures 23-41, see column 24, lines 7-12).
Regarding claim 30, attributes may be used regarding the resistance of a cabling connection (resistively programmed, see column 18, lines 23-35).
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.
Claims 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lanni as applied to claim 19 above and further in view of U.S. Patent No. 7,646,107 to Smith (hereinafter Smith).
Regarding claim 22, Lanni discloses that the apparatus is remotely programmable (see column 18, lines 44-45) and that the resistance is configurable (see column 24, lines 13-27), but does not disclose a remote system for doing so.
Smith discloses a user interface for programming programmable power adaptors (see abstract) that can be used for configuring multiple output devices with different electrical requirements having a user interface for receiving device attributes including electrical requirements, e.g. resistance (see column 3, line 58 to column 4, line 60). Smith further states that this solves a problem where conventional power adaptors lack programmability and configurability (see column 1, lines 18-22).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have modified the invention of Lanni by programming it, using Smith’s user interface, for greater programmability and configurability.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 25 and 29 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claims 31-44 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 25, no art was found that discloses or renders obvious “wherein the first attribute of the first pair of power conductors is one of a length, size or material of the first pair of power conductors.”
Regarding claim 29, no art was found that would disclose or render obvious “wherein the converter is further configured to maintain a fourth DC voltage level at the distal end of the first pair of power conductors that exceeds a nominal DC input voltage rating of the radio.”
Regarding claim 31, no art was found that discloses or renders obvious “wherein the apparatus is configured to receive first feedback information from monitoring of the second DC power signal at the distal end of the first cabling connection; and wherein the apparatus is configured to receive second feedback information from monitoring of the third DC power signal at a distal end of the second cabling connection,” as recited in claim 31.
Regarding claim 36, no art was found that discloses or renders obvious “wherein the apparatus is configured to associate first feedback information corresponding to the distal end of the second pair of power conductors with the first output; and wherein the apparatus is configured to associate second feedback information corresponding to a distal end of the third pair of power conductors with the second output.”
Regarding claim 40, no art was found that discloses or renders obvious “receiving first feedback information from monitoring of the second DC power signal at the distal end of the first pair of power conductors; and receiving second feedback information from monitoring of the third DC power signal at a distal end of the second pair of power conductors.”
Claims 32-35, 37-39, and 41-44 are allowable based upon their dependence upon allowable claims.
Response to Arguments
Regarding the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) and 35 U.S.C. 251, Applicant’s arguments filed 23 September 2024 has been considered and are persuasive. The rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) and 35 U.S.C. 251 have been withdrawn.
Regarding the rejections over Lanni, it is noted that portable telephones are radio equipment, and that the grounds of rejection as now stated note that Lanni discloses that outputs can directly to portable telephones via cabling, although they could also be connected to battery chargers.
Regarding the assigning of patentable weight to the “distal end” and “radio,” these are clearly outside of the scope of the claimed apparatus. It is suggested that Applicant recite these claims as being directed to a system, rather than an apparatus, should it be desired that those limitations affect the scope of the respective claimed inventions.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW E HENEGHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3834. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Fuelling can be reached on (571)270-1367. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW E HENEGHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992
Conferees:
/ROBERT L NASSER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992 /M.F/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3992
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