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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 5/11/2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 3-4, 6-7, 10-11, 13-15, and 17 remain pending in the application, and claims 2, 5, 8-9, 12, 16, and 18 have been canceled. Applicant’s amendments to the Claims have overcome every 112 and 102 rejection previously set forth in the Non-Final Office Action mailed 2/9/2026. Any new grounds of rejection presented below are necessitated by the amendments. Accordingly, this Office Action is made Final.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 5/11/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant submits on page 7 of Remarks that the present invention adopts the concept in which the vehicle is verified and payment is authorized solely through the connection of the connector.
The examiner notes that paragraphs 0038 and 0040 (shown below for convenience), as well as the claim language, do not appear to describe the vehicle being verified and payment being authorized solely through the connection of the connector, but rather when vehicle 100 is connected to a charger 300 by a cable.
[0038] To implement the PNC service, a provisioning certificate identification (PCID) is used as a code for identifying both a user and a vehicle at once. The PCID needs to be effectively and safely transmitted and processed because a vehicle and a user's payment information should be identified for automatic charging and paying so that the vehicle may be charged by a cable or wirelessly as connected to the charger by a cable or wirelessly.
[0040] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for a vehicle charging service according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. A vehicle according to the present disclosure includes an electric vehicle or the like vehicle which needs battery charging. A vehicle 100 is released with a memory 120 in which the PCID or vehicle authentication information (e.g., an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) certificate, etc.) including the PCID is stored during a production process. A user may read the PCID through a display 140 of the vehicle as necessary. Furthermore, when the vehicle 100 is connected to a charger 300 by a cable or wirelessly for the charging, the vehicle 100 transmits the PCID to a charger 300 through a communication unit 130 as requested by the charger 300 or as the connection is automatically detected.
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(s) 1, 3-4, 6-7, 10-11, 13-15, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Spähn (DE 102018213955 A1, published 2020-02-20, citations taken from English Translation by Espacenet, 15 pages) in view of Park et al. (US 20130110340 A1).
Regarding independent claim 1, Spähn teaches a system for a vehicle charging service (Fig. 1), the system comprising:
a plurality of chargers (¶0002: energy supply devices) configured to be connected with a vehicle wiredly or wirelessly to transmit and receive data and power to or from the vehicle (¶0017: mobile phone communication unit for transmitting identification feature 3 can be coupled to the vehicle); and
a charging server (0034-0035: server device and energy provider) configured to
network with the plurality of chargers (¶0002),
receive a provisioning certificate identification (PCID) from the plurality of chargers (¶0035 and 0041: energy provider receives identification feature including PCID from the vehicle, separate from the server device),
look up the received PCID in user information (¶0035: depending on identification feature, energy provider releases energy for charging),
allow charging of a charger connecting with the vehicle corresponding to the received PCID when the user information matching the received PCID is present (¶0035), and
update the matching user information with the received PCID when the received PCID is a new PCID (¶0045: The examiner interprets that when new data received, the system storing data inherently updates the old data),
wherein, when the charger connects with the vehicle (¶[2, 35]: energy supply devices are coupled to the energy supply network. The examiner interprets the PCID is freely transmitted between energy supply device and the energy supply network),
wherein the charging server is configured to store the user information that includes vehicle information, payment information, and the PCID (¶[15, 45, 47]: database of energy provider 7 stores the identification feature which includes information for type of vehicle, payment, and PCID),
wherein the charging server is configured to look up the received PCID in the stored user information, when the received PCID is retrieved from specific user information, the charging of the charger connecting with the vehicle corresponding to the PCID is allowed, then payment is made based on the payment information of a corresponding user information after the charging and when the received PCID is the new PCID, the charging server is configured to update the user information, authenticated by user authentication, with the received new PCID (¶0047: Via the communication unit 5, identification feature 3 is sent to the energy provider 7 where it is processed and information utilized for charging the vehicle battery and handling payment information) (¶0034 and 0041: By downloading the app and registering a vehicle, the user can be authenticated and provided with a PCID).
Spähn does not explicitly disclose the charger connects with the vehicle by a cable.
Park discloses connecting the charger to a vehicle via a cable while also verifying PCID (¶[19-20]: charging plug is connected to vehicle and supplying charge to the vehicle once vehicle authentication is completed).
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 the cable and authentication process of Park into the system of Spähn for lower cost charging, saving space that would otherwise be used for charging coils, and user-based secure charging.
Regarding claim 3, Spähn teaches the system of claim 1, wherein the charger is configured to charge the connected vehicle and to terminate the charging according to requested charging information when the charging is allowed by the charging server (¶0050: charging is ended according to a contract).
Regarding claim 4, Spähn teaches the system of claim 1, wherein the charging server is configured to receive the PCID or vehicle authentication information including the PCID of the vehicle connected to the charger from the vehicle, an external terminal or the charger (¶0002 and 0035: energy supply devices are coupled to the energy supply network. The examiner interprets the PCID is freely transmitted between energy supply device and the energy supply network).
Regarding claim 6, Spähn teaches the system of claim 1, wherein the charging server is configured to process payment for the charging according to the payment information of corresponding user information when the charging of the charger is allowed (¶0047: “user can then enter user information, such as personal data and payment information”).
Regarding claim 7, Spähn teaches the system of claim 1, wherein the charging server is configured to process payment for the charging according to the payment information of the user information including a same PCID as the received PCID (¶0047: via the communication unit 5, identification feature 3 is sent to the energy provider 7 where it is processed and information utilized for charging the vehicle battery).
Regarding independent claim 10, Spähn teaches a system for a vehicle charging service (Fig. 1), the system comprising:
a charging server (0034-0035: server device and energy provider) configured to
network with a plurality of chargers configured to be connected with a vehicle wiredly or wirelessly (¶0002: energy supply devices),
receive a provisioning certificate identification (PCID) from outside (¶0035 and 0041: energy provider receives identification feature including PCID from the vehicle, separate from the server device),
look up the received PCID in user information stored in the charging server (¶0035: depending on identification feature, energy provider releases energy for charging),
allow charging of a charger connecting with the vehicle corresponding to the received corresponding PCID when user information matching the received PCID is present (¶0035), and
update the matching user information with the received PCID when the received PCID is a new PCID (¶0045: The examiner interprets that when new data received, the system storing data inherently updates the old data), wherein, when the charger connects with the vehicle (¶0002 and 0035: energy supply devices are coupled to the energy supply network. The examiner interprets the PCID is freely transmitted between energy supply device and the energy supply network),
wherein the charging server is configured to store the user information that includes vehicle information, payment information, and the PCID (¶[15, 45, 47]: database of energy provider 7 stores the identification feature which includes information for type of vehicle, payment, and PCID),
wherein the charging server is configured to look up the received PCID in the stored user information, when the received PCID is retrieved from specific user information, the charging of the charger connecting with the vehicle corresponding to the PCID is allowed, then payment is made based on the payment information of a corresponding user information after the charging and when the received PCID is the new PCID, the charging server is configured to update the user information, authenticated by user authentication, with the received new PCID (¶0047: Via the communication unit 5, identification feature 3 is sent to the energy provider 7 where it is processed and information utilized for charging the vehicle battery and handling payment information) (¶0034 and 0041: By downloading the app and registering a vehicle, the user can be authenticated and provided with a PCID).
Spähn does not explicitly disclose the charger connects with the vehicle by a cable.
Park discloses connecting the charger to a vehicle via a cable while also verifying PCID (¶[19-20]: charging plug is connected to vehicle and supplying charge to the vehicle once vehicle authentication is completed).
Regarding independent claim 11, Spähn teaches a method of a vehicle charging service (Fig. 1), the method comprising:
receiving, by a charger, a provisioning certificate identification (PCID) or vehicle authentication information including the PCID from a vehicle when the vehicle is connected to the charger, and transmitting the PCID or vehicle authentication information of the vehicle from the charger to a charging server (¶0017: mobile phone communication unit for transmitting identification feature 3 can be coupled to the vehicle).
receiving, by the charging server, the PCID from a plurality of chargers (¶0035 and 0041: energy provider receives identification feature including PCID from the vehicle, separate from the server device);
looking up, by the charging server, the received PCID in user information stored in the charging server (¶0035: depending on identification feature, energy provider releases energy for charging);
allowing, by the charging server, charging of the charger by (¶0035); and
updating, by the charging server, the matching user information with the received PCID when the received PCID is a new PCID (¶0041 and 0045: The examiner interprets that when new data received, the system storing data inherently updates the old data),
wherein the charging server is configured to store the user information that includes vehicle information, payment information, and the PCID (¶[15, 45, 47]: database of energy provider 7 stores the identification feature which includes information for type of vehicle, payment, and PCID),
wherein the charging server is configured to look up the received PCID in the stored user information, when the received PCID is retrieved from specific user information, the charging of the charger connecting with the vehicle corresponding to the PCID is allowed, then payment is made based on the payment information of a corresponding user information after the charging and when the received PCID is the new PCID, the charging server is configured to update the user information, authenticated by user authentication, with the received new PCID (¶0047: Via the communication unit 5, identification feature 3 is sent to the energy provider 7 where it is processed and information utilized for charging the vehicle battery and handling payment information) (¶0034 and 0041: By downloading the app and registering a vehicle, the user can be authenticated and provided with a PCID).
Spähn does not explicitly disclose the charger connects with the vehicle by a cable.
Park discloses connecting the charger to a vehicle via a cable while also verifying PCID (¶[19-20]: charging plug is connected to vehicle and supplying charge to the vehicle once vehicle authentication is completed).
Regarding claim 13, Spähn teaches the method of claim 11, wherein the allowing the charging of the charger by the charging server includes, by the charging server, processing payment for the charging according to the payment information of the user information matching the received PCID (¶0047: “user can then enter user information, such as personal data and payment information” which is processed by the server).
Regarding claim 14, Spähn teaches the method of claim 11, further including, by the charging server, allowing the charging of the charger connecting with the vehicle corresponding to the received PCID when the updated PCID is received again, after the updating the user information with the PCID by the charging server (¶0041 and 0045: The examiner interprets that when new data received, the system storing data inherently updates the old data and allows appropriate charging of the vehicle).
Regarding claim 15, Spähn teaches the method of claim 11, wherein the charging server is configured to receive the PCID or vehicle authentication information including the PCID of the vehicle connected to the charger from the vehicle, the external terminal or the charger (¶0034 and 0041: By downloading the app and registering a vehicle, the user can be authenticated and provided with a PCID).
Regarding claim 17, Spähn teaches the method of claim 11, wherein the charging server is configured to process payment for the charging according to the payment information of the user information including a same PCID as the received PCID (¶0047: via the communication unit 5, identification feature 3 is sent to the energy provider 7 where it is processed and information utilized for charging the vehicle 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 Peter Weinmann whose telephone number is (703)756-5964. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Julian Huffman, can be reached at (571) 272-2147. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/Ryu-Sung P. Weinmann/Examiner, Art Unit 2859 July 8, 2026
/JULIAN D HUFFMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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