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
Acknowledgement is made of the amendment filed on 10/15/2025 in which claims 1-13 were amended. No claims were canceled or added, therefore claims 1-15 are pending for examination below.
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) 1-7 and 9-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mikalsen [US 2020/0406765] in view of Garcia [ES 2534256].
With respect to claim 1, Mikalsen discloses an offshore charging station for a water vessel at least partially electrically driven [Figs 2-4], comprising: one or more chargers including or at least coupled with one or more charging interfaces to couple with said water vessel at least partially electrically driven to provide an unidirectional/bidirectional power flow [par. 0025-0026, 0030], wherein at least one said charger is selected from the group consisting of AC chargers, DC chargers, inductive chargers, capacitive charges, magnetodynamic chargers, or combinations thereof [par. 0028], an offshore charging station supporting construction supporting mainly, but not exclusively said offshore charging station [as illustrated in figs 3B and 4], however while Mikalsen discloses the offshore stations comprising work/accommodation facilities he fails to explicitly state said offshore charging station further comprises: a shopping facility or recreational facility, or both [offshore charging stations include at least work facilities and accommodation facilities].
Garcia relates to a floating marine installation and teaches including a shopping facility [see at least Fig. 16]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to modify Mikalsen such that the oil rigs/offshore stations included a shopping facility for the benefit of providing resources/entertainment to the people aboard the offshore stations and removed from land/population.
With respect to claim 2, Mikalsen further discloses configured to enable static/dynamic wireless charging/discharging using a wireless charging system, wherein at least one said wireless charging system is selected from the group consisting of inductive charging systems, capacitive charging systems, magnetodynamic charging systems, or combinations thereof [par. 0028].
With respect to claim 3, Mikalsen further discloses comprising: one or more charging interface mounts, wherein at least one said charging interface mount is selected from the group consisting of static mounts, dynamic arms, robotic arms, drones, robots, dynamic mounts, floats, level adjustable floats, bottom rest supporting constructions, level adjustable bottom rest supporting constructions, or combinations thereof, wherein said static mount holds said charging interface in a position, and wherein said dynamic arm, said robotic arm, said drone, said robot, said dynamic mount are able to delocalize said charging interface to enable charging/discharging, and wherein said float, said level adjustable float, said bottom rest supporting construction, said level adjustable bottom rest supporting construction support said charging interface [par. 0028, Fig 3b].
With respect to claim 4, Mikalsen further discloses comprising: a marine engineering construction supporting at least one element of said offshore charging station and further characterized by its constructional type, wherein at least one said constructional type is selected from the group consisting of platforms, walls, columns, beams, roofs, or combinations thereof [see figs 3b and 4].
With respect to claim 5, Mikalsen further discloses comprising: an operational security control element operable at said offshore charging station, wherein at least one said operational security control element is selected from the group consisting of security cameras, security control circuits, control elements operable to interrupt power supplies, or combinations thereof [par. 0038].
With respect to claim 6, Mikalsen further discloses comprising: a thermal management system to thermally manage charging/discharging, wherein at least one said thermal management system is selected from the group consisting of air tempering systems, liquid tempering systems, liquid tempering systems using offshore water as a thermal medium, or combinations thereof [par. 0032; i.e. power transfer cable extend through the water/liquid].
With respect to claim 7, Mikalsen further discloses comprising: a marine attachment operable at said offshore charging station, wherein at least one said marine attachment is selected from the group consisting of antennas, navigational aid constructions, recording instruments, mooring attachments, or combinations thereof [414].
With respect to claim 9, Mikalsen further discloses wherein said offshore charging station is provided as part of an offshore charging system characterized in that it comprises: said water vessel at least temporarily coupled to at least one of said one or more charging interfaces [fig. 3b and 4]; an offshore power cable to provide said offshore charging station with an unidirectional/bidirectional power flow and coupled with a power source [412], wherein at least one said power source is selected from the group consisting of onshore power sources, offshore power sources, arrays of solar cells, fuel cells, wind energy to electric energy converters, wave energy to electric energy converters, water currents energy to electric energy converters, tidal energy to electric energy converters, motor generators, smart grids, or combinations thereof, and wherein at least one said offshore charging station supporting construction is selected from the group consisting of floats, level adjustable floats, bottom rest supporting constructions, level adjustable bottom rest supporting constructions, or combinations thereof [Fig. 4].
With respect to claim 10, Mikalsen further discloses characterized in that it provides at least one data transmission selected from the group consisting of wired data transmissions, wireless data transmissions, or combinations thereof, wherein said data transmission is in relation with charging/discharging said water vessel at least partially electrically driven [414/416].
With respect to claim 11, Mikalsen further discloses wherein said offshore charging station is provided as part of a cloud-based communication system, characterized in that it comprises: one or more communication nodes, wherein at least one said communication node is selected from the group consisting of operators, said offshore charging stations, said water vessels at least partially electrically driven, marine rechargeable power sources, or combinations thereof; a cloud, wherein said communication node is in wired/wireless communication with said cloud [par. 0037, 0039], and wherein said marine rechargeable power source is characterized in that it comprises: a rechargeable power source; a source management system to manage charging/discharging said rechargeable power source; a container containing at least said rechargeable power source, wherein at least one said container is selected from the group consisting of buoyant containers, nonbuoyant containers, mobile containers, or combinations thereof, said marine rechargeable power source further characterized in that it provides at least one data transmission selected from the group consisting of wired data transmissions, wireless data transmissions, or combinations thereof, wherein said data transmission is in relation with charging/discharging said rechargeable power source and/or said water vessel at least partially electrically driven and/or with a power transfer between said water vessel at least partially electrically driven and said rechargeable power source [note Mikalsen discloses offshore charging stations from the group and therefore the marine rechargeable power sources are not required and the limitations further defining the marine rechargeable power source do not add patentable weight].
With respect to claim 12, Mikalsen further discloses wherein said offshore charging station is provided as part of a hydrogen powering system, characterized in that it comprises: a hydrogen production system to produce hydrogen in a functional connection with said offshore charging station, wherein at least one said hydrogen production system is selected from the group consisting of electrolysis systems, hydrocarbons reforming systems, alcohols reforming systems, sugars reforming systems, chemical processing systems, biological processing systems, biomass processing systems, thermal processing systems, photo processing systems, metal and water systems, or combinations thereof, a hydrogen storage system to store at least partially hydrogen produced by said hydrogen production system, wherein at least one said hydrogen storage system is selected from the group consisting of compressed gas systems, liquified gas systems, chemical systems, electrochemical systems, physi-sorption systems, nanomaterial systems, intercallation in metals systems, intercallation in hydrides systems, inorganic gaseous systems, inorganic liquids systems, inorganic solids systems, organic gaseous systems, organic liquids systems, organic solids systems, or combinations thereof [par. 0025, 0041-0042; note systems that include hydrogen energy conversion systems implicitly include storage for the fuel/hydrogen].
With respect to claim 13, Mikalsen further discloses wherein said offshore charging station is provided as part of a marine fueling system to provide a marine fuel in a functional connection with said offshore charging station, the system characterized in that it comprises: a fuel dispenser; a fuel storage system; a fueling line system, wherein said fueling line system transfers said marine fuel from said fuel storage system to said fuel dispenser [par. 0025, 0042; “refuel” also note fuel cell batteries].
With respect to claim 14, Mikalsen as applied above further discloses an offshore swapping method, the method comprising the steps of: bringing by a water vessel at least partially electrically driven a first marine rechargeable power source within an operational range of an offshore charging station according to one of the preceding claims; swapping said first marine rechargeable power source for a second marine rechargeable power source provided by said offshore charging station [par. 0031, 0033, 0036-0037, 0055].
With respect to claim 15, Mikalsen further discloses an offshore servicing method, the method comprising the steps of: providing a facility service by an offshore charging station according to one of the claims 1 to 13; providing charging/discharging said water vessel at least partially electrically driven, wherein the steps can be interchanged and/or repeated [Fig. 4; i.e. multiple vessels].
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mikalsen [US 2020/0406765] and Garcia [ES 2534256] as applied above and further in view of Zu et al. [US 12,286,026].
With respect to claim 8, Mikalsen fails to disclose a payment system for the recharging operations. However, such a concept is well-known in the art of battery charging/power delivery. For example, Zu relates to a vehicle charging payment system and teaches a payment terminal enabling at least one payment selected from the group consisting of online payments, cash payments, mobile payments, chip card payments, magnetic stripe card payments, or combinations thereof, wherein an acceptation of said payment via said payment terminal is in relation with functioning of said charger and/or of said facility [abstract, fig. 7].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to modify Mikalsen to incorporate a payment system as taught by Zu for the benefit of capitalizing/monetizing the recharging operations to the vessels for the cost of the recharging energy provided.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/15/2025 have been fully considered but they are moot as a new rejection in view of Garcia is provided above.
The Examiner further notes that the Applicant repeatedly argues that every single feature of the claims is not met, for example, every single listed possibility from the groups. It is noted that when the claim says “at least one”, that only one such feature needs to be disclosed by the prior art and not every listed feature.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 NATHANIEL R PELTON whose telephone number is (571)270-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am to 5pm.
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/NATHANIEL R PELTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859