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 on 12/08/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-52 have been cancelled. Claims 53-72 remain pending in this application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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) 53-57, 62, 64-72 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. US Pub 2020/0254896 (hereinafter Lee) in view of Uchida (US Pub 2009/0326749).
Regarding claims 53, 64 and 68, Lee discloses a system comprising:
a charging station (fig. 1, element 112; charging stations) configured to charge an electric vehicle (fig. 1, element 118; EVs),
wherein the charging station (fig. 1, element 112; one or more charging stations) comprises:
a control unit (¶ 0048 and claim 1; the adaptive EV charging platform is configured to control charging of EVs based upon the plurality of EV charging parameters collected from at least one EVSE) configured to establish a connection between the charging station and a vehicle computer system (¶ 0043; electric vehicles 118 can connect to the charging station and request charging);
receive a message comprising a charging time from the vehicle computer system (claim 11; receiving an EV request for charging, determine an amount of energy and a duration for delivering the amount of energy to the EV, optimize time-varying charging rate based on time of day and electric system load); and
communicate a signal to a charger unit to determine a charging sequence to provide optimal ramp-up charging (deliver optimum charge to the EV) to the battery pack at a rate within the charging time to prevent damage to the battery pack (claim 11 and ¶ 0105; given an energy delivered and a duration of the stay, the minimum total battery capacity is to be calculated such that it is feasible to deliver the requested energy within the specified duration when charging at maximum rate),
wherein the charging sequence comprises a combination of at least one of a level 1 charging, a level 2 charging, and a level 3 charging (claim 11; optimizing time-varying charging rate based on time of day…deliver optimum charge to the EV); and
wherein the charging time is a time allocated for charging the battery pack (¶ 0105; deliver the requested energy within the specified duration).
Lee fails to teach the system comprising: the control unit configured to extract state-of-health information of a battery pack through the vehicle computer system via the connection established.
Uchida further discloses a system includes a degradation assessment device assesses a degradation state of power storage device using data collected when electric power is supplied and received between the power storage and the power supply or electrical load located outside the vehicle in ¶¶ 0011, 0018.
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee to incorporate with the teaching of Uchida by including the degradation assessment device in the system, because it would be advantageous to monitor the degradation of the battery pack to anticipate when the battery might fail and further prevent overheating the battery pack.
Regarding claim 54, Lee discloses wherein the charging station further comprises: the charger unit (EVSE 212); a charger point (fig. 2, charging station with charging plug); a power distribution network (fig. 1, element 110); and
an artificial intelligence unit (¶¶ 0024, 0037, 0070, 0072, 0084; machine learning).
Regarding claim 55, Lee discloses wherein the charger unit is configured to:
receive energy from an energy source (¶ 0043 and fig. 1, elements 114 and 116);
receive the signal from the control unit (¶ 0046; the adaptive EV charging application 209 can provide a charging control routine to the EVSE); and
convert the energy based on charging requirements of the electric vehicle in accordance with the signal received from the control unit (¶ 0046; calculate charging parameter).
Regarding claim 56, Lee in view of Uchida does not teach wherein the message comprises 8 bits. However, to choose an 8-bits message, absent any criticality, is only considered to be the “optimum” value of the message, as stated above, that a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been able to determine using routine experimentation based, among other things, on the desired accuracy and since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. See In re Boesch, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980) and MPEP 2144.04 and 2144.05.
Regarding claim 57, Lee discloses wherein the message comprises at least one of a vehicle identification (ID) (fig. 8: userID), battery mapping information, location of the electric vehicle, distance between the charging station and the electric vehicle, location of an external device of a user, and distance between the charging station and the external device.
Regarding claim 62, Lee discloses wherein the battery pack comprises at least one of a first battery (¶ 0094), a second battery, and a third battery.
Regarding claim 65, Lee in view of Uchida teaches wherein the external device is configured to receive the update to the state-of-health information from a vehicle computer system (Uchida, ¶ 0011); and communicate the update to the state-of-health information to the charging station (Uchida, ¶ 0016).
Regarding claim 66, Lee discloses wherein the external device is configured to establish the connection with a vehicle computer system (¶ 0043; electric vehicles 118 can connect to the charging station and request charging).
Regarding claims 67 and 69, Lee discloses wherein the connection is configured to establish a two-way communication between the charging station and the external device (¶ 0017, 0104).
Regarding claim 70, Lee discloses wherein the charging time comprises a combination of at least one of a first charging time segment (¶ 0104; data pre-processing), a second charging time segment, and a third charging time segment.
Regarding claim 71, Lee discloses wherein the charging sequence comprises a combination of at least one of the level 1 charging that corresponds to a first charging time segment, the level 2 charging that corresponds to a second charging time segment, and the level 3 charging that corresponds to a third charging time segment (¶ 0100; charging signal).
Regarding claim 72, Lee discloses wherein the charging sequence comprises a combination of at least one of the level 1 charging that corresponds to a first portion, the level 2 charging that corresponds to a second portion, and the level 3 charging that corresponds to a third portion (¶ 0100; charging signal).
Claim(s) 58-61, 63 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Uchida as applied to claim 57 above, and further in view of Tae et al. US Pub 2008/0054850 (hereinafter Tae).
Regarding claim 58, Lee in view of Uchida discloses wherein the battery mapping information indicates a first portion, a second portion, and a third portion of the battery pack.
Tae further discloses wherein the battery mapping information indicates a first portion (fig. 1, element 2a), a second portion (fig. 1, element 2b), and a third portion of the battery pack (2c).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Uchida to incorporate with the teaching of Tae by dividing a battery pack into sub-packs, because it would be advantageous to improve thermal management and further increase charging and discharging efficiency.
Regarding claim 59, Lee in view of Uchida fails to teach wherein the battery mapping information comprises information regarding number of batteries in the battery pack.
Tae further discloses teach wherein the battery mapping information comprises information regarding number of batteries in the battery pack (fig. 1, elements 2a-2h).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Lee in view of Uchida to incorporate with the teaching of Tae by labeling the sub-packs of the battery pack, because it would be advantageous to identify one or more defective sub-packs.
Regarding claim 60, Lee in view of Uchida and further in view of Tae teaches wherein the battery pack comprises an individual battery comprising a plurality of cells (Tae, fig. 1 and ¶ 0014).
Regarding claim 61, Lee in view of Uchida and further in view of Tae teaches wherein a first portion of the battery pack comprises a first plurality of cells among the plurality of cells of the battery pack (Tae, fig. 1 and ¶ 0043).
Regarding claim 63, Lee in view of Uchida and further in view of Tae teaches wherein a first portion of the battery pack comprises a plurality of cells from a combination of at least one of the first battery, the second battery, and the third battery (Tae, fig. 1, elements 2a-2h).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 53-72 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 ZIXUAN ZHOU whose telephone number is (571)272-6739. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
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/ZIXUAN ZHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859 12/22/2025