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 Arguments
Applicant's arguments, filed 1/15/2026, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. See detailed rejection below.
In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
The Gadh reference is relied upon to teach an optimal charging scheme which takes into account allotted charging time and battery temperature, and can adapt to changes to continue operating optimally (see ¶[271] of Gadh).
The Nishijima reference is relied upon to teach temperature prediction and adjustment, as well as the effects of charging a battery outside the ideal temperature range. These teaches make it obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to adjust the temperature of the battery while charging.
The Gonzales reference is relied upon to teach the combination of Level 1, 2, and 3 chargers and their input ranges, which are well known in the art and can reasonably be combined with the other references.
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 82-86 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nishijima (JP 2016220310 A) in view of Gadh et al. (US 20130179061 A1).
Regarding Claim 82, Nishijima teaches a system comprising:
a charging station comprising a control unit (2) (¶[14] “The electric vehicle 1 is configured to be able to communicate with a charging station management center 2”);
and a temperature management system (12);
wherein the temperature management system comprises a temperature prediction unit (136) and a temperature adjustment unit (14);
wherein the charging station and the temperature management system coordinate with each other:
to monitor temperature of a battery pack of the connected charging system (¶[141] “The temperature adjusting unit 14 may be controlled in accordance with the actual temperature of the battery 11 measured by the temperature measuring unit 136A.”)
to predict the temperature of the battery pack of the connected charging system of the optimal charging scheme (¶[71] “if it is predicted that the temperature of the battery 11 at the scheduled arrival time will be higher than the upper limit value of the reference temperature range, the control unit 139 controls the temperature adjustment unit 14 so that the temperature of the battery 11 will be lowered ”, see also ¶[140] “when the electric vehicle is waiting to be charged, the temperature of the battery 11 at the start of charging is predicted based on the congestion status of the charging station, and the temperature of the battery 11 is adjusted according to that temperature”);
and wherein the temperature adjustment unit cools the connected charging system (¶[32] “The temperature adjustment unit 14 is composed of, for example, a fan that blows air onto the battery 11”).
Nishijima does not teach to extract a state-of-health information of a connected charging system
to determine an optimal charging scheme based on allotted time and first charging voltage to optimally charge the connected charging system; and
to ramp up charging of the connected charging system by the charging station for a first charging time;
and to activate the temperature adjustment unit when the temperature of the battery pack is above a threshold temperature during the ramp up charging to continue charging the connected charging system using the optimal charging scheme without damaging the battery pack.
Gadh teaches to extract a state-of-health information of a connected charging system (¶[271] “The WINSmartEV architecture takes into consideration power source/sink management optimization by taking into account variables such as: time of day, battery SOC, voltage, current, and temperature; and optimization algorithms that charge vehicles according to consumer scheduling, utility dynamic pricing, and battery health”);
to determine an optimal charging scheme based on allotted time and first charging voltage to optimally charge the connected charging system (see ¶[271] cited above, and Fig. 5 for allotted time); and
to ramp up charging of the connected charging system by the charging station for a first charging time (¶[239] “Once the vehicle and users are authorized, control center sends engage signal to the charger to activate charging. The smart meter or equivalent sensors on the charger continuously monitors the power consumption and sends real time data back to control center”);
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nishijima to incorporate the teachings of Gadh to provide
to extract a state-of-health information of a connected charging system
to determine an optimal charging scheme based on allotted time and first charging voltage to optimally charge the connected charging system; and
to ramp up charging of the connected charging system by the charging station for a first charging time;
in order to charge the battery quickly while avoiding damage.
Nishijima in view of Gadh does not explicitly teach to activate the temperature adjustment unit when the temperature of the battery pack is above a threshold temperature during the ramp up charging to continue charging the connected charging system using the optimal charging scheme without damaging the battery pack; however, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to cool the battery pack if it is above a threshold temperature to prevent deterioration during fast charging, as suggested by Nishijima (¶[3]).
Regarding Claim 83, Nishijima in view of Gadh teaches the system of claim 82.
Nishijima further teaches wherein the temperature adjustment unit comprises a cooling system (¶[32] “The temperature adjustment unit 14 is composed of, for example, a fan that blows air onto the battery 11”).
Regarding Claim 84, Nishijima in view of Gadh teaches the system of claim 82,
Nishijima further teaches wherein the temperature prediction unit is configured to monitor and predict the temperature of the battery pack of the connected charging system (¶[141] “The temperature adjusting unit 14 may be controlled in accordance with the actual temperature of the battery 11 measured by the temperature measuring unit 136A.”)
Regarding Claim 85, Nishijima in view of Gadh teaches the system of claim 82.
Nishijima in view of Gadh further teaches to alter the optimal charging scheme if the temperature is above the set threshold temperature to prevent damage to the battery pack (Gadh ¶[243] “A heuristic rule engine in the expert system of WINSmartEV enables rules that determine when to charge or backfill the battery on the vehicle automatically. Factors affecting such decisions include … battery temperature”, Nishijima ¶[3] “if rapid charging is performed when the battery temperature is outside the standard temperature range, the battery's performance may deteriorate. Therefore, it is not desirable to fast charge the battery when the battery temperature is outside the reference temperature range.”).
Regarding Claim 86, Nishijima in view of Gadh teaches system of claim 85.
Gadh further teaches wherein the charging scheme comprises a charging time (¶[60] “Users may set charging requirements for their vehicles, e.g. maximum time”), charging voltage, and voltage intervals;
and wherein a user defines the charging scheme (see ¶[60] quoted above and Fig. 5).
Claim(s) 87-93 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nishijima (JP 2016220310 A) in view of Gadh et al. (US 20130179061 A1) further in view of Gonzales et al. (US 20170028857 A1).
Regarding Claim 87, Nishijima in view of Gadh teaches the system of claim 85,
Gadh further teaches wherein the charging scheme further comprises a level 1 charging, a level 2 charging, a level 3 charging (¶[261] “these may include COTS chargers and WINSmartEV chargers and it can be level 1, level 2 and level 3 chargers”)
Nishijima in view of Gadh does not teach a combination of three of them.
Gonzales teaches a combination of three of them (¶[14] “The EVSE 16 may further be capable of providing different levels of AC and DC voltage including, but not limited to, Level 1 120 volt (V) AC charging, Level 2 240V AC charging, Level 1 200-450V and 80 amperes (A) DC charging, Level 2 200-450V and up to 200 A DC charging, Level 3 200-450V and up to 400 A DC charging”).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide a combination of three of them (Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 charging) so that the charging level which won’t damage the battery can be selected (it is well known in the art that Level 3 charging can reduce the health of a battery over time).
Regarding Claim 88, the combination of Nishijima, Gadh and Gonzales teaches the system of claim 87.
Gonzales further teaches wherein the level 1 charging comprises a trickle charging (¶[2] “The vehicle may be connected to an AC power grid and receive electric energy via AC Level 1 or AC Level 2 charging using a 120-volt (V) or 240V connection, respectively”; it is well known in the art that Level 1 charging is a slow charge).
Regarding Claim 89, the combination of Nishijima, Gadh and Gonzales teaches the system of claim 87.
Gonzales further teaches wherein the level 2 charging comprises a regular charging (¶[2] “The vehicle may be connected to an AC power grid and receive electric energy via AC Level 1 or AC Level 2 charging using a 120-volt (V) or 240V connection, respectively”; it is well known in the art that Level 2 charging is faster than Level 1 charging).
Regarding Claim 90, the combination of Nishijima, Gadh and Gonzales teaches the system of claim 87.
Gonzales further teaches wherein the level 3 charging comprises a fast charging (¶[2] “A connection to a DC charge-capable charging station may allow for recharging of the high voltage battery at various current rates, such as DC Level 1 200-450V/80 amperes (A), DC Level 2 200-450V/200 A, DC Level 3 200-450V/400 A, and so on. A DC charging session may, therefore, take less time to transfer the same amount of energy as compared with an AC charging session.”)
Regarding Claim 91, the combination of Nishijima, Gadh and Gonzales teaches the system of claim 88.
Gonzales further teaches wherein the trickle charging comprises an input voltage in a range between 120 volts to 208 volts alternating current (AC) (¶[2] “The vehicle may be connected to an AC power grid and receive electric energy via AC Level 1 or AC Level 2 charging using a 120-volt (V) or 240V connection, respectively”).
Regarding Claim 92, the combination of Nishijima, Gadh and Gonzales teaches the system of claim 89.
Gonzales further teaches wherein the regular charging comprises an input voltage in a range between 208 volts to 280 volts alternating current (AC) (¶[2] “The vehicle may be connected to an AC power grid and receive electric energy via AC Level 1 or AC Level 2 charging using a 120-volt (V) or 240V connection, respectively”).
Regarding Claim 93, the combination of Nishijima, Gadh and Gonzales teaches the system of claim 90.
Gonzales further teaches wherein the fast charging comprises an input voltage in a range between 400 volts to 900-volts direct current (DC) (¶[2] “A connection to a DC charge-capable charging station may allow for recharging of the high voltage battery at various current rates, such as DC Level 1 200-450V/80 amperes (A), DC Level 2 200-450V/200 A, DC Level 3 200-450V/400 A”).
Claim(s) 94-101 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gadh et al. (US 20130179061 A1) in view of Nishijima (JP 2016220310 A).
Regarding Claim 94, A method comprising:
extracting a state-of-health information of a connected charging system (¶[271] “The WINSmartEV architecture takes into consideration power source/sink management optimization by taking into account variables such as: time of day, battery SOC, voltage, current, and temperature; and optimization algorithms that charge vehicles according to consumer scheduling, utility dynamic pricing, and battery health”);
determining based on a first charging time and first charging voltage, an optimal charging scheme to optimally charge the connected charging system (see ¶[271] cited above, and Fig. 5 for allotted time);
ramp up charging of the connected charging system by a charging station for the first charging time (¶[239] “Once the vehicle and users are authorized, control center sends engage signal to the charger to activate charging. The smart meter or equivalent sensors on the charger continuously monitors the power consumption and sends real time data back to control center”);
and wherein a user allots the first charging time;
Gadh does not teach monitoring a temperature of a battery pack of the connected charging system;
predicting the temperature of the battery pack of the connected charging system of the optimal charging scheme;
and activating temperature adjustment to continue charging the connected charging system using the optimal charging scheme without damaging the battery pack, when the temperature of the battery pack of the connected charging system is above a threshold temperature during the ramping up of charging;
Nishijima teaches monitoring a temperature of a battery pack of the connected charging system (¶[141] “The temperature adjusting unit 14 may be controlled in accordance with the actual temperature of the battery 11 measured by the temperature measuring unit 136A.”)
predicting the temperature of the battery pack of the connected charging system of the optimal charging scheme (¶[71] “if it is predicted that the temperature of the battery 11 at the scheduled arrival time will be higher than the upper limit value of the reference temperature range, the control unit 139 controls the temperature adjustment unit 14 so that the temperature of the battery 11 will be lowered ”, see also ¶[140] “when the electric vehicle is waiting to be charged, the temperature of the battery 11 at the start of charging is predicted based on the congestion status of the charging station, and the temperature of the battery 11 is adjusted according to that temperature”);
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gadh to incorporate the teachings of Nishijima to provide monitoring a temperature of a battery pack of the connected charging system;
predicting the temperature of the battery pack of the connected charging system of the optimal charging scheme;
in order to prevent damage to the battery by rapidly charging it when the temperature is too high, as suggested by Nishijima (¶[3]).
Gadh in view of Nishijima does not explicitly teach activating temperature adjustment to continue charging the connected charging system using the optimal charging scheme without damaging the battery pack, when the temperature of the battery pack of the connected charging system is above a threshold temperature during the ramping up of charging; however, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to cool the battery pack if it is above a threshold temperature to prevent deterioration during fast charging, as suggested by Nishijima (¶[3]).
Regarding Claim 95, Gadh in view of Nishijima teaches the method of claim 94,.
Gadh further teaches wherein the user comprises a driver of a vehicle (¶[60] “Users may set charging requirements for their vehicles”).
Regarding Claim 96, Gadh in view of Nishijima teaches the method of claim 94.
further comprising splitting the first charging time into a charge interval based on the optimal charging scheme (¶[96] “Finally, during an "optimized" 314c charge, the charging may be optimized based on both system defined limits (charge acceptance capacity of the electric vehicle 304, charging limits and costs of the charging station 306, and user assigned values relating their time availability and cost of their time.)”; the charging session may be split into two more intervals depending on the cost of electricity, see also ¶[99]).
Regarding Claim 97, Gadh in view of Nishijima teaches the method of claim 94.
Gadh further teaches information of a location of the user to the charging station (¶[98] “a server 410 may push 412 the information on a real time basis based on the location of the EV monitored by the smart phone 402, and the cost of charging at that location. Such a data connection would require information regarding the location of the smart phone 402”).
Regarding Claim 98, Gadh teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a sequence of instructions, which when executed by a processor (¶[353] “these computer program instructions, such as embodied in computer-readable program code logic, may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable processing apparatus to function in a particular manner”) causes:
receiving state-of-health information from a connected charging system (¶[271] “The WINSmartEV architecture takes into consideration power source/sink management optimization by taking into account variables such as: time of day, battery SOC, voltage, current, and temperature; and optimization algorithms that charge vehicles according to consumer scheduling, utility dynamic pricing, and battery health”);
comparing the state-of-health information with optimal parameters (Fig. 5) to generate a comparative report and instructions (¶[96] “during an "optimized" 314c charge, the charging may be optimized based on both system defined limits (charge acceptance capacity of the electric vehicle 304, charging limits and costs of the charging station 306, and user assigned values relating their time availability and cost of their time.)”);
determining an optimal charging scheme based on a first charging time, the comparative report and a first charging voltage to optimally charge the connected charging system (see ¶[271] and ¶[96] quoted above];
ramping up charging of the connected charging system (¶[239] “Once the vehicle and users are authorized, control center sends engage signal to the charger to activate charging. The smart meter or equivalent sensors on the charger continuously monitors the power consumption and sends real time data back to control center”);
giving the instructions to a charging station, the connected charging system (see ¶[239] quoted above) to continue charging the connected charging system using the optimal charging scheme without damaging the battery pack;
and storing charging data of the connected charging system (database 118, see Fig. 1, ¶[58] “The Smart Energizing 108 module would communicate with database 118 containing information including, but not limited to: EV profiles, billing locations and schedules, and customer behavior data”).
Gadh does not teach giving the instructions to a temperature management system to continue charging the connected charging system using the optimal charging scheme without damaging the battery pack, when temperature is above or below a threshold temperature while ramping up charging;
Nishijima teaches giving the instructions to a temperature management system (12),
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Gadh to incorporate the teachings of Nishijima to provide giving the instructions to a temperature management system, in order to prevent damage to the battery by rapidly charging it when the temperature is too high, as suggested by Nishijima (¶[3]).
Nishijima in view of Gadh does not teach giving the instructions to a temperature management system to continue charging the connected charging system using the optimal charging scheme without damaging the battery pack, when temperature is above or below a threshold temperature while ramping up charging; however, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to cool the battery pack if it is above a threshold temperature to prevent deterioration during fast charging, as suggested by Nishijima (¶[3]).
Regarding Claim 99, Gadh in view of Nishijima teaches the non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 98.
Gadh further teaches causing altering the optimal charging scheme on basis of at least a second charging time, a charge interval, and change in voltage parameters (¶[255] “He was notified by an alert message sent to his mobile device at 1 pm that now, due to the peak power demands, his battery charging needs to be interrupted for about 15 min and his battery is now charged at 55% full”).
Regarding Claim 100, Gadh in view of Nishijima teaches the non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 98.
Gadh further teaches causing generating a warning message based on a signal (see ¶[255] cited above).
Regarding Claim 101, Gadh in view of Nishijima teaches the non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 100.
Gadh further teaches wherein the signal is based on the optimal charging scheme being altered (¶[255] “The user also specified that the maximum acceptable rate for the electricity is 20 cents per kW and he does not care about when his EV should be charged as long as the first priority is met. He was notified by an alert message sent to his mobile device at 1 pm that now, due to the peak power demands, his battery charging needs to be interrupted for about 15 min and his battery is now charged at 55% full”), the temperature of the battery pack being outside the threshold temperature, the state-of-health information of the battery pack of the connected charging system.
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.
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/A.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2859
/JULIAN D HUFFMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859