DAILED 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 . The instant application with Application Number 18/006,522 filed on 03/02/2023 is presented for examination. As per the preliminary amendments of 03/02/2023, claims 1-14 have been cancelled; claims 15-28 are newly added. Applicant further amended Figs 1-7 to include labels and /or legend, consistent with the specification.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statements dated 1/23/2023, 3/18/2024 and 10/01/2025 are acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: “… power transfer and/or signal transfer… wireless and/or wired…” on lines 3, 4 and 5. It’s not clear whether the limitations after the conjunctions ‘and/or’ have to be considered as part of the claim limitations or not. For examination purpose, examiner considered the broader recitation of “or”. Claims 27, 28 and all other dependent claims contain similar expression separated by ‘and/or’ expressions. Appropriate correction or explanation is required.
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 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 present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 15-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim (US 2019/0184849) in view of Hashimoto (US 2014/0109556).
With respect to claims 15, 23, 27 and 28, Lim discloses a charging cable for electrically connecting an energy store to be charged of a hybrid vehicle or electric vehicle to an energy supply unit providing electrical energy (Fig.1 cable 50 and EV 10’s battery; Para. # 0014 and 0019), the charging cable comprising: a charging line including a coupling and multiple electrical conductors electrically connected to the coupling for power transfer and/or signal transfer (Figs.3,4 connectors 54 and 52 Fig. 8a, 52);
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a first connection device including an energy transfer arrangement configured for indirectly or directly detachable wireless and/or wired electrical connection to the energy store (Para. # 0077: The CP signal may be a signal for requesting start or stop of power transfer or for controlling electrical energy), the energy transfer arrangement including contacts or induction coils (Fig. 8a, contacts 1 and 2);
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a second connection device including a first connection configured for indirectly or directly detachable wireless and/or wired electrical connection to the energy supply unit (Fig. 8a, contacts 1-5; to Para. # 0077: the CP signal is generated by a CP generator in the EVSE 20 or the charging cable 50 and may be transferred passing through a pilot function controller of the charging cable 50) and to a second connection for detachable electrical connection to the coupling (Fig. 8a, Inlet 1-4 on the vehicle side to the charging cable 50 through 1-2); wherein respectively one electrical conductor of the electrical conductor of the charging line being assigned to each of the contacts or induction coils (Fig. 8a, contacts 1-4); wherein the first connection device includes a control unit (Fig. 8a, 130; Para. # 77: the charging cable 50 and may be transferred passing through a pilot function controller of the charging cable 50); wherein the
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first connection device or the charging line include a switch, the switch being switchable between a first switching state and a second switching state as a function of a type of the second connection device (Para. # 0018/0087: the charging device of an electric vehicle, the relay control unit may switch off the first relay and the second relay after switching).
Lim, however, does not expressly disclose electrical connection is established by the bypass switch between contacts of a conductor.
Hashimoto, on the other hand, discloses a bypass switch established by the bypass switch to establish electrical connection between contacts of a conductor (See reproduced Fig. 3 below; Para. # 105, SW 1: a bypass switch S1# for electrically connecting the primary side and secondary side of the insulating transformer 330 is provided in the DC/DC converter 320 in the charger 300. The bypass switch S1# is switched ON/OFF in response to the control signal SE1 from the ECU 200, in the same manner as the bypass switch S1 shown in FIG. 3. Similarly to the bypass switch S1, the bypass switch S1# can be configured by any switching device.
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LIM and Hashimoto are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely charging device for electrical vehicle and Hybrid vehicle.
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have added a bypass switch as in an S1# for electrically connecting the primary side and secondary side of the insulating transformer 330 described in Hashimoto in view of Lim that the switched ON/OFF of the bypass switch in response to the control signal SE1 from the ECU 200, in the same manner as the bypass switch S1 shown in FIG. 3 (depicted above), and the bypass switch S1# can be configured by any switching device for efficient use of rerouting electrical or network traffic around a device, acting as a failsafe for maintenance, upgrades, or failures, ensuring continuous operation for critical systems in the vehicle.
With respect to claims 16 and 17, the combined references of Lim and Hashimoto discloses the charging cable as described above, Hashimoto further discloses wherein: the charging line including an additional coupling, the electrical conductors extend continuously between the coupling and the additional coupling for power transfer arrangement and/or of the control unit and/or of the bypass switch to the electrical conductors of the charging line (Para. # 106/9: the bypass switch S1# is connected between the power line 353 connected to the secondary coil 332 and the power line 354 connected to the primary coil 334. Alternatively, the bypass switch S1# may be connected between the power line GL1 and the power line GL3).
With respect to claims 18 and 19, the combined references of Lim and Hashimoto discloses the charging cable as described above, Hashimoto further discloses wherein: (i) the bypass switch is switched in a presence of a supply voltage into the second switching state and into the first switching state in an absence of a supply voltage, and/or (ii) the bypass switch is switchable by the control unit between the first switching state and the second switching state (Para. # 105: the bypass switch S1# is switched ON/OFF in response to the control signal SE1 from the ECU 200, in the same manner as the bypass switch S1 shown in FIG. 3. Similarly to the bypass switch S1, the bypass switch S1# can be configured by any switching device).
With respect to claims 20 and 21, the combined references of Lim and Hashimoto discloses the charging cable as described above, Lim further discloses wherein the second connection device includes a switch unit, via which an electrical connection between the energy supply unit and the second connection is activatable or reactivatable, the switch unit being controllable by the control unit, to control the charging process (Par. # 108: the charger 300 can energize the EHC 140 by the power from the power storage device 70 after the EHC 140 has been electrically insulated from the power storage device 70, and providing the bypass switch S1#).
With respect to claims 22 and 25-26, the combined references of Lim and Hashimoto discloses the charging cable as described above, Lim further discloses wherein the first connection device includes: a communication unit including a radio communication interface, and/or a display module and/or input module for inputting a desired charge current intensity, and/or an energy measuring module configured to ascertain, an electrical energy that has flowed through the charging cable, and/or an authentication module configured for authenticating in the energy supply unit (Para. # 80: each of the EV and the EVSE may include a PLC chip and perform power line communication (PLC) through the PLC chip).
With respect to claim 24, the combined references of Lim and Hashimoto discloses the charging cable as described above, Hashimoto further discloses wherein the temperature monitoring module includes an evaluation circuit, which is connected to at least one temperature sensor situated in the second connection device, the evaluation circuit providing a status signal, as a function of an ascertained temperature, which is transmitted via an electrical conductor to the control unit, so that power input from the energy supply unit is reduced or interrupted using the control unit as a function of the status signal (Para. # 45-47 par.47: the CPU is configured to perform computational processing using the detection values from various sensors; and The EHC 140 is required to be energized according to the catalyst temperature. For example, the EHC 140 is required to be energized when the catalyst temperature is, lower than a predetermined temperature as the vehicle operation is started or when the vehicle runs).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YALKEW FANTU whose telephone number is (571)272-8928. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DREW A DUNN can be reached at 571-272-2312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859