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 12/17/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments on pages 7-8 with respect to claims 1 and 9 have been considered but are moot upon a further consideration and a new ground of rejection made under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Scrutchfield (US PGPub 2019/0310292).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Scrutchfield (US PGPub 2019/0310292).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Crutchfield teaches a multi-function energy meter apparatus (Crutchfield, see figure 3 and paragraph 0020, The photovoltaic supervisor system 106 is a computing system configured, by virtue of appropriate programming, to monitor the solar panel system 102 and perform one or more actions based on monitoring the solar panel system 102) comprising:
measurement circuitry configured to measure an energy-related parameter from a remote energy source and output the energy-related parameter (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0039, The power monitor 308 is configured for receiving, over time, measured values from the power meters 318, 320, and 322);
three network controllers, each operatively coupled to the measurement circuitry and configured to receive the energy-related parameter from the measurement circuitry and generate information related to the energy-related parameter (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, a ‘network controller’ is a communication interface, implemented in hardware and/or software, controlling input/output signals by encoding or decoding electronic messages through the communication interface (or the network controller). Without specific communication type or protocol disclosed within the claims, examiner considers ‘three network controllers’ as hardware/software network interfaces supporting signal input/output with any type of communication methods. Even though failing to expressly using the word ‘three network controller’, Crutchfield discloses that the data communication system 316 can include one or more of: a WiFi radio; a cellular radio; a mesh network radio; a wide area network (WAN) Ethernet port; an RS-485 port; a local area network (LAN) Ethernet port; and a power line communication (PLC) port. Therefore, Crutchfield discloses the data communication system 316 supporting various types of communication interfaces and corresponding network ports); and
three network ports operatively coupled to a respective one of the three network controllers, each network port being configured to connect to a respective local area network (LAN) and to communicate the information to the respective LAN (Crutchfield, see paragraphs 0035 and 0039, the data communication system 316 can include one or more of: a WiFi radio; a cellular radio; a mesh network radio; a wide area network (WAN) Ethernet port; an RS-485 port; a local area network (LAN) Ethernet port; and a power line communication (PLC) port. The power monitor 308 can present portions of data from the measured values, e.g., by … transmitting time series of measured values to remote systems using the data communications system 316).
Regarding claim 2, Crutchfield teaches wherein one of the three network ports is configured to:
communicatively connect to an expansion device having functionality to interpret the information as communicated via the network port (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Crutchfield teaches wherein:
the multi-function energy meter apparatus further includes a local clock (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, the data communication system 316 can include one or more of: a WiFi radio; a cellular radio; a mesh network radio; a wide area network (WAN) Ethernet port; an RS-485 port; a local area network (LAN) Ethernet port; and a power line communication (PLC) port); and
the one of the three network ports is further configured to synchronize the local clock with a remote clock of the expansion device to a precision within 1 millisecond (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Crutchfield teaches wherein the one of the three network ports is further configured to provide power to the expansion device over a power over Network connection (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
Regarding claim 5, Crutchfield teaches wherein the multi-function energy meter apparatus is configured to send code to the expansion device, the code being configured to expand the functionality of the expansion device (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Crutchfield teaches wherein:
the energy meter apparatus is configured to receive primary power via the measurement circuitry (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, the data communication system 316 can include one or more of: a WiFi radio; a cellular radio; a mesh network radio; a wide area network (WAN) Ethernet port; an RS-485 port; a local area network (LAN) Ethernet port; and a power line communication (PLC) port); and
one of the three network ports is configured to receive power over a Power over Network connection from the expansion device and to provide the power from the expansion device as backup power for the multi-function energy meter apparatus (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Crutchfield teaches wherein one of the three network ports is configured to receive power over a Power over Network connection and to provide the power from the expansion device as primary power for the multi-function energy meter apparatus (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Crutchfield teaches wherein communicating the energy-related parameters as measured to the respective LAN includes sending the energy-related parameters to the respective LAN using data link layer communication without using any network layer protocol (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, the data communication system 316 can include one or more of: a WiFi radio; a cellular radio; a mesh network radio; a wide area network (WAN) Ethernet port; an RS-485 port; a local area network (LAN) Ethernet port; and a power line communication (PLC) port).
Regarding claim 10, Crutchfield teaches wherein: the system further comprises an expansion device connected to one of the three independent ethernet ports via one of the ethernet-based LANs (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, the data communication system 316 can include one or more of: a WiFi radio; a cellular radio; a mesh network radio; a wide area network (WAN) Ethernet port; an RS-485 port; a local area network (LAN) Ethernet port; and a power line communication (PLC) port);
the expansion device having functionality to interpret the information as communicated via the network port (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
Regarding claim 12, Crutchfield teaches wherein the expansion device is further configured to:
receive a plurality of status input transitions from another device (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0039, The power monitor 308 is configured for receiving, over time, measured values from the power meters 318, 320, and 322); and
timestamp each of the plurality of status input transitions with reference to the remote clock (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0039, The power monitor 308 can present portions of data from the measured values, e.g., by displaying time series of measured values on the display 312 or transmitting time series of measured values to remote systems using the data communications system 316).
Regarding claim 13, Crutchfield teaches wherein the one of the three network ports is further configured to receive the plurality of timestamped status input transitions from the expansion device (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0039, The power monitor 308 can present portions of data from the measured values, e.g., by displaying time series of measured values on the display 312 or transmitting time series of measured values to remote systems using the data communications system 316).
Regarding claim 15, Crutchfield teaches wherein:
the multi-function energy meter apparatus is configured to send code to the expansion device (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters); and
the expansion device is configured to, in response to receiving the code from the multi-function energy meter apparatus, update the functionality of the multi-function energy meter apparatus (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
Regarding claims 19 and 20, Crutchfield teaches wherein:
the multi-function energy meter apparatus further includes a local clock (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, the data communication system 316 can include one or more of: a WiFi radio; a cellular radio; a mesh network radio; a wide area network (WAN) Ethernet port; an RS-485 port; a local area network (LAN) Ethernet port; and a power line communication (PLC) port); and
the one of the three independent network ports is further configured to synchronize the local clock with a remote clock of the expansion device to a precision within 100 nanoseconds (Crutchfield, see paragraph 0035, The system 106 can be configured to connect to inverter control systems (e.g., for microinverters) using, e.g., a PLC interface of the data communications system 316. The system 106 can push firmware upgrades to devices, e.g., inverters).
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 CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas R. Taylor can be reached at 571-272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/NICHOLAS R TAYLOR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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