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 . As per the remarks of 12/23/2025, claims 1-18 are amended. Applicant further amended the title of the specification as per the previous objection to it. The amendment to the title is found persuasive; hence the objection to the specification has been withdrawn.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statement dated 10/15/2025 is acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
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 1, 10, 12,14-16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thomas et al. (US 2002/0079865) in view of Sakai (US 2013/0257359).
With respect to claims 1 and 14, Thomas et al. (hereinafter, Thomas) discloses a first photoelectric coupler (Para. # 0090: Opto-coupler 7 includes a receiving element, such as a phototransistor 8 and a transmitting element, such as an LED), a first switch, a first voltage stabilizer diode (Para. # 0017 an d0018; Fig. 4A, 40: Zener diode with a function of voltage regulation and circuit protection); and a control circuit (Fig. 2, 23/22); wherein the first photoelectric coupler is configured to electrically connect a first terminal of an external port of the electrochemical device (Fig. 8, opto-coupler 7 connected to control 6, smart circuit), a cathode of the first voltage stabilizing diode (Fig. 4A, 40; or Fig. 6, 2) is electrically connected to the first terminal of the external port (Paras. 184 and 198: source terminal of the MOSFET switch is electrically coupled to a second external lead 259 extending away from the regulator 244);the first switch and the control circuit (Fig. 2, 23/22); a first terminal of the first switch is grounded, a second terminal of the first switch is electrically connected to a second terminal of the external port (see Para. # 104: ground path for the circuit),
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a third terminal of the first switch is electrically connected to the first photoelectric coupler (See the third connection of the MOSFET 8, where the third terminal, the gate (G) connected to the opto-coupler), and the first switch is configured to be
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turned on when the external port is connected to the charger (see Para. # 0010, 100 and 150); and when the external port is connected to the charger, the first photoelectric coupler is turned on and outputs a first signal to the control circuit (Para. # 225).
THOMAS, however, does not expressly disclose a photo-coupler in the charger detection system. Sakai discloses, on the other hand, the photo-coupler in the charger detection system (Para. # 0044, 0046).
THOMAS and Sakai are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely charger and charging protection system for the rechargeable batteries.
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 or replace the opto-coupler with a photo-coupler as photo-coupler mainly used as a switching device to transfer signal to use the charger with proper charging current/voltage effectively recharge the rechargeable batteries to improve the battery life to the device for protection circuit of THOMAS in view of the teachings of Sakai.
With respect to claims 10 and 15-16, the combined references of Thomas and Sakai disclose the circuit as described above, Thomas further discloses comprising a first filter circuit; the first filter circuit is configured to filter a signal output by the first photoelectric coupler and then output the filtered signal to a first pin of the control circuit; the first filter circuit comprises a first resistor and a first capacitor, a first terminal of the first resistor is electrically connected to the first terminal of the first photosensitive element, a second terminal of the first resistor is electrically connected to the first pin of the control circuit, and the first pin of the control circuit is grounded through the first capacitor (see Fig. 8, Para. # 173: opto-coupler with resistors-capacitor circuit elements to filter signal for the right frequency. Besides that, it also used to control circuit behavior).
With respect to claim 12, the combined references of Thomas and Sakai disclose the circuit as described above, Thomas further discloses wherein the first switch is an NPN-type triode; the first terminal, the second terminal and the third terminal of the first switch are respectively a base electrode, an emitting electrode and a collecting electrode of the NPN-type triode (Para. # 147 and 152).
With respect to claim 18, the combined references of Thomas and Sakai disclose the circuit as described above, Thomas further discloses the switch module is electrically connected in a power supply loop connected to the battery cell unit; and the external port, and the switch module is configured to control the turn-on or cut-off of the power supply loop (Para. # 0054 and 0059).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 5 and 17 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, including overcoming the objection or/and rejection sated above. Claims 3, 4, 13; and 6-9 and 11 are depend on the above objected claims of 2 and 5 above.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's amendments and arguments filed in the remarks of 12/23/2025 have been considered but are not persuasive to overcome the rejections based on the references described (see the above office action).
Applicant argues that neither of the cited references disclose “… a voltage stabilizer diode having a cathode electrically connected to the first terminal of the external port…” As currently indicated above, in Thomas reference, and in different paragraphs, such as 179, the Zener diode, well known for stabilizing voltage and ideal for voltage regulation and circuit protection, The Zener diode 220 effectively clamps the gate voltage of the FET 214, allowing the voltage across the battery 222 to increase and directing more current to the battery 222; and V.sub.gs can be adjusted to obtain clamp performance and/or clamp the voltage at 206. It’s also electrically connected to terminal of the external connection or port. As source terminal of the MOSFET switch is electrically coupled to a second external lead 259 extending away from the regulator.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 extension fee 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.
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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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859