DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Remarks
2. Applicant’s amendments submitted on 12/22/25 have been received. Claims 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, 25, and 26 have been amended. Claims 1-7 have been cancelled.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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.
4. 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.
5. Claim(s) 8-13 and 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (CN105977553) as cited in IDS dated 8/15/24 and 9/6/24 with citations from machine translation provided with previous Office Action, in view of Kurimoto (US 2013/0090872) as cited in IDS dated 12/21/22, in further view of Tzivanopoulos et al. (US 9,091,737), in further view of Yamauchi et al. (US 2013/0018610) as cited in IDS dated 12/21/22.
Regarding claim 8, Li discloses an energy storage system for reusing unopened second life electric vehicle batteries(abstract, [0021]), comprising: a plurality of electric vehicle batteries(used electric vehicle battery 1-1, Fig. 1, [0047]); a plurality of control units each operably coupled to an electric vehicle battery of the plurality of electric vehicle batteries(energy storage unit monitoring system 1-2, Fig. 1, [0047]); wherein a first electric vehicle battery of the plurality of electric vehicle batteries has a different battery configuration than a second electric vehicle battery of the plurality of electric vehicle batteries(various manufacturers [0069]); a central controller operably coupled to each of the plurality of control units(network level energy storage system monitoring platform 5, Fig. 1, [0047]); wherein the central controller is configured to: receive a first signal from a first control unit coupled to the first electric vehicle battery and a second signal from a second control unit coupled to the second electric vehicle battery(Fig. 1); determine a status of the first electric vehicle battery based on the received first signal and a status of the second electric vehicle battery based on the received second signal(if the consistency is good, it will directly cooperate with the PCS to form a cost saving energy storage unit [0023]); wherein the status of the first electric vehicle battery is based on a voltage associated with the first electric vehicle battery and the status of the second electric vehicle battery is based on a voltage associated with the second electric vehicle battery ([0023]) but does not explicitly disclose impedance associated with the first electric vehicle battery and impedance associated with the second electric vehicle battery.
Kurimoto teaches a battery management system, a battery management apparatus, a method of reusing battery, and an information communication terminal apparatus, more particularly to a battery management system, a battery management apparatus, a method of reusing battery, and an information communication terminal apparatus, wherein states of a battery mounted on a vehicle or a large home electric appliance are checked and used to decide a method of reusing the battery ([0002]). Kurimoto teaches the maintenance and management method, data of the secondary battery, such as temperature, voltage, impedance, and charge/discharge current, are detected and transferred to a server by a communication tool ([0005]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use in the energy storage system of Li, impedance associated with the first electric vehicle battery and impedance associated with the second electric vehicle battery as taught by Kurimoto as such data are detected and transferred to a server by a communication tool.
Continuing with claim 8, modified Li discloses determine an operating condition of the first electric vehicle battery based on the status of the first electric vehicle battery and the status of the second electric vehicle battery (Li [0023], [0073], Kurimoto [0005]); and send, responsive to the operating condition, a control signal to the first control unit coupled to the first electric vehicle battery(Li [0023], [0073], Fig. 1), but does not explicitly disclose the control signal causes the first control unit to operate internal contactors of the first electric vehicle battery to remotely turn the first electric vehicle battery on or off.
Tzivanopoulos teaches a battery system comprising: a high voltage network including a battery module , the battery module having a plurality of battery cells connected in series and a plurality of cell monitoring units configured to measure battery voltages of the battery cells in response to a first control signal; and a low voltage network including a BCU, the BCU configured to determine a state of charge of the battery cells and the BCU having: a microcontroller; and a nanocontroller directly connected to the plurality of cell monitoring units and operatively connected to the microcontroller via an isolator and configured to: generate the first control signal, transmit the first control signal to the cell monitoring units, receive the battery voltages of the battery cells from the cell monitoring units, and provide the battery voltages to the microcontroller(claim 1). Tzivanopoulos teaches the microcontroller 15 is connected to two main contactors 16-1 and 16-2, which, in response to a control signal of the microcontroller 15, disconnect the battery cells 11-1 to 11-n or connect them to a load(Fig. 1, Col. 1, lines 66-67 to Col. 2, lines 1-2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the energy storage system of modified Li with the control signal causes the first control unit to operate internal contactors of the first electric vehicle battery to turn the first electric vehicle battery on or off as taught by Tzivanopoulos as applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results. MPEP 2143.
Continuing with claim 8, modified Li does not explicitly disclose remotely turn the first electric vehicle battery on or off.
Yamauchi teaches a secondary battery module, a battery information management device, a battery information management system, a secondary battery reuse system, a secondary battery recovery and sales system, a secondary battery reuse method, and a secondary battery recovery and sales method, which are suitable for a vehicle or an industrial application([0003]). Yamauchi teaches the battery module communications unit 24 of the battery controller 2 is connected to the battery information R/W terminal 15 of the secondary battery module 1 by use of wired signals as shown in FIG. 4 and the like and in a modified example of the embodiment, they are mutually connected by use of wireless signals([0091]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the energy storage system of modified Li with wireless signals as taught by Yamauchi as applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results. MPEP 2143.
Regarding claim 9, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to switch the first electric vehicle battery from a first operational mode to a second operational mode based on the control signal while the first electric vehicle battery remains unopened (Li, control strategies [0073], [0021]).
Regarding claim 10, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses comprising a user interface communicably coupled with the central controller(Li, human machine monitoring interface [0069]).
Regarding claim 11, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to receive a user input signal from a user of the user interface(Li, user specified strategies [0069], [0073]); and the central controller is configured to send a user input control signal to the first control unit coupled to the first electric vehicle battery based on the user input signal(Li [0069]).
Regarding claim 12, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to send a regulation signal to a bidirectional inverter(Li, battery bidirectional power converter 1-3, Fig. 1, [0047]).
Regarding claim 13, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to send an on signal to the first electric vehicle battery via the first control unit such that the first electric vehicle battery is caused to change state while the first electric vehicle battery remains unopened (Li, system controller signals are sent to the plurality of batteries which activate a change of state/operational mode, e.g., charge/discharge, on/off, etc. [0021], [0023], [0069], [0073]).
Regarding claim 16, Li discloses an energy storage system for reusing unopened second life electric vehicle batteries (abstract, [0021]), comprising: a first reused electric vehicle battery from a first vehicle (used electric vehicle battery 1-1, Fig. 1, [0047]); a second reused electric vehicle battery from a second vehicle (used electric vehicle battery 1-1, Fig. 1, [0047]), the second reused electric vehicle battery having a different configuration than the first reused electric vehicle battery (various manufacturers [0069]); a first control unit operably coupled to the first reused electric vehicle battery and a second control unit operably coupled to the second reused electric vehicle battery (energy storage unit monitoring system 1-2, Fig. 1, [0047]); a central controller operably coupled to each of the first and second control units (network level energy storage system monitoring platform 5, Fig. 1, [0047]); wherein the central controller is configured to: receive a first signal from the first control unit coupled to the first reused electric vehicle battery and a second signal from the second control unit coupled to the second reused electric vehicle battery (Fig. 1); determine a status of the first reused electric vehicle battery based on the received first signal and a status of the second reused electric vehicle battery based on the received second signal (if the consistency is good, it will directly cooperate with the PCS to form a cost saving energy storage unit [0023]); wherein the status of the first electric vehicle battery is based on a voltage associated with the first electric vehicle battery and the status of the second electric vehicle battery is based on a voltage associated with the second electric vehicle battery ([0023]) but does not explicitly disclose impedance associated with the first reused electric vehicle battery and impedance associated with the second reused electric vehicle battery.
Kurimoto teaches a battery management system, a battery management apparatus, a method of reusing battery, and an information communication terminal apparatus, more particularly to a battery management system, a battery management apparatus, a method of reusing battery, and an information communication terminal apparatus, wherein states of a battery mounted on a vehicle or a large home electric appliance are checked and used to decide a method of reusing the battery ([0002]). Kurimoto teaches the maintenance and management method, data of the secondary battery, such as temperature, voltage, impedance, and charge/discharge current, are detected and transferred to a server by a communication tool ([0005]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use in the energy storage system of Li, impedance associated with the first reused electric vehicle battery and impedance associated with the second reused electric vehicle battery as taught by Kurimoto as such data are detected and transferred to a server by a communication tool.
Continuing with claim 16, modified Li discloses determine a first input of the first reused electric vehicle battery and a second input of the second reused electric vehicle battery(Li [0069], [0073]); determine an operating condition of the first reused electric vehicle battery based on the first input and the second input (Li, different system control strategies will be used according to different user needs [0023], [0073]); and send, responsive to the operating condition, a control signal to the first control unit coupled to the first reused electric vehicle battery (Li [0023], [0073], Fig. 1) but does not explicitly disclose the control signal causes the first control unit to operate internal contactors of the first reused electric vehicle battery to remotely turn the first reused electric vehicle battery on or off.
Tzivanopoulos teaches a battery system comprising: a high voltage network including a battery module , the battery module having a plurality of battery cells connected in series and a plurality of cell monitoring units configured to measure battery voltages of the battery cells in response to a first control signal; and a low voltage network including a BCU, the BCU configured to determine a state of charge of the battery cells and the BCU having: a microcontroller; and a nanocontroller directly connected to the plurality of cell monitoring units and operatively connected to the microcontroller via an isolator and configured to: generate the first control signal, transmit the first control signal to the cell monitoring units, receive the battery voltages of the battery cells from the cell monitoring units, and provide the battery voltages to the microcontroller(claim 1). Tzivanopoulos teaches the microcontroller 15 is connected to two main contactors 16-1 and 16-2, which, in response to a control signal of the microcontroller 15, disconnect the battery cells 11-1 to 11-n or connect them to a load(Fig. 1, Col. 1, lines 66-67 to Col. 2, lines 1-2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the energy storage system of modified Li with the control signal causes the first control unit to operate internal contactors of the first reused electric vehicle battery to turn the first reused electric vehicle battery on or off as taught by Tzivanopoulos as applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results. MPEP 2143.
Continuing with claim 16, modified Li does not explicitly disclose remotely turn the first reused electric vehicle battery on or off.
Yamauchi teaches a secondary battery module, a battery information management device, a battery information management system, a secondary battery reuse system, a secondary battery recovery and sales system, a secondary battery reuse method, and a secondary battery recovery and sales method, which are suitable for a vehicle or an industrial application([0003]). Yamauchi teaches the battery module communications unit 24 of the battery controller 2 is connected to the battery information R/W terminal 15 of the secondary battery module 1 by use of wired signals as shown in FIG. 4 and the like and in a modified example of the embodiment, they are mutually connected by use of wireless signals([0091]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the energy storage system of modified Li with wireless signals as taught by Yamauchi as applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results. MPEP 2143.
Regarding claim 17, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the first and second input is further based on a metric of a predetermined threshold corresponding to at least one of current (Kurimoto [0005]) associated with the first reused electric vehicle battery.
Regarding claim 18, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses comprising a user interface communicably coupled with the central controller(Li, human machine monitoring interface [0069]).
Regarding claim 19, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to receive a user input signal from a user of the user interface(Li [0069]); and the central controller is configured to send a user input control signal to the first control unit coupled to the first reused electric vehicle battery based on the user input signal(Li [0069]).
Regarding claim 20, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses comprising a bidirectional inverter coupled to the central controller (Li, battery bidirectional power converter 1-3, Fig. 1, [0047]).
6. Claim(s) 14 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Li et al. (CN105977553) as cited in IDS dated 8/15/24 and 9/6/24 with citations from machine translation provided with previous Office Action, in view of Kurimoto (US 2013/0090872) as cited in IDS dated 12/21/22, in further view of Tzivanopoulos et al. (US 9,091,737) as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Suda et al. (US 2017/0163054).
Regarding claim 14, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li does not explicitly disclose the internal contactors of the first electric vehicle battery include a first contactor switch and the second electric vehicle battery includes a second contactor switch.
Suda teaches a storage battery system, a storage battery unit, and a computer program product([0002]). Suda teaches as shown in FIG. 2, a storage battery unit 12-1, . . . , 12-m may include, but is not limited to, a storage battery module 120-1, . . . , 120-m; a contactor 122-1, . . . , 122-m; a current detector 124-1, . . . , 124-m; a high-voltage side connector 126-1, . . . , 126-m; a low-voltage side connector 128-1, . . . , 128-m; and a BMU 130-1, . . . ,130-m ([0022]). Suda teaches the contactor 122 is a power switch([0025]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include in the energy storage system of modified Li, the internal contactors of the first electric vehicle battery include a first contactor switch and the second electric vehicle battery includes a second contactor switch as taught by Suda as applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results. MPEP 2143.
Regarding claim 15, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the first control unit is operably coupled to the first contactor switch (Suda, see BMU 130-1 and contactor 122-1 in Fig. 2) and the second control unit is operably coupled to the second contactor switch (Suda, see BMU 130-2 and contactor 122-2 in Fig. 2).
7. Claim(s) 21-27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (CN105977553) as cited in IDS dated 8/15/24 and 9/6/24 with citations from machine translation provided with previous Office Action, in view of Kurimoto (US 2013/0090872) as cited in IDS dated 12/21/22, in further view of Tzivanopoulos et al. (US 9,091,737), in further view of Yamauchi et al. (US 2013/0018610) as cited in IDS dated 12/21/22.
Regarding claim 21, Li discloses an energy storage system for reusing unopened second life electric vehicle batteries(abstract, [0021]), comprising: a plurality of electric vehicle batteries(used electric vehicle battery 1-1, Fig. 1, [0047]); a plurality of control units each operably coupled to an electric vehicle battery of the plurality of electric vehicle batteries(energy storage unit monitoring system 1-2, Fig. 1, [0047]); wherein a first electric vehicle battery of the plurality of electric vehicle batteries is from a different manufacturer with different specifications than a second electric vehicle battery of the plurality of electric vehicle batteries(various manufacturers [0069]); a central controller operably coupled to each of the plurality of control units(network level energy storage system monitoring platform 5, Fig. 1, [0047]); wherein the central controller is configured to: receive a first signal from a first control unit coupled to the first electric vehicle battery and a second signal from a second control unit coupled to the second electric vehicle battery(Fig. 1); determine a first performance status of the first electric vehicle battery based on the received first signal and a second performance status of the second electric vehicle battery based on the received second signal(if the consistency is good, it will directly cooperate with the PCS to form a cost saving energy storage unit [0023]); wherein the first performance status is based on a voltage associated with the first electric vehicle battery and the second performance status is based on a voltage associated with the second electric vehicle battery ([0023]) but does not explicitly disclose impedance associated with the first electric vehicle battery and impedance associated with the second electric vehicle battery.
Kurimoto teaches a battery management system, a battery management apparatus, a method of reusing battery, and an information communication terminal apparatus, more particularly to a battery management system, a battery management apparatus, a method of reusing battery, and an information communication terminal apparatus, wherein states of a battery mounted on a vehicle or a large home electric appliance are checked and used to decide a method of reusing the battery ([0002]). Kurimoto teaches the maintenance and management method, data of the secondary battery, such as temperature, voltage, impedance, and charge/discharge current, are detected and transferred to a server by a communication tool ([0005]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use in the energy storage system of Li, impedance associated with the first electric vehicle battery and impedance associated with the second electric vehicle battery as taught by Kurimoto as such data are detected and transferred to a server by a communication tool.
Continuing with claim 21, modified Li discloses determine an operating condition for each of the first electric vehicle battery and the second electric vehicle battery based on the first performance status and the second performance status(Li, different system control strategies will be used according to different user needs [0023], [0073]); and send, responsive to the operating condition, a control signal to the first control unit coupled to the first electric vehicle battery and a control signal to the second control unit coupled to the second electric vehicle battery(Li [0023], [0073], Fig. 1) but does not explicitly disclose to operate internal contactors of the first electric vehicle battery and the second electric vehicle battery based on the operating conditions to remotely turn the first electric vehicle battery and the second electric vehicle battery on or off.
Tzivanopoulos teaches a battery system comprising: a high voltage network including a battery module , the battery module having a plurality of battery cells connected in series and a plurality of cell monitoring units configured to measure battery voltages of the battery cells in response to a first control signal; and a low voltage network including a BCU, the BCU configured to determine a state of charge of the battery cells and the BCU having: a microcontroller; and a nanocontroller directly connected to the plurality of cell monitoring units and operatively connected to the microcontroller via an isolator and configured to: generate the first control signal, transmit the first control signal to the cell monitoring units, receive the battery voltages of the battery cells from the cell monitoring units, and provide the battery voltages to the microcontroller(claim 1). Tzivanopoulos teaches the microcontroller 15 is connected to two main contactors 16-1 and 16-2, which, in response to a control signal of the microcontroller 15, disconnect the battery cells 11-1 to 11-n or connect them to a load(Fig. 1, Col. 1, lines 66-67 to Col. 2, lines 1-2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the energy storage system of modified Li with operating internal contactors of the first electric vehicle battery and the second electric vehicle battery based on the operating conditions to turn the first electric vehicle battery and the second electric vehicle battery on or off as taught by Tzivanopoulos as applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results. MPEP 2143.
Continuing with claim 21, modified Li does not explicitly disclose remotely turn the first electric vehicle battery and the second electric vehicle battery on or off.
Yamauchi teaches a secondary battery module, a battery information management device, a battery information management system, a secondary battery reuse system, a secondary battery recovery and sales system, a secondary battery reuse method, and a secondary battery recovery and sales method, which are suitable for a vehicle or an industrial application([0003]). Yamauchi teaches the battery module communications unit 24 of the battery controller 2 is connected to the battery information R/W terminal 15 of the secondary battery module 1 by use of wired signals as shown in FIG. 4 and the like and in a modified example of the embodiment, they are mutually connected by use of wireless signals([0091]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the energy storage system of modified Li with wireless signals as taught by Yamauchi as applying a known technique to a known device ready for improvement to yield predictable results. MPEP 2143.
Regarding claim 22, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the first performance status is based on a metric of a predetermined threshold corresponding to at least one of current associated with the first electric vehicle battery(Kurimoto [0005]).
Regarding claim 23, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to provision the first performance status of the first electric vehicle battery to a user interface configuration (Li, human machine monitoring interface [0069]).
Regarding claim 24, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to: receive, from the user interface configuration, a signal corresponding to a user input(Li [0069]); and send a control signal to the first control unit based on the signal corresponding to the user input(Li [0069]).
Regarding claim 25, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to send an on signal to the first electric vehicle battery via the first control unit such that the first electric vehicle battery is caused to change state while the first electric vehicle battery remains unopened (Li, system controller signals are sent to the plurality of batteries which activate a change of state/operational mode, e.g., charge/discharge, on/off, etc. [0021], [0023], [0069], [0073]).
Regarding claim 26, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the central controller is configured to send an off signal to the first electric vehicle battery via the first control unit such that the first electric vehicle battery is caused to change state while the second electric vehicle battery remains in an active state (Li [0023], [0069], [0073]).
Regarding claim 27, modified Li discloses all of the claim limitations as set forth above. Modified Li further discloses the first control unit is configured to couple to a battery interface of the first electric vehicle battery via a battery interface cable (Li, 485/CAN is a cable connection [0074]).
Response to Arguments
8. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 8-27 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on the combination of references 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 VICTORIA HOM LYNCH whose telephone number is (571)272-0489. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM EST M-F.
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/VICTORIA H LYNCH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1724