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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/08/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 31 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because it is drawn to a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the recording medium can be transitory, i.e., is not explicitly limited as disclosed as only being non-transitory computer readable media.
A transitory recording medium can be a signal, a carrier wave, or a data structure, per se, which are non-statutory as noted, infra. A claim directed to a signal, a carrier wave, or a data structure, per se, is non-statutory because it is not: A process, or A machine, or A manufacture, or A composition of matter.
Therefore, fail(s) to fall within a statutory category of invention. Applicant should note that adding "non-transitory" to the claim to limit a claimed computer readable medium to being statutory would be acceptable.
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-5, 8-20 and 23-31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meng (CN 108802523 A) in view of Nakamura (US 2020/0274477 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 16, discloses a method and a device for monitoring operating status of a motor (e.g. Abstract), comprising:
A. acquiring a two-dimensional coordinate transformation value of a three-phase current of the three-phase motor (e.g. Abstract & [0025]: convert 3 phase output to 2 phase Park vector alpha-beta coordination); and
B. displaying on the display unit (e.g. Fig. 1: 140) a trajectory generated by the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value (e.g. [0045-0046]: display fault analysis result shown in Figs. 6-11).
Meng fails to disclose, but Nakamura teaches a method and a device for monitoring operating status of an elevator system (e.g. Abstract & [0088]), the elevator system comprising a three-phase motor and an inverter for driving the three-phase motor (e.g. Fig. 1: inverter 107, motor 30), the device comprising:
Memory; a processor coupled with the memory; and a computer program stored on the memory and running on the processor (e.g. [0027, 0038]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Meng (determine motor fault on a generator) with the teachings of Nakamura to determine motor fault on an elevator since it is merely applying a known technology (i.e. detect fault of a motor) in different motor application. The combination would have yielded only predictable results to one skilled in the art since it is no more than simple substitutions of one known device/method with another according to KSR.
Regarding claims 13 and 28, Meng discloses a method and a device for monitoring quality of power supply of a power grid (e.g. Abstract: monitoring status of the power grid wind generator based on motor fault determination), the device comprising: a display unit (e.g. Fig. 1: 140); and
A'. acquiring a two-dimensional coordinate transformation value of a three-phase voltage or current from the power grid (e.g. Abstract & [0025]: convert 3 phase output to 2 phase Park vector alpha-beta coordination); and
B'. displaying on the display unit a trajectory generated by the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value (e.g. [0045-0046]: display fault analysis result shown in Figs. 6-11).
Meng fails to disclose, but Nakamura teaches a method and a device for monitoring operating status of an elevator system (e.g. Abstract & [0088]), the elevator system comprising a three-phase motor and an inverter for driving the three-phase motor (e.g. Fig. 1: inverter 107, motor 30), the device comprising:
Memory; a processor coupled with the memory; and a computer program stored on the memory and running on the processor (e.g. [0027, 0038]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Meng (determine motor fault on a generator) with the teachings of Nakamura to determine motor fault on an elevator since it is merely applying a known technology (i.e. detect fault of a motor) in different motor application. The combination would have yielded only predictable results to one skilled in the art since it is no more than simple substitutions of one known device/method with another according to KSR.
Regarding claims 2 and17, Meng discloses the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value is a two-phase current value obtained by performing a Clark transformation on a measured value of the three-phase current (e.g. Abstract: Park and Clark transformation are known in the art 2-phase to 3-phase conversion method).
Regarding claims 3 and 18, Meng discloses the three-phase current is a measured value of the three-phase current on an input side of the three-phase motor or on an output side of the inverter (e.g. Abstract: output current/voltage).
Regarding claims 4 and 19, Meng discloses the running of the computer program further causes: C. displaying a standard trajectory on the device, the standard trajectory is a trajectory when the three-phase motor operates normally (e.g. Figs. 6-7).
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Meng discloses the standard trajectory is circular (e.g. Figs. 6-7).
Regarding claims 8 and 23, Nakamura teaches the measured value of the three-phase current is the measured value when an elevator car moves at a uniform speed (e.g. [0042]: failure diagnosis is performed during regeneration operation when rotation speed reaches a predetermined value; thus, uniform speed when measuring).
Regarding claims 9 and 24, Meng discloses the running of the computer program causes operation B to be performed in the following manner:
obtaining a trajectory of the three-phase current in a phase plane by connecting temporally adjacent two-dimensional coordinate transformation values in the phase plane with straight lines or curves (e.g. Figs. 6-11: vectors are connecting in lines or curves to form the trajectory).
Regarding claims 10 and 25, discloses a time span of the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value is greater than or equal to one or more periods of the three-phase current (e.g. Figs. 4-11: time span more than 1 period).
Regarding claims 11 and 26, Meng discloses the generated trajectory is suitable for determining presence and type of faults of the three-phase motor and inverter (e.g. Abstract & Figs. 8-11: different faults).
Regarding claims 12 and 27, Meng discloses the running of the computer program further causes:
D. displaying on the display unit trajectories of the three-phase current before (e.g. Figs. 6-7: no fault) and after a phase change of the three-phase motor for distinguishing the faults of the three-phase motor and inverter (e.g. Figs. 8-11: different faults).
Regarding claims 14 and 29, Meng discloses the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value is a two-phase current value or two-phase voltage value obtained by performing a Clark transformation on the three-phase current or three-phase voltage (e.g. Abstract).
Regarding claims 15 and 30, Meng discloses the generated trajectory is suitable for determining quality of power supply of the power grid and the presence of faults of an inverter connected with the power grid (e.g. Abstract).
Regarding claim 31, Nakamura teaches a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium, when the instructions are executed by a processor, the processor is caused to execute the method of claim 16 (e.g. [0027, 0038]).
Claim(s) 6-7 and 21-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meng (CN 108802523 A) in view of Nakamura (US 2020/0274477 A1) as applied to claims 1 and 16 above, and further in view of Brinkman (US 2019/0254136 A1).
Regarding claims 6 and 21, Meng fails to disclose, but Brinkman teaches the device is one of the following: a portable computer, a tablet computer, a mobile phone and a handheld fault diagnosis instrument (e.g. Figs. 1-2 and 8: 10 & [0050, 0053, 0056, 0226, 0234]: handheld/portable diagnostic device that could be IoT and readily be retrofitted onto existing devices).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to implement diagnosis control module as taught by Meng and Nakamura into a handheld/portable device as taught by Brinkman so as to be used with any motor device needed easy malfunction diagnosis.
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Meng, Nakamura and Brinkman in combination discloses the claimed invention.
Meng and Nakamura in combination discloses receiving the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value transmitted by the inverter (see rejections of claims 1 and 16).
Meng and Nakamura in combination fails to disclose, but Brinkman teaches the device further comprises a communication unit (e.g. [0043, 0063]), and using IoT (e.g. [0232]) to receive data transmitted by motor (e.g. [0050]).
Thus, Meng, Nakamura and Brinkman in combination discloses the claimed invention, and it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to implement diagnosis control module as taught by Meng and Nakamura into a handheld/portable device as taught by Brinkman so as to be used with any motor device needed easy malfunction diagnosis.
Conclusion
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/KAWING CHAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2846