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 .
Contents of this Office Action:
35 U.S.C. 101 Rejections
Prior Art Rejections
References cited but not used
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.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
The claim(s) recite(s) subject matter within a statutory category as an system (claim 1) and a method (claim 10), which recite the abstract idea of analyzing the current thermal measurements based on the historical thermal data; generate a thermal prediction regarding the current thermal measurements when the current thermal measurements are indicative of at least on of thermal effects; identifying at least one of the thermal actions associated with the at least one thermal effect indicated by the prediction; and generate instructions regarding the at least one thermal action and sending the generated instructions to a designated device for execution.
The steps of the independent claims are directed towards the abstract idea of thermal regulation, defined by the steps listed above. Specifically, the claim steps listed above under the broadest reasonable interpretation, includes performance of the limitation in the mind but for recitation of generic computer components. That is, other than reciting steps as performed by the generic processor, nothing in the claim element precludes the steps from practically being performed in the mind. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because the additional elements amount to no more than limitations which:
amount to mere instructions to apply an exception (such as recitation of using a processor for executing the above mentioned steps see MPEP 2106.05(f))
Looking at the dependent claims, all the dependent claims either recite storing data, defining recommendations, generating notifications, receiving data, or identifying data which are mental steps. Claims 7 and 8 recite practical applications of actually reducing a charge or changing energy optimizations, and would overcome 35 U.S.C. 101.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to discussion of integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements amount to no more than mere instructions to apply an exception and add insignificant extra-solution activity to the abstract idea.
There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide conventional computer implementation.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 1-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over King US20180086224A1.
Regarding claims 1 and 10, King discloses a system and method for thermal management of electric vehicle energy (King discloses, Abstract, systems and methods for controlling heat flow between systems of an electric automotive vehicle. An automotive electric vehicle system includes a high voltage battery system including an enclosure, an electric powertrain system, a radiator, coolant lines that permit coolant flow between the high voltage battery system, the power train system and the radiator, one or more valves for routing coolant along the coolant lines, and a controller. The controller is configured to control the one or more valves to control the flow of coolant among a plurality of different, selectable coolant flow states involving the high voltage battery system, the powertrain system and the radiator), the system comprising:
one or more sensors configured to capture current thermal measurements of one or more supercapacitor units in an electric vehicle (P29 discloses a front powertrain temperature sensor 110, a rear powertrain temperature sensor 114, a front powertrain microcontroller 112 and a rear powertrain microcontroller 116 (the microcontrollers comprising suitable computer processors and associated memory and circuitry), a high-voltage (HV) battery assembly 118 including an enclosure, the high-voltage battery assembly serving as an energy storage system as well as a battery for vehicle propulsion, and a high-voltage battery assembly temperature sensor 120. P30 discloses that the cabin also includes a cabin temperature sensor);
memory that stores a thermal database of thermal data, wherein the thermal database includes historical thermal data regarding a plurality of thermal effects and one or more associated thermal actions (P56 discloses an operational flow diagram that illustrates various exemplary factors for controlling coolant and refrigerant states for an electric vehicle according to examples of the disclosure such as described above. The vehicle's thermal management system is continuously responding to dynamic and changing conditions via suitable sensors. P56 further discloses that external controls at 1302 may include historical information of the vehicle such as expected locational or seasonal information, e.g., average, minimum, maximum expected temperature for a given location for a given date range, trending information such as seasonal information based on average past weather conditions, e.g., for a prior 24 hour period, predictive information such as weather forecasts. Based on the operational hierarchy, and the cascading thermal management needs, the thermal management system can take inputs from many systems and determine the required outputs for the system's actuators, e.g., evaluate sensors listed at 1304. The controls set points are determined continuously on a set of system calibrations which are arbitrated in the controller to ensure that each system is maintained at the optimum temperature, and this may be different depending on the season, geographic location, route, etc
a processor that executes instructions stored in memory (P32 discloses a processor), wherein the processor executes the instructions to:
analyze the current thermal measurements based on the historical thermal data (See P56 and explanation above);
generate a thermal prediction regarding the current thermal measurements when the current thermal measurements are indicative of at least one of thermal effects (P53 and P56 disclose predictive analytics. P53 specifically discloses o perational guidelines or conditions for how the exemplary coolant flow states and refrigerant flow states may be invoked by the controller 190 depending upon desired actions for the electric vehicle 100. For example, the headings “Interior,” “Battery,” and “Powertrain Loop” reflect desired actions for each of these systems, which may be selected based on detected ambient environmental conditions, detected system conditions, as well as predictive analytics based upon the intended use of the vehicle, the vehicles location, weather conditions, road conditions, and the like);
identify at least one of the thermal actions associated with the at least one thermal effect indicated by the prediction (P53 further discloses that coolant temperatures can be monitored at an input to the radiator and at an output to the radiator can be monitored via temperature sensors positioned at input and output locations, and the AGS percent opening can be controlled based on a difference between those measured temperatures in order to provide desired heat dissipation at the radiator. In addition, exemplary temperature ranges are identified for identified conditions, e.g., “Interior Temperature,” “Battery Loop Temperature,” and “Power Train Loop Temperature”);
generate instructions regarding the at least one thermal action and a communication interface that communicates over a communication network, wherein the communication interface sends the generated instructions to a designated device for execution (the limitations above show execution of the steps above).
The only difference between the current claims and King is that King is directed to a battery, not a supercapacitor.
However, this is an obvious substitution. There is nothing in the claims that indicate any of the method steps would be changed, at all, if a battery were replaced with a supercapacitor. Each and every functional step would be executed the same way. Therefore, it would be an obvious substitution to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute the claimed supercapacitor with a battery.
Regarding claims 2 and 11, King discloses the system of claim 1 wherein the processor execute further instructions to identify one or more thermal gradients indicated by the current thermal measurements, and wherein identifying the at least one thermal action is based on the thermal gradients (The flow of coolant between the high voltage battery system is based on a thermal gradient (i.e. change of temperature)).
Regarding claims 3 and 12, King discloses the system of claim 1 wherein the at least one thermal effects includes a thermal runaway effect, and wherein identifying the at least one thermal action is based on the thermal runaway effect (Though King does not explicitly teach this, it would have been obvious because the purpose of King is to control thermal regulation. It would be obvious to substitute a thermal runaway effect for any other thermal effect not claimed because none of the functional steps would be changed).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, King discloses one or more other sensors configured to capture measurements regarding current environmental or operating conditions, wherein the at least one thermal action is further based on the current environmental or operation conditions (P53 and P56).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, King discloses wherein the at least one thermal action includes generating a notification, and wherein the communication interface sends the notification to the designated device (As above, since the steps are carried out, there must be some form of notification, i.e. based on temperature conditions, to carry out those actions).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, King discloses wherein the at least one thermal action includes generating a recommendation, and wherein the communication interface sends the recommendation to the designated device (the cooling adjustment is a recommendation);
Regarding claims 7 and 16, King discloses wherein the at least on thermal action includes reducing a charge output of the one or more supercapacitor units by a specified amount, and wherein the communication interface sends the instructions to a controller of the one or more supercapacitor units for execution (P53 and P56).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, King discloses wherein the at least one thermal action includes changing an energy optimization or speed optimization by a specified amount, and wherein the communication interface sends the instructions to a controller of the on or more supercapacitor units for execution (P53 and P56).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, King discloses wherein the data base is further updated to store information regarding the at least one thermal action, and wherein the processor analyzes subsequent thermal measurements based on the stored information in the updated database (As above, the database includes historical data).
References Cited but not Relied Upon
Hettrich US20160059733 which is directed towards systems and methods for determining battery heating conditions and pre-heating lead times of at least a minute or more, based on input parameters and sets of input parameters, to predictively and dynamically heat a secondary battery so that the battery has a specific power output and performance level when used in an electric or hybrid vehicle application.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARYAN E WEISENFELD whose telephone number is (571)272-6602. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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ARYAN E. WEISENFELD
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3689
/ARYAN E WEISENFELD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667