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 01/20/2023 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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
With respect to claim 12, line 8, “the fuel cells” lack antecedent basis. The prior mention of fuel cells in the claim is for “a plurality of fuel cell maps”, which is different. Based on the similarity to claim 1, it appears applicant forgot to include a limitation introducing the fuel cells to be part of the method as they did in claim 1. Therefore, incorporating a limitation similar to claim 1’s “regarding power generation of fuel cells of a vehicle” would solve this issue.
Claims 13-20 depend from claim 12 and are rejected for the same reasons.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 11, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Igarashi et al. [US 2022/0314817].
With respect to claims 1 and 11, Igarashi discloses a fuel cell vehicle control system [Fig. 2] comprising: a map storage configured to store a plurality of fuel cell maps regarding power generation of fuel cells of a vehicle [100, see also par. 0078-0079]; a monitoring unit configured to determine a degree of a charging load and a degree of a discharging load of a battery of the vehicle [see fig. 12, also item 102 for battery status unit and more importantly item 86 and par 0085 for calculation of battery SOC, which is equated to value/degree of the charging/discharging loads of the battery]; and a controller configured to select a fuel cell map from among the fuel cell maps stored in the map storage depending on the degree of the charging load and the degree of the discharging load of the battery of the vehicle, determined by the monitoring unit, and to control the power generation of the fuel cells depending on the selected fuel cell map [see fig. 6, steps s106-s110 select power generation levels of a fuel cell based on the battery SOC].
With respect to claim 2, Igarashi further discloses wherein the fuel cell maps include an output-type map configured so that an output of the fuel cells is varied depending on a demand output of the vehicle, and an energy efficiency-type map configured so that electrical energy efficiency of the vehicle is maximized [i.e. steps s109 and s107 depict the selection between the two modes/maps for the output type of the fuel cell].
With respect to claim 20, Igarashi further discloses a non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which a program for performing the method of claim 12 is recorded [note various mentions of the controllers which are equated to implicitly comprising CRM and instructions/programs to execute the tasks at least present in fig. 6].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-11 and 13-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if canceled and incorporated into their respective independent claims including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
With respect to claims 3 and 13, the prior art of record does not suggest or disclose the claimed combination of elements or steps as recited, most particularly the claimed, “wherein the monitoring unit is configured to determine charging and discharging currents per unit capacity of the battery of the vehicle as the degree of the charging load and the degree of the discharging load of the battery of the vehicle.”
Claims 4-11 and 14-19 depend from the claims above and are objected to for the same reasons.
Specifically, the closest prior arts found to date base the fuel generation on the charge level/SOC level of a battery with no prior arts found or fairly suggesting the determined degree of charge/discharge load of the battery being equated to currents per unit capacity of the battery as the degree of charge/discharge load. Further, such a modification is not considered an obvious variation for checking if a battery’s SOC is above or below a predetermined threshold for control of power generation of the fuel cell.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Numerous prior arts like US 2024/0123841 to Tomimoto, US 2023/0036318 to Kim, and US 2023/0150399 to Zhou et al. describe utilizing systems with fuel cells and batteries to supplement power output of a vehicle on an as needed basis, i.e. uphill road, where when one energy storage is lacking the other supplements power output. However, none of the prior arts select a fuel cell map based on a degree of charge/discharge load of the battery where the current per unit capacity are determined as the degree of the charge/discharge load.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHANIEL R PELTON whose telephone number is (571)270-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am to 5pm.
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/NATHANIEL R PELTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859