DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are pending.
Claim(s) 1 and 14 is/are independent.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 120 is acknowledged. The prior-filed application is PCT Application No. PCT/KR2023/001215 (filed on 1/26/2023).
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy, for the foreign priority, of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0012588 (filed on 1/27/2022), was received on retrieved by the Office on 5/9/2023.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited in the information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 2/3/2023, 8/11/2023, 4/8/2024 and 3/24/2025 have been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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 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 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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kawata et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2016/0359325) (hereinafter “Kawata”) in view of Nam et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2020/0021114) (hereinafter “Nam”).
Regarding claim 1 and corresponding method claim 14, Kawata teaches a wireless power transmission apparatus (Fig. 25, 74 - - induction heating cooker is used, where induction is wireless power transmission)
comprising: a plurality of cooking zones; (Fig. 25 - - plurality of cooking zones)
…an output interface configured to display information regarding the cooking appliance; (Fig. 28 - - display unit is the output interface of induction heating cooker)
a wireless power transmitter (Fig. 25, 74 - - induction heating cooker is used, where induction is wireless power transmission)
including: a plurality of working coils respectively corresponding to the plurality of cooking zones, (Para. 303 - - heating coils are used in cooking zones)
and an inverter circuit configured to drive the plurality of working coils; (Para. 306, 321 - - inverter circuitry drives coils)
and at least one processor configured (Fig. 27 - - controller, i.e. processor, is configured)
to: in response to release of a communication connection with the cooking appliance that has been located in a first cooking zone among the plurality of cooking zones, control the inverter circuit to drive the plurality of working coils to transmit power to drive a communication interface of the cooking appliance; (Fig. 25, 27, Para. 306, 321 - - inverter circuitry drives coils)
in response to receiving a first wireless communication signal including identification information regarding the cooking appliance from the cooking appliance through the communication interface of the wireless power transmission apparatus within a preset time after the communication connection is released, control the inverter circuit to drive the plurality of working coils to generate respectively corresponding magnetic fields according to a plurality of different power transmission patterns; (Fig. 25, 27, Para. 306, 321 - - inverter circuitry drives coils)
and in response to receiving a second wireless communication signal including the identification information regarding the cooking appliance and information regarding a second cooking zone among the plurality of cooking zones corresponding to one of the plurality of different power transmission patterns detected at a current location of the cooking appliance from the cooking appliance through the communication interface of the wireless power transmission apparatus, outputting, through the output interface, the information regarding the second cooking zone. (Fig. 28 - - display unit is the output interface of induction heating cooker)
But Kawata does not explicitly teach, however, Nam teaches a communication interface configured to communicate with a cooking appliance; (Para. 42 - - cooker communicates with cooking appliance)
Kawata and Nam are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor and contain overlapping structural and/or functional similarities. They both contain control of induction heating apparatus.
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the above limitation(s) as taught by Kawata, by incorporating the above limitation(s) as taught by Nam.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this modification in order to an induction heating cooking function incorporated in a smart table, as suggested by Nam (Para. 11).
Regarding 2, Kawata teaches wherein the plurality of different power transmission patterns are differently set based on at least one of a duration of a power transmission interval, a duration of a power cut-off interval, or a power level. (Para. 305 - - power level is used)
Regarding 3, Nam teaches wherein the first wireless communication signal includes information indicating that a current location of the cooking appliance is not identifiable. (Para. 60 - - RFID tag is used to identify, where absence of tag or tag being out of range means appliance’s location is not identifiable)
Regarding 4 and corresponding method claim 15, Kawata teaches to control the output interface to: while the cooking appliance is located in the first cooking zone, display the identification information regarding the cooking appliance at a first location indicating the first cooking zone in a graphical user interface (GUI) screen, and in response to the cooking appliance being moved from the first cooking zone to the second cooking zone, display the identification information regarding the cooking appliance at a second location indicating the second cooking zone in the GUI screen. (Fig. 28 - - display uses interface unit, i.e. GUI)
Regarding 5 and corresponding method claim 16, Kawata teaches to: based on the identification information regarding the cooking appliance included in the second wireless communication signal, identify whether an operation history of the cooking appliance is present within a preset time before the second wireless communication signal is received, and in response to the operation history of the cooking appliance being present, control the output interface to output information regarding a cooking progress of the cooking appliance corresponding to a time when the communication connection with the cooking appliance is released. (Fig. 25 - - plurality of coils are controlled)
Regarding 6, Kawata teaches wherein the information regarding the cooking progress of the cooking appliance includes at least one of a cooking menu, an elapsed cooking time, or a cooking stage when the communication connection with the cooking appliance is released. (Fig. 25 - - control board includes cooking information)
Regarding 7, Kawata teaches a memory configured to store the information regarding the cooking progress of the cooking appliance, (Fig. 27 - - storage device, i.e. memory, is used)
wherein the at least one processor is configured to obtain the information regarding the cooking progress of the cooking appliance from the memory. (Fig. 27 - - processor uses memory)
Regarding 8, Kawata teaches in response to a communication reconnection with the cooking appliance after the second wireless communication signal is received, receive the information regarding the cooking progress of the cooking appliance from the cooking appliance. (Fig. 25 - - control board includes cooking information)
Regarding 9 and corresponding method claim 17, Kawata teaches in response to a communication reconnection with the cooking appliance after the second wireless communication signal is received, receive first power control information from the cooking appliance through the communication interface of the wireless power transmission apparatus, the first power control information including a first power level value when the communication connection with the cooking appliance is released, and based on the first power control information, control the inverter circuit to drive the plurality of working coils transmit power corresponding to the first power level value to the cooking appliance. (Fig. 25 - - plurality of coils are controlled)
Regarding 10, Kawata teaches wherein the first power control information further includes duration information regarding the first power level value. (Fig. 25 - - plurality of coils are controlled)
Regarding 11, Kawata teaches wherein the first power level value is determined based on recipe information applied to the cooking appliance before the communication connection with the cooking appliance is released. (Fig. 25 - - plurality of coils are controlled)
Regarding 12 and corresponding method claim 18, Kawata teaches to: receive second power control information obtained by adjusting the first power level value to a second power level value based on a temperature increase rate of the cooking appliance, and based on the second power control information, control the inverter circuit drive the plurality of working coils to transmit power corresponding to the second power level value to the cooking appliance. (Fig. 25 - - plurality of coils are controlled)
Regarding 13 and corresponding method claim 19, Kawata teaches wherein a wireless power transmission efficiency of the second cooking zone is different from a wireless power transmission efficiency of the first cooking zone. (Fig. 25 - - cooking zones 2L and 2R are controlled differently)
20, Kawata teaches computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing the method of claim 14 on a computer. (Fig. 27 - - storage device, i.e. computer-readable recording medium, is used)
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Saad M. Kabir whose telephone number is 571-270-0608 (direct fax number is 571-270-9933). The examiner can normally be reached on Mondays to Fridays 9am to 5pm EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mohammad Ali can be reached on 571-272-4105. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SAAD M KABIR/
Examiner, Art Unit 2119
/MOHAMMAD ALI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2119