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 . The instant application with Application Number 18/111,895 filed on 02/21/2023 is presented for examination. Claims 1-16 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statements dated 02/21/2023, 01/03/2024, 03/06/2024, 09/10/2024 and 09/09/2025 are acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 10, 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Chen et al. (US 2021/0376618).
With respect to claims 1, 10 and 11, Chen discloses a battery control circuitry (see Reproduced Fig. 2 below), comprising: a charging interface (Par. # 196: the power supply device 10 through a data line in the charging interface), a switch circuit (Fig. 2,switching device; Par. # 83: control apparatus 20 includes the first charging channel 21, and a switching device (see the description of FIG. 2) for switching between the charging channels may be disposed on the first charging channel 21), and a first battery pack; a second battery pack (Fig. 2, 31a and 31b; par. 0071: The battery 30 may be a single battery or a plurality of batteries; or packaged into a plurality of battery packs to form the plurality of batteries) wherein a positive electrode of the second battery pack is connected to a negative electrode of the first battery pack (Fig. 2, positive electrode of 31b, connected to negative pole or electrode of 31a);
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and a control circuit (Fig. 2, 27), configured to: when detecting that the charging interface receives a charging signal from a low-voltage platform (Par. # 52: provides a charging control apparatus capable of performing the direct charging on the battery),
control the switch circuit to switch to a first connection state (Fig. 2, 21-first connection and line 28 second connection), wherein in the first connection state, a target battery pack is connected in series to the charging interface to form a first loop, so as to charge the target battery pack, and the target battery pack is the first battery pack or the second battery pack (Par. # 83: the charging control apparatus 20 includes the first charging channel 21, and a switching device (see the description of FIG. 2) for switching between the charging channels may be disposed on the first charging channel 21).
With respect to claim 2, Chen discloses the battery control circuitry as described above, wherein the control circuit is further configured to: when detecting that the charging interface receives a charging signal from a high-voltage platform, control the switch circuit to switch to a second connection state, and in the second connection state, the charging interface, the first battery pack, and the second battery pack are connected in series to form a second loop, so as to charge the first battery pack and the second battery pack (Para. # 96: The control circuit 27 is configured to control the second charging channel to operate and control the equalizing circuit to operate when it is detected that the second-type power supply device is coupled to the charging control apparatus; and/or the control circuit is configured to control the first charging channel to operate and control the equalizing circuit to stop operating when it is detected that the first-type power supply device is coupled with the charging control apparatus).
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 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 present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
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.
Claims 3-9 and 12-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2021/0376618) (hereinafter, Chen) in view of Nagai et al. (US 2019/0131812).
With respect to claims 3, 5, 6 and 12, Chen discloses the battery control circuitry (see Reproduced Fig. 2 below), comprising: a charging interface (Par. # 196: the power supply device 10 through a data line in the charging interface), a switch circuit (Fig. 2, switching device) as described above
Chen, does not expressly disclose wherein the switch circuit comprising multiple auxiliary switches (switcher) to use multiple switching functions.
Nagai, on the other hand, discloses wherein the switch circuit comprising multiple auxiliary switches (switcher) to use multiple switching functions (Para. # 38, 46: switching circuit S1 and its on/off operations are controlled by the control circuit 2. Similarly, the FETs F2, F3, and F4 are the switching circuits S2, S3, and S4 and their on/off operations are controlled by the control circuit 2) .
CHEN and Nagai are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely charging control apparatus and battery pack with multiple charging/discharging switches.
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have added multiple switches (auxiliary switches) to the charging control device of Chen in view of Nagai for the benefit of continuous operation, in this regard multiple charging potentials or to offer extra features that enhance the control and safety of the charging systems. When you connect switches, you get more ports that can be used, and that means more devices can also be utilized.
With respect to claims 4 and 7, the combined references of Chen and Nagai disclose the battery control circuitry as described above, Chen further discloses wherein the control circuit is further configured to: after detecting that the charging interface receives the charging signal from the low-voltage platform, send the first trigger signal to the first auxiliary switcher on condition that the first auxiliary switcher and the second auxiliary switcher are detected to be normal; or terminate a charging process of the target battery pack on condition that the first auxiliary switcher and the second auxiliary switcher are detected to be faulty (Para. # 213: the poor contact of the charging interface may also be determined by the device to be charged. For example, the communication circuit 23 transmits a sixth instruction for inquiring the output voltage of the power supply device 10, to the power supply device 10).
With respect to claim 8, the combined references of Chen and Nagai disclose the battery control circuitry as described above, Chen further discloses further comprising: a first current protection circuit, connected to the output end of the main switcher and the first end of the first contactor; and a second current protection circuit, wherein a first end of the second current protection circuit is connected to the negative electrode of the first battery pack and the positive electrode of the second battery pack, and a second end of the second current protection circuit is connected to the second end of the second contactor and the second end of the third contactor (Par. # 162: dead period may be understood as a protection period, which is to prevent the switching tubes Q1, Q3 and the switching tubes Q2, Q4 from turning-on at the same time, thereby causing a circuit failure).
With respect to claims 9 and 13-16, the combined references of Chen and Nagai disclose the battery control circuitry as described above, Nagai further discloses comprising: a high-voltage load, disposed between the output end of the main switcher and the negative electrode of the charging interface; and a bidirectional DC-DC circuit, wherein a low-voltage-side port of the bidirectional DC-DC circuit is connected to a low-voltage power source, and a high-voltage-side port of the bidirectional DC-DC circuit is connected to the high-voltage load (Para. #15, 62, 63 : plurality of secondary batteries are combined and used as a power source of a DC/DC switching power source).
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Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YALKEW FANTU whose telephone number is (571)272-8928. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DREW A DUNN can be reached at 571-272-2312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859