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 .
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.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), 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.
Regarding Claim 1, the limitations “an input end”, “an output end”, “an electrical energy output end”, and “an electrical energy input end” recited throughout the claims are not clear. These limitations are not clear because they do not consistently reference the device for which they are associated with. Applicant is requested to review the claims and update the limitations to reference which device the “end” is associated with.
Regarding Claim 10, this claim is directed to An operation method, applied to the energy storage system based on hydrogen-oxygen combustion technology AND is depended from Claim 1 which is an energy storage system based on hydrogen-oxygen combustion technology. A single claim which claims both an apparatus and the method steps of using the apparatus is indefinite under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph. See In re Katz Interactive Call Processing Patent Litigation, 639 F.3d 1303, 1318, 97 USPQ2d 1737, 1748-49 (Fed. Cir. 2011). In Katz, a claim directed to “[a] system with an interface means for providing automated voice messages…to certain of said individual callers, wherein said certain of said individual callers digitally enter data” was determined to be indefinite because the italicized claim limitation is not directed to the system, but rather to actions of the individual callers, which creates confusion as to when direct infringement occurs. Katz, 639 F.3d at 1318, 97 USPQ2d at 1749 (citing IPXL Holdings v. Amazon.com, Inc., 430 F.3d 1377, 1384, 77 USPQ2d 1140, 1145 (Fed. Cir. 2005), in which a system claim that recited “an input means” and required a user to use the input means was found to be indefinite because it was unclear “whether infringement … occurs when one creates a system that allows the user [to use the input means], or whether infringement occurs when the user actually uses the input means.”); Ex parte Lyell, 17 USPQ2d 1548 (Bd. Pat. App. & Inter. 1990) (claim directed to an automatic transmission work stand and the method of using it held ambiguous and properly rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph).
Regarding Claims 2-10, they depend from Claim 1 and are also rejected for the reason stated above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 1, the prior arts of record, taken alone or in combination, do not teach or fairly suggest an energy storage system based on hydrogen-oxygen combustion technology, comprising: a renewable energy power generation device; a water electrolysis device for hydrogen production, with an electric energy input end connected with an electric energy output end of the renewable energy power generation device; a hydrogen storage unit, with an input end connected with a hydrogen output end of the water electrolysis device for hydrogen production, and with a first output end used to be connected with an external hydrogen demand end; an oxygen storage unit, with an input end connected with an oxygen output end of the water electrolysis device for hydrogen production; a hydrogen-oxygen combustion device, with a hydrogen input end connected with a second output end of the hydrogen storage unit, and an oxygen input end connected with a first output end of the oxygen storage unit for mixed combustion of inputted hydrogen and oxygen and outputting a high-temperature and high-pressure gas; a turbine power generation device, with a first input end connected with an output end of the hydrogen-oxygen combustion device for receiving the high-temperature and high-pressure gas and performing expansion to generate power, a second input end connected with a second output end of the oxygen storage unit for receiving a high-pressure oxygen output by the oxygen storage unit and performing expansion to generate power, and an electric energy output end connected with the water electrolysis device for hydrogen production; a grid-connected end, with an electric energy input end connected with the electric energy output end of the renewable energy power generation device and the electric energy output end of the turbine power generation device respectively, and with an electric energy output end connected with an external power grid; and an ammonia synthesis device, with a hydrogen input end connected with a third output end of the hydrogen storage unit for generating gaseous ammonia and outputting to an external ammonia demand end.
Conclusion
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/BRIAN K BAXTER/Examiner, Art Unit 2836
2 March 2026
/DANIEL KESSIE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836
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