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 statements (IDS) submitted on 03/30/2023, 07/26/2023, and 12/28/2023 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are 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 1-9 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 1, line 2, “the instructions” lacks antecedent basis. Claims 8-9 depend from claim 1 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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 6-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable over Bandai [JP 2013-070500]*.
*Note a copy of the above cited foreign reference is already made of record with the IDS filed on 07/26/2023 and therefore a duplicate copy is not provided with this action.
With respect to claims 1 and 10-11, Bandai discloses a charger control apparatus [Fig. 1] comprising: at least one memory configured to store the instructions and at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to perform operations [“controller” implicitly includes memory/instructions to execute the functions and actions of the charge control], the operations comprising: acquiring a total value of a current flowing through a plurality of chargers connected in parallel with each other [chargers 13a are connected in value with the current measured at 11 and/or 200 representing the total value of current flowing]; setting, for each of the plurality of chargers, a second upper limit value being an upper limit value of a current flowing through the charger by using a first upper limit value being an upper limit value of a current being set with respect to a wiring line that supplies a current to the plurality of chargers [par. 0020-0027; discloses priority charging based on the battery with the most need/lowest charge such that the maximum power is provided from 11 to the converter 13a, the charging power is adjusted so that the total power of the distributed charging power corresponds to the maximum power of the charger 1]; and updating a plurality of the second upper limit values by distributing a difference between the total value and the first upper limit value to the plurality of chargers according to a first rule when the difference between the total value and the first upper limit value satisfies a reference [par. 0020-0035; when the charging amount of the battery 301a approaches full charge, the charging power setting unit 33 further lowers the charging power of the battery, eventually to zero and moves on to 301b and 301c for example].
With respect to claim 2, Bandai further discloses wherein the first rule is equal distribution [par. 0058].
With respect to claim 6, Bandai further discloses wherein the operations comprise repeatedly acquiring the total value, and repeatedly updating the plurality of second upper limit values [par. 0029, also note vehicles come and go and the process continues].
With respect to claim 7, Bandai further discloses wherein the operations comprise, when an operation of at least one available charger starts in a state where some of the chargers are available, updating the plurality of second upper limit values [see figure 2 which shows the current limits being updated as the process continues].
With respect to claim 8, Bandai further disclose wherein the plurality of chargers charge a secondary battery serving as a power source of an electric vehicle [300].
With respect to claim 9, further comprising the plurality of chargers [13a].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if canceled and incorporated into the independent claims including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Also, the 112 issue above would also need to be corrected.
With respect to claim 3, the prior art of record does not suggest or disclose the claimed combination of elements or steps as recited, most particularly the claimed, “the operations further comprise: acquiring, for each of the plurality of chargers, current information indicating magnitude of a current flowing through the charger; and when there is the charger in which a value indicated by the current information is smaller than the second upper limit value and a difference thereof satisfies a reference, reducing the second upper limit value of the charger, and updating the second upper limit value of another charger by distributing a difference between the second upper limit value of the charger before and after an update to the another charger according to a second rule.”
Claims 4-5 depend from claim 3 and are objected to for the same reasons.
Conclusion
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