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 .
DETAILED ACTION
2. The request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for Continued Examination under 37 CFR 1.114, the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant’s submission filed 10/8/2025 has been entered. An action on the RCE follows.
Summary of claims
3. Claims 1-15 are pending,
Claims 1, 3, 4, 6-9, 11-14 are amended,
Claims 1, 6, 11 are independent claims,
Claims 1-15 are rejected.
Remarks
4. Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed on 10/8/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-15 under 103 have been fully considered and are not persuasive in view of new rejection ground(s).
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 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.
5. Claims 1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taminori Tomita et al (US Publication 20130300374 A1, hereinafter Tomita), and in view of Mingdoing Song et al (US Publication 20230413181 A1, hereinafter Song), and Folasade Ayoola et al (US Publication 20230024900 A1, hereinafter Ayoola), and Peter Lehn et al (US Publication 20180366948 A1, hereinafter Lehn), and Daeryong Jung et al (US Publication 20180145531 A1, hereinafter Jung).
As for independent claim 1, Tomita discloses: A storage system on site of an energy management system (Tomita: Abstract, A storage battery control system comprises multiple storage batteries disposed in a power grid, and a storage battery control apparatus. The storage battery control apparatus is communicably coupled to the multiple storage batteries and an energy management system), comprising: a plurality of single-phase AC coupled batteries or three-phase AC coupled batteries configured to supply power to a load (Tomita: Abstract, The storage battery control apparatus is communicably coupled to the multiple storage batteries and an energy management system); and a controller of the storage system configured to determine a time remaining for supplying power to the load before each battery of the plurality of single-phase AC coupled batteries or the three-phase AC coupled batteries is depleted based on a state-of-charge relative to each battery of the plurality of single-phase AC coupled batteries or the three-phase AC coupled batteries (Tomita: [0037], In a case where the power supply and demand are in balance, the power supply-demand balance can be maintained as much as possible by adjusting the SOC (State Of Charge) of the storage battery to near 50% beforehand; [0046], In a case where the load tends to maintain the current state, the remaining capacity of the storage battery 120 is adjusted beforehand to maintain this balance as much as possible; [0080], The charging-discharging rate operation part 114 respectively calculates the charging capability and the discharging capability, which correspond to an elapsed time from the current time, based on the remaining capacity, and discharging performance and charging performance of each storage battery 120 (S12). The charging capability corresponding to an elapsed time is information showing how the charging capability (charging performance) will change over the course of time from the current time. Similarly, the discharging capability corresponding to an elapsed time is information showing how the discharging capability (discharging performance) will change over the course of time from the current time).
Further, Tomita discloses determining the SOC and calculating the charging capability and the discharging capability, which correspond to an elapsed time from the current time, based on the remaining capacity, and discharging performance and charging performance of each storage battery ([0080]), but Tomita does not clearly disclose determining a time remaining, Song discloses: a controller of the storage system configured to determine a time remaining for supplying power to the load (Song: [0209]-[0210], determining the remaining battery time of the device);
Tomita and Song are in analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, energy management system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill, in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of Tomita using the teachings of Song to include determining the remaining battery time. It would provide Tomita’s system with the enhanced capability of managing battery capacity.
Furthermore, Tomita discloses a storage battery control system comprise multiple storage batteries but does not clearly disclose single-phase AC coupled batteries or three-phase AC coupled batteries, in an analogous art of energy management system, Ayoola discloses: a plurality of single-phase AC coupled batteries or three-phase AC coupled batteries (Ayoola: [0056], The EV fast charging system has a single-phase or three-phase connection to local, low-voltage AC grid that is used to charge the high-voltage battery pack and support EV charging operations);
Tomita and Ayoola are in analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, energy management system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill, in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of Tomita using the teachings of Ayoola to explicitly include single-phase or three-phase AC batteries. It would provide Tomita’s system with the enhanced capability of handle different kinds of batteries.
In addition, Tomita does not clearly disclose performing frequency droop control, in another analogous art of energy management system comprising multiple battery energy storage, Lehn discloses: perform frequency droop control (Lehn: [0004], Droop control is a common method for energy management in AC microgrids since data can be communicated by signals that are locally measurable. In a study, Engler notes that, if the inverters set their instantaneous active and reactive power, then droop can be utilized to provide power control [1]. Specifically, Engler relates active and reactive power to inverter output frequency and voltage and compares both pairings (P/f, Q/V & P/V, Q/f). This is visually explained in FIG. 1. Engler observed that, for low-voltage grids, “conventional droop,” where frequency reference drops or “droops” with increasing power while voltage reference droops with increasing power (P/f, Q/V), can provide active power dispatch and is compatible with generators and high-voltage systems. “Opposite droop” (P/V, Q/f) is capable of providing direct voltage control for low-voltage grids).
Tomita and Lehn are in analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, energy management system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill, in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of Tomita using the teachings of Lehn to explicitly include droop control. It would provide Tomita’s system with the enhanced capability of improving the energy management.
Tomita and associated do not clearly disclose a weighted SOC based on at least one of a C-rate or SOH, in another analogous art of battery charging system, Jung disclose: based on a weighted SOC based on at least one of a C-rate or SOH (Jung: [0075], In Equation 2, each of w1 and w2 denotes a weight, C.sub.Rate denotes a charging C-rate of a charging profile, SOC denotes an SOC corresponding to the charging C-rate of the charging profile, F denotes an F value corresponding to C.sub.Rate and SOC based on the F mapping relationship, and n denotes an index of SOC. For example, the battery charging apparatus derives a charging profile using a solution that minimizes a value of the fitness function of Equation 2. Here, the derived charging profile is a sequence of charging C-rates for each SOC from SOC=6% to SOC=86%; [0091], if F values measured using the CC/CV charging scheme overlap F values measured using the step charging scheme, an F value corresponding to a corresponding C-rate and an SOC is determined by calculating an average or a weight);
Tomita and Jung are in analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, energy management system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill, in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of Tomita using the teachings of Jung to explicitly include weighted SOC based on a C-rate or SOH. It would provide Tomita’s system with the enhanced capability of improving the energy management.
As for claim 2, Tomita-Song-Ayoola does not clearly disclose performing frequency droop control, in another analogous art of energy management system comprising multiple battery energy storage, Lehn discloses: wherein the controller is further configured to perform the frequency droop control such that all of the plurality of single-phase AC coupled batteries or the three-phase AC coupled batteries run out of energy at the same time (Lehn: [0004], Droop control is a common method for energy management in AC microgrids since data can be communicated by signals that are locally measurable. In a study, Engler notes that, if the inverters set their instantaneous active and reactive power, then droop can be utilized to provide power control [1]. Specifically, Engler relates active and reactive power to inverter output frequency and voltage and compares both pairings (P/f, Q/V & P/V, Q/f). This is visually explained in FIG. 1. Engler observed that, for low-voltage grids, “conventional droop,” where frequency reference drops or “droops” with increasing power while voltage reference droops with increasing power (P/f, Q/V), can provide active power dispatch and is compatible with generators and high-voltage systems. “Opposite droop” (P/V, Q/f) is capable of providing direct voltage control for low-voltage grids).
Tomita and Lehn are in analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, energy management system. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill, in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of Tomita using the teachings of Lehn to explicitly include droop control. It would provide Tomita’s system with the enhanced capability of improving the energy management.
As for claim 3, Tomita-Song-Ayoola-Lehn-Jung discloses: wherein the weighted SOC is based on a C-rate and SOH and calculated using the equation TNRM = (SOCK * SOHI)/(CRATE * TN) (Jung: [0075], In Equation 2, each of w1 and w2 denotes a weight, C.sub.Rate denotes a charging C-rate of a charging profile, SOC denotes an SOC corresponding to the charging C-rate of the charging profile, F denotes an F value corresponding to C.sub.Rate and SOC based on the F mapping relationship, and n denotes an index of SOC. For example, the battery charging apparatus derives a charging profile using a solution that minimizes a value of the fitness function of Equation 2. Here, the derived charging profile is a sequence of charging C-rates for each SOC from SOC=6% to SOC=86%; [0091], if F values measured using the CC/CV charging scheme overlap F values measured using the step charging scheme, an F value corresponding to a corresponding C-rate and an SOC is determined by calculating an average or a weight).
As for claim 4, Tomita-Song-Ayoola-Lehn-Jung discloses: wherein at least some of the plurality of single-phase AC coupled batteries or three-phase AC coupled batteries have the same C-rate as each other and at least some of the plurality of single-phase AC coupled batteries or three-phase AC coupled batteries have a different C-rate from each other (Tomita: Abstract, decides an individual charging-discharging rate for each of the storage batteries based on the storage battery information and the power supply-demand prediction information; please note an individual rate may be same as each other and may be different from each other).
As for claim 5, Tomita-Song-Ayoola-Lehn-Jung discloses: wherein the controller is further configured to charge batteries having less time remaining before depletion using batteries having more time remaining before depletion (Tomita: [0080], The charging-discharging rate operation part 114 respectively calculates the charging capability and the discharging capability, which correspond to an elapsed time from the current time, based on the remaining capacity, and discharging performance and charging performance of each storage battery 120 (S12); [0103], The lowest performance storage battery 120(4) is used on a priority basis; please note the charging rate is based on time remaining information, and the battery with less time remaining may be charged with priority).
As for claim 6, it recites features that are substantially same as those features claimed by claim 1, thus the rationales for rejecting claim 1 are incorporated herein.
As for claims 7-10, it recites features that are substantially same as those features claimed by claims 2-5, thus the rationales for rejecting claims 2-5 are incorporated herein.
As for claim 11, it recites features that are substantially same as those features claimed by claim 1, thus the rationales for rejecting claim 1 are incorporated herein.
As for claims 12-15, it recites features that are substantially same as those features claimed by claims 2-5, thus the rationales for rejecting claims 2-5 are incorporated herein.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Hua Lu whose telephone number is 571-270-1410 and fax number is 571-270-2410. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9:00 am to 6:00 pm EST. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Scott Baderman can be reached on 571-272-3644. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 703-273-8300.
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/Hua Lu/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2118