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 § 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, 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1,13 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Winger et al (11,349,475).
Winger discloses systems and methods for reallocation (configuring) of electronic fuses configured to drive a fuse harness operationally coupled to multiple onboard vehicle load (peripheral devices). A preprogrammed configuration of a fuse harness defines multiple peripheral device clusters and the method monitors each cluster members sensor data with respect to programmed thresholds and load current demands, to categorize each electronic fuse in the clusters as either healthy, derated, or failed. For failed electronic fuse units, a target EF in the same cluster having reallocation potential is identified and its fuse limits are modified in a configuration function (see last half of Abstract).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to use the teachings of Winger to meet the claims because the isolation of a load from the vehicle system upon receiving a current overload is an intrinsic function of any system said to use electronic fuses, and other differences between the claims and the Winger teachings are only minor variations in system implementation well within the abilities of persons of ordinary skill in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-12,14-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The above mentioned claims recite additional features, such as the device interrogation limitations of claim 4, that have not been taught or been fairly suggested by the prior art of record.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEPHEN W JACKSON whose telephone number is (571)272-2051. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30-3:00.
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SWJackson
October 14, 2025
/STEPHEN W JACKSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838