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 statement (IDS) submitted on 04/25/2023, 09/21/2023, 05/29/2024 and 11/11/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
In ¶¶ 0034, 0037, 0040, 0041, 0098, 0099, delete “the each battery” and replace with “each battery”
Appropriate correction is required.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-8, 10-11, 15-17, 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kudo et al. US Pub 2018/0186246 (hereinafter Kudo).
Regarding claims 1 and 19-20, Kudo teaches a system configured to control charging of multiple movable batteries (¶ 0073; in addition to an amount of power discharged from other electric vehicles), and power supply from the multiple movable batteries to outsides (fig. 1, element 13), comprising:
a controlling unit for providing an electrical power network with an electrical power resource by performing (¶ 0053; an aggregator manages charge/discharge of the electricity storage unit of the EV via the external power supply connected to the communication network),
at least one of a first control for reducing power charging amounts for the multiple movable batteries, or a second control for increasing power supplying amounts from the multiple movable batteries, in response to a first request for requesting power consumption to be reduced (¶¶ 0029, 0065, 0068, 0069; when the start time is reached, the discharge of the main battery 104 of the electric vehicle 15 is started [increasing power supplying amounts]), and
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at least one of a third control for increasing power charging amounts for the multiple movable batteries, or a fourth control for reducing power supplying amounts from the multiple movable batteries to outsides, in response to a second request for requesting power consumption to be increased (¶¶ 0069-0070; ends the discharge of the main battery 104 at the discharge end time indicated by an instruction from the aggregator 17); and
an estimating unit for estimating, based on predicted usage situations of the multiple movable batteries, which of the first control, the second control, the third control, or the fourth control can be (interpret as “can be or cannot be”) used by each of the multiple movable batteries to provide the electrical power network with an electrical power resource (¶ 0065 and claim 1; the server device performs a time-series analysis on an amount of power supplied from a power supplier to the power system and amount of power supplied from the power system to a power consumer, determine a period of time during which power is discharged from the electricity storage unit of the charging/discharging device to the power system…and transmits an instruction including the period of time during which the discharging or the charging is performed to the charging/discharging device).
Regarding claim 2, Kudo teaches wherein the estimating unit is configured to estimate, based on the predicted usage situations of the multiple movable batteries, an amount of electrical power resources that can be (interpret as can be or cannot be) provided to the electrical power network by the each of the multiple movable batteries by using each of the first control, the second control, the third control, and the fourth control (¶¶ 0070, 0073; when a power demand amount rapidly increases for about 2 hours from about 6:00 PM at which the EV return its own home and a power supply amount is smaller than the power demand amount…so that the main battery 104 is continuously discharged).
Regarding claims 3, 10, Kudo teaches wherein the predicted usage situations of the multiple movable batteries include timeframes in which the multiple movable batteries are predicted to be used (¶¶ 0070, 0072; the main battery 104 is fully charged for next morning running).
Regarding claims 4, 11, Kudo teaches wherein the predicted usage situations of the multiple movable batteries also include predicted charging states of the multiple movable batteries (¶¶ 0070, 0073-0074).
Regarding claim 6, Kudo teaches wherein
the predicted usage situations of the multiple movable batteries include timings at which the multiple movable batteries are predicted to be charged or discharged (¶ 0068; by a predetermined time to a start time of the discharge or charge indicated by the instruction from the aggregator); and
the estimating unit is configured to estimate, for the timings at which the multiple movable batteries are predicted to be charged or discharged in a period in which an electrical power resource contracted in an electricity market should be (interpret as should be or shouldn’t be) provided to the electrical power network (¶¶ 0073, 0080; the charge/discharge time of the main battery of the EV participating in the V2G is decided by the aggregator 17 based on the power demand/supply predication result),
an amount of electrical power resources available to be provided to the electrical power network by changing timings of charging or discharging the multiple movable batteries, and thereby estimates an amount of electrical power resources that can be (can be or cannot be) provided to the electrical power network by the each of the multiple movable batteries by using each of the first control, the second control, the third control and the fourth control (¶ 0069; start discharge from a time earlier to the start time indicated by the instruction from the aggregator).
Regarding claim 7, Kudo teaches wherein the controlling unit is configured to perform:
at least one of the first control or the second control, in response to the first request being received within the period in which the electrical power resource should be (should be or shouldn’t be) provided to the electrical power network and based on the amount of electrical power resources estimated by the estimating unit as being available to be provided to the electrical power network (¶ 0070 and claim 2; a power supply amount is smaller than the power demand amount, a discharge instruction is sent from the aggregator to the EV connected to the external power supply); and
at least one of the third control or the fourth control, in response to the second request being received within the period in which the electrical power resource should be provided to the electrical power network and based on the amount of electrical power resources estimated by the estimating unit as being available to be provided to the electrical power network (claim 2; a total amount of power secured for selling to the power system).
Regarding claims 8, 15-17, Kudo teaches wherein the multiple movable batteries include batteries mounted on vehicles (see fig. 1-2 and ¶ 0053).
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 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.
Claim(s) 5, 12-14, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kudo in view of Hishida et al. US Pub 2020/0231058 (hereinafter Hishida).
Regarding claims 5, 12-14, Kudo fails to teach wherein the estimating unit is configured to estimate the predicted usage situations of the multiple movable batteries based on usage histories of the multiple movable batteries in a past, and usage plans of the multiple movable batteries in a future.
Hishida further discloses wherein the estimating unit is configured to estimate the predicted usage situations of the multiple movable batteries based on usage histories of the multiple movable batteries in a past (¶ 0066; the movement history information associates a battery SOC…), and usage plans of the multiple movable batteries in a future (abstract and ¶ 0048; a future movement destination of a vehicle).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kudo to incorporate with the teaching of Hishida by predicting a movement destination of the vehicle based on the historical information, because it would be advantageous to optimize the process of balance power supply and demand in the power network and reduce the chance of power outage.
Regarding claim 18, Kudo teaches wherein the multiple movable batteries include batteries mounted on vehicles (see fig. 1-2 and ¶ 0053).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kudo in view of Hajimiri (US 2022/0348107).
Regarding claim 9, Kudo fails to teach wherein the multiple movable batteries include batteries that are mounted on the vehicles and exchangeable at multiple stations.
However, Hajimiri wherein the multiple movable batteries include batteries that are mounted on the vehicles and exchangeable (abstract; swappable batteries) at multiple stations (abstract; battery-swapping fueling stations).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kudo to incorporate with the teaching of Hajimiri by including batteries swapping stations in the system, because it would be advantageous to reduce the charging time of the electric vehicles.
Conclusion
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/ZIXUAN ZHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859 01/14/2026