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 03/22/2023, 07/09/2025, and 07/10/2025 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 § 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) 1-6, 8-12, and 14-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Schaffer et al. [US 2020/0317077].
With respect to claim 1, Schaffer discloses a vehicle charging method comprising: obtaining overall trip information of a vehicle, the overall trip information including at least one trip segment [Figs 2-3]; assigning a charging strategy to each trip segment [Fig. 4], wherein: in response to existence of a driving trip segment, a driving charging mode is assigned corresponding to the driving trip segment [Fig. 4; see at least steps 416-420]; and in response to existence of a parking trip segment, a stationary charging mode is assigned corresponding to the parking trip segment [whether a parking trip segment is in “existence” amounts to a condition limitation, however, for clarity the examiner interprets the stationary charging units (see par 0026-0028) as an existence of a parking trip segment]; according to the trip segment and a corresponding charging mode, performing a charging service on the vehicle during a trip of the vehicle [abstract; i.e. the whole method is for charging an electric vehicle].
With respect to claim 2, Schaffer further discloses wherein according to the trip segment and the corresponding charging mode, performing the charging service on the vehicle during the trip of the vehicle includes: obtaining current remaining electric power of the vehicle [406]; in the driving trip segment, obtaining a distance of the trip segment [404] and estimating estimated remaining electric power when the driving trip segment ends according to the current remaining electric power of the vehicle [408-410]; in the parking trip segment, obtaining a distance of a next trip segment that is a driving trip segment and estimating estimated remaining electric power when the next driving trip segment ends according to the current remaining electric power of the vehicle [par. 0066; with a determination of the target travel distance to a next battery charge to reduce the number of stops/charges; further see Fig. 8 which similarly calculates the remaining trip distance and charge level from the rendezvous location]; and according to the estimated remaining electric power, determining to provide a charging service according to the corresponding charging mode in the current trip segment [step 814 implicitly shows charging mode occurring as it monitors the battery charging level during battery charging].
With respect to claim 3, Schaffer further discloses wherein according to the estimated remaining electric power, determining to provide the charging service according to the corresponding charging mode in the current trip segment includes: when the current trip segment is the driving trip segment and the next trip segment is the parking trip segment, in response to the estimated remaining electric power being greater than a first threshold, determining to provide a stationary charging service in the next trip segment [410].
With respect to claim 4, Schaffer further discloses wherein according to the estimated remaining electric power, determining to provide the charging service according to the corresponding charging mode in the current trip segment includes: when the current trip segment is the parking trip segment and the next trip segment is the driving trip segment, in response to the estimated remaining electric power being less than a second threshold, determining to provide a stationary charging service in the current trip segment [Fig. 8 steps 804-818].
With respect to claim 5, Schaffer further discloses in response to the charging strategy of requiring charging, prompting the charging strategy, wherein the charging strategy of requiring charging includes at least one of a driving charging mode or a stationary charging mode [416].
With respect to claim 6, Schaffer further discloses wherein obtaining the overall trip information of the vehicle includes: receiving the overall trip information sent by a vehicle-carried terminal or a mobile terminal [402, see also Fig. 2 items 128/130].
With respect to claims 8 and 14, Schaffer discloses a vehicle [102] comprising a vehicle charging device comprising: an acquisition module configured to obtain overall trip information of a vehicle, the overall trip information including at least one trip segment [Figs 2-3]; a calculation module configured to assign a charging strategy to each trip segment [Fig. 4], wherein: in response to existence of a trip segment, a driving charging mode is assigned corresponding to the trip segment [Fig. 4; see at least steps 416-420]; and in response to existence of a stationary trip segment, a stationary charging mode is assigned corresponding to the stationary trip segment [whether a parking trip segment is in “existence” amounts to a condition limitation, however, for clarity the examiner interprets the stationary charging units (see par 0026-0028) as an existence of a parking trip segment]; and a charging module configured to obtain current remaining electric power of the vehicle [406], obtain a distance of the trip segment in the driving trip segment [404] and estimate estimated remaining electric power when the driving trip segment ends according to the current remaining electric power of the vehicle [408], obtain a distance of a next trip segment in the stationary trip segment and estimate estimated remaining electric power when the next driving trip ends according to the current remaining electric power of the vehicle [par. 0066; with a determination of the target travel distance to a next battery charge to reduce the number of stops/charges; further see Fig. 8 which similarly calculates the remaining trip distance and charge level from the rendezvous location], and determine to provide a charging service according to a corresponding charging mode in the current trip segment [416-420].
With respect to claims 9 and 15, Schaffer further discloses wherein the charging module is further configured to: when the current trip segment is the driving trip segment and the next trip segment is a parking trip segment, in response to the estimated remaining electric power being greater than a first threshold, determining to provide a stationary charging service in the next trip segment [410].
With respect to claims 10 and 16, Schaffer further discloses wherein the charging module is further configured to: when the current trip is a parking trip and the next trip is the driving trip, in response to the estimated remaining electric power being less than a second threshold, determining to provide a stationary charging service in the current trip segment [Fig. 8 steps 804-818].
With respect to claims 11 and 17, Schaffer further discloses a prompt module configured to prompt the charging strategy in response to the charging strategy of requiring charging, wherein the charging strategy of requiring charging includes at least one of the driving charging mode or the stationary charging mode [110, see also Fig. 4 steps 416-420].
With respect to claims 12 and 18, Schaffer further discloses wherein the acquisition module includes: an acquisition submodule configured to receive the overall trip information sent by a vehicle-carried terminal or a mobile terminal [Fig. 1, see 122-128-130].
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.
Claim(s) 7, 13, and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schaffer et al. [US 2020/0317077] as applied above, and further in view of Lundberg [US 2013/0282571].
With respect to claims 7, 13, and 19, Schaffer fails to explicitly disclose in response to a first data format of the overall trip information is different from a predetermined second data format: parsing the overall trip information in the first data format to obtain the overall trip information in the second data format. However, parsing data to convert from one format to another is well-known and routine in the art. For example, Lundberg relates to database/information handling and teaches parsing input data to other formats [par. 0047].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to modify Schaffer to include a parsing module as taught by Lundberg for the benefit of making data machine-readable and facilitating integration between systems.
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