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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/06/2023 seems to be in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1-13) in the reply filed on 9/30/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 14-20 were cancelled.
Claims 21-27 were added.
Claims 1-13 and 21-27 still pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 3 and 23 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 3, line 3 and line 6– “…the selected identifier…” should be “the selected single identifier”.
Claim 23, line 3 and line 5– “…the selected identifier…” should be “the selected single identifier”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Slepchenkov et al., US Publication 20200313445 (Slepchenkov) in view of Pasqualetto et al., US Publication 20180167059 (Pasqualetto).
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Regarding claim 9, Slepchenkov discloses an energy system (i.e., 100) (for example see Fig. 1c), comprising: an array of cascaded modules (i.e., 108-1 -108-N) (for example see Fig. 1c) configured to output a voltage waveform and/or a current waveform to a load (i.e., 101) (for example see Fig. 1c), each module comprising an energy source (i.e., 202) (for example see Fig. 1), switch circuitry (i.e., S1-S6) (for example see Fig. 1c), and a local control device (i.e., 114) (for example see Fig. 1c) that controls the switch circuitry based at least in part on received normalized reference signals (i.e., Vrn) (for example see Fig. 1c); and a master control device (i.e., 112) (for example see Fig. 1c) communicably coupled to each local control device (i.e., 114) (for example see Fig. 1c) over a control path (i.e., 115) (for example see Fig. 1c) and a synchronization path ( Slepchenkov discloses that LCD 114 can also receive timing information for purposes of synchronization of modules of the system 10) and that: sends, over the control path, control information data elements to the local control devices (i.e., 114) (for example see Fig. 1c), wherein each control information data element comprises: a normalized reference signal (i.e., Vrn) (for example see Fig. 1c) for each module of the cascaded modules, and a modulation index (i.e., Mi) (For example see paragraph 200) for scaling the reference signal, and sends, over the synchronization path, a synchronization signal to the local control devices (as mentioned before discloses that LCD 114 can also receive timing information for purposes of synchronization of modules of the system 10, therefore inherently there is a path).
Slepchenkov, as applied above discloses the claimed invention but fails to disclose wherein the synchronization signal indicates when a control information data element is being sent.
Pasqualetto, in the same field of endeavor, discloses the synchronization signal indicating when a control information is being sent in order to control the timing of the control signal.
Therefore, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have optionally provide in Slepchenkov, as taught by Pasqualetto, in order to in order to control the timing of the control signal.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-13 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.
Claims 1-8 and 21-27 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
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Regarding claim 1, Slepchenkov is the closest prior art. Slepchenkov discloses an energy system (i.e., 100) (for example see Fig. 1c), comprising:
an array of cascaded modules (i.e., 108) (for example see Fig. 1c) configured to output a voltage waveform and/or a current waveform to a load (i.e., 101) (for example see Fig. 1c), each module comprising an energy source (i.e., 202) (for example see Fig. 2), switch circuitry (i.e., S1-S6) (for example see Fig. 5A- 5B), and a local control device (i.e., 114) (for example see Fig. 1C);
and a master control device (i.e., 112) (for example see Fig. 1c) communicably coupled to each local control device (i.e., 114) (Fig. 1c) over a communication path (i.e., 115/CAN-FlexRay) (for example see Fig. 1c and Fig. 2) and configured to send, over the communication path (i.e., 115/CAN-FlexRay) (for example see Fig. 1c and Fig. 2), control information data elements to the local control devices (i.e., 114) (for example see Fig. 1c and Fig. 2), wherein each control information data element comprises:
a normalized reference signal (Slepchenkov discloses a waveform Vrn as a normalized reference Vr by the detected peak Vpk) for each module of the array of cascaded modules (i.e., 108) (for example see Fig. 1c and Fig. 2);
and wherein the local control device (i.e., 114 or LCD) (for example see Fig. 1c and Fig. 2) of each module is configured to: scale the normalized reference signal (i.e., Vrn) (Fig. 30 ); and control the switch circuitry (i.e., S1-S6) (for example see Fig. 5A and Fig. 5B) of the module using the scaled reference signal.
Slepchenkov fail to disclose each module having an identifier, the single identifier selected from a set of identifiers comprising the identifier for each module in the array of cascaded modules and a modulation index for the module having the single identifier; and wherein the normalized reference signal of a most recently received control information data element by the modulation index of a most recently received control information data element that has the identifier of the module to generate a scaled reference signal.
Prior art Slepchenkov et al. US Patent 11,135,923 (see Fig. 1C), Slepchenkov et al. US Patent 11,597284 (see Fig. 1C) and Slepchenkov et al. US Patent 12391132 (see Fig. 1C) are found to be the closest prior art.
However, none of the prior art, taken singly or in combination all the elements recited in claim 1 including each module having an identifier, the single identifier selected from a set of identifiers comprising the identifier for each module in the array of cascaded modules and a modulation index for the module having the single identifier; and wherein the normalized reference signal of a most recently received control information data element by the modulation index of a most recently received control information data element that has the identifier of the module to generate a scaled reference signal.
Claims 2-9 are allowed as being dependent of claim 1.
Regarding claim 21 is allowable for the same reasons as claim 1.
Claims 22-27 are allowed as being dependent of claim 21.
Conclusion
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/YAHVEH COMAS TORRES/Examiner, Art Unit 2838 /THIENVU V TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2838
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