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 . The instant application with Application Number 18/194,628 filed on 04/01/2023 is presented for examination. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of restriction made in the reply filed on 01/12/2024 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the specification consistently describes the disclosed subject matter as an integrated vehicle-based energy and transaction platform in which the networking features, security features, electrification features, and blockchain features operates together as part of the same system. This is found persuasive and would be considered in the following office action. The previous restriction of 04/15/2026 has been withdrawn.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statements dated 04/01/2023, 06/04/2024 and 04/17/2026 are acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
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 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Hershkovitz et al. (US 2015/0039391).
With respect to claims 1, 8 and 15, Hershkovitz discloses a system/method comprising: a memory to store a set of instructions (Para. # 0006, 0030: one or more data processors, memory storing data and one or more software programs for execution by one or more processors. The data and the one or more programs stored in the memory may include a battery status module configured to determine a battery charge status based on battery status data received from each of the plurality of electric vehicles, a vehicle location database for maintaining location data received from the vehicles); and a processor to execute the set of instructions, wherein the processor causes the system to: determine an inability for an entity to provide electricity over a threshold to an area (Para. # 0039: sending to a utility provider the estimated minimum charging load and the estimated maximum charging load, and receiving from the utility provider an energy plan comprising preferred charging loads for a predetermined time window); determine available energy from a group of
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electric vehicles from locations currently receiving energy in the area and a group of energy storage units in the area greater than the threshold (Para. # 0159: the demand indicator further indicates that a threshold for predicting congestion has been reached. In map 600 of figure 6, a congestion point is indicated by a double circle enclosing an "X." In some embodiments, this threshold corresponds to a determination (e.g., from the comparing steps 420 and 510);
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providing the determined available energy to locations not currently receiving energy from the entity (Para. # 0073: The control center system 112 may send an instruction to a battery service station 130 to change (i.e., increase or decrease) the number of available replacement batteries 114 at a battery service station (e.g., by acquiring batteries from a different battery service station, or a battery storage location).
With respect to claims 2, 9 and 16, Hershkovitz discloses the system as described above, further discloses, wherein the threshold relates to an amount of electricity required to power a first location in the area (Para. # 0104: the control center system 112 receives (402) battery status data 41 and location data 42 from each of a plurality of electric vehicles 102).
With respect to claims 3, 10 and 17, Hershkovitz discloses the system as described above, further discloses, wherein the threshold relates to a cost of electricity associated with powering a first location in the area (Para. # 0019: the control center system 112 uses the estimated minimum and maximum charging loads of the electric vehicle network 100, in conjunction with price data for electrical power to determine when it is cost efficient to maintain the actual charging load at (or near) the minimum charge load).
With respect to claims 4, 11 and 18, Hershkovitz discloses the system as described above, further discloses, further comprising instructions executable by the processor to cause the system to determine available energy from the group of electric vehicles and the group of energy storage units including predicting an anticipated surplus of available energy (Para. # 0008, 0118: the control center system 112 uses aggregated charging behavior of many individual users to help predict the battery status 47 at which a particular user is likely to visit a battery service station 130).
With respect to claims 5, 12 and 20, Hershkovitz discloses the system as described above, further discloses, further comprising instructions executable by the processor to cause the system to determine available energy from the group of electric vehicles and the group of energy storage units including energy expended traveling between the locations not currently receiving energy from the entity and the locations of the group of vehicles and the group of energy storage units (Para. # 0111, 0114 and 0115: the control center system 112 periodically (or intermittently) receives the battery status data 41 and the location data 42 of the plurality of electric vehicles 102 in the electric vehicle network 100 in order to update the identified final destinations 43 for each of the electric vehicles).
With respect to claims 6, 13 and 19, Hershkovitz discloses the system as described above, further discloses, further comprising instructions executable by the processor to cause the system to provide the determined available energy including dispatching a vehicle from the group of electric vehicles to locations not currently receiving energy (Para. # 0069 and 0073: the control center system 112 periodically provides a list of suitable service stations 130 (e.g., within the maximum theoretical range of the electric vehicle; the control center system 112 may also send information and/or commands through the communications network 120 to the battery service stations 130; the control center system 112 may send an instruction to a battery service station 130 to change (i.e., increase or decrease) the number of available replacement).
With respect to claims 7 and 14, Hershkovitz discloses the system as described above, further discloses, wherein providing the determined available energy includes dispatching a vehicle from locations not currently receiving energy to the group of energy storage units (Para. # 0030: a communication module for exchanging data with one or more battery service stations and with a plurality of electric vehicles. one or more data processors, and memory storing data and one or more software programs for execution by the one or more processors).
Contact information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YALKEW FANTU whose telephone number is
(571)272-8928. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:00PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DREW A DUNN can be reached at 571-272-2312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859 I
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