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 .
Drawings
2. The drawings were received on 5/9/2023. These drawings are acceptable.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. he factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
6. Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Slepchenkov et al (US 20210316637 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Slepchenkov discloses a system for managing an AC block comprising a plurality of battery storage units (206) and a power conversion system, comprising a plurality of battery management controllers (local control devices, 114) each assigned to a battery storage unit (206/108) in the AC block and manages status information of the corresponding battery storage unit, wherein each battery management controller (114) is communicably connected with the battery management controllers (114) assigned to neighboring battery storage units to gain awareness of status information of the neighboring battery storage units (206), wherein one of the plurality of battery management controllers is designated as a lead controller (master control device, 112), wherein the lead controller is configured to dispatch the power conversion system of the AC block to convert between DC energy stored in the plurality of battery storage units and AC energy based on collective status information of the plurality of battery storage units [Fig. 1-2, 4; paragraph 0052-0084].
Regarding claims 2-3, Slepchenkov teaches that the plurality of battery storage units are battery containers each comprising a plurality of battery racks (microgrid stationary application or larger mobile applications that include one or more racks or other frameworks). Slepchenkov further teaches that the plurality of battery storage units are battery racks in a battery container (one or more racks within a common housing) [paragraph 0075-0077, 0083-0084].
Regarding claim 4, Slepchenkov teaches that the status information of a battery storage unit comprises at least one of a battery capacity, a state of charge, a state of health, a bus voltage, a charge current limit, a discharge current limit, and a fault state of the battery storage unit (state of charge, state of health, voltage and current) [paragraph 0062].
Regarding claim 5, Slepchenkov teaches gaining awareness, by each battery management controller, of the status information of neighboring battery storage units of the AC block, but are silent as to in what format the information is stored. Examiner takes official notice that multi-dimensional state matrices were conventionally used to store information pertaining to a plurality of different sources in control systems before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use conventional multi-dimensional state matrices to store the collected status information in the Slepchenkov system.
Regarding claim 6, Slepchenkov teaches that control system (102) can have a communicative interface for communicating with devices (104) external to system (100) over a communication link or path (105) [Fig. 1; paragraph 0058, 0068-0070]
7. Claim(s) 7-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Slepchenkov et al (US 20210316637 A1) as applied in claim 6 and further in view of Harris (US 20210098833 A1).
Regarding claim 7, Slepchenkov remains silent about automatically redesignating a new lead controller to replace an initial lead controller upon a failure of the initial lead controller. However, Harris teaches a modular battery pack is configured to communicate with other modular battery packs wherein dynamically designating one of the plurality of battery management controllers as a lead controller further comprises automatically redesignating a new lead controller to replace an initial lead controller upon a failure of the initial lead controller [the role of master may be re-arbitrated upon detection of a fault condition of the currently assigned master, paragraphs 0034-0035]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to avail the teachings of utilizing an automatically redesignating a new lead controller in order to have safer operation of the battery pack.
Regarding claims 8-12, Harris teaches that automatically redesignating a new lead controller to replace the initial lead controller further comprises randomly electing the new lead controller from the battery management controllers assigned to the neighboring battery storage units of the initial lead controller (masters may be chosen based on highest or lowest serial number) according to a circle of influence of each battery management controller (the role of master may be designated based on remote system connection strength) [paragraph 0034].
Regarding claim 13, Harris further teaches that each battery management controller has a unique identifier, wherein dynamically designating one of the plurality of battery management controllers as a lead controller further comprises storing, in the lead controller, the unique identifiers of the battery management controllers assigned to the plurality of battery storage units (the role of master may be designated based on unique serial numbers of the modules) [paragraph 0034].
8. Claim(s) 14-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Slepchenkov et al (US 20210316637 A1)
Regarding claim 14, Slepchenkov discloses an AC block comprising a plurality of battery storage units (206) and a power conversion system, comprising a plurality of battery management controllers (local control devices, 114) each assigned to a battery storage unit (206/108) and manages status information of the corresponding battery storage unit, wherein each battery management controller (114) is communicably connected with the battery management controllers (114) assigned to neighboring battery storage units to gain awareness of status information of the neighboring battery storage units (206), wherein one of the plurality of battery management controllers is designated as a lead controller (master control device, 112), wherein the lead controller is configured to dispatch the power conversion system of the AC block to convert between DC energy stored in the plurality of battery storage units and AC energy based on collective status information of the plurality of battery storage units [Fig. 1-2, 4; paragraph 0052-0084].
Regarding claim 15, Slepchenkov teaches that the plurality of battery storage units are battery racks in a battery container (one or more racks within a common housing) [paragraph 0075-0077, 0083-0084].
Regarding claim 16, Slepchenkov teaches gaining awareness, by each battery management controller, of the status information of neighboring battery storage units of the AC block, but are silent as to in what format the information is stored. Examiner takes official notice that multi-dimensional state matrices were conventionally used to store information pertaining to a plurality of different sources in control systems before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use conventional multi-dimensional state matrices to store the collected status information in the Slepchenkov system.
9. Claim(s) 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Slepchenkov et al (US 20210316637 A1) as applied in claim 6 and further in view of Harris (US 20210098833 A1).
Regarding claim 17, Slepchenkov remains silent about automatically redesignating a new lead controller to replace an initial lead controller upon a failure of the initial lead controller. However, Harris teaches a modular battery pack is configured to communicate with other modular battery packs wherein dynamically designating one of the plurality of battery management controllers as a lead controller further comprises automatically redesignating a new lead controller to replace an initial lead controller upon a failure of the initial lead controller [the role of master may be re-arbitrated upon detection of a fault condition of the currently assigned master, paragraphs 0034-0035]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to avail the teachings of utilizing an automatically redesignating a new lead controller in order to have safer operation of the battery pack.
Regarding claims 18-20, Harris teaches that automatically redesignating a new lead controller to replace the initial lead controller further comprises randomly electing the new lead controller from the battery management controllers assigned to the neighboring battery storage units of the initial lead controller (masters may be chosen based on highest or lowest serial number) according to a circle of influence of each battery management controller (the role of master may be designated based on remote system connection strength) [paragraph 0034].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MUHAMMAD S SIDDIQUEE whose telephone number is (571)270-3719. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tong Guo can be reached at (571) 272-3066. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MUHAMMAD S SIDDIQUEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1723