CTNF 18/206,754 CTNF 100182 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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(s) (IDS) submitted on 6/7/2023 been considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-12-aia AIA (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. 07-15 AIA Claim (s) 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1) and 102(a)(2 ) as being anticipated by Cook et al. (US 20050151517 A1) . Regarding Claim 1, Cook teaches (Fig. 3) an engine-driven generator comprising: an engine (not pictured, but taught by ¶[5] “the power delivery capacity of an alternator varies directly with the vehicle's engine speed”); a generator (alternator 12) configured to be driven by the engine (see ¶[5] quoted above); a first conversion circuit (14) configured to convert an alternating current generated by the generator into a direct current (¶[46] “AC voltage from an alternator 12 is rectified to a DC voltage by a rectifier 14”); a first battery (32) configured to be charged with power output from the first conversion circuit (14) (¶[32] “Controller 36 responds to the system data 38 in a predetermined manner to control the operation of inverter 18 and converters 20, 22 to regulate at least one of the voltage and current of at least one of the AC bus 28, primary bus 34 and secondary bus 24, and charge batteries 30, 32”; see Fig. 3 where output of rectifier 14 leads to primary bus 34 where the first battery 32 is connected); a second conversion circuit (18) connected to the first battery (32) and configured to convert power supplied from the first battery, and to supply the converted power to a load (AC bus, ¶[46] “A DC/AC converter 28 receives input power from primary bus 34 and provides an AC output to an AC bus 28 to supply loads”; note that converter is mislabeled as 28 when it is actually 18; further note that the primary bus may be powered by the first battery, ¶[47] “If power from alternator 12 is unavailable (such as when the prime mover is not operating), battery 32 may power primary bus 34 and DC/AC converter 18”); a third conversion circuit (22) connected to the first battery (32) and configured to convert a DC voltage supplied from the first battery into a first charging voltage (¶[47] “battery 32 may power primary bus 34 and DC/AC converter 18, and can charge battery 30 through DC/DC converter 22”); and a second battery (30) connected to the third conversion circuit and configured to be charged with the first charging voltage supplied from the third conversion circuit (22) (see ¶[47] quoted above), wherein the first conversion circuit (14) is configured to convert power generated by the generator to generate a second charging voltage and to charge the first battery (32) with the second charging voltage during an operation period in which the engine is operating (¶[46] “AC voltage from an alternator 12 is rectified to a DC voltage by a rectifier 14. The rectified DC forms a primary bus 34 in conjunction with a first battery 32”, see also ¶[32] quoted above), and the third conversion circuit (22) is configured to convert a DC voltage supplied from the second battery (30) into a third charging voltage for charging the first battery (¶[35] “DC/DC converter 22 may also be bidirectional and thus additionally capable of augmenting power available to primary bus 34 by converting power from battery 30 (and/or an external source of power connected to the primary bus) to a voltage compatible with the primary bus and providing the converted voltage to the primary bus”) and to charge the first battery with the third charging voltage during a stop period in which the engine is stopped (¶[39] “further allow operation of system 100 from either or both of batteries 30, 32 when alternator 12 is not providing power”). Regarding Claim 2, Cook teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 1. Cook further teaches wherein the third conversion circuit is a bidirectional DC-DC converter (¶[35] “DC/DC converter 22 may also be bidirectional and thus additionally capable of augmenting power available to primary bus 34 by converting power from battery 30” in view of ¶[46] “A system controller 36 utilizes system data 38 to control the operation of DC/AC converter 18 and DC/DC converter 22 via an output 40 in substantially the same manner as previously described”) . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 3-8 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cook et al. (US 20050151517 A1) in view of Moriya et al. (JP 2020048347 A) . Regarding Claim 3, Cook teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 1. Cook does not explicitly teach wherein in the operation period, the third conversion circuit is further configured to: charge the second battery by supplying power from the first battery to the second battery when a remaining capacity of the first battery is not insufficient; and stop supplying power from the first battery to the second battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is insufficient. Moriya teaches the third conversion circuit (30) is further configured to: charge the second battery (20) by supplying power from the first battery (10) to the second battery when a remaining capacity of the first battery is not insufficient (¶[44] “in step S511, the control unit 120 determines whether the first SOC is equal to or greater than the reference SOC”; ¶[46] “If the answer in step S511 is determined to be YES, in step S513 the converter control unit 121 starts supplying power from the first secondary battery 10 to the second secondary battery 20.”); and stop supplying power from the first battery to the second battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is insufficient (¶[44] “the first SOC is not determined to be equal to or greater than the standard SOC (step S511/NO), the process proceeds to step S517”; ¶[53] “As a result, the supply of power from the first secondary battery 10 to the second secondary battery 20 is terminated”). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cook to incorporate the teachings of Moriya to provide the third conversion circuit is further configured to: charge the second battery by supplying power from the first battery to the second battery when a remaining capacity of the first battery is not insufficient; and stop supplying power from the first battery to the second battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is insufficient; in order to charge the secondary battery while guaranteeing the first battery is still charged enough to operate the vehicle, as suggested by Moriya (¶[45]). Regarding Claim 4, Cook in view of Moriya teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 3. Moriya further teaches wherein the third conversion circuit (30) is further configured to: charge the second battery (20) by supplying power from the first battery (10) to the second battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is not insufficient (see ¶[44] and ¶[46] quoted above) and a remaining capacity of the second battery is insufficient in the operation period, and stop supplying power from the first battery to the second battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is not insufficient and the remaining capacity of the second battery is not insufficient in the operation period (¶[68] “in step S523, the control unit 120 determines whether the first SOC and the second SOC have reached the target SOC. If it is determined that the first SOC and the second SOC have reached the target SOC (step S523/YES), proceed to step S525” the control flow is ended.). Regarding Claim 5, Cook teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 1. Cook does not explicitly teach wherein in the stop period, the third conversion circuit is further configured to: charge the first battery by supplying power from the second battery to the first battery when a remaining capacity of the first battery is insufficient, and stop supplying power from the second battery to the first battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is not insufficient. Moriya teaches wherein in the stop period, the third conversion circuit (30) is further configured to: charge the first battery (10) by supplying power from the second battery (20) to the first battery when a remaining capacity of the first battery is insufficient (see Fig. 7, ¶[68] “If it is determined that the first SOC and the second SOC have reached the target SOC (step S523/YES), proceed to step S525. On the other hand, if it is determined that the first SOC and the second SOC have not reached the target SOC (step S523/NO), the process in step S523 is repeated”), and stop supplying power from the second battery to the first battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is not insufficient (¶[70] “If the result in step S523 is determined to be YES, in step S525 the external power control unit 123 terminates the power receiving unit 60 from the external power source”). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cook to incorporate the teachings of Moriya to provide the third conversion circuit is further configured to: charge the first battery by supplying power from the second battery to the first battery when a remaining capacity of the first battery is insufficient, and stop supplying power from the second battery to the first battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is not insufficient, in order to ensure the first battery is sufficiently charged to ensure smooth operation of the vehicle. Regarding Claim 6, Cook in view of Moriya teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 5. Moriya further teaches wherein the third conversion circuit (30) is further configured to: charge the first battery (10) by supplying power from the second battery (20) to the first battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is insufficient and a remaining capacity of the second battery is not insufficient in the stop period (see ¶[68] quoted above). Cook in view of Moriya does not explicitly teach to stop supplying power from the second battery to the first battery when the remaining capacity of the first battery is insufficient and the remaining capacity of the second battery is insufficient in the stop period; however it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to not use the second battery as a charging source if it’s discharged, and therefore the first battery would not receive any charge and it would still be insufficiently charged. Regarding Claim 7, Cook teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 1. Cook does not explicitly teach wherein quick charging performance of the first battery is higher than quick charging performance of the second battery. Moriya teaches wherein quick charging performance of the first battery (10) is higher than quick charging performance of the second battery (20) (¶[24] “Furthermore, from the viewpoint of effectively increasing the vehicle's driving range, it is preferable that the second secondary battery 20 is a high-capacity (i.e., high-energy-density) energy storage device compared to the first secondary battery 10”, a high capacity battery will take more time to charge than a smaller battery). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cook to incorporate the teachings of Moriya to provide wherein quick charging performance of the first battery is higher than quick charging performance of the second battery, in order to improve vehicle efficiency by having a small, quickly charging battery for starting the car and a larger and slower battery for other loads. Regarding Claim 8, Cook teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 1. Cook does not explicitly teach wherein a capacity of the second battery is larger than a capacity of the first battery. Moriya teaches wherein a capacity of the second battery (20) is larger than a capacity of the first battery (10) (¶[24] “Furthermore, from the viewpoint of effectively increasing the vehicle's driving range, it is preferable that the second secondary battery 20 is a high-capacity (i.e., high-energy-density) energy storage device compared to the first secondary battery 10”). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cook to incorporate the teachings of Moriya to provide wherein a capacity of the second battery is larger than a capacity of the first battery in order to increase the driving range of the battery, as suggested by Moriya. Regarding Claim 11, Cook teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 1. Cook does not explicitly teach a controller configured to set, as an operation mode of the third conversion circuit, either a first operation mode in which the second battery is charged by the first battery or a second operation mode in which the first battery is charged by the second battery. Moriya teaches a controller (control device 100, Fig. 2) configured to set, as an operation mode of the third conversion circuit (30) (¶[37] “The control unit 120 controls the power supply in the power supply system 1. For example, the control unit 120 includes a converter control unit 121”; ¶[38] “The converter control unit 121 controls the supply of power between the first secondary battery 10 and the second secondary battery 20 by controlling the operation of the DC-DC converter 30”), either a first operation mode (Fig. 4) in which the second battery (20) is charged by the first battery (10) (¶[47] “Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing the power flow within the power supply system 1 when power is supplied from the first secondary battery 10 to the second secondary battery 20 during charging using external power”) or a second operation mode (Fig. 7) in which the first battery (10) is charged by the second battery (20) (¶[64] “Figure 7 is a schematic diagram showing the power flow within the power supply system 1 when power is supplied from the second secondary battery 20 to the first secondary battery 10 during charging using external power”). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cook to incorporate the teachings of Moriya to provide a controller configured to set, as an operation mode of the third conversion circuit, either a first operation mode in which the second battery is charged by the first battery or a second operation mode in which the first battery is charged by the second battery, in order to ensure smooth vehicle operation by controlling the DC/DC converter to charge whichever of the two batteries is discharged . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cook et al. (US 20050151517 A1) in view of Kusafuka et al. (JP 2004224267 A) . Regarding Claim 9, Cook teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 1. Cook does not explicitly teach wherein the first battery has a small change in capacity according to a load current, and the second battery has a large change in capacity according to the load current. Kusafuka teaches wherein the first battery (14) has a small change in capacity according to a load current, and the second battery (12) has a large change in capacity according to the load current (¶[19] “In this embodiment, battery 12 is a lead-acid battery (auxiliary battery) with a voltage of approximately 12V, while battery 14 is a lithium-ion battery (main battery) with a voltage of approximately 14.4V. Furthermore, compared to the lithium-ion battery 14, the lead-acid battery 12 has a higher output per unit volume (power density; unit is W/l), but a lower energy per unit volume (energy density; unit is Wh/l)”, it is known that the one hour rate capacity and ten hour rate capacity of lead acid batteries is large, compared to lithium ion batteries having a small difference, as noted in the spec in ¶[131]). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cook to incorporate the teachings of Kusafuka to provide wherein the first battery has a small change in capacity according to a load current, and the second battery has a large change in capacity according to the load current, in order to improve the vehicle operation by providing one high output battery and one high energy density battery in order to fully utilize the known benefits of both types of batteries . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cook et al. (US 20050151517 A1) in view of Matsumura et al. (JP 2020048347 A) . Regarding Claim 10, Cook teaches the engine-driven generator according to claim 1. Cook does not explicitly teach wherein the second battery is a battery that is detachably attached to the engine-driven generator and is replaceable by a user. Matsumura teaches wherein the second battery (12) is a battery that is detachably attached to the engine-driven generator and is replaceable by a user ([Page 32-33] “the battery 12 is detachable from the power supply unit 1” “the battery 12 can be brought into the house and charged from an external power source 91, which is a household power source, using the external charging device 90. Furthermore, by installing a spare battery 15 in the power supply unit while battery 12 is charging, the vehicle can be driven while battery 12 is charging”). It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cook to incorporate the teachings of Matsumura to provide wherein the second battery is a battery that is detachably attached to the engine-driven generator and is replaceable by a user in order to improve the user convenience by charging the battery with a household indoor charger or replacing the battery completely if a charger is not available. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AIMAN BICKIYA whose telephone number is (571)270-0555. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 - 6 PM EST. 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, Julian Huffman can be reached at 571-272-2147. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /A.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2859 /JULIAN D HUFFMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 2 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 3 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 4 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 5 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 6 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 7 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 8 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 9 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 10 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 11 Art Unit: 2859 Application/Control Number: 18/206,754 Page 12 Art Unit: 2859
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