DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Claims 1 and 3-20 are currently pending. Claim 2 has been cancelled. Claims 11-20 are withdrawn from further consideration as being drawn to a non-elected invention. The amended claim 1 does overcome the previously stated 102 rejections. However, upon further consideration, claims 1 and 3-10 are rejected under the following new 101 rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim recites a device for diagnosing hydrogen leakage of a fuel cell vehicle comprising a hydrogen sensor and a controller. The claim further recites that the controller diagnoses a cause of hydrogen leakage based on a ratio of a hydrogen concentration, measured via the hydrogen sensor, before and after supercharging and further determines the cause of the hydrogen leakage as hydrogen backflow at an air humidifier based on the ratio satisfying a first condition; determines an offset of the hydrogen sensor based on the ratio satisfying a second condition; and determines the cause of hydrogen leakage as a micro leakage of a fuel supply valve when the ratio satisfies a third condition.
The limitations “diagnose a cause of the hydrogen leakage based on a ratio of a hydrogen concentration before air supercharging to a hydrogen concentration after the air supercharging”; “determine the cause of the hydrogen leakage as hydrogen backflow at an air humidifier when the ratio satisfies a first condition”; “determine that an offset has occurred in the hydrogen sensor when the ratio satisfies a second condition”; and “determine the cause of the hydrogen leakage as micro leakage of a fuel supply valve (FSV) when the ratio satisfies a third condition”, describes processes that cover the performance of limitations in the mind but for the recitation of a generic computer component. For example, but for the “controller configured to” language, “diagnose” and “determine” in the context of this claim encompasses a user manually considering, based on measured hydrogen concentration values, the cause of the hydrogen leakage or if offset has occurred in the hydrogen sensor. If a claim, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of a generic computer component [i.e. controller], then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas [See MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)]. Accordingly, claim 1 recites an abstract idea (i.e. a device that diagnoses hydrogen leakage based on a comparison/ratio of measured values).
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim recites that the device diagnoses hydrogen leakage via hydrogen sensor and controller and that the controller determines the cause of hydrogen leakage and determines that offset has occurred in the hydrogen sensor based on a comparison of hydrogen concentration values. The controller’s function does not integrate the abstract idea into practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on the abstract idea. Specifically, the controller is an additional element configured to carry out the claimed diagnosing/determination steps based on data from a hydrogen sensor; thus it is a tool used to obtain hydrogen concentration measurements and perform mathematical calculations (i.e. calculate ratio of concentrations before and after supercharging) that is recited generically (i.e. no details other than that it is a controller) that it represents no more than mere instructions to apply the judicial exception [MPEP 2106.05(f)] and further is NOT a particular machine [See MPEP 2106.05(g)]. Accordingly, the controller does not integrate the abstract idea into practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limitation on practicing the abstract idea. Furthermore, the hydrogen sensor/hydrogen sensor’s function does not provide particular application, because such a limitation describes mere data gathering [See MPEP 2106.05(g)].
Therefore, claim 1 does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above, with respect to integration of the abstract idea into practical application, the hydrogen sensor and controller amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception and so cannot provide an inventive concept. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 3 – 10 recite limitations which further specify various aspects of the abstract ideas recited in claim 1. These claims do not provide a particular application for the judicial exception or include additional elements.
Conclusion
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/T.S.C/Examiner, Art Unit 1751
/JONATHAN G LEONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1751 8/25/2026
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