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 18/220,938 filed on 07/12/2023 is presented for examination. Claims 1-20 ae pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statement dated 07/12/2023 is acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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 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 present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the 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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harris et al. (US 2022/0393492) (Hereinafter, Harris) in view of Fassnacht et al. (US 2015/0130420).
With respect to claims 1 and 16-17, Harris discloses a power conversion apparatus for applying a swap battery (Para. # 0026 and 0030: more power switching topologies such as buck-boost converter for the AC stage and buck-boost converter for the DC stage),
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the apparatus comprising: a secondary converter configured to convert alternating current (AC) power into direct current (DC) power (reproduced Fig. 1, AC/DC converters above); a main battery connected to the secondary converter to receive the DC power (Fig. 1, 58-battery pack); a replaceable swap battery block connected to the secondary converter configured for simultaneous discharge with the main battery (Fig. 1, 52-battery holder for replacement); a switching circuit configured to turn on or off electrical connection between the replaceable swap battery block and the secondary converter (Para. # 0030: Each of the bidirectional inverters can have a direct current (DC) stage that is electrically coupled to the battery pack through the respective one of the plurality of battery holders. The AC stage and the DC stage can include a combination of power electronic components such as plurality of power switching devices (e.g., MOSFETs, IGBTs, transistors, FETs, BJTs, diodes, etc.), resistors, capacitors, inductors, and switching logic); and a bypass circuit configured to turn on or off electrical connection between the swap battery block and the main battery (Para. # 0038: One of more of the switches, such as switch 84, can connect and disconnect the AC bus to a source 88).
Harris, does not expressly disclose a bypass circuit configured to turn on or off electrical connection.
Fassnacht, on the other hand, discloses a bypass circuit configured to turn on or off electrical connection (See Para. # 0038: switch the energy storage cell module 5 either to a bypass state or a switching state in the forward direction into the energy supply string).
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HARRIS and Fassnacht are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely battery storage and allocation and an energy storage device.
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have modify the switching circuit of Harris with the bypass circuit of Fassnacht in order avert potential damage to the electrical elements from electrical spikes such as from one rechargeable battery or battery pack and continue supplying power to the remaining battery pack to continue electrical connection powering the remaining load (Para. # 0038: In both bypass states, the voltage 0 is present between the two output terminals 3a and 3b of the coupling device 7. Likewise, the energy storage cell module 5 can be switched between the output connections 3a and 3b of the coupling device 7 in the reverse direction by virtue of the active switching elements of the coupling elements 7b and 7c being set to the closed state, while the active switching elements of the coupling elements 7a and 7d are set to the open state).
With respect to claim 18, the combined references of Harris and Fassnacht disclose the power conversion apparatus for applying the swap battery as described above, further Fassnacht discloses wherein the checking includes: comparing, by the controller, output voltages of at least two swap batteries with an output voltage of the main battery, and operating, by the controller, in one of a buck mode, a bypass mode, and a hybrid mode that combines the buck mode and the bypass mode according to a result of the comparing (Para. # 0010/0011: one energy storage cell, and a coupling device comprising coupling elements, which are configured to selectively switch the energy storage cell module into the energy supply string or to bypass said energy storage cell module).
With respect to claim 19, the combined references of Harris and Fassnacht disclose the power conversion apparatus for applying the swap battery as described above, further Harris discloses wherein the checking includes supplying DC power to the main battery using a charger including a primary converter when there is no operation selection of charging using the swap battery block (Par. # 0030: and a DC voltage to be present at the output of the DC stage. By controlling the switching of the power switching devices (e.g., the duty cycles and/or frequency thereof), the bidirectional inverter can deliver electrical energy to the AC output from the DC output, or vice versa. The electronic circuits can be arranged in one or more power switching topologies such as buck-boost converter for the AC stage and buck-boost converter for the DC stage).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 15 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 3-14 are depend on the above objected claim 2.
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
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