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 18/244,464 filed on 09/11/2023 is presented for examination. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statement dated 09/11/2023 is acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kumar et al. (US 2022/0205420) (Hereinafter, Kumar) in view of Li et al. (US 2021/0206290).
With respect to claims 1, 9 and 17, Kumar discloses an electrical system for providing electrical power to at least one traction component and at least one accessory component of an electric machine (Fig. 1, 112 and 104/106), the electrical system comprising: a battery system configured to supply power to a component of the electric machine (Fig. 1, 116; Fig. 7, 316; Para. # 0032: the primary battery is the exclusive source of electrical energy for powering the cranking of the engine; the primary battery may continue to supply electric current to the non-propulsive loads, which may include lights, radios, speakers, computers, display devices),
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the battery system comprising: a plurality of battery strings (Fig. 7, 356), wherein each battery string includes a battery module having at least one battery cell (Fig. 7, 314; Para. # 0043: Each battery module 314 may include one or more respective battery cells) an electronic control module configured to receive a representation of a state of charge of each battery string (Para. # 0041: The control system controls the charging and discharging of the SESS and the primary battery. The control system includes a controller 308 that has one or more processors 318 and a non-volatile computer-readable storage medium, referred to herein as memory device 320), the electronic control module including a control unit configured to: determine which battery string has a highest state of charge (Para. # 0071: In response to determining that the voltage of the primary battery exceeds a designated threshold voltage); and select, based on a load requirement of the at least one accessory component (Para. # 0056: the controller may select both the primary battery and the SESS for powering the cranking load),
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the battery string with the highest state of charge to provide power to the at least one accessory component when the highest state of charge exceeds a state of charge of another battery string by a threshold value (Para. # 0070: the controller may also be configured to terminate the charging operation prematurely, by opening the charge relay to disconnect the resistor and the SESS from the primary battery, in response to a determined voltage differential between the primary battery and the SESS exceeding a designated threshold; the controller may also charge the SESS with excess electric current in response to determining that the primary battery is receiving electric current at an excessive rate)
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and an output coupled to the battery system and configured to supply the electrical power to the at least one accessory component without supplying power to the at least one traction component(Para. # 0032: When the vehicle is stationary and the engine is shut down, the primary battery may continue to supply electric current to the non-propulsive loads, which may include lights, radios, speakers, computers, display devices, instruments, sensors, HVAC components, and the like).
Kumar, does not expressly disclose an electronic control module that controls state of charge of each battery and a control unit that determines which one has the highest state of charge.
Li, on the other hand, discloses an electronic control module that controls state of charge of each battery and a controller that determines which one has the highest state of charge (Fig. 1, BMS and controller 4; Para. # 0022 and 0057: one battery pack or a plurality of battery packs connected in parallel which is/are controlled by a Battery Management System (BMS) to connected to and disconnect from a high-voltage DC bus; and he controller 4 determines that the voltage of the battery pack B1 is far lower than that of the battery pack BN with the highest voltage).
KUMAR and Li are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely system and method for powering vehicle engine and power supply and control in electric vehicle.
At the time of the invention, 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 added a multiple controller, such as one to control a state of the rechargeable batteries and the other to control and determine who has the highest state charge in the system for the system and powering of Kumar in view of Li for the benefit of using battery management system that controls the different capacities or different characteristics of the batteries before the old make the new fail together, and the main controller to know and decide which batteries of the multiple battery system has the highest state of charge before use to prolong the battery life and proper power distribution in the system.
With respect to claims 2 and 10, the combine references of Kumar and Li disclose the electrical system for providing electrical power as described above, further Kumar discloses wherein the control unit is a first control unit, wherein the electronic control module is a first electronic control module coupled to the battery system and includes the first control unit, and wherein the battery system includes the first electronic control module (Para. # 008: a cranking system is provided that includes a secondary energy storage system (SESS) and a control system. The SESS is configured to be disposed onboard a vehicle and conductively connected, via switch devices, to a primary battery and a cranking device of the vehicle; the control system is configured to control the switch devices to close a conductive path to discharge electric current from the SESS for powering the cranking device).
With respect to claims 3 and 11, the combine references of Kumar and Li disclose the electrical system for providing electrical power as described above, further Li discloses wherein the control unit is a second control unit, wherein the electronic control module is a second electronic control module coupled to the electric machine and includes the second control unit, and wherein the second electronic control module is in electrical communication with a first electronic control module coupled to the battery system (Para. # 0028: The BMS in the battery pack receives an instruction from the controller via a CAN2 communication, so as to control connection/disconnection of the battery pack).
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With respect to claims 4 and 12, the combine references of Kumar and Li disclose the electrical system for providing electrical power as described above, further Kumar discloses wherein the plurality of battery strings is a first plurality of battery strings (Para. # 0077), the electrical system further comprising: a second plurality of battery strings wherein each battery string of the second plurality of battery strings includes a battery module having at least one battery cell (Fig. 5, 356 and 358: Para. # 0077:a first string 356 and a second string 358 ); Li discloses and a third electronic control module configured to receive a representation of a state of charge of each battery string of the second plurality of battery strings, wherein the second electronic control module is in electrical communication with the third electronic control module (para. # 0028: the main switch and the pre-charging switch are both controlled by the BMS. The BMS in the battery pack receives an instruction from the controller via a CAN2 communication, so as to control connection/disconnection of the battery pack).
With respect to claims 5 and 14, the combine references of Kumar and Li disclose the electrical system for providing electrical power as described above, further Kumar discloses wherein the control unit is configured to: determine the load requirement of the at least one accessory component (Para. # 0063: he control assist mode, the SESS supplies electric current (through the SESS discharge switch) that powers the control loads, such that the controller becomes functional and operable).
With respect to claims 6, 7, 15, 16 and 20, the combine references of Kumar and Li disclose the electrical system for providing electrical power as described above, further Kumar discloses wherein the control unit configured to select, based on the load requirement of the at least one accessory component, the battery string with the highest state of charge to provide power to the at least one accessory component when the highest state of charge exceeds the state of charge of another battery string by the threshold is configured to: generate and output a command signal to close a contactor corresponding to the battery string with the highest state of charge (Para. # 0051: The “strong” determination may represent a healthy energy storage device that has at least a threshold state of charge, such as but not limited to at least 60%, 70%, or at least 80% of the charge capacity, or at least a threshold amount of electrical energy available for discharge to the cranking load. The controller may evaluate primary battery strength by monitoring voltage drops during high current draw event).
With respect to claims 8, 13 and 18-19, the combine references of Kumar and Li disclose the electrical system for providing electrical power as described above, further Kumar discloses wherein the threshold value is a first threshold value, and wherein the control unit is further configured to: compare states of charge of corresponding battery strings to a second threshold value (Para. # 0051: a threshold amount of electrical energy available for discharge to the cranking load. The controller may evaluate primary battery strength by monitoring voltage drops during high current draw events); and when one of the states of charge is below the second threshold value, selectively isolate the corresponding battery string so as to prevent the battery string from providing power to the at least one accessory component (Para. # 0038: charging electric current at time T.sub.0 to power the electrical engine starter. Due to the depleted state of the battery, the voltage drops more than the batteries in FIGS. 2 and 3 to a level that is below a threshold control minimum voltage level 246).
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.
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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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