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 18/251,572 filed on 05/03/2023 is presented for examination. As per the remarks of 05/03/2023, claims 1-10 have been cancelled, and new claims 11-21 are added.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statement dated 05/03/2023 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 11-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zheng et al. (US 2021/0237610) (Hereinafter, Zheng) in view of Bouman (US 2018/0212438).
With respect to claims 11, 16 and 21, Zheng discloses a charging device/method (see Fids. 1-4), comprising: charging ports including at least a first and a second charging port (Fig. 1, 1-1…10-6), each of said charging ports being configured to establish a detachable connection to a respective electric vehicle (Para. #0042-0043: a protective ground wire between the charger and the vehicle; or disconnecting a connection confirmation signal between the charger and the vehicle); a plurality of power converters (Fig. 1, power conversion unit 1, 2 and 10; Para. #. each power conversion unit is connected to six charging terminals); a controller having control outputs (Fig. 2, Power controller; Para. # 0012); a primary switch configuration connected between said charging ports and said power converters and having control inputs connected to said control outputs of said controller (Fig. 2, switch mat is between charging port 1, and 6; and power conversion unit), said primary switch configuration being configured to connect, depending on control signals from said controller received at said control inputs (Para. #$ 0013 and 0015: The switch matrix switches the output of each group of modules in six direct-current output circuits according to the control instruction of the power controller),
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a first group of said power converters with a variably selectable first number of said power converters to said first charging port and a second group of said power converters with a variably selectable second number of said power converters to said second charging port (see para. # 0017, 0018 and 0019: full power charging, average power charging and free dynamic charging; each power conversion unit is configured to output constant power to each charging terminal. Each charging terminal corresponds to one vehicle);
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said controller configured to provide the control signals according to a respective performance requirement for said charging ports, said controller further configured to check a rapid disconnection condition for each of said charging ports, to identify a causative charging port from among said first and second charging port in a case of a positive test result in relation to the rapid disconnection condition (Para. # 0042: The charging controller controls a charger to stop charging and controls the low-voltage auxiliary power supply relay and the high-voltage direct-current contactor on the direct-current output circuit bus to be disconnected within 100 ms when one of the following cases occurs during charging: a failure that the charger is incapable of continuing charging; triggering an emergency stop switch action; disconnecting a protective ground wire between the charger and), and to disconnect said first group of said power converters and use said second group of said power converters (Para. # 0048: monitoring module is configured to determine whether each closing and disconnection action state of the high-voltage direct-current contactor of the switch matrix is consistent with a control command of the charging controller and terminate charging in a case where each closing and disconnection action state of the high-voltage direct-current contactor of the switch matrix is inconsistent with the control command of the charging controller).
Zheng, does not expressly disclose disconnecting said first group power converters from charging port with issues and leave said second group (or other groups) switched on.
Bouman, on the other hand, discloses disconnecting said first group power converters from charging port with issues (such as malfunction) and leave said second group (or other groups) switched on.
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(See Para. # 0071: charging system wherein a plurality of power converters are connected with charge ports by a switched connection matrix. By using a switched connection matrix multiple electric vehicles can be charged simultaneously, without the need of extra converters, and the controller can decide to switch off each of the converter modules or charging ports in case of malfunctions as also shown in Fig. 7 above).
ZHENG and Bouman are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely Intelligent electric vehicle charging system and charging system for 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 controller for power converter charging electric vehicle with full control capability to switch off each of the converter module or charging ports in case found defective in order to efficiently use battery charging capacity for optimal use and operates the recharge process of the power converters and charging ports who are in good stand excluding the defective part of the multiple power converter system to the intelligent electric vehicle charging station of Zhen in view of Bouman.
With respect to claim 12, the combined references of Zheng and Bouman disclose the charging device as described above, further Zhen discloses wherein said controller is configured to check for a presence of a state or state change that is impermissible according to a charging protocol, an overshoot of a threshold temperature, or an unexpected state change of a charging plug locking mechanism for each of said charging port as the rapid disconnection condition (Para. # 0026, 0041 and 0042: disconnected within 100 ms when one of the following cases occurs during charging: a failure that the charger is incapable of continuing charging; triggering an emergency stop switch action; disconnecting a protective ground wire between the charger and the vehicle; or disconnecting a connection confirmation signal between the charger and the vehicle).
With respect to claim 13, the combined references of Zheng and Bouman disclose the charging device as described above, further Zhen discloses wherein said power converters have supply inputs; further comprising a power supply connection of the charging device; further comprising main switches connected between said power supply connection of said charging device and said supply inputs of said power converters; and wherein said controller is configured to keep said main switches closed in a case of the positive test result in relation to the rapid disconnection condition (Para. # 0048: the switch matrix is consistent with a control command of the charging controller and terminate charging in a case where each closing and disconnection action state of the high-voltage direct-current contactor of the switch matrix is inconsistent with the control command of the charging controller).
With respect to claims 14 and 15, the combined references of Zheng and Bouman disclose the charging device as described above, further Zhen discloses wherein: said charging ports having output switches; and said controller is configured to check for an emergency disconnection condition, and to disconnect all of said power converters in a case of a positive test result in relation to the emergency disconnection condition and to isolate said charging ports by opening said output switches after a waiting time has elapsed (Para. 0042: a failure that the charger is incapable of continuing charging; triggering an emergency stop switch action; disconnecting a protective ground wire between the charger and the vehicle).
With respect to claim 17, the combined references of Zheng and Bouman disclose the charging device as described above, further Bouman discloses wherein said controller is configured to output the rapid disconnection signal to all of said inputs of said secondary switch configuration in a case of a positive test result in relation to an emergency disconnection condition (Para. 0071: a switched connection matrix multiple electric vehicles can be charged simultaneously, without the need of extra converters, and the controller can decide to switch off each of the converter modules or charging ports in case of malfunctions).
With respect to claim 18, the combined references of Zheng and Bouman disclose the charging device as described above, further Zhen discloses the charging device is configured to output a direct current at said charging ports (Para. # 0041).
With respect to claim 19, the combined references of Zheng and Bouman disclose the charging device as described above, further Zhen discloses wherein said power converters are configured to convert an alternating current into a direct current (Para. # 00011: Referring to FIG. 2, the charger includes one power conversion unit and six charging terminals, where the power conversion unit includes an alternating-current power distribution module, 12 rectification modules, a switch matrix and a power controller).
With respect to claim 20, the combined references of Zheng and Bouman disclose the charging device as described above, further Zhen discloses further comprising a door; further comprising an emergency disconnection button; and wherein the emergency disconnection condition is an opening of said door of the charging device or an activation of said emergency disconnection button of the charging device (Para. # 0010 and 0042: The station-level monitoring system includes a charging monitoring cabinet and a charging monitoring operator station. The charging monitoring cabinet is disposed in the charging box; and during charging: a failure that the charger is incapable of continuing charging; triggering an emergency stop switch action; disconnecting a protective ground wire between the charger and the vehicle).
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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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859