Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/254,123

POWER BATTERY PACK EQUALIZATION METHOD BASED ON TERRAIN PREDICTION

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
May 23, 2023
Examiner
PELTON, NATHANIEL R
Art Unit
2859
Tech Center
2800 — Semiconductors & Electrical Systems
Assignee
Xiamen Yaxon Zhilian Technology Co. Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
75%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 9m
To Grant
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 75% — above average
75%
Career Allow Rate
546 granted / 729 resolved
+6.9% vs TC avg
Strong +19% interview lift
Without
With
+18.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
33 currently pending
Career history
762
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.1%
-38.9% vs TC avg
§103
53.5%
+13.5% vs TC avg
§102
23.5%
-16.5% vs TC avg
§112
13.0%
-27.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 729 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
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. Priority Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/23/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Claim Objections Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: S1 and S2 are followed with periods which raises grammatical issues, the Examiner recommends replacing the periods with colons/semi-colons/dashes/etc. Appropriate correction is required. Response to Amendment Acknowledgement is made of the preliminary amendment filed on 05/23/2023 in which claims 1-4 were amended. Claims 1-4 stand pending for examination below. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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 – (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. Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Ding et al. [CN 108512239]* . *Note a copy of the foreign reference has already been provided of record with the IDS filed on 05/23/2023 and therefore a duplicate copy is not provided with this action. With respect to claim 1 , Ding discloses a power battery pack equalization method based on terrain prediction [ par. 0002 ] , comprising the following steps: S1. during running of a vehicle, acquiring, by a battery management system (BMS), information of a road ahead of the vehicle from an e-horizon system [ par. 0024; i.e. advanced GPS and intelligent transportation predict changes in road conditions along a future route ] ; and S2. classifying the i nformation by the BMS, setting a corresponding power prediction type based on a road information type [ par. 0024; “predicting” changes in future route ] , and then selecting to switch to a corresponding battery pack equalization mode based on the corresponding power prediction type [ par. 0017, 0019 ] , wherein when the corresponding power prediction type of the road ahead of a current vehicle position is low power and high energy recovery, charging equalization is performed on the corresponding battery pack, and single batteries with low power capacity are charged through a supercapacitor [ par. 0004,0006 ,0019,0022;0024; i.e. capacitor charges during excess power event such as braking/deaccelerating ] ; and when the corresponding power prediction type of the road ahead of the current vehicle position is high power and high energy consumption, discharging equalization is performed on the corresponding battery pack, and the supercapacitor is charged through single batteries with high power capacity [ par. 0004,0006 ,0023,0024; i.e. capacitor discharges when additional power is needed during high consumption events such as accelerating ] . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 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. Claim(s) 2-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ding et al. [CN 108512239] as applied above, and further in view of Tu et al. [US 2023/0264575]. With respect to claim 2 , Ding further discloses wherein the step S2 comprises switching, by the BMS, the corresponding battery pack equalization mode to a charging equalization mode, obtaining a maximum single voltage (Vmax) of all the single batteries by performing voltage detection on the corresponding battery pack, and performing, by the supercapacitor, charging equalization on single batteries with single voltages lower than the Vmax until an upper voltage limit is the Vmax, so that an entire battery pack is equalized; and switching, by the BMS, the corresponding battery pack equalization mode to a discharging equalization mode, obtaining a minimum single voltage ( Vmin ) of all the single batteries by performing the voltage detection on the corresponding battery pack, and performing discharging equalization on single batteries with single voltages higher than the ( Vmin ) until a lower voltage limit is the Vmin , so that the entire battery pack is equalized [ par. 0022-0024 ], however, while Ding utilize intelligent GPS he fails to explicitly disclose downhill/uphill predicting. Tu relates to an optimized energy allocation method for an electric vehicle and teaches when the road information type of a slope ahead of the current vehicle position is a downhill /uphill slope, predicting that energy recovery /delivery will occur ahead of the current vehicle position [ Fig. 1; par. 0006,0042-0045; i.e. links road slope prediction with energy supply/recovery for a super capacitor ]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to modify Ding as applied above to further predict/detect road slope in the intelligent GPS as taught by Tu for the benefit of optimizing energy storage recovery and space as stated by Tu. With respect to claim 3 , Ding further discloses wherein before the charging equalization is performed, determining whether power capacity required to charge each of the single batteries to the Vmax is greater than remaining power capacity of the supercapacitor, when the power capacity required to charge each of the single batteries to the Vmax is greater than the remaining power capacity of the supercapacitor, switching to a conventional battery equalization method, otherwise the single batteries with the single voltages lower than the Vmax are subjected to the charging equalization through the supercapacitor until the single voltages of the single batteries subjected to the charging equalization reach the Vmax [ par. 0024; i.e. the SOC of the capacitor is designed to stay at a target region and if gets too high emits a charging warning and discharges back to the battery, which is equated to a “conventional” method ] . With respect to claim 4 , Ding further discloses wherein before the discharging equalization is performed, determining whether discharging capacity of each of the single batteries discharged to the Vmin is smaller than remaining charging capacity of the supercapacitor, when the discharging capacity of each of the single batteries discharged to the Vmin is smaller than the remaining charging capacity of the supercapacitor, switching to a conventional battery equalization method, otherwise the single batteries with the single voltages higher than the Vmin are subjected to the discharging equalization and energy of the discharging equalization is absorbed by the supercapacitor until the single voltages of the single batteries subjected to the discharging equalization reach the Vmin [ par. 0024; i.e. the SOC of the capacitor is designed to stay at a target region and if gets too low emits a discharging warning and receives charge from the battery, which is equated to a “conventional” method ] . Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT NATHANIEL R PELTON whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)270-1761 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT M-F 9am to 5pm . 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, FILLIN "SPE Name?" \* MERGEFORMAT Julian Huffman can be reached at FILLIN "SPE Phone?" \* MERGEFORMAT 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. /NATHANIEL R PELTON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

May 23, 2023
Application Filed
Feb 24, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
75%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+18.7%)
2y 9m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 729 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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