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 .
Notice to Applicant
Claims 1, 4-8, and 10 have been examined in this application. This communication is a final rejection in response to the “Amendments to the claims” and “Remarks” filed 4/3/2026.
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.
Claims 1, 4, 6, 10 are rejected under 35 USC 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US Patent Application Number 2022/0081781 by Zhu in view of US Patent Application Number 2020/0185917 by Haugan.
Regarding claim 1, Zhu discloses an energy transportation system comprising:
A transportation ship (transport ship 8) provided with a storage storing an energy source (paragraph 28 discloses “the transport ship 8 being used for extracting hydrogen in the large hydrogen storage tank 3 periodically and transporting the hydrogen to the land”);
A power generation facility located outside the transportation ship and configured to supply an energy source to the storage (paragraph 17 discloses “electrolyzing seawater by a seawater electrolytic cell device to produce hydrogen”); and
A reception facility located outside the transportation ship and configured to receive a supply of an energy source from the storage (paragraph 63 discloses “hydrogen can be conveyed to the land to be used as a fuel and the like by human” and Figure 3 shows ship 8 delivering to a facility), wherein
The transportation ship includes a hull (hull of ship 8).
Zhu does not disclose the storage being a plurality of battery cells storing electric energy for transportation, the hull includes a drive battery and a motor, and navigates without consuming the electric energy stored in the plurality of battery cells by supplying electric energy stored in the drive battery to the motor, and the plurality of battery cells and the drive battery are electrically connected, and the transportation ship allows the electric energy stored in the plurality of battery cells to be supplied to the drive battery. However, these limitations are taught by Haugan. Haugan discloses an electrical energy distribution system for a vessel such as a ship with a primary comprising diesel motors coupled to AC electric generators that is then converted into DC (paragraph 53) where the energy from the DC circuits is stored in a stored energy source (paragraph 11), a plurality of backup electric energy storage elements that provides power to the AC consumers in the event of failure of the primary electric energy supply (paragraph 23) can be removed from the energy supply (paragraph 26). It would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify Zhu using the teachings from Haugan to substitute different types of known fuels for ships and to provide backup power in the event of a motor failure. Furthermore, Zhu as modified by Haugan teaches the power generation facility configured to supply electric energy to the plurality of battery cells and the reception facility configured to receive a supply of electric energy from the plurality of battery cells. Zhu discloses a hydrogen generation facility and a reception facility for hydrogen fuel, and Haugan provides a teaching to use electricity stored in batteries as fuel.
Zhu and Haugan do not disclose a container that is removable from the hull and includes the plurality of battery cells. However, paragraph 26 of Haugan suggests that “Each one of the plural backup electric energy storage elements may, individually or in combination with other backup electric energy storage elements, be disconnected from the first DC-circuit, in order to remove them from the ring”. It would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify Zhu and Haugan to use a container for the plurality of backup electric energy storage elements in order to make it easier for them to be removed from the ring .
Regarding claim 4 (dependent on claim 1), Zhu discloses the power generation facility is located offshore. Zhu discusses offshore wind power plants throughout, as well as the bottom of large hydrogen storage tank 3 being erected on a seabed.
Regarding claim 6 (dependent on claim 1), Zhu discloses the reception facility is located on shore. Paragraph 28 discloses “the transport ship 8 being used for extracting hydrogen in the large hydrogen storage tank 3 periodically and transporting the hydrogen to the land”. Land is on shore.
Regarding claim 10, James discloses an energy transportation system comprising transporting an energy source by a transportation ship provided with a storage storing the energy source (paragraph 28 discloses “the transport ship 8 being used for extracting hydrogen in the large hydrogen storage tank 3 periodically and transporting the hydrogen to the land”) from a power generation facility outside the transportation ship (paragraph 17 discloses “electrolyzing seawater by a seawater electrolytic cell device to produce hydrogen”) to a reception facility outside the transportation ship (paragraph 63 discloses “hydrogen can be conveyed to the land to be used as a fuel and the like by human” and Figure 3 shows ship 8 delivering to a facility), wherein the transportation ship comprises a hull (hull of transport ship 8).
Zhu does not disclose the storage being a plurality of battery cells storing electric energy for transportation, the hull includes a drive battery and a motor, the plurality of battery cells and the drive battery are electrically connected, and the transport includes navigating the transportation ship without consuming the electric energy stored in the plurality of battery cells by supplying electric energy stored in the drive battery to the motor, and allowing the electric energy stored in the plurality of battery cells to be supplied to the drive battery. However, these limitations are taught by Haugan. Haugan discloses an electrical energy distribution system for a vessel such as a ship with a primary comprising diesel motors coupled to AC electric generators that is then converted into DC (paragraph 53) where the energy from the DC circuits is stored in a stored energy source (paragraph 11), a plurality of backup electric energy storage elements that provides power to the AC consumers in the event of failure of the primary electric energy supply (paragraph 23) can be removed from the energy supply (paragraph 26). It would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify Zhu using the teachings from Haugan to substitute different types of known fuels for ships and to provide backup power in the event of a motor failure. Furthermore, Zhu as modified by Haugan teaches the power generation facility configured to supply electric energy to the plurality of battery cells and the reception facility configured to receive a supply of electric energy from the plurality of battery cells. Zhu discloses a hydrogen generation facility and a reception facility for hydrogen fuel, and Haugan provides a teaching to use electricity stored in batteries as fuel.
Zhu and Haugan do not disclose a container that is removable from the hull and includes the plurality of battery cells. However, paragraph 26 of Haugan suggests that “Each one of the plural backup electric energy storage elements may, individually or in combination with other backup electric energy storage elements, be disconnected from the first DC-circuit, in order to remove them from the ring”. It would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify Zhu and Haugan to use a container for the plurality of backup electric energy storage elements in order to make it easier for them to be removed from the ring .
Claims 5, 7 are rejected under 35 USC 103 as being obvious over US Patent Application Number 2022/0081781 by Zhu in view of US Patent Application Number 2020/0185917 by Haugan, in further view of US Patent Application Number 2009/0115190 by Devine.
Regarding claim 5 (dependent on claim 4), Zhu does not disclose the transportation ship at sea receives an energy source form the power generation facility via a cable. However, this limitation is taught by Devine. Devine discloses a system for producing hydrogen offshore and transporting the hydrogen using container ships 31 to a port 30, and paragraph 98 discloses “the spherical type container 101 is in liquid communication with hydrogen through pipe 105 and conduit 106…hydrogen may be transferred away from the container 101 to a shipping container either located on a ship or a container that may be loaded onto a ship”. It would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify Zhu using the teachings from Devine to use known ways to transport hydrogen from a storage tank to a transport ship.
Regarding claim 7 (dependent on claim 6), Zhu and Devine do not explicitly disclose the transportation ship at sea supplies an energy source to the reception facility via a cable. However, Devine suggests the use of conduit 106 to transfer hydrogen between storage container 101 and a ship, and paragraph 50 discloses a port 30 on land that can receive and store hydrogen from ships 31 and 32. It would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify Zhu and Devine to use conduits to also transfer the hydrogen between the ship and port 30.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 USC 103 as being obvious over US Patent Application Number 2022/0081781 by Zhu in view of US Patent Application Number 2020/0185917 by Haugan, in further view of US Patent Application Number 2015/0144500 by James.
Regarding claim 8 (dependent on claim 1), Zhu and Haugan do not disclose the reception facility is a ship capable of navigating using electric energy supplied from the transportation ship as a power source. However, this limitation is taught by James. James discloses an offshore hydrogen production facility, and paragraph 24 discloses “the hydrogen 145 separated from the water may be used to power the one or more previously decommissioned US Navy ships 107 as transport ships 117”. It would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify Zhu using the teachings from James in order to use the hydrogen produced in known ways.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 4/3/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of the current grounds of rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL H WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-6554. The examiner can normally be reached 10-6:30.
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MICHAEL H. WANG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3642
/MICHAEL H WANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3642
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