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 IDSes filed 7/8/24 and 12/2/24 have both been considered and placed of record. The two (2) initialed copies are attached herewith.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
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 15-19 and 27-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koike et al. (US 2015/0171820A1) in view of Takatsu et al. (US 2016/0352139A1).
Re claim 15, Koike discloses a power receiving apparatus 21 having, inter alia, a battery 22 and protection circuit apparatus 27, a first microcontroller apparatus 28, an impedance transformation apparatus (secondary matching with charger 25), and a first communication apparatus (wireless communication), wherein the first microcontroller apparatus 28 is configured to perform voltage detection on the battery and protection circuit apparatus 27 to obtain a detected battery voltage (para 26, 30 and 46), determine detected battery impedance based on the detected battery voltage (para 69), and send a driving signal to the impedance transformation apparatus based on a preset constant value and the detected battery impedance, wherein the constant value represents a value of input impedance of the impedance transformation apparatus (para 45, 48 and 51; fig 1); the impedance transformation apparatus is configured to output a target voltage to the battery and protection circuit apparatus based on the driving signal, wherein the target voltage is an output voltage of the impedance transformation apparatus obtained by adjusting an input voltage of the impedance transformation apparatus based on the driving signal (output voltage of charger 25 applied to battery 22; fig 1); the battery and protection circuit apparatus is further configured to receive the target voltage output by the impedance transformation apparatus (same output voltage applied to battery; fig 1); and the first communication apparatus is configured to send the target voltage and the battery impedance to a power sending apparatus, the target voltage and the battery impedance are used to enable the power sending apparatus to calculate target power based on the target voltage and the battery impedance, and adjust the target voltage based on the target power (bolded text is not disclosed in Koike).
Koike does not disclose the communication apparatus configured to send target voltage and battery impedance to the power sending apparatus to enable the calculation of target power and to adjust the target voltage based on the target power. Takatsu teaches power transmitting device wirelessly transfer power to the power receiving device whereby a controller configured to control the inverter circuit to transmit battery voltage and impedance to change power to adapt to the transmitting power level (para 21 and 36-38). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have incorporated the teaching of Takatsu into the communication apparatus of Koike to ensure efficient power is applied to the power receiver.
Re claim 16, Koike further discloses the first microcontroller apparatus is specifically configured to adjust a duty cycle of the driving signal based on a preset constant value and the battery impedance, wherein the duty cycle is a ratio of high-level duration of the driving signal in one cycle to one cycle; and when the impedance transformation apparatus outputs the target voltage, the input impedance of the impedance transformation apparatus is at the preset constant value (para 48 and 51).
Re claims 17 and 29, Koike and Takatsu do not disclose the target power is a ratio of a square of the target voltage to a product of the battery impedance and total antenna efficiency. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have used the claimed target power since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art.
Re claim 18, Koike and Takatsu do not disclose the power sending apparatus to calculate the target power based on target voltage, impedance and the total antenna efficiency and adjust the target voltage based on the target power. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have adjusting the target voltage based on the calculated target power since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art.
Re claims 19 and 31, Koike discloses the dc/dc converter 30.
Re claim 27, the method steps performing the apparatus of claim 15 and therefore, the rationale for rejecting claim 15 applied to claim 27.
Re claim 28, the method steps performing the apparatus of claim 16 and therefore, the rationale for rejecting claim 16 applied to claim 28.
Re claim 30, the method steps performing the apparatus of claim 18 and therefore, the rationale for rejecting claim 18 applied to claim 30.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 20-23 and 32-34 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 24 and 25 are allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to the Examiner at the below-listed number. The Examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Thu from 7:00am-5:00pm.
The Examiner’s SPE is Drew Dunn and he can be reached at 571.272.2312. The fax number for the organization where this application is assigned is 571.273.8300.
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/EDWARD TSO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859 571.272.2087