DETAILED ACTION
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 is 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 15-16 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
While the prior art has many examples (see cited references) of combining and dividing coolant circuits, it does not appear to teach or fairly suggest such a combination in which one or another of the pumps is left out of the combined circuit, as recited. While valving systems such as Enomoto (US 9,878,594) teach such separable and combinable fluid circuits which may disclude one pump from the combined circuit, the resulting combined circuit flows through the analogous elements in parallel, not in series as is required by the base reference (Eser) and other comparable prior art in order for the elements of the motor cooling circuit to heat the battery. This applies to claims 10 and 15.
Claim 16 depends from claim 15.
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) 8-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eser (WO 2021009318 A1; family member US 2022/0274458 is treated as a translation and all citations are to this document) in view of DE 102015122196 (‘196) and Johnston (US 8,336,319).
Regarding claim 8, Eser teaches a motor cooling circuit (6) including a drive electric motor (12) and a motor ambient air cooler (24); a storage cooling circuit (4) including a traction battery (10) and a storage cooler (Ch); and a valve device (14/18) configured to switch between a cooling mode (UC2) and a heating mode (UC1); wherein, in the cooling mode (UC2), the motor cooling and storage cooling circuits are independent and in the heating mode (UC1) the motor and storage cooling circuits are connected to one another so that a temperature control circuit forms with the motor and battery have flow through them while bypassing (see 18) the ambient air cooler.
Eser does not teach that the cooler of the storage cooling circuit is specifically an air cooler.
‘196 teaches that it is old and well-known for vehicular (title) batteries (50) to be air cooled (56) with the option of bypassing the air cooler when it is not required (54).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to provide the device of Eser with air cooling in applications where the ambient is expected to be sufficient for the load, as taught by ‘196, with the air cooling bypass for conditions when the cooling is not required, such as UC1 which is intended to heat the battery, as taught by ‘196, in order to reduce the weight, cost, and complexity of the device.
Eser teaches management of the series and parallel operational states with a single four way valve rather than first and second valves.
Johnston teaches that in such systems the use of a four-way valve (249; Figs. 2-3) or first (401) and second (403) valves attached to first and second connecting lines (Figs. 4-5) are known art equivalents.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to implement the device of Eser with either the fourway or with first and second valves, as taught by Johnston, as they are recognized as functional equivalents in the art.
Regarding claim 14, Eser, as modified, teaches the system of claim 8 (see above) and method comprising activating the drive electric motor, when stationary, such that it generates waste heat (UC1; Para. [0035]) and transporting the waste heat by the temperature control circuit to the traction batter (Para. [0035]).
Eser further teaches that: first (16) and second (17) pumps are arranged in the motor and storage circuit, respectively, per claim 9; a motorcycle-internal charging device (“C”) is arranged in both the motor cooling and combined temperature control circuit, per claim 12.
Regarding claim 13, Eser teaches a vehicle but does not specify a motorcycle. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to utilize the system of Eser in any vehicle, including a motorcycle, which requires cooling of electric motors and batteries as this is merely a species of the disclosed genus.
Response to Arguments
The arguments are entirely dependent upon the newly entered subject matter which is addressed above.
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 Devon Lane whose telephone number is (571)270-1858. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th, 9-4.
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/DEVON LANE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763