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.
Claim Interpretation
The application appears to have been translated from the priority applications wherein, “Seilbahn” has been translated to the literal noun “cable car” (i.e., a vehicle moved by a cable) instead of “cableway” (i.e., a suspended cable used as a track along which carriers can be pulled) in the context of the application. For examination purposes, “cable car” will be examined in the context of a cableway and not an individual cable car.
Claim Objections
Claim 15 is objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(c) as being in improper form because a multiple dependent claim should refer to other claims in the alternative only. See MPEP § 608.01(n). For examination purposes, the claim will be examined as if it is dependent upon claim 14 only.
Claims 2, 3, 6, 7, 11, 12 and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2, line 3: “in that” should be removed.
Claim 3, line 4: “ a lighting,” should be “a lighting device”.
Claim 6, line 2: “at least one cable car stations” should be “at least one cable car station”.
Claim 6, line 6: “the respective cable car station” should be “the at least one cable car station”.
Claim 7, line 6: “again” should be removed.
Claim 11, line 4: “CO2” should be “CO2”.
Claim 11, line 2: “WLAN” should be “wireless local area network (WLAN)” and “RFID” should be “radio-frequency identification (RFID)”.
Claim 12, line 4: “the queuing area” should be “the waiting area” as previously cited.
Claim 16, line 3: “in that” should be removed.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2, 9, 14-17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 2 recites, “a maximum electric power consumption of the cable car” after reciting “the cable car has a maximum electrical energy consumption” within claim 1. Making it unclear to Examiner if this is a different limitation that is being considered. Further claim 2 recites, “a maximum electric power consumption of the cable car is greater than the maximum electrical energy consumption.” when the maximum electrical energy consumption was previously recited within claim 1 as being of the cable car. It is unclear to Examiner the scope and intention of this limitation.
Claim 9 recites, “a second control unit” to determine a correcting variable. It is unclear what second control unit to which the Applicant is referring. According to Para.[0018], the control unit can be designed to determine a correcting variable and a separate measuring unit can be used to detect an electrical variable.
Claim 14 recites the limitation "the electrical energy consumption" in line 10. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 15 recites the limitation "the maximum value electrical energy consumption" in line 10. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 16 recites the limitation "the maximum electrical energy consumptions" in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 17 and 20 are rejected due to their dependency upon a rejected claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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.
Claims 1-5, 14-17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gubler (US 8910578 B2).
Regarding claim 1: Gubler discloses a cable car (1; Fig.6) having a number of cable car stations (S; Fig.6) and a number of cable car vehicles (13; Fig.6) movable with a haulage rope (11; Fig.6) between the cable car stations (S; Fig.6), comprising:
a cable car control unit (19,140; Fig. 10) configured for controlling the cable car (Col.13, lines 37-48), wherein the cable car has a maximum electrical energy consumption (Umax);
an energy detection unit configured for determining an electrical energy consumption (1400; Fig.10) of the cable car;
and wherein the cable car control unit is configured to control or regulate an electrical energy consumption of at least one electrical consumer of the cable car based at least in part on the determined electrical energy consumption of the cable car such that the maximum electrical energy consumption of the cable car is not exceeded (Col.11, lines 45-61).
Regarding claim 2: Gubler further discloses the cable car according to claim 1, further comprising an electric power source connected with the cable car and by which the maximum electrical energy consumption is determined (2,14; Fig.9).
Regarding claim 3: Gubler further discloses the cable car according to claim 1, wherein the at least one electrical consumer (3; Fig.9) comprises at least one of the following electrical consumers:
a heating device for heating the cable car vehicles,
an air conditioning device or
a lighting device(Col.6, line 48).
Regarding claim 4: Gubler further discloses the cable car according to claim 3, wherein the cable car control unit is configured to control the electrical energy consumption of the at least one electrical consumer of the cable car (3; Fig.10) by changing at least one of:
a heating power of the heating device and a set temperature of the air conditioning device in order to control the energy consumption (Col.11, lines 55-59).
Regarding claim 5: Gubler further discloses the cable car according to claim 1, further comprising:
a plurality of electrical consumers and wherein each of the plurality of electrical consumers has a prioritization value, and wherein the cable car control unit is further configured to control or regulate the electrical energy consumption of each of the plurality of electrical consumers based at least in part on the prioritization value of each of the plurality of electrical consumers (Col.3, lines 28-34).
Regarding claim 14: Gubler discloses a cable car network having a plurality of cable cars each having a number of cable car stations and a plurality of cable car vehicles movable between the cable car stations (1; Fig.7 including several stations and cableways within cable car system 1), comprising: a cable car network control unit configured for controlling the cable car network (19; Fig.10), wherein the cable car network has a maximum total electrical energy consumption (Umax of all vehicles); and a total energy determination unit configured for determining a total electrical energy consumption of the cable car network (1400; Fig.10), and wherein the cable car network control unit is configured to control or regulate the electrical energy consumption of at least one cable car of the cable car network based at least in part on the determined total electrical energy consumption such that the maximum total electrical energy consumption of the cable car network is not exceeded (Fig.10 and Col.11, lines 45-61).
Regarding claim 15: Gubler further discloses the cable car network according to claim 14,
Regarding claim 16: Gubler further discloses the cable car network according to claim 14, wherein the cable cars of the cable car network are connected to a common electrical energy source which determines the maximum total electrical energy consumption of the cable car network (2,14; Fig.9).
Regarding claim 17: Gubler further discloses the cable car network according to claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of cable cars has a prioritization value; and wherein the cable car network control unit is configured to control or regulate the electrical energy consumption of the cable cars based at least in part on the prioritization value of each of the plurality of cable cars (Col.3, lines 28-34).
Regarding claim 20: Gubler further discloses a method of operating a cable car network, wherein the cable car network is configured according to claim 14, comprising the steps of: providing a cable car network control unit to control the cable car network (19; Fig.10); determining a total electrical energy consumption of the cable car network (1400; Fig.10), the cable car network having a maximum total electrical energy consumption; and wherein the cable car network control unit controls an electrical energy consumption of at least one cable car of the cable car network such that the maximum total electrical energy consumption of the cable car network is not exceeded (Fig.10 and Col.11, lines 45-61).
Claims 1, 6-13 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fukushima (JP 2010221822 A).
Regarding claim 1: Fukushima discloses a cable car (100; Fig.5) having a number of cable car stations (103a,103b; Fig.5) and a number of cable car vehicles (105; Fig.5) movable with a haulage rope (112; Fig.5) between the cable car stations, comprising:
a cable car control unit configured for controlling the cable car (see attached EPO translation; Para.[0012]-[0013]), wherein the cable car has a maximum electrical energy consumption (all carriages in use with greatest crowd input);
an energy detection unit configured for determining an electrical energy consumption of the cable car;
and wherein the cable car control unit is configured to control or regulate an electrical energy consumption of at least one electrical consumer of the cable car based at least in part on the determined electrical energy consumption of the cable car such that the maximum electrical energy consumption of the cable car is not exceeded (Para.[0012]-[0013]).
Regarding claim 6: Fukushima further discloses the cable car according to any of the claim 1, further comprising:
a people detection device in at least one cable car stations of the cable car, wherein the people detection device is configured to continuously or intermittently determine a characteristic variable of a crowd in an access area of the respective cable car station (41,42,40);
and wherein the cable car control unit is configured to control or regulate the electrical energy consumption of the at least one electrical consumer based at least in part on the characteristic variable of the crowd (Para.[0023], lines 10-13).
Regarding claim 7: Fukushima further discloses the cable car according to claim 6, wherein: the cable car control unit (40) is configured to reduce the electrical energy consumption of the at least one electrical consumer if the characteristic variable of the crowd falls below at least one predetermined threshold value;
and wherein the cable car control unit is further configured to increase the electrical energy consumption of the at least one electrical consumer again if the determined characteristic variable of the crowd reaches or exceeds the predetermined threshold value (Para.[0028]).
Regarding claim 8: Fukushima further discloses the cable car according to claim 6, wherein a function for determining a nominal electrical energy consumption for the at least one electrical consumer is determined based at least in part on the characteristic variable of the crowd, and wherein the cable car control unit is further configured to determine the nominal electrical energy consumption for the at least one electrical consumer based at least in part on the characteristic variable of the crowd by using the function for determining the nominal electrical energy consumption for the at least one electrical consumer and to control or regulate the electrical energy consumption of the at least one electrical consumer based at least in part on the determined nominal electrical energy consumption for the at least one electrical consumer (Para.[0011]-[0013]).
Regarding claim 9: Fukushima further discloses the cable car according to claim 8, wherein at least one of the cable control unit is configured to determine a correcting variable from the determined nominal electrical energy consumption for the at least one electrical consumer and an actual electrical energy consumption for the at least one electrical consumer determined for the at least one electrical consumer and to control or regulate the electrical energy consumption of the at least one electrical consumer based at least in part on the correcting variable (Para.[0011]-[0013] and Para.[0021]).
Regarding claim 10: Fukushima further discloses the cable car according to claim 6, the people detection device further comprising at least one sensor unit (41) configured for detecting a sensor variable in the access area and an evaluation unit configured for determining the characteristic variable of the crowd from the sensor variable (Para.[0021]).
Regarding claim 11: Fukushima further discloses the cable car according to claim 10, the sensor unit further comprising a movement sensor (Para.[0021]).
Regarding claim 12: Fukushima further discloses the cable car according to any of the claims 6, the access area further comprising a boarding area for people to board the cable car vehicles and a waiting area for people to queue, and a ticket control barrier separating the boarding area and the queuing area, and wherein the people detection device is configured for determining the characteristic variable of the crowd in at least one of the boarding area or in the waiting area (apparent from Figs.1-4 and Para.[0020])
Regarding claim 13: Fukushima further discloses the cable car according to claim 6, wherein the characteristic variable of the crowd is at least one of a number of people or a number of sensor signals, and wherein a variable derived from the characteristic variable of the crowd is at least one of a time average value of the characteristic variable of the crowd or a change of the characteristic variable of the crowd over time (apparent from Para.[0021]).
Regarding claim 18: Fukushima further discloses a method of operating a cable car, wherein the cable car is configured according to claim 1, comprising the steps of: determining an electrical energy consumption of the cable car, wherein the cable car has a maximum electrical energy consumption, and controlling or regulating an electrical energy consumption of at least one electrical consumer of the cable car with the cable car control unit based at least in part on the electrical energy consumption of the cable car such that the maximum electrical energy consumption for the cable car is not exceeded (Para.[0012]-[0013]).
Regarding claim 19: Fukushima further discloses the method according to claim 18, further comprising the step of: providing a people detection device in at least one cable car station of the cable car during the operation of the cable car (41,42,40); determining a characteristic variable of a crowd, continuously or intermittently, with the people detection device; and controlling or regulating the electrical energy consumption of the at least one electrical consumer of the cable car with the cable car control unit based at least in part on the characteristic variable of the crowd determined at a fixed time or in a fixed period during the operation of the cable car (Para.[0023], lines 10-13).
Conclusion
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/HEAVEN R BUFFINGTON/Examiner, Art Unit 3615
/S. Joseph Morano/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3615