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 . The instant application with Application Number 18/327,652 filed on 06/01/2023 is presented for examination. As per the remarks of 05/26/2026, claims 1-14 are pending.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of restriction made in the reply filed on 05/26/2026 is acknowledged. Applicant elects Species I and II that reads on claims 1-14 with traverse. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the limitation of claim 15, which corresponds to a data processing system as shown in figure 1, corresponds to the method of the elected species. Examiner argued that the first two Species that corresponds to claim 1-7 and 8-14 deal with managing charging of a battery system and dhow to charge partially discharged battery in the system. Species III deals with a data processing system with hardware components besides managing the recharging system. This is not found persuasive, at least, it requires a different field of search queries, i.e., searching different classes/subclasses)ng office action. Hence, the requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL. Claims 15-20 have been withdrawn.
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 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 present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over White et al. (US 2017/0126054) (Hereinafter, White) in view of Chang et al. (US 2018/0323624).
With respect to claims 1 and 8, White discloses a method/a non-transitory medium for managing charging of a battery of a data processing system (Para. # 0029: back-up power supplies (e.g., batteries); provide benefits such as easy shipping, easy access to components within the chamber, cost effective heat and humidity control, and independency from other infrastructure (e.g., datacenter building, other datacenter units, etc.), the method comprising: while the battery is at least partially discharged (Para. # 0080: partially/fully discharged; the controller 614 is configured to measure battery usage with other techniques that account for uneven battery wear in deeper cycles, as often a battery will be partially discharged):
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identifying a first voltage level of the battery (Para. $ 0080: the controller 614 is configured to measure battery usage); obtaining a scaling margin based, at least in part, on the first voltage level and a power state of the data processing system (Para. # 0081: the battery, an amount of wear on the battery, a temperature of the battery, engagement of protection circuits, and a state of the power supply, like charging, charged, discharging); configuring a power adapter (Fig. 14, 604) to supply first power at a second voltage level to a charger (Fig. 14, 612 form power source 604) of the data processing system to obtain a configured power adapter (Fig. 14, 604; Para. # 0049: power adapter may allow traditional AC voltage servers to be safely powered, and in some cases, controlled or monitored, via a DC power source), the second voltage level being based on the first voltage level and the scaling margin; configuring the charger to supply second power at a third voltage level to the battery to obtain a configured charger, the charger providing the second power using the first power; and charging the battery using the configured power adapter and the configured charger (Para. # 0023: a battery charger coupled to the battery and configured to charge the battery; a power-converter configured to receive DC power from the battery and convert the DC power to output DC power at a second voltage and a second current).
White, does not expressly disclose supplying a second voltage level based on first voltage level.
Chang, on the other hand, discloses supplying a second voltage level based on first voltage level (See Para. # 0018, 0025/26: a power selection switch is present to perform power path rerouting by selectable switching input power 317 to boost VR 340 between higher voltage (e.g., 20 volts) power of current path 314 and lower voltage (e.g., 8.4 volts) power of current path 315. In either case boost VR 340 steps up or increases the supplied input voltage (e.g., either 20 volts or 8.4 volts) of power to a higher output voltage).
WHITE and Chang are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely untreatable power supply and balancing power for system load.
it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have added a power switch to perform selectable switching power 317 to boost between voltage levels to the uninterruptable power supply of White in view of Change for the benefit of controlling voltage power to supply to the charger in the circuit that charges the rechargeable batteries when the state of battery charge level is partially or fully discharged and need to be recharged for efficient use of the power system and extended battery life.
With regard to claims 2 and 9, the combined references of White and Change disclose the method/the non-transitory medium as described above, Change further discloses, wherein the configuring of the power adapter and the configuring of the charger is performed repeatedly at predefined time intervals to update the second voltage level and the third voltage level over time while the battery is at least partially discharged (Para. # 0043: methodology 500 may then repeat steps 508 to 512 for as long as system 300 remains powered ON, and continue to monitor status of DC IN power 357 (present or not present) from AC adapter 355).
With regard to claims 3 and 10, the combined references of White and Change disclose the method/the non-transitory medium as described above, Change further discloses, wherein the power adapter has a loop response for updating the second voltage that is slower than the predefined time intervals (Para. # 0045: EC 380 sends a command (e.g., via SMBus signals) to charger circuit 360 to change input power limit for charger circuit 360 to reflect reduction in charger circuit output power due to transfer of power source for higher power system load).
With regard to claims 4 and 11, the combined references of White and Change disclose the method/the non-transitory medium as described above, Change further discloses, wherein the data processing system comprises at least one hardware component that places transient loads on the adapter that exceed a capacity of the loop response to maintain the second voltage (Para. # 0048-0049: computer-readable mediums (e.g., example, data storage devices, flash memories, random access memories, read only memories, programmable memory devices, and server (e.g., blade server or rack server), a network storage device, or any other suitable device).
With regard to claims 5 and 12, the combined references of White and Change disclose the method/the non-transitory medium as described above, Change further discloses wherein obtaining the scaling margin comprises: in a first instance of the power state being a dynamic power consumption state: identifying power consumption by the data processing system; and identifying the scaling margin based, at least in part, on the power consumption that is likely to retain the charger in buck mode rather than boost mode (Para.#28/30: FIG. 4A battery charging power (as well as power for buck VRs 342 and power-consuming components of lower voltage system load portion 320b).
With regard to claims 6 and 13, the combined references of White and Change disclose the method/the non-transitory medium as described above, Change further discloses wherein the scaling margin is further based on a battery maximum peak power at a current relative state of charge of the battery, and a peak power capability of the power adapter (Para.# 0028, 0036: power 357 from an AC adapter 355 (when present and powered) as input power 317 to boost VR 340 of higher voltage system load portion 320a).
With regard to claims 7 and 14, the combined references of White and Change disclose the method/the non-transitory medium as described above, Change further discloses wherein obtaining the scaling margin comprises: in a second instance of the power state being a static power consumption state: setting the scaling margin to zero (Para. # 0026, 0041: a power selection switch is present to perform power path rerouting by selectable switching input power 317 to boost VR 340 between higher voltage (e.g., 20 volts) power of current path 314 and lower voltage; and power ON state may also include any power saving states in which CPU 305 remains powered on (e.g., Idle mode, DOS mode and other modes that display panel backlight 325 is still ON).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YALKEW FANTU whose telephone number is (571)272-8928. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:00PM.
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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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