DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to the supplemental amendment filed on 08 September 2025.
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 .
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claims contain subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
As amended, independent claim 17 recites at lines 10-12, “controlling the first pair of switches … to produce a waveform having a rate dependent on … a load demand at a respective voltage of the rectified output”. The specification as originally filed in this application does not appear to contain a description controlling the switches to produce a waveform whose rate or frequency depends on a load demand at a respective voltage of the rectified output.
All references within the specification to the term “load demand” in regards to the disclosed invention merely describe calculation of load demand current, rather than controlling switches to produce a waveform whose rate or frequency depends on load demand at a respective output voltage. Moreover, Applicant admits in the original response to the previous Office action, filed on 05 September 2025 and prior to the supplemental response on 08 September, that, “There is no support in the specification for reference to a load demand at a particular output voltage” (see claims filed 05 September 2025, comment in right-hand margin with respect to claim 17).
Claim 18 depends from claim 17 and thus inherits the new matter identified above.
To overcome this rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(a), Applicant may either amend the claims to remove the new matter limitation, or else specifically point out how the original specification provides the necessary support for the limitation as required under the statute.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-16 and 19-20 are allowed.
Claims 17-18 have been rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) for containing new matter. Nonetheless, they have been examined in the form in which they were filed with respect to their allowability under § 102 and 103 of the statute, and found to be novel and non-obvious in that regard.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
With respect to claim 1, the closest prior art in Lin (US Patent 10,581,319) discloses a converter including the transformer, half-bridge stage, and synchronous rectifier stage as recited. However, Lin does not disclose a controller, configured to produce switch control signals in a non-resonant mode of operation, configured to operate the first pair of switches and the second pair of switches in a non-resonant soft switching mode having a switching rate dependent on the rectified output of the synchronous rectifier stage. Moreover, as Lin teaches a resonant converter which operates solely under a resonant mode of operation, Lin effectively teaches away from any modification that would have resulted in the claimed solution.
Claims 2-16 each depend, either directly or indirectly, from claim 1 and are thus allowable for the same reasons as explained above.
With respect to claims 17-18, the closest prior art in Lin fails to disclose or suggest the method comprising the step of controlling the first pair of switches in a soft switching mode to produce a waveform having a rate dependent on the rectified output and a load demand at a respective voltage of the rectified output, and a non-resonant switching duty cycle dependent on the inductor current, in combination with the remaining limitations of claim 17. Moreover, as explained above, Lin teaches away from any modification to include this feature.
With respect to claims 19-20, the closest prior art in Lin fails to disclose or suggest the controller comprising at least a proportional and integral processor comprising a negative feedback input corresponding to the synchronously rectified product, and being configured to produce first control signals for the at least one first pair of switches in a non-resonant mode of operation, having a switching rate responsive to the negative feedback, in combination with the remaining limitations as recited in claim 19. Moreover, as explained above, Lin teaches away from any modification to include this feature.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new grounds 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.
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/FRED E FINCH III/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838