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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 1, 10 and 20 recites the limitation "apply an inverter setting….” in last line. It should be written as “apply the inverter setting….”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Willson et al. USP 10, 998,730 (hereinafter “Willson”) in view of Frampton et al. UPSPGPUB 20200021103 A1 (hereinafter “Frampton”).
As to claim 1, Willson teaches an inverter (col. 1 lines 37-38 “FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram 200 of an example inverter architecture and power flow”), comprising: a port configured to receive power from a source (col 9 lines 35-45 “inverter 206 and the power routing interface 204 to convert the received DC power to AC power”); memory storing reference source characteristics for a plurality of power sources (col. 5 lines 15-45 “power routing control circuitry 166 may include memory storing programmable instructions” and FIG. 1-2); and control circuitry configured to: analyze the power to determine one or more characteristics associated with the source (col. 5 lines 31-55 “power routing circuitry 164 may be configured to monitor the status of various operating parameters associated with the adaptive solar power battery storage system 100. Additionally or alternatively, the power routing control circuitry 166 may communicate with and/or control the various components implemented via the power routing circuitry 164”); compare the determined one or more characteristics with the reference source characteristics to identify the source (col. 5 lines 32-65 and FIG. 3 “ensure that power is routed from the utility grid 102, the AC interface 156, and the DC interface 158 to the appropriate components of the adaptive solar power battery storage system 100 at the appropriate time and under the appropriate conditions”).
Willson does not explicitly teach apply an inverter setting based on the identified source.
However, Frampton teaches apply an inverter setting based on the identified source (paragraph 0055-0061 “inverter automatically detects source characteristics, load characteristics or devices in parallel with the output and selects a mode of operation based on a variety of factors, including user configuration”).
Willson and Frampton are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor and contain overlapping structural and functional similarities. They both relate to inverter management system.
Therefore at the time of effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the above inverter management system, as taught by Willson, and incorporating inverter setting based on the identified source, as taught by Frampton.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to improve monitoring, controlling or reconfiguring bi-directional inverter may be used to convert alternating current from the power grid to a direct current to be received by a DC load or an energy storage device, such as an electrochemical element like a fuel cell or battery or an electromagnetic storage element, such as an ultracapacitor, as suggested by Frampton (paragraph 0004).
As to claim 2, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Frampton further teaches wherein the one or more characteristics associated with the source comprises one or more of: a voltage ripple root mean square (RMS); a voltage ripple frequency; impedance based on injected reactive current; impedance based on injected harmonic current; or impedance based on signal perturbation; or any combination thereof (paragraph 0062 “simple root mean squared (RMS) measurement of the waveform”).
As to claim 3, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Frampton further teaches wherein the reference source characteristics comprise, for each of the plurality of power sources, a source fingerprint comprising a plurality of reference source characteristics (paragraph 0070-0071 “sources can handle ripple on the current. While such devices may be capable of operating with a unity power factor, where the current direction is always into the inverter, the devices are not capable of absorbing the current returned to the source during the discharging of the energy storage element connected to the inverter” and paragraph 0128).
As to claim 4, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Willson further teaches wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: periodically analyze the power to determine one or more characteristics associated with the source; and compare the periodically determined one or more characteristics with the reference source characteristics to identify a change in the source (col. 11 lines 12-40 “FIG. 3 represents a frequency vs. time plot for a period of time following restoration of utility power. As shown in FIG. 3, the power routing control circuitry 166 determines that the restored utility power waveform is stable at a point in which the re-connection protocol is started” and col. 5 lines 11-65).
As to claim 5, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Willson further teaches wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: identify an interruption or variation in the received power (col. 2 line 65- col. 3 line 25 “inverter aspects may also include other suitable components to ensure the proper routing of power within a solar power system. In particular, and as further discussed below, the main inverter aspects described herein ensure that the power generated from the solar panels is provided to charge the batteries, power the end user load, or supply power back to the utility grid based upon current operating conditions”); and in response to identifying an interruption or variation in the receive power: analyze the power to determine one or more characteristics associated with the source (col. 5 lines 31-55 and FIG. 3); and compare the determined one or more characteristics with the reference source characteristics to identify the source (col. 5 lines 32-65 and FIG. 3).
As to claim 6, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Willson further teaches wherein the inverter setting is any one of: a first inverter setting to reduce power provided to a load; a second inverter setting to disable power provided to the load; or a third inverter setting to enable or disable a bidirectional mode of the inverter; or a combination thereof (col. 3 lines 12-65 “micro-inverters that convert the energy produced by the solar panel cells (as is the case for AC-type solar panel configurations). The main inverter also enables a configuration in which the adaptive solar power battery storage system may accept power from both energy sources simultaneously (AC or DC), or each individually”).
As to claim 7, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Willson further teaches wherein the control circuitry is further configured to perform a calibration routine to initialize the stored reference source characteristics for each respective source from among the plurality of power sources, wherein to perform the calibration routine the control circuitry is configured to:(a) receive power from a respective source of the plurality of power sources, wherein the respective source is coupled to the port; (b) analyze the received power from the respective source; (c) determine one or more reference source characteristic for the respective source; and (d) repeat (a) - (c) for each other respective power source of the plurality of power sources (col. 5 line 1-65 teaches a, b and c but it’s obvious to repeat the steps).
As to claim 8, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Willson further teaches wherein to compare the determined one or more characteristics with the reference source characteristics to identify the source, the control circuitry is configured to: compare the determined one or more characteristics to one or more reference source characteristic corresponding to each respective source to determine how well they match; and identify the source corresponding to the one or more reference source characteristic that is a closest match (col. 5 lines 5-65 and FIG. 2-3).
As to claim 9, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Frampton further teaches wherein to apply the inverter setting based on the identified source, control circuitry is configured to: select the inverter setting from among a plurality of inverter settings, each respective inverter setting corresponding to a respective power source of the plurality of power sources; and apply the inverter setting (paragraph 0055-0065).
As to claim 10, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Willson further teaches wherein the port is configured to receive power from any one of: a generator; an uninterruptible power supply (UPS); a solar inverter; or a utility grid; or a combination thereof (abstract “solar and FIG. 1-2).
As to claim 11, Willson and Frampton teach all the limitations as outlined above.
Willson further teaches wherein the port is a first port and wherein the inverter is a bidirectional inverter capable of receiving power from a load via a second port, which is provided to the source via the first port (paragraph 0012 and FIG. 4-7).
As to claim 12, has similar limitations as of claim 1, also rejected by same rational.
As to claim 13, has similar limitations as of claim 2, also rejected by same rational.
As to claim 14, has similar limitations as of claim 4, also rejected by same rational.
As to claim 15, has similar limitations as of claim 5, also rejected by same rational.
As to claim 16, has similar limitations as of claim 6, also rejected by same rational.
As to claim 17, has similar limitations as of claim 7, also rejected by same rational.
As to claim 18, has similar limitations as of claim 8, also rejected by same rational.
As to claim 19, has similar limitations as of claim 9, also rejected by same rational.
As to claim 20, is related to claim 1 with similar limitations also rejected by same rational.
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and listed on the attached PTO Form 892 but not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Vogel et al USP 9,906,039 a voltage booster allowing for increased utilization of low voltage, high current, unregulated DC power (“LVDC source”), such as, but not limited to, fuel cells, batteries, solar cells, wind turbines, and hydro-turbines. LVDC generation systems employing a variable low voltage DC-DC converter of the present disclosure may be used without a power inverter in applications requiring high voltage DC inputs and can also allow for the employment of common, low cost, reliable, low voltage energy storage chemistries (operating in the 12-48VDC range) while continuing to employ the use of traditional inverters designed for high voltage power supplies. An embodiment of the DC boost converter includes a plurality of interleaved, isolated, full-bridge DC-DC converters arranged in a Delta-Wye configuration and a multi-leg bridge.
Klikic et al. USP 7843676 teaches an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system includes an AC power input configured to receive AC power from a single-phase AC power source or a multi-phase AC power source, a DC power source, an output circuit including a power output, a controllable switch configured to selectively couple at least one of the AC power input and the DC power source to the output circuit, and a processor coupled and configured to affect operation of the output circuit depending upon which of single-phase and multi-phase operation of the UPS is indicated.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZIAUL KARIM whose telephone number is (571)270-3279. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 8:00-4:00 PM EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mohammad Ali can be reached on 571 272 4105. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ZIAUL KARIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2119