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 .
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.
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 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (CN 108 336 783 A) in view of Shang et al. (CN 112 865 262 A) and Zhao et al. (CN 111 431 231 A).
The examiner notes that these references were cited in the European search report of corresponding PCT/CN2022108957.
The examiner has reviewed that search report and finds the rejection of the claims to be appropriate and useable hereinbelow. That search report is therefore heavily excerpted below.
Re claim 1:
Liu et al. discloses:
An energy storage apparatus (Fig. 1), wherein the energy storage apparatus comprises a control circuit (Fig. 1, item "control unit"), multiple battery clusters (Fig. 1, items "battery cluster") connected in parallel (Fig. 1), and switch circuits (Fig. 1, items KM1, precharge resistor and KM3) corresponding to the battery clusters (Fig. 1, items "battery cluster"), wherein the switch circuit (Fig. 1, items KM1, precharge resistor and KM3) comprises a first switch (Fig. 1, item KM1) and a protection circuit (Fig. 1, items precharge resistor and KM3) connected in parallel;
the control circuit (Fig. 1, item "control unit") is connected (paragraph [0027]) to each first switch (Fig. 1, items KM1) and each protection circuit (Fig. 1, items precharge resistor and KM3); each battery cluster (Fig. 1, items "battery cluster") is connected (paragraph [0026]) to the corresponding first switch (Fig. 1, items KM1) and protection circuit (Fig. 1, items precharge resistor and KM3); and the control circuit (Fig. 1, item "control unit") is configured to control (Fig. 2 and paragraph [0034] - paragraph [0047]), according to a high voltage on signal (Fig. 2, steps Z06 and Z07), the protection circuit (Fig. 1, items precharge resistor and KM3) to be closed and the first switch (Fig. 1, item KM1) to be opened (paragraph [0050]).
Re claims 2 and 13: See Liu et al., Fig. 1, items precharge resistor and KM3.
Re claim 3: See Liu et al., Fig. 1, items KM2.
Re claims 4 and 5: The use of a regulator which could be bypassed has already been employed for the same purpose in a similar energy storage apparatus (see Shang et al., Fig. 2). It would be obvious to the person skilled in the art, namely when the same result is to be achieved, to apply these features with corresponding effect (i.e. preventing the battery stack to be damaged due to a voltage difference between battery clusters (see document SHANG ET AL., paragraph [0035]) to an energy storage apparatus according to document LIU ET AL.
Re claims 6 and 7: The additional features defined in claims 6 and 7 would be regarded by the skilled person as two of several straightforward possibilities which the skilled person would select, depending on the circumstances, without exercising inventive skill, in order to supply power to the control unit of a regulator.
Re claim 8: See SHANG ET AL., Fig. 2. 4.6
Re claim 9: The use of an H-bridge would be regarded by the skilled person as one of of several straightforward possibilities which the skilled person would select, depending on the circumstances, without exercising inventive skill, in order to implement a DC/DC converter.
Re claim 10: See ET AL., Fig. 1, items "control unit" and BMSs.
Re claim 11: See LIU ET AL., Fig. 1, items V2, V3 and I.
Re claims 12-15: See discussions above.
Re claim 16: See discussion re claim 2 above.
Re claim 17: See discussion re claim 3 above.
Conclusion
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/DANIEL A HESS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
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