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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to application 18/389,484 filed 11/14/23. Claims 1-20 are pending with claim 1 in independent form.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 9/16/24 fails to comply with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609 because ref. 1 under foreign patent documents does not include a name of patentee or applicant of the cited document. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered as to the merits. Applicant is advised that the date of any re-submission of any item of information contained in this information disclosure statement or the submission of any missing element(s) will be the date of submission for purposes of determining compliance with the requirements based on the time of filing the statement, including all certification requirements for statements under 37 CFR 1.97(e). See MPEP § 609.05(a).
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 (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 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) 1-9, 12-15, and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 류성현 KR 20210140818 A (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached) in view of Choi et al. KR 100887420 B1 (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached).
류성현 teaches:
Re: claim 1, An electric vehicle charger (electric vehicle quick charger 100) comprising: an outer box main body (multilayer structure body 110); a front door (front door 1200 mounted to a front portion of the outer box main body (multilayer structure body 110) and configured to be opened and closed (page 3, 9th paragraph front door 120 is mounted…to open and close); and a high voltage part separated from the low voltage part by the double-door box (page 4, 8th paragraph - transformer 150 is disposed inside the multilayer structure body 110 and transforms the commercial AC input through the AC input processing and protection circuit unit 140 into an AC of the AC charging rated capacity).
류성현 fails to specifically teach:
Re: claim 1, a double-door box mounted to an inner side portion of the outer box main body and configured to be opened and closed and comprising a low voltage part that is arranged thereon.
However, Choi teaches:
Re: claim 1, a double-door box mounted to an inner side portion of the outer box main body and configured to be opened and closed and comprising a low voltage part that is arranged thereon (fig. 1-5; pages 4-6, double doors are installed 120, 130, 120a, 130a to enclose power devices in the internal space of the body 110).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate the double doors of Choi into the charger of 류성현 as an obvious matter of design choice to maximize the usage of the internal space of the power devices while increasing safety (page 4).
Re: claim 2, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the high voltage part is arranged on a surface mounted to an inner side portion of the outer box main body (류성현 - page 4, 8th paragraph - transformer 150 is disposed inside the multilayer structure body 110).
Re: claim 3, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the outer box main body (류성현 - multi-layer structure body 110) has a closure structure of which the front door is configured to be opened or closed (류성현 - page 3, 9th paragraph front door 120 is mounted…to open and close) and comprises a cooling part partitioning plate separating the high voltage part at an upper portion and a cooling part at a lower portion from each other and blocking a flow of heat (류성현 – heat dissipation unit 190).
Re: claim 4, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 3, wherein the cooling part partitioning plate comprises an inlet port that allows a cable to be inserted into the cooling part (류성현 – pages 6-7 description related to fig. 10 and heat dissipation unit 190 that includes intake ports 191).
Re: claim 5, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 3, wherein the cooling part partitioning plate is horizontally arranged in the outer box main body (류성현 – fig. 1 and 10, heat dissipation unit 190 that includes intake ports 191; page 6 last two paragraphs that continue onto the first and second paragraphs on page 7).
Re: claim 6, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the front door is hinged to the front portion of the outer box main body (류성현 – page 3, 9th paragraph – front door 120 is coupled to the multi-layer structure body 110 in a hinge manner to open and close).
Re: claim 7, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the front door comprises a connector assembly connected to a cable that includes an electric line and a communication line (류성현 – pages 3-4, display unit 121, operation unit 122, and reader unit 123 are disposed on front side).
Re: claim 8, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the front door comprises a button controller electrically connected to a control circuit 류성현 – page 3, last paragraph that continues onto the first paragraph of page 4).
Re: claim 9, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the front door comprises a reader recognizing credit card information, a payment bar code, or a QR code to pay charges (류성현 – pages 3-4; communication circuit 132 supports LTE or BLE or WIFI, etc. and used credit card information recognized by the reader 123 or a barcode for payment or QR code for payment to the payment device)
Re: claim 12, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the front door and the double-door box are respectively mounted to opposite inner side portions the outer box main body so that the front door and the double-door box are configured to be opened and closed alternately (Choi – fig. 1-3; page 4).
Re: claim 13, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the double-door box comprises the low voltage part provided at a front surface thereof, the low voltage part taking charge of control/communication of the electric vehicle charger pages 4-6, double doors are installed 120, 130, 120a, 130a to enclose power devices in the internal space of the body 110, and a first portion of the double- door box is connected to the outer box main body by a hinge (Choi – fig. 2-3).
Re: claim 14, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 9, wherein the double-door box comprises a fixing member at a second portion, to which the hinge is connected, to allow the double- door box to be fixed to the outer box main body (Choi – fig. 1-5).
Re: claim 15, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the double-door box comprises a cable inlet port to allow a cable to be inserted (류성현 – pages 3-4, display unit 121, operation unit 122, and reader unit 123 are disposed on front side).
Re: claim 18, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the low voltage part comprises a charger controller, a DC power supply device, a low voltage cable duct, and/or a low voltage relay (Choi – pages 1-2 background art).
Re: claim 19, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the high voltage part serves to supply power for charging 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches (류성현 – abstract and Choi – pages 1-2 background art)
Re: claim 20, 류성현 as modified by Choi additionally teaches the electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the high voltage part comprises a DC input cable, a DC output cable, a high voltage relay, and/or a high voltage bus bar (류성현 – pages 4-5; charging processing unit 170 disposed inside multi-layered body 110 includes a plurality of relays 173a and 173b, DC charging plug 175, combo type DC charging plug 176, etc.).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 류성현 KR 20210140818 A (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached) in view of Choi et al. KR 100887420 B1 (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Oda et al. JP 2013070479 A (machine translation attached).
The teachings of 류성현 and Choi have been discussed above.
류성현 as modified by Choi fails to specifically teach:
Re: claim 10, The electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the front door comprises an opening and closing handle that is configured to open and close the front door.
However, Oda teaches an automotive charging apparatus with a handle (fig. 5) on front door 22 to open and close the front door 22.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Oda into the electric vehicle charger of 류성현 as modified by Choi as an obvious matter of design choice where handles on doors are well-known and commonly used as a means for a user to easily open and close a door to access the interior compartment.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 류성현 KR 20210140818 A (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached) in view of Choi et al. KR 100887420 B1 (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Nakajima JP 2013143813 A (foreign patent disclosure and machine translation attached).
The teachings of 류성현 and Choi have been discussed above.
류성현 as modified by Choi fails to specifically teach:
Re: claim 11, The electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the front door comprises an emergency stop switch to stop operation of the electric vehicle charger when an emergency event occurs during charging.
However, Nakajima teaches wherein the front door comprises an emergency stop switch to stop operation of the electric vehicle charger when an emergency event occurs during charging (abstract; pages 3-5, emergency stop button 21 can be pressed to stop the power supply to the controllers 17 and 18 in the DC power supply circuit 16).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Nakajima into the electric vehicle charger of 류성현 as modified by Choi as an obvious matter of design choice to easily restore a system error by resetting the controllers (pages 3-5).
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 류성현 KR 20210140818 A (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached) in view of Choi et al. KR 100887420 B1 (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Pavlovic et al. US 2013/0135841 A1.
The teachings of 류성현 and Choi have been discussed above.
류성현 as modified by Choi fails to specifically teach:
Re: claim 16, The electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the double-door box is made of an electromagnetic shield material to prevent electromagnetic interference of the low voltage part and the high voltage part.
However, Pavlovic teaches:
Re: claim 16, The electric vehicle charger of claim 1, wherein the double-door box is made of an electromagnetic shield material to prevent electromagnetic interference of the low voltage part and the high voltage part (abstract; [0027], [0031]; fig. 8-9; housing 22 may be provided from a conductive plastic material utilized for shielding EMI (EMI shield assembly 82) of the charger assembly 20)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Pavlovic into the electric vehicle charger of 류성현 as modified by Choi as an obvious matter of design choice to prevent EMI of the charger assembly from interfering with other components located near the charger assembly while preventing EMI from other components from interfering with the charging assembly ([0035]).
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 류성현 KR 20210140818 A (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached) in view of Choi et al. KR 100887420 B1 (as cited by applicant – machine translation attached) and Pavlovic et al. US 2013/0135841 A1, as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Sonta US 2012/0100414 A1.
The teachings of 류성현 and Choi have been discussed above.
류성현 as modified by Choi fails to specifically teach:
Re: claim 17, The electric vehicle charger of claim 16, wherein the electromagnetic shield material is made by adding copper ions to copper, aluminum, or acrylic fiber.
However, Sonta teaches electromagnetic shield material is made by adding copper ions to copper, aluminum, or acrylic fiber ([0002], [0007], [0011], [0018]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Sonta into the electric vehicle charger of 류성현 as modified by Choi and Pavlovic as an obvious matter of design choice to provide a desired EMI shielding ([0018]).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KRISTY A HAUPT whose telephone number is (571)272-8545 and email address is kristy.haupt@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Sun 5:30 AM- 10PM; Flex during day.
If all attempts to reach the examiner by telephone and email are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Pham, can be reached at telephone number (571) 272-3689. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KRISTY A HAUPT/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
KAH
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