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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 8 and 9 have been considered but are moot due to new grounds of rejection.
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.
Claims 1 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ito et al. (JP 2016114374 A) in view of Swift (US 3125720).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Ito et al. teach failure detecting apparatus provided in a reception apparatus that receives an AC signal from a transmission apparatus (1, at least Fig. 4) via a communication path (Note abstract, A short-circuit failure state of the capacitor 3 or 4 is thus detected from an operational state of the reception circuit 5) (3 and 4, in at least Fig. 4) the failure detecting apparatus comprising:
a signal input part (Note left side of capacitor 3, Fig. 4) that receives a predetermined detection signal from the transmission apparatus (signal from 1, Fig. 4) ;
a detection part that detects, a short circuit failure in a capacitor part comprising a first capacitor and a second capacitor connected in series on the communication path, (The detection circuit 12 compares the voltage signal Vcmp input from the step-down circuit 11 with a threshold voltage to determine whether or not a short-circuit fault has occurred in the capacitors 3 and 4 .) (par. 13) also note at least Fig. 4.
Ito et al. does not teach wherein the detection part is configured to: receive, from the signal input part, the detection signal after the detection signal has passed through the first capacitor and the second capacitor;
determine that the short-circuit failure has occurred when a voltage change amount from a time when starting an output of the detection signal reaches a predetermined amount.
Swift teach wherein the detection part is configured to: receive, from the signal input part, the detection signal after the detection signal has passed through the first capacitor and the second capacitor; (Note column 2, lines 15-20) Examiner’s position is that the comparing each capacitor monitor voltage with the average implies the detection signal passing through the first and second capacitor.
determine that the short-circuit failure has occurred when a voltage change amount from a time when starting an output of the detection signal reaches a predetermined amount (average in column 2, lines 15-17) . (Note claim 1 (h))
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ito et al. to include the teaching of wherein the detection part is configured to: receive, from the signal input part, the detection signal after the detection signal has passed through the first capacitor and the second capacitor; determine that the short-circuit failure has occurred when a voltage change amount from a time when starting an output of the detection signal reaches a predetermined amount to determine the condition of a capacitor by visual or alarm means or both. (Note Swift column 1, lines 52-54)
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ito et al. (JP 2016114374 A) in view of Swift (US 3125720) further in view of Danfors et al. (US 4219856).
Ito et al. teach the instant invention except the following claim limitations.
Regarding claim 8, Ito et al. does not teach wherein in the case where three or more capacitors that constitute the capacitor part are present, the detection part detects, based on the voltage change amount, the number of capacitors in which a short-circuit-failure has occurred.
Danfors et al. teach wherein in the case where three or more capacitors that constitute the capacitor part are present, the detection part detects, based on the voltage change amount, the number of capacitors in which a short-circuit-failure has occurred. (A voltage or current difference exceeding a certain level indicates that a certain number of the capacitors are damaged, for example, through a short-circuit, which causes an alarm or tripping signal from the protection means. In the case of parallel capacitors, it is normal that they are series-connected with fuses to that the fuse for a short-circuited capacitor is released.) (Note column 1, lines 16-21 and Fig. 1)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Ito et al. to include the teaching of three or more capacitors that constitute the capacitor part are present, the detection part detects, based on the voltage change amount, the number of capacitors in which a short-circuit-failure has occurred to obtain how many capacitors are destroyed. (Note column 1, lines 16-21)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7 and 10 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding claim 3, wherein the transmission apparatus is configured to output a high level signal and a low level signal; the reception apparatus includes a signal determination unit configured to determine that a high level signal is received when a signal received by the signal input part is higher than or equal to a threshold voltage and determine that a low level signal is received when the signal received by the signal input part is less than the threshold voltage; the detection part determines that a short-circuit failure has occurred in the case where a period from a time when the transmission apparatus is caused to output a high level signal as the detection signal to a time when the signal determination unit determines that a low level signal is received, is larger than a predetermined period, or in the case where a period from a time when the transmission apparatus is caused to output a low level signal as the detection signal to a time when the signal determination unit determines that a high level signal is received, is larger than or equal to a predetermined period.
Regarding claim 4, wherein the transmission apparatus is configured to alternately output, as the detection signal, a high level signal and a low level signal at a predetermined period; the reception apparatus includes a signal determination unit configured to determine that a high level signal is received when a signal received by the signal input part is higher than or equal to a threshold voltage and determine that a low level signal is received when the signal received by the signal input part is less than the threshold voltage, and a logic determination unit configured to acquire a determination result of the signal determination unit at a sampling timing which is set based on a transition timing of a signal received by the signal input part and a communication period, and determine, based on the determination result, whether the transmission apparatus outputs which one of the high level signal or the low level signal; and the detection part gradually changes the communication period when causing the transmission apparatus to output the detection signal, identifies an inversion timing at which a determination result of the logic determination unit is inverted and identifies a period required for the voltage change amount to reach a predetermined amount with a communication period in which the inversion timing is present.
Regarding claim 6, wherein the capacitor part is a plurality of capacitor parts, a plurality of the communication paths are present between the transmission apparatus and the reception apparatus, each of the communication paths respectively including one of the capacitor parts of the plurality of capacitor parts; a selection unit that selects one of the plurality of communication paths in a failure detection is provided; the signal input part receives, in the failure detection, the detection signal from the transmission apparatus via the communication path selected by the selection unit; the detection part detects, in the failure detection, a short-circuit failure on any of the capacitors that constitute the respective one capacitor part on the communication path selected by the selection unit, based on ethe voltage change amount of the detection signal received by the signal input part.
Regarding claim 7, wherein the capacitor part is a plurality of capacitor parts, a pair of communication paths are provided between the transmission apparatus and the reception apparatus, each of the communication paths respectively including one of the capacitor parts of the plurality of capacitor parts; the transmission apparatus and the reception apparatus are configured to perform a differential communication via the pair of communication paths; the signal input part receives the detection signal from the transmission apparatus via the pair of communication paths; the detection part detects a short-circuit failure on any of the capacitors that constitute the capacitor part on the pair of communication paths, based on a voltage change amount of the detection signal received by the signal input part.
Regarding claim 10, wherein the detection part is configured to: measure a period from the time when starting the output of the detection signal to a time when the voltage change amount of the detection signal reaches the predetermined amount; and determine that the short-circuit failure has occurred when the measured period is larger than or equal to a predetermined period threshold.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DEMETRIUS R PRETLOW whose telephone number is (571)272-3441. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 5:30-1:30.
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/DEMETRIUS R PRETLOW/ Examiner, Art Unit 2858
/LEE E RODAK/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2858