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 .
This action is in response to an election/restriction filed on 05/21/2026.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 18-25 and 27 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected Species I, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 05/21/2026.
Species I (Claims 1-17 and 26) are pending for examination.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 recites the limitation "a control device" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim recites “comprising” in line 2 and should be re-written as “comprising:”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim recites “a linear motor stator” in line 2 and should be re-written as ““a linear motor stator.”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 16 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim recites “configurations” in line 2 and should be re-written as ““configurations:”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 26 recites the limitation "a control device" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3-17 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by Lu (US 9,).
As to Claim 1, Lu in its teachings as shown in Fig.1- 8 disclose a control device (102) for controlling the feeding of electrical power to electromagnets of an electric drive (see Col.3, Line 14 - 36), having a control device (102) comprising
a first control component (107a) that is adapted to cause, in accordance with a drive desired value (103a), the generation of first PWM control signals (104 via 106) for controlling the energization of the electromagnets (see Col.3, Line 37-48 and also Col.4, Line 10-15), and
a second control component (129a) that is adapted to cause, in accordance with information to be transmitted (128), the generation of the first PWM control signals to be converted (108) into a generation of other second PWM control signals (see Col.3, Line 54-63).
As to Claim 10, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 1, in which the control is adapted to determine a starting point in time and/or an end point in time and/or the amount of data to be transmitted for the information transmission and to control the information transmission accordingly (see Fig.6 and also Col.7, Line 52-67).
As to Claim 11, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 1, in which the second control component can selectively be connected downstream of the first control component (see Col.3, Line 54-63).
As to Claim 12, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 11, in which the second control component can be adapted to change an output of the first control component (see Col.3, Line 54-63).
As to Claim 13, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 11, in which the second control component can be adapted to cause the shifting of PWM pulses on the time axis (see Col.5, Line 13-24).
As to Claim 14, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 1, in which the second control component can selectively be used instead of the first control component (In some embodiments, PWM generator 108 generates PWM signal 109a with a modulation characteristic (i.e., a relative time-varying duty cycle) in accordance with the modulation waveforms (e.g., signal 129a) provided by modulation signal generator 128- see Col.3, Line 59-63).
As to Claim 15, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 14, in which the second control component can selectively be used instead of the first control component and, for PWM pulse generation, causes the use of a second reference signal that is phase- shifted with respect to a first reference signal whose use is caused by the first control component (see Col.3, Line 54-63).
As to Claim 16, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 1, comprising one or more of the following configurations
PWM pulse frequency above 1or 2 or 5 or 10 or 20 kHz and/below 1000 or 500 or 200 or 100 or 50 or 20 kHz,
max. speed of the fed-in traveling wave above 20 or 50 or 100 electromagnets per second and/or below 1000 or 500 or 200 electromagnets per second,
determining the electromagnets to be energized and/or the start of transmission by means of position sensors and/or by means of a position interpolation and/or a position observer (see: 122 and Col.4, Line 37 – 44).
As to Claim 17, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 1, having a position detection device for determining the position of a carriage or a carrier or having an interface (motor 114) to such a position detection device for receiving corresponding position information, wherein the device is adapted to use the position information determined by the position detection device or received from the interface for one or more of the following purposes:
determining the start of transmission for a data transmission from the rail/stator to the carriage/carrier,
determining the end of transmission for a data transmission from the rail/stator to the carriage/carrier,
determining the start of reception or start of decoding in a carriage/carrier,
determining the stator coils used for the data transmission,
determining the stator coils used for the propulsion,
general functions (Signal processor 122 may include position and speed sensing circuit 124 to determine a speed and/or a rotational reference position of motor 114 (e.g., an angular position of a moving element (rotor) of motor 114 relative to a stationary element (stator) of motor 114) – see Col.4, Line 37 – 44).
As to Claim 26, Lu disclose a non-transitory data carrier with one or more executable programs stored thereon, which executable program or programs, when executed, implement a control device according to claim 1 (see Col.9, Line 26-30).
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.
Claims 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lu in view of Achterberg et al. (US 2023/00159917 A1 and Achterberg hereinafter).
As to Claim 2, Lu disclose the control device according to claim 1, however, it doesn’t explicitly disclose:
wherein the electric drive is a linear motor stator
Nonethless, Achterberg in its teachings as shown in Fig.1-16 disclose a linear transport system 101 that comprises a linear motor 107, the linear motor 107 having a stator 109 (see [0061])
Therefore, it would have been an obvious modification before the effective filing date of the instant application for the electric drive to be a linear motor stator as thought by Achterberg within the teachings of Lu in order to drive the transport system.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-9 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure (US 2021/0046826 A1: A linear transport system includes a movable carriage, a guide rail for guiding the carriage, and a linear motor for driving the carriage along the guide rail. A system is provided for contactless power and data transmission; e.g., where power and data are each sent inductively via separate coils to the carriage of the linear transport system and/or received by the carriage of a linear transport system. A method of operating such a linear transport system and a contactless power and data transmission system are also included – see [Abstract]).
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/GABRIEL AGARED/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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