CTNF 18/423,449 CTNF 90215 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Claim Status Claims 1-9 are pending for examination. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. Regarding claim 2, recites the limitation “it” in line 6. The limitation is indefinite because it is unclear what “it” is referring to. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-15 AIA Claim s 1-2 and 5-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1 ) as being anticipated by Sano (Pub. No.: US 2019/0079138 A1) . Regarding claim 1, Sano teaches a battery monitoring device (Fig. 1, battery monitoring system 10 for determining the state of charge of the battery pack 20) applied to an assembled battery having a plurality of battery cells connected in series, the battery cells including a first battery cell and a second battery cell (Para [0040], “ The battery pack 20 is formed by connecting K standard cells 20st (K being an integer greater than 1, for example, 7) and a single shift cell (specific cell) 20sh in series. ”. The battery pack 20 includes a plurality of battery cells connected in series. Shift cell 20sh and standard cells 20st are the first and second battery cells) , the battery monitoring device comprising: an acquisition unit (Fig. 1, system control 16) configured to acquire, during charging or discharging of the battery cells, a battery parameter of each of the first battery cell and the second battery cell, the battery parameter of each of the first battery cell and the second battery cell being a terminal voltage across the corresponding one of the first and second battery cells or an impedance of the corresponding one of the first and second battery cells (Fig. 3 and Fig. 6, steps S1-S11, the system measures the open-circuit voltage (OCV) of the shift cell CVsh and the standard cell CVst as shown in Fig. 3) ; and a state calculation unit (Fig. 1, system control 16) configured to calculate a difference between the acquired battery parameter of the first battery cell and the acquired battery parameter of the second battery cell, and calculates a battery state of the battery cells based on the calculated difference (Fig. 4, Fig. 6, Fig. 7 and para [0052], “ FIG. 4 illustrates the potential difference characteristic curve CVdf for a selected on of the standard cell 20st and the shift cell 20sh in the SOC region of 0% or more and less than 70%. The potential difference characteristic curve CVdf reflects the difference between the standard cell capacity coefficient/voltage characteristic curve Cyst and the shift cell capacity coefficient/voltage characteristic curve CVsh and fluctuates drastically except for a small region in the vicinity where the SOC has a value of 60%. ”. The system calculates the difference CVdf between voltage of the shift cell CVsh and the standard cell CVst to overcome the plateau effect. The CVdf is used to determine the corresponding state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery pack according to Fig. 4.) . Regarding claim 2, Sano teaches the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the battery state of the battery cells is a SOC or a remaining capacity of the battery cells (Fig. 4, Fig. 6, step S17, and Fig. 7, step S27. The SOC indicates the storage capacity of the battery) , and while the state of the first battery cell and the state of the second battery cell are in a plateau region (Fig. 6, steps S1-S13, the voltage of the shift cell and the standard cells are in plateau region) , the state calculation unit is configured to calculate a SOC or a remaining capacity of the battery cells as a specified value when it is determined that the calculated difference has crossed a determination value (Fig. 7, steps S19-S27, the SOC of the battery is determined based on the voltage difference CVdf as shown in Fig. 4 and the voltage of the standard cells CVst) . Regarding claim 5, Sano teaches the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the state calculation unit is configured to: calculate a difference between a storage amount parameter of the first battery cell and a storage amount parameter of the second battery cell, the storage amount parameter being any of a SOC, a remaining capacity and a terminal voltage (Fig. 8, the system calculates the difference in voltage between the shift cell and each of the standard cell at step S37 to determine SOC) , and if the calculated difference is less than a threshold, discharge or charge at least one of the first battery cell and the second battery cell until the calculated difference becomes greater than the threshold (Fig. 9, the system discharges the standard cells that have higher SOC.) . Regarding claim 6, Sano teaches the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the first battery cell and the second battery cell have one of the following first to fifth features: the first feature is that the terminal voltage across one of the first and second battery cells is the highest in the plurality of battery cells and the terminal voltage of the other of the first and second battery cells is the lowest in the plurality of battery cells; the second feature is that an SOC of one of the first and second battery cells is the highest in the plurality of battery cells and an SOC of the other of the first and second battery cells is the lowest in the plurality of battery cells; the third feature is that the first and second battery cells are located adjacent to one another (Fig. 1, the shift cell 20sh is adjacent to the standard cell 20st) ; the fourth feature is that a detection timing of the terminal voltage across the first battery cell is close to a detection timing of the terminal voltage across the second battery cell; and the fifth feature is that the first and second battery cells have a difference in temperature that is lower than or equal to a predetermined temperature difference. Regarding claim 7, Sano teaches the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein a negative electrode of each of the battery cells contains graphite (para [0043], “ For both the standards and shift cells 20st and 20sh, the positive and negative electrodes are preferably made of olivine type lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and graphite (Gr), and the AC ratio (a counter charge capacity ratio between the positive and negative electrodes) is “1.75”. ”) . Regarding claim 8, Sano teaches the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein a positive electrode of each of the battery cells contains lithium iron phosphate (para [0043], “ For both the standards and shift cells 20st and 20sh, the positive and negative electrodes are preferably made of olivine type lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and graphite (Gr), and the AC ratio (a counter charge capacity ratio between the positive and negative electrodes) is “1.75”. ”) . Regarding claim 9, recites computer readable medium for the device of claim 1. Therefore, it is rejected for the same reason . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 3-4 , 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 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Christensen (Pat. No.: US 9,030,169 B2) teaches a battery system and method for determining the state of the charge of a battery by using voltage characteristics of two different battery cells. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHEN Y WU whose telephone number is (571)272-5711. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 10AM-6PM, EST. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Quan-Zhen Wang can be reached at 571-272-3114. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /ZHEN Y WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2685 Application/Control Number: 18/423,449 Page 2 Art Unit: 2685 Application/Control Number: 18/423,449 Page 3 Art Unit: 2685 Application/Control Number: 18/423,449 Page 4 Art Unit: 2685 Application/Control Number: 18/423,449 Page 5 Art Unit: 2685 Application/Control Number: 18/423,449 Page 6 Art Unit: 2685 Application/Control Number: 18/423,449 Page 7 Art Unit: 2685 Application/Control Number: 18/423,449 Page 8 Art Unit: 2685 Application/Control Number: 18/423,449 Page 9 Art Unit: 2685
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