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
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Korean document KR20210114822 in view of Korean document 20210101682 (see machine translation for both documents).
Re claim 1, document ‘822 discloses a rail mobile electric vehicle charging system (fig 2) having, inter alia, an AC/DC converter 200 receiving AC power and generating DC power (para 51-52); an electric vehicle charger 400 including an electric vehicle charge module receiving the DC power and supplying current necessary for charging an electric vehicle (para 39-41), an input port provided at an input terminal of the electric vehicle charge module (para 53), and a charge cable and a charge gun connected to an output terminal of the electric vehicle charge module; a plurality of predetermined charge spots (01,02,03…) in which a plurality of the electric vehicle chargers 400 are mounted; a power terminal provided at each charge spot and connected to the input port in a contact manner to supply the DC power (para 37-39, 53); a connection unit connecting the AC/DC converter and the power terminal or to another power terminal adjacent to the power terminal (para 41); a moving unit moving along a predetermined rail 304, moving the electric vehicle charger to one of the charge spots, and mounting the electric vehicle charger so that the input terminal of the electric vehicle charger and the power terminal are connected to each other (para 34-40); a system controller controlling the entire system (para 41); and a remote server device receiving a charge request through a user terminal, issuing a charge command to the system controller, and monitoring a charge status through the system controller (para 41). Bold text is not explicitly found in document ‘822. Document ‘822 does not explicitly disclose charging cable and plug/nozzle/connector or “charge gun.” Official notice is taken of the fact that having a “charge gun” connected to an extended cable (i.e. similar to petrol nozzle with hose) is a common knowledge or well-known fact in EV charging. Document ‘682 exemplifies a vehicle charging station having charging cable with a “charging gun” attached thereto for transferring power to an EV (para 14). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have devised a charging cable with a charge gun thereon to charge the EV as exemplified by document ‘682 for the charging station of document ‘822.
Re claim 2, document ‘682 further discloses the charging cable is of a reel-type charging cable (para 12) and is configured to lower and raise depending on the action of the user (para 14-19).
Re claim 3, document ‘682 discloses the rail 1 is spaced apart from the charging spot by a predetermined distance to prevent interference from another charger already mounted on the spot (see fig 8).
Re claim 4, both documents are silent on the centrally located charge spot for the ac/dc converter. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have locate the ac/dc converter equidistance from the charger since it has been held that rearranging parts of an invention involves only routine skill in the art.
Re claim 5, both documents do not disclose an additional ac/dc converter should the existing ac/dc converter have insufficient power. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have added additional ac/dc converter since it has been held that mere duplication of the essential working parts of a device involves only routine skill in the art.
Re claim 6, both documents are silent on the location of the charging system. Official notice is taken of the fact that it is a common knowledge in art to mount these EV chargers near the wall of the parking structure and away from traffic to ensure smooth ingress and egress of other vehicles. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have placed these EV chargers toward the rear wall of parking structure to ensure the charging vehicles are not in the way of traffic.
Re claim 7, both documents are silent on having signage to direct vehicles to the charging locations. Official notice is taken of the fact that it is common knowledge to direct users to a particular type of service with signs. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to provides signage so prospective customers can find the business.
Re claim 8, document ‘822 further discloses robot arm (401,402,111) mounted on the charger (fig 3).
Re claim 9, the documents do not a disclose guide unit for guiding the mounting spot of the charger. Official notice is taken of the fact that having guiding unit would ensure proper installation of the charger in its spot. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have provided guide unit to guide mounting path of charger to ensure the chargers are positioned correctly on the charging spot.
Re claim 10, both documents do not disclose a releasing unit for releasing the fixing unit when separating the charger mounted on the charging spot. Official notice is taken of the fact having a release unit would allow for easy service/exchange to the charger. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have provided a releasing unit to allow for easy access to the charger for maintenance/transport.
Re claim 11, both documents do not disclose an obstacle sensor. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have included an obstacle sensor to ensure no hitting any obstacle and since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known materiale on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice.
Re claim 12, both documents do not disclose different chargers having different charge capacities. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to give user choices to choose the appropriate charger based on the user’s preference of charge capacity and since such a modification would have involved a mere change in the size of a component. A change in size is generally recognized as being within the level of ordinary skill in the art.
Re claims 13-15, document ‘682 further discloses server and app via wireless communication to perform charging based on user’s information (para 57-64).
Re claim 16, both documents do not disclose the ability to unplug a fully charged EV to charge another EV. Official notice is taken of the fact that having the ability to unplug a fully charged vehicle would allow for a shorter wait time in a queue. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to allow the charging system to unplug a fully charged vehicle to ensure all vehicles in queue don’t have to “idle” long in queue.
Re claims 17 and 18, both documents do not disclose the charging system having a camera for security purposes and a camera with thermal imaging to detect heat rise in charging vehicles. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have installed security camera around the charging station to discourage thieves and to help identify vandals. It would also have been obvious to have installed thermal imaging camera to help detect hotspots and early warning of thermal runaway before a fire.
Re claims 19 and 20, both documents do not disclose the charging system having a fire extinguisher. It would have been well within the skill of one versed in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have provided the charging system with a fire extinguisher to at least slow down any fire before the fire fighters arrived.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to the Examiner at the below-listed number. The Examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Thu from 7:00am-5:00pm.
The Examiner’s SPE is Drew Dunn and he can be reached at 571.272.2312. The fax number for the organization where this application is assigned is 571.273.8300.
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/EDWARD TSO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859 571.272.2087
Prosecution Insights