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
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of species in which claims 1-7 and 10-12 in the reply filed on 11/20/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 8-9 and 13-14 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 11/20/2025.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the feature of “battery module comprises “a built-in battery and an external battery module” as recited in claim 3 , the feature of “a relay circuit of the battery module” as recited in claim 4 , the feature of “control circuit” as recited in claim 5, the feature of “designated terminals” as recited in claim 6 and the feature of “a relay circuit of the battery module” as recited in claim 12 must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 and 12 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.
The prior art does not teach the processor is configured to control switching of a relay circuit of the battery module to terminate or maintain discharge from the battery module as recited in claim 4 and in combined with the limitation of claim 1.
The prior art does not disclose the battery module comprises: a control circuit configured to perform OFF control of the state indication module and discharge control from the battery module in response to a control signal transmitted from the processor, the control signal being a state indication module OFF signal as recited in claim 5 and in combined with the limitations of claim 1. Claim 6 depend from objected claim 5, it is also objected accordingly.
The prior art does not teach in response to performing discharge control from the battery module, the processor is configured to control switching of a relay circuit of the battery module to terminate or maintain discharge from the battery module as recited in claim 12 and in combined with the limitation of claim 10.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hashimoto et al (PG-pub# 2019/0018739).
As to claim 1, Hashimoto et al disclose An apparatus for indicating a battery state as shown inf figure 2 having a battery module(162) configured to supply power to an electronic appliance (140,142,145,155,160,164,166,170,172,175); a switch module (150) configured to receive user manipulation input by a user (not shown) for terminating operation of the electronic appliance; and a processor (126,124) being configured to receive user manipulation input for terminating operation of the electronic appliance through the switch module (150), to determine whether a current operation of the electronic appliance is to be continued (see paragraph# 0036) , and, in response to receiving the user manipulation input and determining that the current operation of the electronic appliance is to be continued, to turn off a state indication module (130) indicting a state of a battery (see paragraph# 0037) and to maintain discharge from the battery module (162) until current operation of the electronic appliance is finished (see paragraph# 0035, #0037 & #0047).
As to claim 10, Hashimoto et al disclose the apparatus as recited in claim 1 performs the method steps as recited in claim 10.
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.
Claims 2 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hashimoto et al (PG-pub# 2019/0018739)
As to claims 2 and 11, Hashimoto et al disclose the apparatus as recited in claims 1 and 10 but do not mention about in response to receiving the user manipulation input for terminating operation of the electronic appliance and determining that the current operation of the electronic appliance is already completed, the processor is configured to turn off the state indication module and terminate discharge from the battery module. However, when receiving the user manipulation input for terminating operation of the electronic application, it would have been obvious that the processor would turn of the state indication module, terminate the discharge from the battery module and terminate the operation of the electronic is terminated.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hashimoto et al (PG-pub# 2019/0018739) in view of Joe et al (Pat# 8,742,727).
As to claim 7, Hashimoto et al disclose an apparatus for indicating a battery state as mentioned in claim 1 but Hashimoto et al do not disclose state indication module using a light emitting diode (LED).
Joe et al teach that it would have been well known in the art to use LED for a display (150) as shown in figure 5.
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to replace the LCD display in the device of Hashimoto et al for the LED display as taught by Joe et al for the purpose of providing better visual observation.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hashimoto et al (PG-pub# 2019/0018739) in view of Ke et al (CN 218824704 U)
As to claim 3, Hashimoto et al disclose an apparatus for indicating a battery state as mentioned in claim 1 but Hashimoto et al do not disclose wherein the battery module comprises a built-in battery module and an external battery module that is replaceable by a user.
Ke et al teach it is well-known in the art to have a battery module (140) including a combination of built-in battery and external battery (see page 5).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to replace a battery module in the device of Hashimoto et al with a battery module having a combination of built-in battery and external battery as taught by Ke et al for the purpose of backing up the power supply when the built-in battery is not available.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Girald et al (pat# 9,166,419) disclose Intelligent Charging And Discharging System For Parallel Configuration Of Series Cells With Semiconductor Switching.
Robison et al (Pat# 8,380,999) disclose Power Management For Electronic Devices.
Park et al (Pat# 8,937,459) disclose Apparatus And Method For Estimating State Of Health Of Battery.
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/VINH P NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858