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
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-13 and 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Farrell WO 2023/073335 (hereinafter “Farrell”) in view of Abenaim et al. U.S. PGPub 2012/0027161 (hereinafter “Abenaim”).
Regarding claims 1, 10 and 19, Farrell discloses a power distribution unit for a medical device (e.g. pg. 22, 1st ¶, “To put…”; Fig. 1 and 6), comprising: a battery system powering a medical device, wherein the battery system is configured to receive electrical power from an electrical grid and to store the electrical power (e.g. pg. 21, last ¶ - pg. 22, 1st ¶, “For appliances”); and a time of day tariff controller (i.e. controller) configured to communicate with a smart meter (i.e. smart meter) to determine both a non-peak period (i.e. lower cost tariff period) of a day and a peak period (i.e. higher cost tariff period) of the day for usage of the electrical power from the electrical grid and related tariff information, wherein the time of day tariff controller is configured to regulate utilization of the electrical power from both the electrical grid and the battery system based on a time of the day and the related tariff information (e.g. pg. 23, 2nd ¶ - pg. 24, 4th ¶, “In use…”; pg. 27, last ¶ - pg. 28, 3rd ¶, “In some”; Fig. 3). Regarding claims 1, 10 and 19, Farrell discloses a battery system powering a medical device, but does not explicitly disclose the battery system being integrated within a medical imaging system. Regarding claims 9, 18 and 20, Farrell does not disclose the medical device being a computed tomography imaging system.
Abenaim discloses a battery system integrated within a computed tomography imaging system, wherein the imaging system is powered by the grid or the battery system (e.g. ¶29 and 44; Fig. 1 and 6).
At the time the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to use Farrell’s method of managing power distribution for a computed tomography imaging system with an integrated battery. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this in order to power the imaging system for the lowest cost.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to modify Farrell with Abenaim to obtain the invention as specified in claims 1-4, 6-13 and 15-20.
Regarding claims 2 and 11, Farrell discloses the power distribution unit of claim 1, wherein the time of day tariff controller is configured when the medical imaging system is being utilized during the non-peak period both to cause utilization of the electrical power directly from the electrical grid to power one or more components of the medical imaging system and to cause charging of the battery system (e.g. pg. 23, 2nd ¶ - pg. 24, 4th ¶, “In use…”; pg. 27, last ¶ - pg. 28, 3rd ¶, “In some”; Fig. 3).
Regarding claims 3 and 12, Farrell discloses the power distribution unit of claim 2, wherein the time of day tariff controller is configured when the medical imaging system is being utilized during the non-peak period to cause utilization of the electrical power stored in the battery system to power the one or more components of the medical imaging system to provide peak power shaving during peak power operation of the medical imaging system (e.g. pg. 23, 2nd ¶ - pg. 24, 4th ¶, “In use…”; pg. 27, last ¶ - pg. 28, 3rd ¶, “In some”; Fig. 3).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Farrell discloses the power distribution unit of claim 1, wherein the time of day tariff controller is configured when the medical imaging system is not being utilized during the non-peak period to cause charging of the battery system (e.g. pg. 23, 2nd ¶ - pg. 24, 4th ¶, “In use…”; pg. 27, last ¶ - pg. 28, 3rd ¶, “In some”; Fig. 3).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Farrell discloses the power distribution unit of claim 1, wherein the time of day tariff controller is configured when the medical imaging system is not being utilized during the peak period both to cause stopping of charging of the battery system and to cause the electrical power stored in the battery system to be fed back to the electrical grid (e.g. pg. 8, 1st ¶, “Alternatively…”; pg. 28, 3rd ¶, “In some…”).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Farrell discloses the power distribution unit of claim 1, wherein the time of day tariff controller is configured when the medical imaging system is being utilized during the peak period both to cause stopping of charging of the battery system and to cause utilization of the electrical power stored in the battery system to power one or more components of the medical imaging system (e.g. pg. 23, 2nd ¶ - pg. 24, 4th ¶, “In use…”; pg. 27, last ¶ - pg. 28, 3rd ¶, “In some”; Fig. 3).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Farrell discloses the power distribution unit of claim 1, wherein the time of day tariff controller is configured when the medical imaging system is being utilized during the peak period both to cause utilization of the electrical power stored in the battery system to power one or more components of the medical imaging system and to cause charging of the battery system (e.g. pg. 23, 2nd ¶ - pg. 24, 4th ¶, “In use…”; pg. 27, last ¶ - pg. 28, 3rd ¶, “In some”; Fig. 3).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 14 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.
Relevant Prior Art
Regarding claims 1, 10 and 18, Boss et al. U.S. PGPub 2011/0320828 discloses a power distribution unit for a medical device, comprising: a battery system, wherein the battery system is configured to receive electrical power from an electrical grid and to store the electrical power (e.g. ¶28, 53, 55, 60, 66-67 and 81-89); and a time of day tariff controller (i.e. power allocation control module) configured to determine both a non-peak period of a day and a peak period of the day for usage of the electrical power from the electrical grid and related tariff information, wherein the time of day tariff controller is configured to regulate utilization of the electrical power from both the electrical grid and the battery system based on a time of the day and the related tariff information (e.g. ¶53, 55 and ¶81-89).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES R KASENGE whose telephone number is (571)272-3743. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7:30am to 4pm EST.
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CK
March 6, 2026
/CHARLES R KASENGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2116
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