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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over UNRU (US 2023/0283069 A1, hereinafter UNRU) in view of SMOLENAERS (US 2020/0298722 A1, hereinafter SMOLENAERS).
Regarding claim 1, UNRU discloses an electrified vehicle comprising:
a power storage device (See Fig.2, Item#42);
a connector (See Fig.2, discloses the connection point to which power three-phase AC supply grid 12 is connected);
a converter that exchanges electric power (See Fig.2, Item#40), accompanied by voltage conversion, with a first power line to which the power storage device is connected (See Fig.2, discloses converter 24 is connected to battery 42) and a second power line to which the connector is connected (See Fig.2, discloses the DCL+, DCL- lines connected to the converter 24 from the output of the connector);
a charging relay provided on the second power line (See Fig.2 and Par.5, disclose circuit breakers 26-1 and 26-2); and
a control device that controls the converter and the relay (See Fig.2, Item#30 and Pars.51 and 56, disclose a control circuit), wherein, when the connector and an external power supply device are connected, and before the charging relay is turned on, the control device controls the converter such that voltage of a converter-side portion of the second power line that is a portion on the buck-boost converter side from the charging relay is adjusted, based on voltage of a connector-side portion of the second power line that is a portion on the connector side from the charging relay (See Pars.60-61, the voltages on Usym and UDCS are measured and the converter 24 is controlled to generated a voltage Usym that matches the voltage UDCS. Par.62 discloses that the voltages are matched the circuit breakers 26.1 and 26.2 are closed).
However, UNRU does not explicitly disclose the converter is a buck-boost converter.
SMOLENAERS discloses a vehicle electrical system comprising a buck-boost converter (See Fig.2A, Item#210 and Par.54, disclose a buck-boost converter).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention disclosed by UNRU with the teachings of SMOLENAERS by using a buck-boost converter for the benefit of providing a converter which can step down and step up the charging voltages to the battery and the output voltage from the battery to the vehicle drive and electrical systems.
Regarding claim 2, UNRU and SMOLENAERS disclose the electrified vehicle according to claim 1 as discussed above, wherein, before turning on the relay, the control device controls the buck-boost converter by feedforward control based on the voltage of the connector-side portion (See Pars.60-61, disclose the DC/DC converter 24 voltage Usym is controlled based on voltage UDCS output from the AC/DC converter 20).
Regarding claim 3, UNRU and SMOLENAERS disclose the electrified vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the control device turns the charging relay on when, before turning on the charging relay, a condition that an absolute value of voltage difference obtained by subtracting the voltage of the converter-side portion from the voltage of the connector-side portion continues at no more than a difference threshold value over a first predetermined duration of time (See Pars.60-61, disclose turning on the circuit breakers 26.1 and 26.2 when the voltages are in this case matched to one other in terms of absolute value and position. This means that the voltage is the same for more than a period of 0 seconds).
Regarding claim 4, UNRU and SMOLENAERS disclose the electrified vehicle according to claim 3 as discussed above, further comprising:
a first voltage sensor that detects the voltage of the connector-side portion (See Fig.2, Item#38 connected to DCL+ and DCL- lines); and
a second voltage sensor that detects the voltage of the converter-side portion (See Fig.2, Item#38 on the other side of converter 40), wherein the difference threshold value is set based on a permissible upper limit value of the absolute value of the voltage difference (See Pars.61-62, disclose the process is repeated until the voltages are matched i.e. the difference is zero).
Regarding claim 5, UNRU and SMOLENAERS disclose the electrified vehicle according to claim 1, wherein, when the connector and the external power supply device are connected, the control device controls the buck-boost converter after turning on the charging relay, such that the voltage of the converter-side portion becomes high as compared to before turning on the charging relay, within a range of no more than a permissible upper limit voltage of the external power supply device (See SMOLENAERS, Par.30, discloses bosting a sub 500V received from the charging station to 800V needed to charge the vehicle battery for the benefit of performing a fast charging of the vehicle battery).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHMED H OMAR whose telephone number is (571)270-7165. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 am -7:00 PM EST.
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/AHMED H OMAR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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