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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 4/3/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The examiner has reviewed the Applicant’s arguments/remarks in light of the most recent claim amendments, and believes the previous rejection of record should remain upheld. Furthermore, with respect to the amendments made to claims 9 and 15, while the previous non-final stated said claims were in condition for allowance, the most recent amendments broaden the claims in such a manner that the prior art of record is believed to read on the current listing. With respect to claim 1: while the most recent amendments properly equate the power management circuit for receiving a “transmit power” from an inductive power supply, the claim now states two separate iterations of “transmit power”; one associated with the power transmitted from the inductive power supply and one harvested from an NFC communication signal. Said limitations should be rewritten in order to differentiate the transmitted power such as, “…a power management circuit configured to: couple the cordless appliance to an inductive power supply to receive first power from the inductive power supply to perform a plurality of primary operations in a connected mode; and harvest power from a transmitted near field communication (NFC) signal to the cordless appliance…”. Such language highlights that there are two distinct signals which are being harvested/utilized for power to power the cordless appliance (an inductive power signal and power harvested from an NFC signal). Furthermore, claim 1 still recites, “…the backup power performs a plurality of secondary operations…” This is once again incorrect, because power is not capable of performing operations. Power is merely provided to the respective components to carry out such functionalities. The claim should be rewritten in such a manner so as to address where the backup power from the energy storage device is being provided, such that said component would be capable of performing the intended secondary operations in the standby mode. With respect to the supervisor circuit limitation, prior art Draak discloses the respective harvesting of an NFC signal within a communication phase (see paragraphs 0114-0116). Prior art van Wageningen further discloses (at Col. 6, lines 29-36) how such control over the power harvested and stored within the energy storage device may be controlled in a modulated fashion in order to either charge the energy storage device or continue operation as intended within the standby mode. That is, the prior art when considered in combination, establishes it is known in the art to monitor the charge of an energy storage device while further modulating a harvested communication signal to ensure the energy storage device remains appropriately charged, as well as the intended operations during the standby mode are capable of being carried out. Similar rationale is presented with respect to claims 9 and 15 which have been amended to recite similar limitations. An updated action is presented below.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 9, and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities: claims 1, 9, and 15 each recite multiple iterations of “transmit power”. As addressed above, said power should be differentiated within the claim language to avoid confusion (i.e., a power received from an inductive power supply and separately a power harvested from an NFC signal). This should be corrected so as to avoid confusion with respect to which power signal is being used by certain components to carry out their intended functionalities. This should also be corrected in all of the dependent claims. Furthermore, the Applicant is reminded that “power” itself is not capable of carrying out tasks or performing operations, but rather power is provided to circuitry or components in order to carry out their intended functionalities. The claims should be amended to positively recite the circuitry receiving the respective power to carry out their intended functions. Appropriate correction is required.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: the Specification does not provide any insight with respect to the required structures or structural elements required by the various components of the system. For example, the Specification and figures fail to teach, address, show, etc. the structural elements required to carry out the claimed communication and transmission/reception of power.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 cordless appliance, the respective structural elements/components associated with the NFC power supply, the induction power supply, the NFC circuit, the power management circuit, etc. 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.
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, 3-4, 9, 11, 15, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Draak (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2022/0344978) in view of van Wageningen et al. (U.S. Patent Number 10,439,436).
Regarding Claim 1:
Draak discloses a cordless appliance (Fig. 4, power receiver 105 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0001, 0083-0088, etc. which disclose a power transfer system including a power receiver for use within various power devices, such as appliances) with control logic for managing an operation in a standby mode of the cordless appliance (Fig. 4, power receiver controller 401 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0115, etc. which disclose the power receiver controller 401 managing operations along with communication unit 413 in a standby mode, read on by a communication phase), the cordless appliance comprises: a power management circuit (Fig. 4, controllers 401, 409, and 411, and their related discussion) that: couples the cordless appliance to transmit power from an inductive power supply to perform a plurality of primary operation in a connected mode (Fig. 4, controllers 401, 409, and 411, receiver coil 107, and their related discussion; see, at least, Abstract, paragraphs 0083-0088, 0114-0116 etc.), and harvests transmit power from near field communication (NFC) to the cordless appliance (Fig. 4, communication unit 413, controllers 401, 409, and 411 and their related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116, etc. which disclose energy harvesting hardware of the power receiver is incorporated into the communication unit 413, harvests some of the energy of the NFC field. “…a communication signal power harvester 413… arranged to extract power from the received communication signal in order to power the communication controller and a user interface…” Paragraph 0116); an energy storage device to provide a backup power to the cordless appliance (Fig. 4, communication unit 413 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116 which disclose the communication unit, having energy harvesting hardware incorporated within, harvests and stores, via an energy storage device not shown, energy to be supplied during instances in which the power receiver is not receiving enough power and needs to remain powered in a stable manner.) wherein the backup power performs a plurality of secondary operations in a standby mode (see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116 which discloses the energy harvested and stored is subsequently utilized to remain powered in a stable manner, allowing for secondary operations such as communication to the transmitter, tasks of negotiation, timing of intervals and decisions). While Draak discloses the utilization of an energy storage device, not shown, in order to store harvested energy, Draak fails to teach a supervisor circuit that monitors the charging of the energy storage device in response to a control signal.
However, Van Wageningen et al. discloses a supervisor circuit that monitors charge of the energy storage device in the standby mode to modulate transmit power available for harvest from the NFC (Fig. 3, detection circuitry 302 and its related discussion; see, at least, Col. 6, lines 20-36, etc. which disclose a program running on the controller, in conjunction with the detection circuitry, checks the voltage across the capacitor, and subsequently controls the system to modulate the available power to the system vs recharging the capacitor). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Draak to incorporate a supervisor circuit for monitoring the charge of the energy storage device, as taught within van Wageningen, to ensure the charge on the energy storage device will remain sufficiently high thereby allowing for continued operations as desired.
Regarding Claim 9:
Draak discloses a method for managing an operation of a cordless appliance in a standby mode of the cordless appliance, the method comprises: receiving power from an induction power supply to the cordless appliance to perform a plurality of operations, wherein the primary operations are performed in a connected mode (Fig. 4, controllers 401, 409, and 411, receiver coil 107, and their related discussion; see, at least, Abstract, paragraphs 0083-0088, 0114-0116 etc.); receiving a backup power to the cordless appliance to perform a plurality of secondary operations, wherein the plurality of secondary operations are performed in the standby mode (Fig. 4, communication unit 413 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116 which disclose the communication unit, having energy harvesting hardware incorporated within, harvests and stores, via an energy storage device not shown, energy to be supplied during instances in which the power receiver is not receiving enough power and needs to remain powered in a stable manner.); enabling charging of an energy storage device to perform the plurality of secondary operations (Fig. 4, communication unit 413 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116 which disclose the communication unit, having energy harvesting hardware incorporated within, harvests and stores, via an energy storage device not shown, energy to be supplied during instances in which the power receiver is not receiving enough power and needs to remain powered in a stable manner.). While Draak discloses the utilization of an energy storage device, not shown, in order to store harvested energy, Draak fails to teach modulating a plurality of NFC power pulse sent to the cordless appliance for the backup power to perform the plurality of secondary operations.
However, Van Wageningen et al. discloses modulating a plurality of NFC power pulse sent to the cordless appliance for the backup power to perform the plurality of secondary operations (Fig. 3, detection circuitry 302 and its related discussion; see, at least, Col. 6, lines 20-36, etc. which disclose a program running on the controller, in conjunction with the detection circuitry, checks the voltage across the capacitor, and subsequently controls the system to modulate the available power to the system vs recharging the capacitor). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Draak to modulate the NFC power pulses sent for providing backup power to the energy storage device, as taught within van Wageningen, to ensure the charge on the energy storage device will remain sufficiently high thereby allowing for continued operations as desired.
Regarding Claim 15:
Draak discloses a cordless appliance (Fig. 4, power receiver 105 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0001, 0083-0088, etc. which disclose a power transfer system including a power receiver for use within various power devices, such as appliances) with control logic for managing an operation in a standby mode of the cordless appliance (Fig. 4, power receiver controller 401 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0115, etc. which disclose the power receiver controller 401 managing operations along with communication unit 413 in a standby mode, read on by a communication phase), the cordless appliance comprises: a power management circuit (Fig. 4, controllers 401, 409, and 411, and their related discussion) that: couples the cordless appliance to transmit power from an inductive power supply to perform a plurality of primary operation in a connected mode (Fig. 4, controllers 401, 409, and 411, receiver coil 107, and their related discussion; see, at least, Abstract, paragraphs 0083-0088, 0114-0116 etc.), and harvests transmit power from near field communication (NFC) to the cordless appliance (Fig. 4, communication unit 413, controllers 401, 409, and 411 and their related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116, etc. which disclose energy harvesting hardware of the power receiver is incorporated into the communication unit 413, harvests some of the energy of the NFC field. “…a communication signal power harvester 413… arranged to extract power from the received communication signal in order to power the communication controller and a user interface…” Paragraph 0116); an energy storage device to provide a backup power to the cordless appliance (Fig. 4, communication unit 413 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116 which disclose the communication unit, having energy harvesting hardware incorporated within, harvests and stores, via an energy storage device not shown, energy to be supplied during instances in which the power receiver is not receiving enough power and needs to remain powered in a stable manner.) wherein the backup power performs a plurality of secondary operations in a standby mode (see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116 which discloses the energy harvested and stored is subsequently utilized to remain powered in a stable manner, allowing for secondary operations such as communication to the transmitter, tasks of negotiation, timing of intervals and decisions). While Draak discloses the utilization of an energy storage device, not shown, in order to store harvested energy, Draak fails to teach a supervisor circuit that modulates patterns of harvested power from the NFC to charge the energy storage device.
However, Van Wageningen et al. discloses a supervisor circuit that modulates patterns of harvested power from the NFC to charge the energy storage device and perform primary operation simultaneously (Fig. 3, detection circuitry 302 and its related discussion; see, at least, Col. 6, lines 20-36, etc. which disclose a program running on the controller, in conjunction with the detection circuitry, checks the voltage across the capacitor, and subsequently controls the system to modulate the available power to the system vs recharging the capacitor). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Draak to incorporate a supervisor circuit to modulate the NFC power pulses sent for providing backup power to the energy storage device, as taught within van Wageningen, to ensure the charge on the energy storage device will remain sufficiently high thereby allowing for continued operations as desired.
Regarding Claims 3 and 11:
Modified Draak teaches the limitations of the preceding claims 1 and 9, respectively. Modified Draak, in further view of Draak, discloses wherein the energy storage device provides power during interruption of transmit power/transmitted power from a power transmitter (Fig. 4, communication unit 413 and its related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116 which disclose the communication unit, having energy harvesting hardware incorporated within, harvests and stores, via an energy storage device not shown, energy to be supplied during instances in which the power receiver is not receiving enough power and needs to remain powered in a stable manner.).
Regarding Claims 4 and 17:
Modified Draak teaches the limitations of the preceding claims 1 and 15, respectively. Modified Draak, in further view of Draak, discloses wherein the energy storage device provides backup power for a memory, a processor or a real-time clock (RTC) (Fig. 4, communication unit 413 with energy storage device not shown, power receiver controller 401, and their related discussion; see, at least, paragraphs 0114-0116 which disclose the communication unit, having energy harvesting hardware incorporated within, harvests and stores, via an energy storage device not shown, energy to be supplied to a processor, read on by the power receiver controller 401).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 5-8, 10, 12-14, 16, and 18-20 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
With respect to dependent claims 2, 5-8, 10, 12-14, 16, and 18-20: dependent claim 2 recites, “a timer to determine a loss of an NFC power pulse of a plurality of the NFC power pulses; and the timer provides a control signal to the supervisor circuit to divert power to the energy storage device,” which appears to be directed towards a non-obvious improvement over the prior art of record. While the prior art of record contemplates timing as an aspect of the respective control, the prior art of record fails to appropriately teach or suggest the incorporation of a timer which is subsequently used to determine a loss of an NFC power pulse as well as provision of a control signal to the supervisor circuit for diverting power as claimed. Similarly, dependent claims 5-8, 10, 12-14, 16, and 18-20 recite limitations directed towards further limiting the control logic based upon the utilization of monitoring of NFC power pulses, or timer events, which the prior art of record does not address. It does not appear readily evident that such modifications to the prior art presented would fall within the realm of one having ordinary skill in the art. For these reasons, inter alia, it appears as though said dependent claims are directed towards a non-obvious improvement over the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Prior art deemed relevant, but not currently relied upon:
Joye et al. (U.S. Patent Number 9,866,073)
Wobak et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2018/0034507)
Kobayashi (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2019/0148970)
Kim et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2020/0366135)
Rule et al. (U.S. Patent Number 12,046,916)
Ganesh et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2024/0348099)
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH N INGE whose telephone number is (571)270-7705. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00-4:00 EST.
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/JOSEPH N INGE/Examiner, Art Unit 2836
/REXFORD N BARNIE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2836
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