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.
Claims 1-6, 9-14, 16-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hsieh et al. (US 9,655,192), hereinafter referred to as Hsieh in view of Wu et al. (US 9,143,007), hereinafter referred to as Wu and KUO et al. (US 2015/0070819), hereinafter referred to as Kuo.
Referring to claim 1, Hsieh teaches, as claimed, an electronic system comprising: a subassembly (i.e.-a power supply system comprising a power supply, col. 3, lines 42-44 and 63-65); a support structure comprising a plurality of ports (i.e.-a carrier module comprised of plurality of sockets and/or connecting ports, col. 1, lines 39-42, 52-54; and col. 3, lines 61-62) each of the plurality of ports configured to receive a subassembly (i.e.-each sockets are configured to connect the power supply to the carrier module, col. 1, lines 39-40; and col. 3, lines 64-67); and a controller (i.e.-a processor, col. 1, lines 58-59), wherein: the subassembly is installed in the support structure at a port of the plurality of ports (col. 2, lines 4-8), the subassembly is configured to interact with the support structure at the port of the plurality of ports (i.e.-the power supply is connected/interacts to carrier module thru the connecting plugs, col. 6, lines 14-21) and generate an indication of the port of the plurality of ports in which the subassembly is installed (i.e.-detect whether the power supply is connected to the first/or second socket, col. 1, lines 47-49).
However, Hsieh does not explicitly teach the support structure comprised of plurality of locations; and the subassembly being configured to communicate status and/or control information with the controller, the status and/or control information being associated with location information generated based on the indication of the location.
On the other hand, Wu disclsoes power management method and system comprised of power supply units, wherein the system is configured to communicate status and/or control information with the controller (i.e.-transmitting information of power supplying status to a processor/server, col. 3, lines 46-51; col. 5, lines 8-10; and col. 2, lines 8-14), the status and/or control information being associated with port/outlet information generated based on the indication of the port/outlet (i.e.-the information is related to the status/state of an outlet associated with each the power supply unit, col. 8, lines 62-67). Furthermore, Kuo disclsoes power supply system comprised of multiple power supply slot locations for mounting multiple power supplies (page 1, ¶9, lines 3-6; and page 1, ¶23, lines 1-7).
Therefore, before the effective filing date of the current invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the teachings of Hsieh so that the support structure comprised of plurality of locations; and the subassembly being configured to communicate status and/or control information with the controller, the status and/or control information being associated with location information generated based on the indication of the location, as taught by Wu and Kuo. The motivation for doing so would have been to rapidly and efficiently acquire real-time power state/status information, regulate the power distribution and management operation, thereby promote the overall power management efficiency and stability.
As to claim 2, the modified Hsieh in view of Wu and Kuo teaches the electronic system of claim 1, wherein: the subassembly comprises an electrical connector (see Hsieh, col. 3, lines 66-67), each location of the support structure comprises a mating component (see Hsieh, plug 260) configured to mate with the electrical connector (see Hsieh, col. 4, lines 6-8), and the electrical connector is configured to output the indication of the location (see Hsieh, col. 1, lines 47-49 and col. 2, lines 31-33).
As to claim 3, the modified Hsieh teaches the electronic system of claim 2, wherein: the support structure comprises a busbar, and the electrical connector is a power connector configured to mate with the busbar (see Hsieh, col. 3, lines 58-61).
As to claim 4, the modified Hsieh in view of Wu teaches the electronic system of claim 1, wherein: the subassembly is a power supply unit (see Hsieh, col. 3, lines 63-65), and the power supply unit is configured to report, to the controller, a status of the power supply unit in conjunction with an identified location of the power supply unit (see Wu, col. 6, lines 4-8 and col. 8, lines 62-67).
As to claim 5, the modified Hsieh in view of Wu teaches the electronic system of claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to generate commands to the power supply unit based on the identified location (see Wu, col. 6, 48-53).
As to claim 6, the modified Hsieh in view of Wu and Kuo innately teaches the electronic system of claim 5, wherein the commands to the power supply unit based on the identified location are based on a voltage drop between a voltage source and the location (see Wu, col. 7, lines 7-13 and col. 8, lines 61-64).
As to claim 9, the modified Hsieh in view of Wu teaches the electronic system of claim 1, further comprising: a user interface (see Hsieh, col. 4, line 15), wherein: the controller is configured to present on the user interface the status information for the subassembly based on the location information generated based on the indication of the location (see Hsieh, col. 4, lines 44-50).
As to claim 10, the modified Hsieh innately teaches the electronic system of claim 9, wherein: the controller is configured to identify a subassembly in a fault state and display on the user interface an indication of the subassembly with the fault and a location of the subassembly (see Hsieh, col. 4, line 63 to col 5, line 5; and col. 4, lines 3-5).
As to claim 11, the modified Hsieh in view of Kuo teaches the electronic system of claim 10, wherein: the support structure comprises a rack, and the plurality of locations are slots within the rack (see Hsieh, col. 4, lines 42-47; and see Kuo, page 1, ¶9, lines 3-6).
As to claim 12, the modified Hsieh in view of Wu teaches the electronic system of claim 9, wherein: the controller is remote from the support structure, and the electronic system comprises a network connecting the controller to the subassembly (see Wu, col. 2, lines 15-23; col. 4, lines 48-60; and see Fig. 7).
Referring to claims 13, 14 and 16, the claims are substantially the same as claims 1, 9, 10, hence the rejection of claims 1, 9 and 10 is applied accordingly.
Referring to claims 17, 18 and 20, the claims are substantially the same as claims 1, 9, 10, hence the rejection of claims 1, 9 and 10 is applied accordingly.
Claim Objections
Claims 7, 8, 15 and 19 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.
Examiner’s note:
Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the Applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the Applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passages as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 03/18/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of the new of grounds of rejection(s).
Conclusion
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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIAS MAMO whose telephone number is (571)270-1726. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu, 7 AM - 5 PM.
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/Elias Mamo/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2184
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