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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
Receipt is acknowledged of a request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) and a submission, filed on 15 December 2025.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 7, 10 and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2019/0299790 by Smith et al. (Smith hereinafter).
Regarding claim 7, Smith discloses a method of controlling a cooling of one or more battery cells [see at least Abstract, comprising:- determining a first voltage across a first set of one or more battery cells during a charging or discharging of the first set [see at least paragraph 0093, “by monitoring a voltage level of the battery”; paragraph 0094, “being drained beyond a desired threshold level (e.g.; voltage threshold)”; paragraph 0046, “charge controller 224 may regulate the addition of charge to at least one power source 208 of the vehicle 100 (e.g.; until the at least one power source 208 is full or at a capacity, etc.)”]; - obtaining at least one of a charging voltage threshold value and a discharging voltage threshold value for starting or increasing a battery cell cooling [see at least paragraph 0094, “drained beyond a desired threshold level (e.g.; voltage threshold)”]; -predicting an upcoming increase in heat generation of the first set by detecting or predicting [see at least paragraph 0094, “may initiate the charging operation and begin heating and colling the thermal mass in anticipation that the battery 208 will be charged”] that a) during a continued charging of the first set, the first voltage goes above the charging voltage threshold value, or b) during a continued discharging of the first set, the first voltage goes below the discharging voltage threshold value, [see at least paragraph 0094, “drained beyond a desired threshold level”] and- in response to predicting the upcoming increase in heat generation of the first cell, starting or increasing a cooling of the first set [see at least paragraph 0094, “may initiate the charging operation and begin heating and colling the thermal mass in anticipation that the battery 208 will be charged”].
Regarding claim 10, Smith discloses a controller [see at least Figure 2, (224)] for a cooling system [see at least Figure 6, (605)] for one or more battery cells [see at least Figure 6, (208)], comprising processing circuitry configured to cause the controller to:- determine a first voltage V1 across a first set of one or more battery cells during a charging or discharging of the first set [see at least paragraph 0093, “by monitoring a voltage level of the battery”; paragraph 0094, “being drained beyond a desired threshold level (e.g.; voltage threshold)”; paragraph 0046, “charge controller 224 may regulate the addition of charge to at least one power source 208 of the vehicle 100 (e.g.; until the at least one power source 208 is full or at a capacity, etc.)”]; - obtain at least one of a charging voltage threshold value and a discharging voltage threshold value [see at least paragraph 0094, “drained beyond a desired threshold level (e.g.; voltage threshold)”]; - predict an upcoming increase in heat generation of the first set by detecting or predicting [see at least paragraph 0094, “may initiate the charging operation and begin heating and colling the thermal mass in anticipation that the battery 208 will be charged”] that a) during a continued charging of the first set, the first voltage goes above the charging voltage threshold value, or b) during a continued discharging of the first set, the first voltage goes below the discharging voltage threshold value [see at least paragraph 0094, “drained beyond a desired threshold level”] and - in response to predicting the upcoming increase in heat generation of the first set, control the cooling system to start or increase a cooling of the first set [see at least paragraph 0094, “may initiate the charging operation and begin heating and colling the thermal mass in anticipation that the battery 208 will be charged”].
Regarding claim 12, Smith discloses a vehicle [see at least Figure 2, (100)], comprising: a first set of one or more battery cells [see at least Figure 2, (208)] configured to provide power to a propulsion system of the vehicle [see at least Figure 2, (212)]; a cooling system configured to provide a cooling of the first set [see at least Figure 6, (605)]; and a controller for the cooling system according to claim 10 [see the above rejection of claim 10].
Regarding claim 13, Smith discloses a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer code for controlling a cooling of one or more battery cells, the computer code, when running on processing circuitry of a computer [see at least paragraph 0132; Abstract], causes the computer to: -_determine a first voltage across a first set of one or more battery cells during a charging or discharging of the first set [see at least paragraph 0093, “by monitoring a voltage level of the battery”; paragraph 0094, “being drained beyond a desired threshold level (e.g.; voltage threshold)”; paragraph 0046, “charge controller 224 may regulate the addition of charge to at least one power source 208 of the vehicle 100 (e.g.; until the at least one power source 208 is full or at a capacity, etc.)”]; - obtain at least one of a charging voltage threshold value and a discharging voltage threshold value for starting or increasing a battery cell cooling predict an upcoming increase in heat generation of the first set by detecting or predicting [see at least paragraph 0094, “drained beyond a desired threshold level (e.g.; voltage threshold)”] that a) during a continued charging of the first set, the first voltage goes above the charging voltage threshold value, or b) during a continued discharging of the first set, the first voltage goes below the discharging voltage threshold value [see at least paragraph 0094, “drained beyond a desired threshold level”] and - in response to predicting the upcoming increase in heat generation of the first set, starting or increasing a cooling of the first set [see at least paragraph 0094, “may initiate the charging operation and begin heating and colling the thermal mass in anticipation that the battery 208 will be charged”].
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.
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.
Claims 9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2019/0299790 by Smith et al. (Smith hereinafter) in view of US 2018/0105058 by Symanow et al. (Symanow hereinafter).
Regarding claim 9, Smith discloses the method according to claim 7.
Smith fails to disclose wherein the method further includes determining, during charging or discharging of the first set, a first ambient temperature of the first set, and obtaining the at least one of the charging voltage threshold value and the discharging voltage threshold value based on the first ambient temperature. However, Symanow discloses this limitation [see at least paragraph 0048, “This threshold for halting charging varies with ambient temperature”].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant's invention to factor the ambient temperature in the charging/discharging threshold in order to avoid overcharging or discharging at an extreme temperature. Thus, preventing damage to the storage device by, for instance, not continuing to charge and add thermal energy to a storage device that is already at a high temperature.
Regarding claim 11, Smith discloses the controller according to claim 10.
Smith fails to disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause the controller to determine, during charging or discharging of the first set, a first ambient temperature of the first set, and obtaining the at least one of the charging voltage threshold value and the discharging voltage threshold value based on the first ambient temperature. However, Symanow discloses this limitation [see at least paragraph 0048, “This threshold for halting charging varies with ambient temperature”].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant's invention to factor the ambient temperature in the charging/discharging threshold in order to avoid overcharging or discharging at an extreme temperature. Thus, preventing damage to the storage device by, for instance, not continuing to charge and add thermal energy to a storage device that is already at a high temperature.
Claims 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2019/0299790 by Smith et al. (Smith hereinafter) in view of US 2018/0105058 by Symanow et al. (Symanow hereinafter) in further view of US 2021/0070180 by Del Core.
Regarding claim 16, Smith discloses the method of claim 7.
Smith fails to disclose wherein obtaining said at least one of a charging voltage threshold value and a discharging voltage threshold value comprises at least one of: - determining, during a charging of a reference set of one or more battery cells, a charging voltage threshold value for starting or increasing a battery cell cooling, the charging voltage threshold value corresponding to a voltage Vref,c across the reference set at which a rate of change of temperature with respect to voltage of the reference set goes above a charging temperature rate threshold value, and - determining, during a discharging of the reference set of one or more battery cells, a discharging voltage threshold value for starting or increasing a battery cell cooling, the discharging voltage threshold value corresponding to a voltage Vref,d across the reference set at which a rate of change of temperature with respect to voltage of the reference set goes above a discharging temperature rate threshold value. However, Symanow discloses this limitation [see at least paragraph 0048, “This threshold for halting charging varies with ambient temperature”].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant's invention to factor the ambient temperature in the charging/discharging threshold in order to avoid overcharging or discharging at an extreme temperature. Thus, preventing damage to the storage device by, for instance, not continuing to charge and add thermal energy to a storage device that is already at a high temperature.
Smith in view of Symanow fails to teach using temperature rate of change for determining charging/discharging thresholds. However, Del Core discloses the use of temperature rate of change [see at least claim 4 and claim 5].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant's invention to factor the rate of the change in temperature in the charging/discharging threshold in order to avoid the charging/discharging from causing a runaway temperature. Thus, preventing damage to the storage device by, for instance, not continuing to charge and add thermal energy to a storage device that is already at a high temperature.
Regarding claim 17, Smith in view of Symanow in further view of Del Core teaches the method according to claim 16.
Del Core discloses wherein the method further comprises determining at least one of the charging and discharging voltage threshold values from one or more experimental measurements of temperature of, and voltage across, the reference set during respective charging and discharging of the reference set [see at least paragraph 0061].
Regarding claim 18, Smith in view of Symanow in further view of Del Core teaches the method according to claim 16.
Del Core discloses wherein the method further comprises determining at least one of the charging and discharging voltage threshold values from one or more numerical simulations of temperature of, and voltage across, the reference set during the respective charging or discharging of the reference set [see at least paragraph 0061].
Regarding claim 19, Smith in view of Symanow in further view of Del Core teaches the method according to claim 16.
Symanow discloses wherein the method further comprises performing the charging or discharging of the reference set at a plurality of different ambient temperatures of the reference set, and determining at least one of the charging and discharging voltage threshold values for each of the different ambient temperatures of the reference set [see at least paragraph 0048, “This threshold for halting charging varies with ambient temperature”].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOEL BARNETT whose telephone number is (571)272-2879. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Menna Youssef can be reached at (571) 270-3684. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOEL BARNETT/Examiner, Art Unit 2849
/Menatoallah Youssef/SPE, Art Unit 2849