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 § 102
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Galin et al. (US 20180226797 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Galin teaches a smart charging allocation box (Fig. 21A), comprising a housing (see Fig. 21), a first socket (2101), a second socket (2102) provided on the housing, and a microcontroller unit chip (see Fig. 13, ¶[126] “Controllers 1301a-1301n are associated with smart outlets 1302-1302n respectively”, or Fig. 19. ¶[141] “Dual smart outlet 1900 may comprise controller 1910”);
wherein a switch is provided between the first socket and the second socket (see Fig. 19 for the switch, Fig. 19 illustrates an AC-DC outlet but a dual AC only outlet is pictured in Fig. 21, see ¶[148] “It is noted that various connections are set forth between elements herein. These connections are described in general and, unless specified otherwise, may be direct or indirect; this specification is not intended to be limiting in this respect”);
the first socket and the second socket are connected in parallel on a main line, with the first socket having a higher priority than the second socket (¶[102] “Each switch or a group of switches of switches 801 may have a first priority label or a second priority label.”);
when the first socket is working, the second socket is in a disconnected state (¶[102] “When power sources 804 might not supply enough power to loads 805, the group of switches from switches 801 having an associated controller with the second priority label may be disconnected, and the group of switches from switches 801 having associated controllers with the first priority label may remain “on.””), and
when the first socket is in a disconnected state or below a standby power the second socket is in an available state (¶[123] “According to features of the disclosure herein, it may be desired to detect if a load is connected to an electrical connection. If the load is not connected to an electrical connection, the electrical connection may be disregarded by an associated method such as method 1160 of FIG. 11 or method 950 of FIG. 9a to save computational time and memory resources” If the first socket/connection is not being used, in the case where there are only two sockets, the power supply will be able to meet the demand of the second priority load and the switch will remain connected).
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.
Claim(s) 2-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Galin et al. (US 20180226797 A1) in view of Pabon (US 20110057724 A1).
Regarding Claim 2, Galin teaches the smart charging allocation box according to claim 1.
Galin does not teach wherein a display screen is provided on the housing, and a metering module is provided inside the housing, which displays collected and processed data on the display screen.
Pabon teaches wherein a display screen is provided on the housing (see Fig. 2, ¶[34] “The user interface of power supply 220 may also include display 224, which may be an LCD screen, an LED, an OLED display, or any other display suitable for displaying information to a user”), and a metering module (412) is provided inside the housing, which displays collected and processed data on the display screen (¶[35] “display 224 may provide information about the operating mode or charge mode of power supply 220, current load and capacity information of each output ports 206 and/or of power supply 220, the current time, and so on”).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Galin to incorporate the teachings of Pabon to provide wherein a display screen is provided on the housing, and a metering module is provided inside the housing, which displays collected and processed data on the display screen, in order to allow the user to monitor the status of the connected loads and allow the user to interface with the device as suggested by Pabon (¶[34]).
Regarding Claim 3, Galin in view of Pabon teaches the smart charging allocation box according to claim 2.
Galin further teaches wherein both the first socket and the second socket are equipped with protectors (¶[100] “Distribution board 603 may comprise one or more circuit breakers that may disconnect the electrical current when the current may be too high … switching circuit 606 may be integrated into distribution board 603 by replacing the circuit breakers with smart circuit breakers that may be controlled by controller 604. FIG. 7 illustrates an example for a smart circuit breaker 710 that may comprise circuit breaker 711 and a switch 712. Smart circuit breaker 710 links power grid 715 and household loads 714. Circuit breaker 711 provides the required safety and protection properties, and switch 712 provides the ability to disconnect power grid 715 from loads 714 that may be connected to the smart circuit breaker 710.”)
Regarding Claim 4, Galin in view of Pabon teaches the smart charging allocation box according to claim 3.
Galin as modified does not explicitly teach wherein both the first socket and the second socket are equipped with marquee lights for displaying a working status of the sockets.
Pabon teaches wherein both the first socket (206A) and the second socket (206B) are equipped with marquee lights (222A, 222B) for displaying a working status of the sockets (¶[34] “the user interface comprises a status light 222 (e.g., 222A, 222B, and 222C) associated with each output port 206 that may indicate whether a device is being powered, whether the device is being powered by reduced power, or other statuses of power supply 220 or devices 202 connected to the power supply 220. Status lights 222 can indicate one or more statuses by blinking, changing colors, or the like”).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Galin in view of Pabon to further incorporate the teachings of Pabon to provide wherein both the first socket and the second socket are equipped with marquee lights for displaying a working status of the sockets, in order to make it fast and convenient for a user to determine the status of the outlets.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AIMAN BICKIYA whose telephone number is (571)270-0555. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 - 6 PM EST.
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/A.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2859
/JULIAN D HUFFMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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