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 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 1-3, 10-12 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mettler et al. (US 20120292993) in view of Vereb et al. (US 8,717,088).
With respect to claims 1 and 10 Mettler teaches a system, comprising: an energy transducer (18 see various embodiments shown for example in Fig. 1); a first capacitor (24); a second capacitor (29), wherein a capacitance of the second capacitor is greater than a capacitance of the first capacitor (paragraph 0052, 0012); and a microprocessor (paragraph 0068) including: a first terminal (see left terminal) electrically coupled to the energy transducer and the first capacitor and controlling switching based on voltage level (paragraph 0055). Mettler however does not teach the internal connection of the microprocessor. Vereb teaches the known use of a second terminal electrically coupled to a second capacitor (see connection capacitor 2); a switch (21) which, in operation, is in a conductive state in which the switch electrically couples the first terminal and the second terminal together (see when 21 is closed see for example Fig. 3), or a nonconductive state (21 open) in which the switch does not electrically couple the first terminal and the second terminal together; a voltage detector (col. 5 lines 40-65) which, in operation, detects a voltage at the first terminal (see upper terminal), and a processor coupled (see firmware reads voltage from ADC) to the voltage detector and the switch, wherein the processor, in operation, controls charging of the second capacitor by controlling the switch (col. 4 lines 20-25) to be in the conductive state and the nonconductive state based on (col. 6 lines 30-50) the voltage at the first terminal detected by the voltage detector. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Mettler to include the known use of a microcontroller circuitry as seen in Vereb for the benefit of reduced size (col. 6 lines 1-5).
With respect to claims 2-3, 11-12 and 20 Mettler teaches the processor controls the switch to be in the nonconductive state in response to the voltage detector detecting that the voltage at the first terminal is less than or equal to a first voltage threshold (paragraph 0070, further see 4.25v paragraph 0074), and the processor controls the switch to be in the conductive state in response to the voltage detector detecting that the voltage at the first terminal is greater than or equal to a second voltage threshold (paragraph 0073-75, see 5v) that is greater than the first voltage threshold. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Mettler to include the known use of a microcontroller circuitry as seen in Vereb for the benefit of reduced size (col. 6 lines 1-5).
With respect to claims 20 Mettler teaches the limitations of claim 20 as detailed above in the rejection of claim 1 and further teaches the battery (paragraph 0033).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-9 and 13-18 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. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
With respect to claims 4 and 13 Mettler teaches the microprocessor however does not teach, the microprocessor operates in a first power consumption mode in which the microprocessor consumes a first amount of power, and a second power consumption mode in which the microprocessor consumes a second amount of power that is greater than the first amount of power, and the processor controls the switch to be in the conductive state and causes the microprocessor to change from operating in the second power consumption mode to operating in the first power consumption mode in response to determining that a voltage of the second capacitor is greater than or equal to the first voltage threshold. At least this further limitation is not taught or rendered obvious by the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Fin whose telephone number is (571)272-5921. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5:30.
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MICHAEL FIN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2836
/MICHAEL R. FIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836
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