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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/31/2023m 9/23/2025, and 1/26/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fukushima (US 20150246620 A1; cited by Applicant IDS).
Regarding claim 1, Fukushima discloses (Fig. 3) a vehicle and mobile body system comprising:
a control unit 15 for acquiring peripheral information that is information of a periphery of the vehicle 10 (¶50; ¶54), and determining an arrangement of the charging device with respect to the vehicle being charged based on the peripheral information (¶54); and
a moving mechanism 105b that moves the charging device such that the charging device is in the arrangement during charging by control of the control unit (¶63).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 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: Langenfeld et al. (US 20230001956 A1) discloses system and method for unattended package manipulation, wherein an autonomous vehicle may supply power to another autonomous vehicle in need of charging (¶131). The cited prior art of record does not teach, fairly suggests or make obvious a charging device that charges a vehicle and is able to autonomously move, the charging device comprising: a control unit for acquiring peripheral information that is information of a periphery of the vehicle, and determining an arrangement of the charging device with respect to the vehicle being charged based on the peripheral information; and a moving mechanism that moves the charging device such that the charging device is in the arrangement during charging by control of the control unit, wherein when the vehicle is parked in a location facing a road, the arrangement of the charging device is an arrangement in which at least a portion of the charging device is hidden from the vehicle when viewed from the road (claims 1 & 2); nor a charging device that charges a vehicle and is able to autonomously move, the charging device comprising: a control unit for acquiring peripheral information that is information of a periphery of the vehicle, and determining an arrangement of the charging device with respect to the vehicle being charged based on the peripheral information; and a moving mechanism that moves the charging device such that the charging device is in the arrangement during charging by control of the control unit, wherein the arrangement of the charging device is an arrangement in which the charging device enters under the vehicle (claims 1 & 3).
Conclusion
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/TOAN C LY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
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