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.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: CHARGE AND DISCHARGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND VEHICLE INCLUDING TERMINATING CHARGING OR DISCHARGING AT A TIME BASED ON OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the condition for entering ‘S120’ in Figure 3 should read --Tamin>Ta-- or --Ta<Tamin--. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The term “far” in claim 2 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “far” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Therefore, the recitation “terminate the external charging or the external power supply at a time far from the scheduled departure time” has been rendered indefinite. It is noted that the specification provides a standard for the term “close” of claim 1 (see paragraph 0029 of the specification as originally filed, which discloses the time close to the scheduled departure time is within “e.g., 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, etc.”).
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1 and 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KONISHI (Pub. No.: US 2022/0247001 A1; cited on IDS with date 11/13/2025) in view of KIESSLING (Pub. No.: US 2021/0086647 A1).
Regarding claim 1, KONISHI discloses a charge and discharge management system (¶ 0013: an operation management system that manages an operation of a commercial motor-driven vehicle, the operation management system including: a battery control device that controls charging/discharging of a battery for power of a commercial motor-driven vehicle) configured to:
manage charging and discharging of power storage devices (32, Fig. 2) of a plurality of vehicles (12, Figures 1 & 2) including the power storage devices (¶ 0028: operation of the vehicle 12 is managed by an operation management center 22. The operation management center 22 allocates vehicles 12 to services which are determined in operation plans based on predetermined information such as a length of each route 14 or the operation plans, operation conditions such as a state of charge of the battery of each vehicle 12 or the number of passengers which vary from time to time, and outside conditions such as an outside air temperature or congestion information. An operation management device 24 is provided in the operation management center 22, and the operation management device 24 manages all or some of the operations of the vehicles 12; ¶ 0031: battery control device 34 includes a charging/discharging control unit 40 that controls charging/discharging of the battery 32…charging/discharging control unit 40 controls a state of charge of the battery 32 within a management range between a predetermined state-of-charge upper limit and a predetermined state-of-charge lower limit. At the time of charging, the charging/discharging control unit 40 monitors the state of charge of the battery 32 and ends the charging when the state of charge reaches the state-of-charge upper limit) and configured to perform external charging for charging the power storage devices by using electric power from an external power source (¶ 0028: A charging stand 20 is provided in the charging station 18, and charging is performed by connecting a plug provided in the vehicle 12 to a plug socket of the charging stand 20; ¶ 0029: At the time of charging, control for charging the battery 32 with electric power from an external device such as a charging stand 20 is performed; ¶ 0031: see above);
acquire a scheduled departure time of each of the vehicles being parked (¶ 0034: battery control device 34 further includes an operation start time acquiring unit 52. The operation start time acquiring unit 52 acquires a start time of a next operation of the vehicle 12 based on the operation plan. The start time of the next operation may be acquired from the operation management center 22 when the vehicle 12 stops in the charging station 18); and
terminate the external charging at a time close to the scheduled departure time for the vehicle under an environment where an outside temperature is lower than a minimum temperature in a predetermined temperature range among the plurality of vehicles (¶ 0039: When the outside air temperature acquiring unit 46 acquires the outside air temperature which is equal to or lower than a predetermined temperature (for example, 5° C.), the state-of-charge upper limit setting unit 42 sets the state-of-charge upper limit to a low-temperature state-of-charge upper limit (for example, 70%) lower than that at the normal temperature) compared to the vehicle under an environment where the outside temperature is equal to or higher than the minimum temperature among the plurality of vehicles (¶ 0045: battery control device 34 may perform charging such that the charging ends immediately before a next operation start time when the state-of-charge upper limit to the low-temperature state-of-charge upper limit. The operation start time acquiring unit 52 acquires an operation start time of a next service to which the vehicle 12 is allocated based on the operation plan. The next operation start time may be acquired from the operation management device 24 when the vehicle 12 returns to the charging station 18, or an operation plan in a predetermined period (for example, one day) may be acquired at a time, an operation start time of each service in the period may be stored, and the next operation start time may be acquired therefrom. A charging start time is calculated by counting back from the operation start time. The battery temperature and the time required for charging to a set low-temperature state-of-charge upper limit may be stored in correlation in advance, the time required for charging may be acquired based on the correlation, and the charging start time may be calculated. By leaving no time between charging and operation, the battery temperature which has increased at the time of charging is not decreased until the operation is started).
KONISHI fails to disclose the charge and discharge management system configured to perform external power supply for supplying electric power from the power storage devices to outside of the vehicles; and terminate the external charging or the external power supply at a time close to the scheduled departure time.
KIESSLING discloses the charge and discharge management system configured to perform external power supply for supplying electric power from the power storage devices to outside of the vehicles (¶ 0038: While plugged into a charging station, an electric vehicle may be charging (e.g., storing energy into a battery) or discharging (e.g., providing energy to an ancillary service provider). The optimizer system may instruct an electric vehicle to charge based on an AGC signal indicating system load. In some embodiments, the optimizer system may provide instructions to the electric vehicle to charge while system load is low and energy costs are low. In some embodiments, the optimizer system may provide instructions to the electric vehicle to discharge when system load is high and energy costs are high). Since KONISHI discloses terminating the external charging at a time close to the scheduled departure time as described above, and the recitation of terminating the external power supply at a time close to the scheduled departure time is recited in the alternative, KONISHI as modified by KIESSLING teaches the recitation “terminate the external charging or the external power supply at a time close to the scheduled departure time”.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include performing the external power supply as recited in order to provide grid stabilization and/or reduce infrastructure costs.
Regarding claim 3, KONISHI discloses a vehicle (12, Figures 1 & 2) comprising a power storage device (32, Fig. 2), wherein the vehicle is configured to:
perform external charging for charging the power storage device by using electric power from an external power source (¶ 0028: A charging stand 20 is provided in the charging station 18, and charging is performed by connecting a plug provided in the vehicle 12 to a plug socket of the charging stand 20; ¶ 0029: At the time of charging, control for charging the battery 32 with electric power from an external device such as a charging stand 20 is performed; ¶ 0031: battery control device 34 includes a charging/discharging control unit 40 that controls charging/discharging of the battery 32…charging/discharging control unit 40 controls a state of charge of the battery 32 within a management range between a predetermined state-of-charge upper limit and a predetermined state-of-charge lower limit. At the time of charging, the charging/discharging control unit 40 monitors the state of charge of the battery 32 and ends the charging when the state of charge reaches the state-of-charge upper limit);
acquire a scheduled departure time (¶ 0034: battery control device 34 further includes an operation start time acquiring unit 52. The operation start time acquiring unit 52 acquires a start time of a next operation of the vehicle 12 based on the operation plan. The start time of the next operation may be acquired from the operation management center 22 when the vehicle 12 stops in the charging station 18); and
terminate the external charging at a time close to the scheduled departure time in a case where an outside temperature is lower than a minimum temperature in a predetermined temperature range (¶ 0039: When the outside air temperature acquiring unit 46 acquires the outside air temperature which is equal to or lower than a predetermined temperature (for example, 5° C.), the state-of-charge upper limit setting unit 42 sets the state-of-charge upper limit to a low-temperature state-of-charge upper limit (for example, 70%) lower than that at the normal temperature) compared to a case where the outside temperature is equal to or higher than the minimum temperature (¶ 0045: battery control device 34 may perform charging such that the charging ends immediately before a next operation start time when the state-of-charge upper limit to the low-temperature state-of-charge upper limit. The operation start time acquiring unit 52 acquires an operation start time of a next service to which the vehicle 12 is allocated based on the operation plan. The next operation start time may be acquired from the operation management device 24 when the vehicle 12 returns to the charging station 18, or an operation plan in a predetermined period (for example, one day) may be acquired at a time, an operation start time of each service in the period may be stored, and the next operation start time may be acquired therefrom. A charging start time is calculated by counting back from the operation start time. The battery temperature and the time required for charging to a set low-temperature state-of-charge upper limit may be stored in correlation in advance, the time required for charging may be acquired based on the correlation, and the charging start time may be calculated. By leaving no time between charging and operation, the battery temperature which has increased at the time of charging is not decreased until the operation is started).
KONISHI fails to disclose the vehicle is configured to perform external power supply for supplying electric power from the power storage device to outside of the vehicle; and terminate the external charging or the external power supply at a time close to the scheduled departure time.
KIESSLING discloses the vehicle is configured to perform external power supply for supplying electric power from the power storage device to outside of the vehicle (¶ 0038: While plugged into a charging station, an electric vehicle may be charging (e.g., storing energy into a battery) or discharging (e.g., providing energy to an ancillary service provider). The optimizer system may instruct an electric vehicle to charge based on an AGC signal indicating system load. In some embodiments, the optimizer system may provide instructions to the electric vehicle to charge while system load is low and energy costs are low. In some embodiments, the optimizer system may provide instructions to the electric vehicle to discharge when system load is high and energy costs are high). Since KONISHI discloses terminating the external charging at a time close to the scheduled departure time as described above, and the recitation of terminating the external power supply at a time close to the scheduled departure time is recited in the alternative, KONISHI as modified by KIESSLING teaches the recitation “terminate the external charging or the external power supply at a time close to the scheduled departure time”.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include performing the external power supply as recited in order to provide grid stabilization and/or reduce infrastructure costs.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KONISHI in view of KIESSLING as applied to claims 1 and 3 above, and further in view of OKAZAKI (Pub. No.: US 2024/0383362 A1).
Regarding claim 2, KONISHI as modified by KIESSLING teaches the charge and discharge management system as applied to claim 1, but fails to disclose the charge and discharge management system is configured to terminate the external charging or the external power supply at a time far from the scheduled departure time for the vehicle under an environment where the outside temperature is higher than a maximum temperature in the predetermined temperature range among the plurality of vehicles compared to the vehicle under an environment where the outside temperature is within the predetermined temperature range among the plurality of vehicles.
OKAZAKI discloses the charge and discharge management system is configured to terminate the external charging or the external power supply at a time far from the scheduled departure time for the vehicle under an environment where the outside temperature is higher among the plurality of vehicles compared to the vehicle under an environment where the outside temperature is [lower] (¶ 0054, 0059, 0061-0062). Although OKAZAKI discloses terminating the external charging as a function of outside air temperature instead of when “the outside temperature is higher than a maximum temperature in the predetermined temperature range” as recited, the selection of the claimed particular temperature threshold/range would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, and would not produce new or unexpected results. It is well established that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable parameters (such as the claimed temperature threshold/range) is nothing more than routine optimization within the skill of the art. It is therefore submitted that the recitation “terminate the external charging or the external power supply at a time far from the scheduled departure time for the vehicle under an environment where the outside temperature is higher than a maximum temperature in the predetermined temperature range …compared to the vehicle under an environment where the outside temperature is within the predetermined temperature range among the plurality of vehicles” would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include terminating the external charging at a time far from the scheduled departure time as recited in order to allow the vehicle to perform well without issues, regardless of varying ambient temperatures (OKAZAKI, ¶ 0005).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANUEL HERNANDEZ whose telephone number is (571)270-7916. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9a-5p ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Drew Dunn can be reached at (571) 272-2312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Manuel Hernandez/Examiner, Art Unit 2859 6/25/2026
/DREW A DUNN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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