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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/08/2023 and 05/08/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 5-8, 10, and 17-18 are 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.
With respect to claims 5 and 17, in line 2, “based on a battery current” is unclear as there is already a battery current introduced in claim 1. The claim is not clear if this is supposed to refer back the battery current of claim 1 or is a second, different, battery current.
Claims 6-8, 10, and 18 depend from the claims above and are rejected for the same reasons.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-8, 10-12, and 14-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee [US 2018/0056977].
With respect to claims 1 and 14, Lee discloses an electric marine propulsion system [par. 0018], the system comprising: a power storage system comprising at least one marine battery [140]; an electric marine drive powered by the power storage system [130]; a display [150]; a control system configured to: receive a reported time to empty (reported TTE) from each of the at least one battery and/or receive a battery current from each of the at least one battery [par. 0029; i.e. current]; detect an update condition [par. 0039-0040]; upon detection of the update condition, update at least one of a smoothed time to empty (smoothed TTE) value and a smoothed distance to empty (smoothed DTE) value for the power storage system based on the reported TTE and/or the battery current from each of the at least one battery [par. 0039-0040]; and control the display to display the smoothed TTE value and/or the smoothed DTE value [0025-0026].
With respect to claims 2 and 15, Lee further discloses wherein the detected update condition includes at least one of a threshold change in demand, a neutral motor state, a threshold change in battery current, a threshold change in a filtered TTE value, or a threshold change in vessel speed [i.e. change in demand and current due to the positive value].
With respect to claims 3 and 16, Lee further discloses wherein the change in demand is one of a threshold change in demand magnitude since the value and/or the smoothed DTE value was last updated or a threshold rate of change in demand [S240].
With respect to claims 5 and 17, Lee further discloses wherein the control system is further configured to: determine an estimated TTE based on the reported TTE from all of the at least one battery and/or based on a battery current received from all of the at least one battery; filter the estimated TTE with a filter selected based on a propulsion output value to generate a filtered TTE estimate; upon detection of the update condition, pass through the filtered TTE estimate at a time of detecting the update condition to generate an output-conditioned time to empty (output-conditioned TTE) as the smoothed TTE value; and control the display to display the smoothed TTE value [note: claim 1 recites the TTE in an OR format, and since the battery current was selected above the TTE limitations are not required by the prior art and furthermore, any subsequent claims further limiting the TTE matter, that is not positively recited, cannot further limit the claims in any patentable manner].
Claims 6-8, 10, and 18, depend from claim 5 and are rejected for the same reasons as detailed in claim 5.
With respect to claim 11, Lee further discloses wherein the control system is further configured to calculate the smoothed DTE value based on the smoothed TTE value and control the display in real time to update the smoothed TTE value and the smoothed DTE value [i.e. displayed as shown in Figs 3A-3D; further note the smooth TTE is recited in the OR format in claim 1 and is not positively recited since the battery current method was selected and shown by the prior art].
With respect to claims 12 and 19, Lee further discloses wherein the control system is further configured to: determine a total battery current being drawn from the power storage system and a total capacity remaining for the power storage system; upon detection of the update condition, pass through the total battery current at a time of detecting the update condition; calculate a current-conditioned TTE for the marine battery based on the total battery current and the total capacity remaining as the smoothed TTE value; and control the display to display the smoothed TTE value [par. 0029 includes battery current and SOC included in the display of remaining time/distance].
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.
Claim(s) 4, 9, 13, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee [US 2018/0056977] as applied above, and further in view of Yun et al. [US 2012/0029744].
With respect to claims 4 and 20, Lee fails to disclose accounting for torque in the remaining distance calculation. It is well-known in the art that remaining distance of an electric vehicle is simply related to the amount of power left in the battery, and therefore events that add/remove the power directly add/remove distance of the vehicle. For example, Yun relates to an electric vehicle with a display unit having dynamic remaining distance output [Figs 1-2] and teaches wherein the update condition includes at least one of engagement of an over-torque state or disengagement of the over-torque state [par. 0047].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to modify Lee to include monitoring the torque in the driving distance calculation as taught by Yun for the benefit of increasing the accuracy of the display in a live/dynamic manners.
With respect to claim 9, Lee further discloses wherein the estimated TTE is a total reported TTE calculated as an average or a filtered average of the reported TTE from all of the at least one battery [note: claim 1 recites the TTE in an OR format, and since the battery current was selected above the TTE limitations are not required by the prior art and furthermore, any subsequent claims further limiting the TTE matter, that is not positively recited, cannot further limit the claims in any patentable manner].
With respect to claim 13, Lee fails to explicitly discloses wherein the control system is further configured to: determine a filtered vessel speed based on a propulsion output value; upon detection of the update condition, pass through the filtered vessel speed at the time of detecting the update condition; calculating the smoothed DTE value based on the filtered vessel speed; and control the display to display the smoothed DTE value. It is well-known in the art that remaining distance of an electric vehicle is simply related to the amount of power left in the battery, and therefore events that add/remove the power directly add/remove distance of the vehicle. For example, Yun relates to an electric vehicle with a display unit having dynamic remaining distance output [Figs 1-2] and teaches wherein the update condition includes monitoring/determining vessel speed [par. 0047; i.e. the torque of the motor is equated to being directly related to the speed/acceleration curve of the vehicle].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to modify Lee to include monitoring the torque in the driving distance calculation as taught by Yun for the benefit of increasing the accuracy of the display in a live/dynamic manners.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHANIEL R PELTON whose telephone number is (571)270-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am to 5pm.
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/NATHANIEL R PELTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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