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 § 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.
Claims 1 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pub. No. 2019/0351783 to Goei (“Goei”) in view of US Pub. No. 2013/0031121 to Sera et al. (“Sera”).
As to claim 1, a determination device (¶ 0048, 0049, Fig. 4,5: 402, 502. MEC 402, including AI controller module 502 and the associated controller modules, read on the determination device.) configured to, in a charging service for charging a vehicle of a user by dispatching a power supply vehicle (¶ 0034, 0039. Goei’s charging platform, mStation, charging truck, or charging van read on the power supply vehicle because they are vehicles that travel to a user’s vehicle and supply electrical power for charging.) in response to a request from the user (¶ 0044. The mobile charging service and dispatch are initiated in response to a request received from the driver.), make determination on a possibility of charging the vehicle of the user based on the request (¶ 0040, 0050, 0051. Goei evaluates whether an appropriate mobile charging vehicle and compatible charging equipment are available to fulfill the request at a requested rendezvous location, and dispatches the appropriate mobile charging vehicle when the requested charging operation can be performed.), the determination device (See above.) comprising: a storage unit configured to store a plurality of pieces of charging result information (¶ 0050, 0052, 0056, 0080. Goei teaches a database that stores charging-session, usage, transaction, charging-time, and incident information for multiple charging operations.); a communication unit configured to communicate with a user terminal carried by the user and receive the request from the user (¶ 0044, 0059, 0060, 0064. Goei teaches a communications interface that communicates through a wireless network with a driver’s mobile application running on a smartphone or other user carried smart device and receives the driver’s charging service request.); and a control unit configured to search (¶ 0040, 0044, 0050. Goei teaches a controller that uses location information in the driver’s request to search for compatible and available charging resources and determines whether the requested charging operation can be fulfilled at a rendezvous location.).
Geoi does not expressly teach: a storage unit storing a plurality of historical charging result records, each associating a charging place identified in a prior request with information indicating whether charging occurred at that place, and a control unit that searches those historical records using the location in a new request, acquires the historical charging occurrence information for that location, and determines current charging possibility based on the acquired historical information.
Sera relates to a vehicle charging facility information acquisition system that acquires and stores information pertaining to a vehicle charging facility when a vehicle uses the vehicle charging facility (¶ 0003). Sera teaches storing multiple historical charging records that associate information identifying a charging place, such as latitude, longitude, or address, with information positively indicating a vehicle was charged at that place (¶ 0007, 0030, 0034, 0035). Sera teaches maintaining location indexed charging histories in which repeated charging events at the same geographic location are identified and handled as charging records for the same charging place (¶ 0040). Sera teaches searching a database of historical charging records using charging place position information and retrieving or identifying prior charging records associated with the same charging location (¶ 0047, 0057). Sera teaches using accumulated charging records associated with a location to determine whether charging is available or accessible at that location, thereby teaching a charging possibility determination based on acquired historical charging information (¶ 0048, 0051, 0066, 0069).
It would have been obvious to a PHOSITA to modify Goei’s existing mobile charging dispatch platform to apply Sera’s known location-indexed charging history and availability determination techniques. The PHOSITA would have been motivated to apply Sera’s techniques to Goei’s device to improve the accuracy of charging service determinations, make productive use of charging session and incident records that Goei already stores, identify locations where charging has previously been successfully performed, reduce the risk of dispatching a mobile charging vehicle to an unsuitable or unavailable location, or improve Goei’s mobile platform selection and dispatch decisions.
As to claim 5, the determination device according to claim 1, wherein: the charging result information includes information on a time and a day of a week when charging was attempted in response to the request received in the past; and the control unit is configured to make determination on the possibility of charging at the charging place in consideration of the information on the time and the day of the week (Sera: ¶ 0035, 0036, 0062, 0078, Goei: ¶ 0040, 0050. Goei teaches determining whether a current mobile charging request can be fulfilled in consideration of availability and times of operation. Sera teaches generating days of operation and hours of operation information from the distribution of times of historical charging events, including determing charging activity according to particular days of the week. It would have been obvious to use Sera’s empirically derived historical time/day availability information as Goei’s time of operation information when evaluating a new charging request.).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 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.
Claims 2-4 would be allowable because the prior art of record does not teach or suggest a determination device having all the combinations of elements and functionality as recited in and required by claims 2 and 4. Claim 3 depends from claim 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Examiner SURESH MEMULA whose telephone number is (571)272-8046, and any inquiry for a formal Applicant initiated interview must be requested via a PTOL-413A form and faxed to the Examiner's personal fax phone number: (571) 273-8046. Furthermore, Applicant is invited to contact the Examiner via email (suresh.memula@uspto.gov) on the condition the communication is pursuant to and in accordance with MPEP §502.03 and §713.01. The Examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday: 9am-6pm. If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Jack Chiang, can be reached on 571-272-7483. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned (i.e., central fax phone number) is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SURESH MEMULA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2851
Prosecution Insights