DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-9 are pending.
The foreign priority application No.10-2018-0048313 filed on April 26, 2018 in the Republic of Korea has been received in the parent application No.16/155,007 and it is acknowledged.
The examiner would like to make of record that the limitation regarding the range “about 0 to 40%” in the independent claims 1 and 6 is not taught or shown in the parent application No.16/155,007.
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 1-9 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.
The independent claims 1 and 6 recite the limitation “about 0 to 40%”.
The term “about” in claims 1 and 6 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “about” 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.
The independent claim 1 recites the limitation “APC angle being modified so as to increase by about 0 to 40%”, and the independent claim 6 recites the limitation “the controller modifies an air pressure controller (APC) angle of the air supply valve so as to increase or decrease by about 0 to 40%”.
However, an increase or a decrease of 0% does not constitute a modification.
Therefore, it is not clear what the joint inventor is claiming as the invention in claims 1 and 6 of the instant application.
Claims 2-5 are rejected as being dependent on the rejected claim 1 and claims 7-9 are rejected as being dependent on the rejected claim 6.
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.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (US 2019/0334187).
With regard to claim 1, Lee et al. teach an air supply control method of a fuel cell that controls an amount of air supplied to the fuel cell according to an output of power required to be generated by the fuel cell when less than a certain level of output of power generation from the fuel cell is required, the method comprising: monitoring, by a controller, a charging level of a power storage device that stores power output from the fuel cell; modifying, by the controller, the amount of air supplied to the fuel cell on the basis of the monitored charging level of the power storage device; and controlling, by the controller, an air supply system that supplies air to the fuel cell on the basis of the modified amount of air supplied (claim 1), wherein monitoring the charging level of the power storage device includes monitoring a variation in the charging level of the power storage device per time (claim 3), wherein modifying the amount of air supplied includes modifying the amount of air supplied when a difference between a previous value of the variation in the charging level of the power storage device per time and a current value of the variation in the charging level of the power storage device per time is greater than a preset value (claim 4), wherein modifying the amount of air supplied includes modifying an air pressure controller (APC) angle of an air supply valve formed in an air supply line for supplying air to the fuel cell (claim 7), the APC angle being modified so as to increase or decrease by a certain percentage(par.0063), and wherein controlling the air supply system includes controlling the air supply value according to the modified APC angle of the air supply valve while an air blower for supplying air to the fuel cell is driven at a constant rotation speed (par.0044), and wherein a time to monitor the variation in the charging level of the power storage device is reset after controlling the air supply system (par.0066).
Lee et al. further teach that the certain percentage of modification of APC angle is shown in fig.2 and 3 (par.0063). Fig.3 shows a modification of 0 and greater than 0, which is within the claimed range of about 0 to 40%.
With regard to claim 2, Lee et al. that the method further comprises controlling the amount of air supplied to the fuel cell according to a map of the amount of air supplied to the fuel cell according to a preset output of power required to be generated by the fuel cell, before the monitoring of the charging level of the power storage device, wherein modifying the amount of air supplied includes modifying the map of the amount of air supplied to the fuel cell according to the preset output of power required to be generated by the fuel cell (claim 2).
With regard to claim 3, Lee et al. teach that the method further comprises modifying the amount of air supplied includes modifying the amount of air supplied to decrease when the charging level of the power storage device increases (claim 5).
With regard to claim 4, Lee et al. teach that the method further comprises modifying the amount of air supplied includes modifying the amount of air supplied to increase when the charging level of the power storage device decreases (claim 6).
With regard to claim 5, Lee et al. teach that the method further comprises determining whether the output of power required to be generated by the fuel cell is less than a preset output value before the monitoring of the charging level of the power storage device, wherein the charging level of the power storage device is monitored when the output of power required to be generated by the fuel cell is less than the preset output value (claim 8).
With regard to claim 6, Lee et al. teach an air supply control system of a fuel cell, the system comprising: a fuel cell that outputs power generated through a reaction of hydrogen and oxygen; an air supply system that supplies air to the fuel cell; a power storage device that stores the power output from the fuel cell; and a controller that controls an amount of air supplied to the fuel cell according to an output of power required to be generated by the fuel cell when less than a certain level of output of power generation from the fuel cell is required (claim 9, par.0048-0049), monitors a charging level of the power storage device, modifies the amount of air supplied to the fuel cell on the basis of the monitored charging level of the power storage device, and controls the air supply system on the basis of the modified amount of air supplied (claim 9), wherein in the monitoring of the charging level of the power storage device, the controller monitors a variation in the charging level of the power storage device per time (claim 10), wherein in the modifying of the amount of air supplied, the controller modifies the amount of air supplied when a difference between a previous value of the variation in the charging level of the power storage device per time and a current value of the variation in the charging level of the power storage device per time is greater than a preset value (claim 4), wherein the air supply system comprises an air supply valve formed in an air supply line for supplying air to the fuel cell, and the controller modifies an air pressure controller (APC) angle of the air supply valve (claim 12) so as to increase or decrease by a certain percentage on the basis of the monitored charging level of the power storage device (par.0063) and controls the air supply valve according to the modified APC angle of the air supply valve while an air blower for supplying air to the fuel cell is driven at a constant rotation speed (par.0044), and wherein a time to monitor the variation in the charging level of the power storage device is reset after the controller controls the air supply valve (par.0066).
Lee et al. further teach that the certain percentage of modification of APC angle is shown in fig.2 and 3 (par.0063). Fig.3 shows a modification of 0 and greater than 0, which is within the claimed range of about 0 to 40%.
With regard to claim 7, Lee et al. further teaches that the controller modifies the amount of air supplied to decrease when the variation in the charging level of the power storage device per time increases (claim 10).
With regard to claim 8, Lee et al. further teaches that the controller modifies the amount of air supplied to increase when the variation in the charging level of the power storage device per time decreases claim 11).
With regard to claim 9, Lee et al. further teaches that the controller determines whether the output of power required to be generated by the fuel cell is less than a preset output value, and monitors the charging level of the power storage device when the output of power required to be generated by the fuel cell is less than the preset output value (claim 13).
Conclusion
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/ANCA EOFF/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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