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
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.
Claims 1 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hozumi et al. (PGPub 2012/0233850 A1) in view of Di Pietrantonio et al. (PGPub 2018/0179037 A1).
Hozumi et al. teach a battery replacement apparatus for replacing a used first battery attached to a vehicle body of an electrically powered vehicle with a charged second battery, the battery replacement apparatus comprising: a battery replacement station (11, Fig. 1) including a floor (12) on which the electrically powered vehicle (41) can be stopped, and in which removal of the first battery (42) from the vehicle body and attachment of the second battery (42) to the vehicle body are performed (paragraph [0023]); and a battery mounting table (13, Fig. 1) on which the first battery and the second battery can be mounted, the battery mounting table being movable below the electrically powered vehicle in a vertical direction as shown in Fig. 1 (paragraph [0026]).
However, Hozumi et al. silent a raising and lowering unit movable below the electrically powered vehicle in the vertical direction independently of the battery mounting table, wherein the raising and lowering unit is movable between a raised position to which at least a part of the electrically powered vehicle has been moved upward from the floor. Di Pietrantonio et al. teach a battery replacement apparatus for replacing a used first battery attached to a vehicle body of an electrically powered vehicle including a raising and lowering unit (4-7, Fig. 3) movable below the electrically powered vehicle in the vertical direction as shown in Fig. 5, wherein the raising and lowering unit is movable between a raised position to which at least a part of the electrically powered vehicle has been moved upward from the floor as shown in Fig. 7 (paragraphs [0019]-[0024]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify a battery replacement apparatus for replacing a used first battery attached to a vehicle body of an electrically powered vehicle of Hozumi et al. by a raising and lowering unit movable below the electrically powered vehicle in the vertical direction as taught by Di Pietrantonio et al. so that the battery mounting table is optimized to move up to a desired position where the battery mounting table contacts a bottom surface of the first battery when the raising and lowering unit is located at the raised position.
Re. claim 4: Hozumi et al., modified by Di Pietrantonio et al., teach a battery replacement method for replacing a used first battery attached to a vehicle body of an electrically powered vehicle with a charged second battery, comprising steps of: a lifting step of lifting the electrically powered vehicle by a raising and lowering unit, such that at least a part of the electrically powered vehicle is moved upward from a floor, the raising and lowering unit being capable of moving below the electrically powered vehicle in a vertical direction (Figs. 3-7 in Di Pietrantonio et al.); a raising step of raising a battery mounting table, such that the battery mounting table contacts a bottom surface of the first battery in a state where the electrically powered vehicle is lifted by the raising and lowering unit, the battery mounting table being capable of moving in the vertical direction independently of the raising and lowering unit (Figs. 4A-4D); and a removing step of removing the first battery from the vehicle body in a state in which the battery mounting table contacts the bottom surface of the first battery as shown in Figs. 4A-4D(paragraphs [0038]-[0039]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 3 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAUL D KIM whose telephone number is (571)272-4565. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday: 6:00 AM-2:00 PM.
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/PAUL D KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3729
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