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 . The instant application with Application Number 18/514,537 filed on 11/20/2023 is presented for examination. Claims 1-5 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statements dated 11/20/2023 and 01/26/2026 are acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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 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 present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ichikawa (US 2009/0039831) in view of Hozumi et al. (US 2012/0233850).
With respect to claims 1 and 5, Ichikawa discloses an electrically powered vehicle (Fig. 1) comprising: an accessory device capable of communicating with an external device (Fig. 1, 62); a power converter that operates a motor (Fig. 1, 14, 24/28, and motor 30); a first relay and a second relay (Para. # 0063: converters 14 and 24 are controlled according to a switching instruction from ECU 50); a control device that controls operation of the first relay and the second relay (Fig. 1, 50-ECU); a first battery that supplies electric power to the accessory device when the first relay is in ON state (Fig. 1, 10); and a second battery that supplies electric power to the power converter when the second relay is in ON state (Fig. 1, second battery 20 and controller ECU with the switching operation-ON-OFF).
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Ichikawa, does not expressly disclose a relay, but a general switch and wherein when the second relay is in ON state and the electrically powered vehicle receives a battery replacement instruction to replace the second battery with a charged battery.
Hozumi on the other hand, discloses wherein when a relay/switch is in ON state and the electrically powered vehicle receives a battery replacement instruction to replace the second battery with a charged battery (Para. # 036: When receiving a battery replacement request signal, the controller 38 sequentially executes control for lifting the lifting-lowering means 15, control for projecting the cylinder 17, control for unlocking the locking devices 45, control for retracting the cylinder 17, and control for lowering the lifting-lowering means 15. Accordingly, a battery unit 42 that needs charging is detached from the battery support portion 43, and is moved to a position close to the transporting means 16. When a new battery unit 42 that has been charged is placed on the battery mount portion 13, the controller 38 sequentially executes control for lifting the lifting-lowering means 15, control for projecting the cylinder 17, control for locking the locking devices 45, control for retracting the cylinder 17, and control for lowering the lifting-lowering means 15).
ICHIKAWA and Hozumi are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely Electrically powered vehicle and vehicle battery replacing apparatus.
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have added a relay switch and controller instruction for battery replacement instruction to replace the second battery to electrically powered vehicle of Ichikawa in view of Hozumi for the benefit of replace energy in minutes, eliminating the hours-long waits associated with fast charging, and the vehicle can be driven away immediately after a swap, making it ideal for urban driving, public transport, and commercial fleets.
With respect to claim 2, the combined references of Ichikawa and Homuzi disclose the electrically powered vehicle as described above, further Homuzi discloses comprising a manipulation device, wherein when the manipulation device is manipulated after the second battery is replaced with the charged battery, the control device controls the second relay into ON state (Para. # 0065: when the electric vehicle 41 is stopped at a position displaced from the predetermined position, an instruction for redoing
the stopping operation may be issued).
With respect to claim 3, the combined references of Ichikawa and Homuzi disclose the electrically powered vehicle as described above, further Homuzi discloses wherein based on a fact that the accessory device receives a predetermined notification from the external device after the second battery is replaced with the charged battery, the control device controls the second relay into ON state (Para. # 0036: the controller 38 sequentially executes control for lifting the lifting-lowering means 15, control for projecting the cylinder 17, control for locking the locking devices 45).
With respect to claim 4, the combined references of Ichikawa and Homuzi disclose the electrically powered vehicle as described above, further Homuzi discloses wherein when the electrically powered vehicle receives the battery replacement instruction, the control device controls only the second relay, out of the first relay and the second relay, in to OFF state, on a condition that a charge amount of the first battery is more than or equal to a predetermined value (Para. # 0053: The displacement detecting means detects a displacement of the battery unit 42 that has been detached from the battery support portion 43 and moved onto the battery platform 25, with respect to a reference position of the battery unit 42).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YALKEW FANTU whose telephone number is (571)272-8928. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DREW A 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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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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