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 .
Receipt is acknowledged of the response filed on September 10, 2026, which has been entered in the file.
Claim Objections
Claims 4 and 5 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 4 recites the limitation "the second control" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 5 recites the limitation "the first control" in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 7, and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Inoue et al. (US 2022/0376507, of the record).
Re claim 1: Inoue teaches a storage battery control device (100) comprising processing circuitry (120) configured to perform control or select (S102) when the processing circuitry detects that a charging/discharging criterion for responding to a demand response (DR) request is not satisfied after one or more storage batteries have been determined as a control object of charging/discharging for responding to the DR request (i.e., the control target of the secondary batteries (A_1 to A_(K-1)) have an insufficient charging target amount P, paragraphs 0062)), wherein the control (120) utilizes a storage battery (A-K) with a surplus charging/discharging capacity after responding to the DR request out of the storage batteries which are the control object (i.e., the secondary battery selection unit (120) keep selecting secondary battery (A-K) until the sum of target power P is reached, paragraph 0062) (see figs 1-4; paragraphs 0060-0074).
Re claim 7: Wherein the processing circuitry determines whether the criterion is satisfied through the first control and performs control based on a result of determination (S104, paragraph 0053).
Re claim 10: Wherein the processing circuitry selects a storage battery satisfying the criterion out of all the storage batteries responding to the DR request through at least one of the first control (paragraphs 0068-0070).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, 11, and 12 are allowed.
Claims 4-6, 8, and 9 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
None of prior art teaches the second control utilizes a storage battery with a surplus charging/discharging capacity after responding to the DR request out of the storage batteries which are the control object in a period in which utilization of the storage battery is not scheduled in a period in which the DR request is responded to, and the processing circuitry performs the second control with higher priority to the first control as set forth in the claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed September 10, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The applicant contended that “Inoue clearly fails to disclose anything that clearly corresponds specifically to “a storage battery with surplus charging/discharging capacity after responding to the RD request out of the storage batteries which are the control object”” (see page 8, 4th paragraph), the examiner respectfully disagrees with the applicant wherein the secondary battery (A_K) can be considered as a storage battery with a surplus charging capacity after responding to the charging request when the charging capacities of second batteries (A1-A_(K-1)) is not satisfied to charge the request amount P as discussed above.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SEUNG H LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-2401. The examiner can normally be reached 7-4:00PM.
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/SEUNG H LEE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
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