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 18/559,770 filed on 11/08/2023 is presented for examination. As per the preliminary amendments of 11/08/2023, claims 3-4, 6-8, 10-11 and 15 have been amended. Claims 1-15 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statements dated 11/08/2023 and 02/26/2025 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 § 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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential structural cooperative relationships of elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the necessary structural connections. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted structural cooperative relationships are: on line two and three “… at least one processor to execute computer program code” and “… at least one memory configured to store program code ….” It is not clear how these limitations related to a charging station for charging electric vehicles.
Claim 2 recites the limitation "An apparatus according to claim 1…” in line one. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claims 3-11and 14-15 have similar recitations that trigger insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Tremblay (US 2015/0149221).
With respect to claims 1, 12 and 15, Tremblay discloses an apparatus/method comprising: at least one processor configured to execute computer program code (Fig. 5, 140); at least one memory (Para. # 0039 and 0041) configured to store computer program code (Para. # 0120: the computer-readable instructions can include object code resulting from a software build. Execution of this object code causes the at least one computer to implement a variety of processes having properties described herein below); and at least one network interface configured to communicate with a charging station for
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charging electric vehicles (Fig. 5, 320/140; para. # 293: entering this information via a user interface of the charging unit 300, 320 that charges the vehicle 100. ) and two or more charging point management systems (Fig. 5, 300, 110), wherein the apparatus is further configured to relay messages from the charging station to the two or more charging point management systems and responses thereto in accordance with a predetermined relay scheme (Para. # 169/180).
With respect to claims 2 and 14, Tremblay discloses the apparatus as described above, further discloses wherein the at least one memory comprises a whitelist configured to allow relaying messages to one or more of the charging point management systems (Para. # 210: before committing to charging an electric vehicle that has been identified as requiring a charge, a text or email message could be sent to the user. The text or email message may ask the user to confirm that the vehicle).
With respect to claims 3 and 14, Tremblay discloses the apparatus/method as described above, further discloses wherein the at least one memory comprises a blacklist configured to prevent relaying of messages to one or more of the charging point management systems (Para. # 161: The charging command may identify the vehicle(s) to be charged. Optionally, the charging command may also identify a time at which charging is to occur and/or an amount of charge to be supplied, to allow optimized management of charge resources. In the case where multiple vehicles are to be charged in a relatively short period of time, the condition verification process 430 may also determine the order in which vehicles should be charged).
With respect to claim 4, Tremblay discloses the apparatus as described above, further discloses wherein the at least one memory comprises a routing table for at least a position of the message types (Para. # 120, 298: The booking system 1900 may include a processor and a memory, wherein the processor executes computer-readable instructions stored in the memory for implementing a booking process).
With respect to claim 5, Tremblay discloses the apparatus as described above, further discloses, wherein the routing table comprises at least one message type associated with one or more target charging point management systems and one reply from, wherein the apparatus is configured to relay messages received according to the reply from association to the charging station (Para. # 0064: the CSOC 150 may send a message (e.g., email, SMS, voice mail) in order to advise the user of the status of a charging event that has been initiated. For instance, messages may be generated once it has been decided to charge an electric vehicle, once charging of the vehicle has begun, once charging has been completed).
With respect to claim 6, Tremblay discloses the apparatus as described above, further discloses wherein the at least one memory comprises at least one message specific association, wherein the association determines a primary charging point management system for a message type (Para. # 0017: The charging service apparatus comprises: a memory for storing at least one charging rule; an input for receiving at least one parameter value; a processor configured to apply the at least one charging rule to the at least one parameter value in order to determine that at least one electric vehicle is to be charged).
With respect to claims 7 and 11, Tremblay discloses the apparatus as described above, further discloses wherein the apparatus is configured to appear as a charging station to the charging point management systems and as a charging point management system to the charging station (Para. # 0027: the electric vehicle (e.g., via a network or a device proximate to the electric vehicle) to enable access to a charging system of the electric vehicle (e.g., unlock a charge port of the electric vehicle, activate a charging circuit of the electric vehicle, etc.) in order to charge the electric vehicle).
With respect to claim 8, Tremblay discloses the apparatus as described above, further discloses a system comprising a charging point management system and the apparatus according to claim 1 (Fig. 5, charging operation center 150).
With respect to claim 9, Tremblay discloses the apparatus as described above, further discloses wherein the system further comprises the charging station (Figs. 5, 8-entermediate 285; charging station 320).
With respect to claim 10, Tremblay discloses the apparatus as described above, further discloses wherein the system comprises at least one secondary charging point management system (Fig. 5, see also Fig. 11, 400/1110, charger provider with a command.
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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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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