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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 25 November 2023 and 23 May 2024 were filed on and after the mailing date of this present application. These submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 5 and 11 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 5, line 2, “according to any one of”, should be --according to--.
Claim 11, line 2, “according to any one of”, should be --according to--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) 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.
Regarding Claims 1, 2, and 8, the limitation “a position estimation device that estimates a positional relationship between the power transmission devices and the power reception coil on the basis of the strength of the AC signal that has propagated from the power reception coil to each of the power transmission devices” is unclear. This limitation is unclear because the claim has not described the relationship between the position estimation device and the rest of the system so it is not clear how the position estimation device estimates the positional relationship. This limitation is also unclear because “a plurality of power transmission devices” is previously recited, so it is not clear if “the power transmission devices” and “a plurality of power transmission devices” are the same or different power transmission devices.
Regarding Claims 3-4, 7, 9-10, and 12, the recited limitation “the power transmission devices” is unclear. This limitation is unclear because “a plurality of power transmission devices” is previously recited in Claims 1 and 2, from which these claims depend from, so it is not clear if “the power transmission devices” and “a plurality of power transmission devices” are the same or different power transmission devices.
Regarding Claims 5, 6, and 11, the recited limitation “a frequency” is unclear. This limitation is unclear because “a frequency” is previously recited Claims 1 and 2, from which these claims depend from, so it is now clear if this is the same or different frequency.
Regarding Claims 3-7, they depend from Claim 1 and are also rejected for the reasons stated above.
Regarding Claims 9-12, they depend from Claim 2 and are also rejected for the reasons stated above.
Claims 1-4, 6, and 8-10 recites the following limitations:
Claim 1, line 14, “the strength”;
Claim 2, line 14, “the strength”;
Claim 3, line 6, “the AC powers”;
Claim 3, line 6, “the AC signals”;
Claim 4, line 5, “the vicinities”;
Claim 4, line 6, “the AC signals”;
Claim 6, line 6, “the diodes”;
Claim 6, line 7, “the diode”;
Claim 8, line 16, “the strength”;
Claim 8, line 19, “the power”;
Claim 9, line 6, “the AC powers”;
Claim 9, line 6, “the AC signals”;
Claim 10, line 5, “the vicinities”; and
Claim 10, line 6, “the AC signals”.
There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claims.
Regarding Claims 3-7, they depend from Claim 1 and are also rejected for the reasons stated above.
Regarding Claims 9-12, they depend from Claim 2 and are also rejected for the reasons stated above.
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 (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 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 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salvekar et al. US 2019/0238000, in view of Kim et al. US 20230336032.
Regarding Claims 1, 2, and 8, Salvekar teaches a wireless power feeding method using a wireless power feeding system (figs. 1-5) that transmits power using a magnetic field resonance method and comprises:
a plurality of power transmission devices (power transmitting circuitry 52, figs. 1-5) respectively including power transmission coils (coils 42, figs. 2-5),
a power reception device (Power receiving circuitry 54, figs. 1-5) including a power reception coil (48, figs. 3-5) that receives AC power having a first frequency (wireless power transmitting circuitry coupled to the plurality of coils and configured to transmit wireless power signals at a first frequency with the plurality of coil, refer to Claim 21) from each of the power transmission coils and a transmission circuit that outputs an AC signal having a second frequency (wireless transceiver circuitry coupled to the plurality of coils that is configured to receive a data carrier wave from the wireless power receiving coil while the plurality of coils is transmitting the wireless power signals at the first frequency, wherein the data carrier wave has a second frequency that is different than the first frequency, refer to Claim 21) as a frequency different from the first frequency and transmits the AC signal from the power reception coil,
a controller (control circuitry 16, fig. 1) that controls power to be fed to the plurality of power transmission devices.
Salvekar is silent regarding a position estimation device that estimates a positional relationship between the power transmission devices and the power reception coil on the basis of the strength of the AC signal that has propagated from the power reception coil to each of the power transmission devices, and wherein the controller feeds the power to at least one of the plurality of power transmission devices depending on the positional relationship between the power transmission devices and the power reception coil, which has been estimated by the position estimation device.
Kim teaches a position estimation device that estimates a positional relationship between the power transmission devices and the power reception coil on the basis of the strength of the AC signal that has propagated from the power reception coil to each of the power transmission devices, wherein the controller feeds the power to at least one of the plurality of power transmission devices depending on the positional relationship between the power transmission devices and the power reception coil, which has been estimated by the position estimation device (For example, when the wireless power receiving device is disposed on the first transmission coil 223_1 of the first to n-th transmission coils 223_1 to 223_n, the control unit 230 may turn on the first switch 221_1 connected to the first transmission coil 223_1 so that the output power of the inverter 213 is transmitted to the first transmission coil 223_1 through the first switch 221_1. The transmission power may be transmitted to the wireless power receiving device through the first transmission coil 223_1. For example, when the wireless power receiving device is disposed between the first transmission coil 223_1 and the second transmission coil 223_2 among the first to n-th transmission coils 223_1 to 223_n, the control unit 230 may turn on the first and second switches 221_1 and 221_2, which are respectively connected to the first and second transmission coils 223_1 and 223_2 so that the output power of the inverter 213 is transmitted to the first and second transmission coil 223_1 and 223_2 through the first and second switches 221_1 and 221_2. …the control unit 230 may acquire the position of the wireless power receiving device based on the signal strength indicator contained in the response signal from the transmission coil receiving the response signal among the plurality of transmission coils 223_1 to 223_n and may control the transmission coils 223_1 to 223_n so that the transmission power is transmitted through at least one transmission coil among the plurality of transmission coils 223_1 to 223_n according to the obtained arrangement position of the wireless power receiver, refer to [0093], [0094], and [0096]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the arrangement as taught by Kim with the wireless power feeding method of Salvekar in order to provide improved control of power transmitted to wirelessly powered devices.
Regarding Claims 3 and 9, the combination of Salvekar and Kim teaches all of the limitations of Claims 1 and 2 above and further teaches wherein: the position estimation device includes, a plurality of filter circuits that are respectively connected to correspond to the power transmission coils and respectively interrupt the AC powers and pass the AC signals received by the power transmission coils, and a position estimation unit that estimates the power transmission device closest to the power reception coil on the basis of the strength of the AC signal that has passed through each of the plurality of filter circuits (refer to [0037] of Salvekar).
Regarding Claims 4 and 10, the combination of Salvekar and Kim teaches all of the limitations of Claims 1 and 2 above and further teaches wherein: the position estimation device includes, a plurality of antenna coils that are respectively provided to correspond to the vicinities of the power transmission coils and respectively receive the AC signals, and a position estimation unit that estimates the power transmission device closest to the power reception coil on the basis of the strength of the AC signal received by each of the plurality of antenna coils(refer to [0071], [0089], and [0126] of Kim).
Regarding Claims 5 and 11, the combination of Salvekar and Kim teaches all of the limitations of Claims 1 and 2 above and further teaches wherein: the power reception device further includes a rectifying circuit that is provided between the power reception coil and a load to be fed with the AC power and can be driven in a predetermined frequency band, and the second frequency is set to a frequency exceeding the predetermined frequency band or a frequency at which rectification efficiency of the rectifying circuit is a predetermined ratio or less (50, figs. 1-5 of Salvekar).
Regarding Claim 6, the combination of Salvekar and Kim teaches all of the limitations of Claims 5 above and further teaches wherein the rectifying circuit is a diode bridge circuit having a plurality of diodes, and the second frequency is set to a frequency exceeding a response frequency of each of the diodes or a frequency at which an output of the diode is lower than a predetermined threshold value of a DC characteristic (50, figs. 1-5 and [0017] of Salvekar).
Regarding Claims 7 and 12, the combination of Salvekar and Kim teaches all of the limitations of Claims 1 and 2 above and further teaches comprising: a controller that controls power to be fed to the plurality of power transmission devices, wherein the controller feeds the power to at least one of the plurality of power transmission devices depending on the positional relationship between the power transmission devices and the power reception device, which has been estimated by the position estimation device (16, fig. 1 of Salvekar and 230, fig. 2 of Kim).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN K BAXTER whose telephone number is (571)270-0258. The examiner can normally be reached 10-7:00 PM Monday-Thursday.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rexford N Barnie can be reached at 571-272-7492. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/BRIAN K BAXTER/Examiner, Art Unit 2836
29 December 2025
/DANIEL CAVALLARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836