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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 5, filed 07/27/2026, with respect to 35 USC 112 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claims 18, 20-21 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see page 6, filed 07/27/2026, with respect to 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claims 11, 14-15, 17-18, 20-21 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 16 and 13 have been considered but are moot because a new ground of rejection is made in view of newly discovered NPL reference, that better address the subject matter at issue. “One Key Charging Service from Nio”, Xchuxing.com, published on July 12th, 2018. (https://www.xchuxing.com/article/17964, last access on July 28, 2026). Applicant is encouraged to use the link provided to directly access the article, and use Google Translate or any other translate service to translate this article into English.
Applicant argued the prior art references in combination do not teach “prior to the vehicle battery being emptied, a mobile electric charging station or a towing service is called to a current or future location of a vehicle comprising the vehicle battery”.
Regarding the limitation “prior to the vehicle battery being emptied”, this is quite broad. It could be anywhere between a vehicle battery having a 1% charge or less, to more than 1 % charge (e.g. 10% or 20%). The claim does not give a threshold.
In addition, this limitation is in the field of vehicle dispatch service (as part of roadside assistance or SOS calling services for vehicles). The claim appears to show this method is performed by a mobile phone for an electric vehicle. The claim does not say calling the mobile electric charging station is automated, in other words, calling could be performed by a human user through the mobile device.
Upon further search, it appears NIO in China offered a similar service in July 2018. This is an APP based service, where user can call an electric mobile charging van by the click of a button. There is a map function that shows the location of the vehicle and the arrive time of the electric mobile charging van. This is the closest prior art and the closest teaching to the claimed subject matter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11, 14-15, 17-18, 20-21 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: see Applicant’s arguments pages 7-8.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Regarding claims 16 and 13, Examiner recommends cancelling these 2 claims to place the application to issue. Applicant could pursue the subject matter of claims 16 and 13 in a continuing application. Because the subject matter of claim 16, as discusses above, is really different and separate from independent claims 11 and 18.
Response to Amendment
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 16 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Su, US 2018/0070282 in view of Ortiz, US 2022/0122213., and further in view of “One Key Charging Service from Nio”, Xchuxing.com, published on July 12th, 2018. (https://www.xchuxing.com/article/17964, last access on July 28, 2026). Applicant
Regarding claim 16, A method, comprising: communicating, by a mobile device, with a mobile network base station ; (SU, Fig. 5, step 502, paragraph 67, teach a wireless device (i.e. UE) camping on a serving cell provided by a cellular base station (i.e. mobile network base station).);
determining whether to activate coverage enhancement mode (SU, Fig. 5, step 504, paragraph 69, teach determining whether to activate coverable enhancement (CE) mode.) depending on an available quantity of electrical energy of the battery, a critical temperature of the vehicle telecommunications unit, a critical temperature of a component of the vehicle telecommunications unit or an ambient temperature around the vehicle telecommunications unit (SU, paragraphs 8-9, teach dynamic switching of coverage modes and/or bandwidths based on battery power levels, charging status, upcoming data volumes, battery reserve level scenarios.);
and switching to and communicating using the coverage enhancement mode responsive to determining to activate the coverage enhancement mode, , (SU, Fig. 5, steps 506, 508, paragraphs 71-73, teach switching to and communicating the CE mode responsive to determining to activate the CE mode.)
wherein at least one subset of information is exchanged between the mobile device and the mobile network base station using coverage enhancement of the coverage enhancement. (SU, Fig. 5, steps 506, 508, paragraphs 71-73, teach triggering the serving cell to provide coverage according the CE mode (i.e. exchanging a subset of information using coverage enhancement).)
Su does no teach wherein the electrical energy used to operate the mobile device is drawn from a vehicle battery and wherein, prior to the vehicle battery being emptied, a mobile electric charging station or a towing service is called to a current or future location of a vehicle comprising the vehicle battery.
However, Ortiz teaches wherein the electrical energy used to operate the mobile device is drawn from a vehicle battery (There is support for this limitation in the original disclosure in paragraphs 13 and 15. rejection, nonetheless this limitation means a mobile phone is charging by connect to a vehicle through USB cable or wirelessly, this is a common feature in cars before the effective filing date of current application), and
Su and Ortiz do not teach wherein, prior to the vehicle battery being emptied, a mobile electric charging station or a towing service is called to a current or future location of a vehicle comprising the vehicle battery.
However, Xchuxing article from 2018 appear to teach this. Xchuxing teaches a mobile device that can perform the following
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prior to the vehicle battery being emptied, (this limitation as discussed above, means anywhere from 0.5% percent, or 5% or 15 % or 50%.) a mobile electric charging station or a towing service
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(NIO Power Van pictured here is a mobile electric charging station) is called to a current or future location of a vehicle
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(the map picture herein appear to show the location of the vehicle in Beijing China, and estimated arrival time of the mobile charging vehicle among other information) a vehicle comprising the vehicle battery.
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(NIO EV in the picture here is a vehicle comprising the vehicle battery)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing of the current application to apply the teaching of Su – coverage enhancement to further benefit electric vehicles charging. Since roadside assistance or SOS calling is widely available, this simply combines the roadside assistance with coverage enhancement of mobile terminals.
Regarding claim 13, SU in view of Ortiz teaches the method of claim 16. Su teaces the coverage enhancement mode is activated when … (Su, Fig. 5, Step 508, triggering step means coverage enhancement could be triggered based on a condition), where one of the conditions could be: the vehicle battery falls short of a critical state of charge. (ORTIZ, paragraph 26-27 teaches disable EV in the context of out of battery, in other word falls short of a critical state of charge)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Charles C Jiang whose telephone number is (571)270-7191. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Thursday 7 am to 5 pm Eastern Time.
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, TC Group director, Deborah Reynolds can be reached at (571) 272-0734. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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