DETAILED ACTION
This Final Office Action is in response to the amended claims filed on 2/27/2026.
Claims 1-19 are currently pending.
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 .
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Laskaris (US 8,162,619).
As to claim 1 Laskaris discloses a method relating to controlling an output of a machine including an engine (figure 1 #14) by using a controller (figure 1 #30) in an operational maintain/manual control mode in which a discrete throttle up switch and a discrete throttle down switch of the controller are usable by a user to set and/or adjust a maintain setting for the output of the machine as a target output value instead of directly changing an operating speed of the engine and without requiring the user to know how the output of the machine correlates with the operating speed of the engine (column 5 lines 15-30), the method comprising:
receiving, at the controller, press or press-and-hold events from the throttle up switch and the throttle down switch indicating incremental increases or decreases to the maintain setting for the output; (In operation, a user sets the desired discharge pressure Pd on the user interface 30 of the pressure governor 26., column 5 lines 15-20)
closed-loop automatically controlling, by the controller, the operating speed of the engine based on feedback from at least one transducer indicative of the output to achieve and maintain the output of the machine at the maintain setting despite load variations; (figure 3) and
using a stored calibration or map correlating engine speed to the output to convert the maintain setting into engine speed commands while the throttle up switch and the throttle down switch remain mapped to output adjustment rather than direct RPM control. (the map shown as figure 3 it sends a message to the engine in order to keep the pressure correct)
As to claim 2 Laskaris discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the output of the machine is flowrate, and wherein the method includes:
receiving flow-rate feedback from a flow transducer (pressure sensor #24); and
automatically adjusting the operating speed of the engine based on the flow-rate feedback to achieve and maintain the flow rate at the increased or decreased maintain setting.(figure 3)
As to claim 3 Laskaris discloses the method of claim 1, wherein:
the output of the machine is fluid flow or discharge pressure (the machine is a pump monitoring the fluid pressure); and the method includes:
receiving fluid-flow or pressure feedback from at least one transducer (sensor #24); and
automatically controlling the engine speed using the transducer feedback to maintain the fluid flow or discharge pressure at the maintain setting (figure 3).
As to claim 4 Laskaris discloses the method of claim 1, wherein:
the machine comprises a pump (figure 2 #12);
the output of the machine is flow rate of the pump (column 1 lines 10-15 discloses the output is various rates and steady pressure); and
the method includes:
increasing the flow rate of the pump when the throttle up switch is pressed to thereby cause the controller to automatically control the operating speed of the engine to achieve and maintain the flow rate of the pump at the increased level; (figure 3) and
decreasing the flow rate of the pump when the throttle down switch is pressed to thereby cause the controller to automatically control the operating speed of the engine to achieve and maintain the flow rate of the pump at the decreased level (figure 3).
As to claim 5 Laskaris discloses a control panel (figure 2 #30) for an engine (figure 2 #14) of a machine (figure 2 #12) having an output (figure 2 #18), the control panel comprises a discrete throttle up switch and a discrete throttle down switch (column 5 lines 15-20), wherein the control panel is configurable into an operational maintain/manual control mode in which the throttle up switch and the throttle down switch of the control panel are remapped from direct engine-speed control to adjustment of a stored maintain setting representing a target value of the machine output, (the pump is a PTO pump on the Main Engine of a firetruck ( column 3 lines 30-45) those are normally switched from the main mapping for direct RPM control to the mapping for pumping as disclosed within this application) and press or press-and-hold events from the discrete throttle up and throttle down switches are interpreted as incremental increases or decreases to the maintain setting, and wherein the control panel is further operable for:
automatically controlling the operating speed of the engine in a closed-loop manner based on feedback from at least one transducer (sensor #14) indicative of the machine output (pressure) to achieve and/or maintain the machine output at the maintain setting (figure 3); and
using a stored calibration or map correlating engine speed to the machine output to convert the maintain setting into engine-speed commands (map shown in figure 3).
As to claim 6 Laskaris discloses the control panel of claim 5, wherein the control panel is configurable into the operational maintain/manual control mode such that the control panel is operable for:
increasing the maintain setting for the output of the machine when the throttle up switch is pressed, and automatically increasing the operating speed of the engine to increase the output of the machine to the increased maintain setting; and
decreasing the maintain setting for the output of the machine when the throttle down switch is pressed, and automatically decreasing the operating speed of the engine to decrease the output of the machine to the decreased maintain setting.
( In operation, a user sets the desired discharge pressure Pd on the user interface 30 of the pressure governor 26., column 5 lines 15-20)
As to claim 7 Laskaris discloses the control panel of claim 5, wherein:
the output of the machine is fluid flow or discharge pressure ( In operation, a user sets the desired discharge pressure Pd on the user interface 30 of the pressure governor 26., column 5 lines 15-20)
; and
the control panel is configurable into the operational maintain/manual control mode such that the control panel is operable for:
setting and/or adjusting the maintain setting for the fluid flow or discharge pressure when at least one of the throttle up switch and the throttle down switch is pressed; and ( In operation, a user sets the desired discharge pressure Pd on the user interface 30 of the pressure governor 26., column 5 lines 15-20)
automatically controlling the operating speed of the engine to achieve and/or maintain the fluid flow or discharge pressure at the maintain setting. ( In operation, a user sets the desired discharge pressure Pd on the user interface 30 of the pressure governor 26., column 5 lines 15-20)
As to claim 8 Laskaris discloses the control panel of claim 5, wherein:
the machine comprises a pump (figure 2 #12);
the output of the machine is flow rate of the pump (column 1 lines 10-15) (It is vital to control the discharge pressure of an engine-driven fire pump mounted on or in a fire truck. The pump must supply water at various rates and steady pressure so that firemen operating the hoses at a fire scene can control the reaction force generated by their hose nozzles. ); and
the control panel is configurable into the operational maintain/manual control mode such that the control panel is operable for:
increasing the flow rate of the pump when the throttle up switch is pressed by automatically controlling the operating speed of the engine to achieve and maintain the flow rate of the pump at the increased level; and (figure 3)
decreasing the flow rate of the pump when the throttle down switch is pressed by automatically controlling the operating speed of the engine to achieve and maintain the flow rate of the pump at the decreased level. (figure 3)
Claim(s) 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Yu et al. (US 7,377,103).
As to claim 9 Yu discloses a control panel (12) for an engine (10), the control panel comprising a discrete throttle up switch (80), wherein the control panel is configured to be operable for:
in response to a press-and-hold of the throttle up switch (80), rapidly increasing throttling of the engine from a first operating speed in revolutions per minute (RPM) using throttle increments that are selected from a lookup table as a function of current RPM to a second operating speed equal to a stored user-defined Run RPM within or near a sweet spot of the engine (column 2 lines 1-20 and figure 2, which shows the transition from #201 to #203);
automatically pausing the throttling when the engine reaches the stored Run RPM without requiring release of the throttle up switch (it only requires the pushing/closing if the switch and not the release); and
after the pause, restoring normal throttling of the engine when the throttle up switch has been released, whereby the normal throttling includes increasing operating speed of the engine by a configured fixed throttling increment per discrete press-and-release of the throttle up switch (upon release of the switch the system is ready to engage the PTO and control the system by the PTO);
wherein the control panel is configured to allow coarse throttle adjustments via larger table increments when outside the sweet spot and fine adjustments via smaller table increments when inside the sweet spot (shown in figure 2).
As to claim 10 Yu discloses the control panel of claim 9, wherein the control panel includes a user interface configured to be operable for allowing a user to set or define the second operating speed within or near the known sweet spot or optimum performance range of the engine by using the user interface. (column 2 lines 1-20)
As to claim 11 Yu discloses the control panel of claim 9, wherein the control panel is configured to be operable for rapidly increasing throttling of the engine from the first operating speed to the second operating speed by large throttle increments of at least 10 RPM, 25 RPM, or more than 25 RPM. (figure 2 discloses the increase by 500 RPM going from the first operating speed to the second operating speed)
As to claim 12 Yu discloses the control panel of claim 9, wherein the control panel is configured to be operable for increasing operating speed of the engine by 10 RPM for each press and release of the throttle up switch during normal throttling. (During normal throttling the pedal 35 can increase engine speed by 10 RPM)
Claim(s) 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Davis (US 9,718,358).
As to claim 14 Davis discloses a computer-implemented method for enabling dynamic throttling of an engine, the method comprising:
graphically displaying a graph of a linear throttling line for the engine including an idle speed in revolutions per minute (RPM) and one or more operating speeds in revolutions per minute (shown in figure 2);
using a graphical user interface to alter the linear throttling line into a non-linear throttling line by dragging one or more displayed control points (shown in figure 2);
automatically generating, from the non-linear throttling line, a lookup table of dynamic throttle increments indexed by RPM (column 9 lines 50-60); and
using the lookup table at run-time to determine per-press throttle increments for the discrete throttle up switch such that the engine moves quickly from idle to a sweet-spot Run RPM and thereafter uses reduced increments for high-resolution control. (shown in figure 2)
As to claim 15 Davis discloses the method of claim 14, wherein generating the lookup table comprises dividing the non-linear throttling line into a sequence of RPM breakpoints, each associated with a corresponding dynamic throttle increment (The table will match the graph if the graph as shown in figure 2 had dynamic events it will match on the table).
As to claim 16 Davis discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the method includes using dynamic throttle increments for dynamic throttling of the engine (shown in figure 2 the dynamic rise and falls of the graph).
As to claim 17 Davis discloses the method of claim 16, wherein the method includes using the dynamic throttle increments to thereby enable quick movement of the engine from the idle speed to an operating speed within a known sweet spot or optimum performance range of the engine and to thereafter provide a very high throttling resolution for the dynamic throttle increments after the engine is within the known sweet spot or optimum performance range. (shown in figure 4 the timing is broking into zones each zone can have a slow ramp in RPM or fast ramp the consumer can set those ramps for their engine so that it ramps fast on a sweet spot or optimum performance range)
As to claim 18 Davis discloses the method of claim 14, wherein using the graphical user interface to alter the linear throttling line includes altering the slope or curvature of the throttling line to change a ratio of throttle increment to RPM (shown in figure 2 to change the RPM the throttle changes).
As to claim 19 Davis discloses a control panel for an engine, the control panel comprising a graphical user interface including a display, wherein:
the display is configured to be operable for graphically displaying, for configuration purposes, a graph on the display of a linear throttling line having a plurality of displayed control points for the engine including an idle speed in revolutions per minute (RPM) and one or more operating speeds in revolutions per minute (shown in figure 2);
the graphical user interface is configured to be useable for receiving user drag inputs applied to at least one of the displayed control points to thereby modify the linear throttling line into a user-authored non-linear throttling line (column 8 lines 50-65);
the control panel is configured to be operable for automatically generating a stored lookup table of dynamic throttle increments indexed by RPM based on the user authored non-linear throttling line (column 9 lines 50-60); and
the control panel is configured to be operable for using the lookup table at run time to determine per press throttle increments for a discrete throttle up switch such that the engine rapidly transitions from idle to a stored Run RPM within a sweet spot and thereafter uses reduced increments for high resolution control. (the table is used to follow the throttle and RPM setting created by the user to optimize the engine as disclosed in column 8 lines 50-65)
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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.
Claim(s) 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 7,377,103).
As to claim 13 Yu discloses the control panel of claim 9, wherein:
the first operating speed of the engine is an idle speed of 600 RPM (column 4 lines 60-70);
the second operating speed within or near the known sweet spot or optimum performance range of the engine is 2500 RPM (column 5 lines 15); and
the control panel is configured to be operable for rapidly increasing throttling of the engine from the idle speed of 600 RPM to 2500 RPM by large throttle increments of at least 10 RPM, 25 RPM, or more than 25 RPM (shown in figure 2).
However the idle speed of the prior art (600 RPM) is lower than that of the applicant (850 RPM) and the second sweet spot speed of the prior art (2500 RMP) is higher than that of the applicant (2000 RPM).
However it is well known in the art of Engineering to optimize the components to work together to achieve the operational goal. In this case the prior art has, in their example, optimized the engine RPM to idle their particular fire truck which will likely have a different engine than the applicant and the pump which again is likely different from the applicants.
In re Williams, 36 F.2d 436, 438, 4 USPQ 237 (CCPA 1929) ("It is a settled principle of law that a mere carrying forward of an original patented conception involving only change of form, proportions, or degree, or the substitution of equivalents doing the same thing as the original invention, by substantially the same means, is not such an invention as will sustain a patent, even though the changes of the kind may produce better results than prior inventions.").
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see the remarks, filed 2/27/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-19 under Frey et al. (2008/0279036) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Laskaris (US 8,162,619); Yu et al. (US 7,377,103) and Davis (US 9,718,358).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 SHERMAN D MANLEY whose telephone number is (571)270-5539. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 7-5:30 est.
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SHERMAN D. MANLEY
Examiner
Art Unit 3747
/SHERMAN D MANLEY/Examiner, Art Unit 3747
/LOGAN M KRAFT/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3747
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