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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2 , 4, 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TAKANAMI JP Publication 2022158675 A, translation and reference provided by Applicant in view of ISHIHARA, JP Publication 2022-152264A cited by Applicant , translation provided by Examiner.
Re Claim 1, TAKANAMI discloses a voltage supply device for supplying direct-current voltage generated by a power generation unit to a battery 20 (a regenerative current generated by the drive motor 3 is supplied to the heavy-electric battery 21 (See solution), the voltage supply device (P10, P11, P69-75, Figs. 1, 7, 8 ) comprising:
a smoothing capacitor (capacitor 22) that smooths the direct-current voltage (P7);
a battery connected to the smoothing capacitor (P7 , P12);
a first circuit (voltage sensors ) that acquires a first voltage that is voltage of the smoothing capacitor and a second voltage that is voltage of the battery (P69-75, Figs. 1, 7, 8 ;
a second circuit (voltage difference determination) that computes a difference between the first voltage and the second voltage and judges that the smoothing capacitor is in an overvoltage state when the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (P70-74); and one or more processors that execute computer-executable instructions stored in memory, wherein the one or more processors executes the computer-executable instructions to cause the voltage supply device to control the power generation unit to suppress or stop power generation by the power generation unit when the second circuit judges that the smoothing capacitor is in the overvoltage state(P75) .
TAKANAMI fails to disclose that the voltage/power supplied from the power generation unit to a load and the battery connected to the smoothing capacitor is in parallel with the load.
ISHIHARA discloses that the voltage/power supplied from the power generation unit to a load and the battery connected to the smoothing capacitor in parallel with the load ( Abstract , see claim 1, and see Page 2, Fig. 1) .
Given the teachings of ISHIHARA it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of TAKANAMI such that the voltage/power supplied from the power generation unit to a load and the battery connected to the smoothing capacitor in parallel with the load since ISHIHARA suggest that it is conventional in the art and would provide voltage equalization of power supplies of a system.
Re Claim 2, TAKANAMI and ISHIHARA discloses the voltage supply device according to claim 1, and TAKANAMI discloses comprising a connection/disconnection unit that is disposed between the smoothing capacitor and the battery and is configured to disconnect a connection between the smoothing capacitor and the battery (P70-76).
Re Claim 4, TAKANAMI and ISHIHARA discloses the voltage supply device according to claim 1, and TAKANAMI discloses wherein the predetermined threshold is predetermined based on an amount of voltage drop between the smoothing capacitor and the battery and a predetermined variation ratio (P10, P11, P69-75).
Re Claim 5, TAKANAMI and ISHIHARA discloses The voltage supply device according to claim 1, and TAKANAMI discloses further comprising a low-pass filter that removes a high-frequency component of the voltage of the smoothing capacitor, wherein the first circuit acquires, as the first voltage, the voltage of the smoothing capacitor from which the high-frequency component has been removed (P10, P11, P69-75).
Re Claim 6, TAKANAMI and ISHIHARA discloses The voltage supply device according to claim 1, and , TAKANAMI discloses further comprising a connection/disconnection unit that is disposed between the smoothing capacitor and the load and is configured to cut off supply of the direct-current voltage to the load, wherein the difference becomes equal to or larger than the predetermined threshold by the one or more processors turning off the connection/disconnection unit P10, P11, P69-75.
Re Claim 7, TAKANAMI discloses a power generation control method for a voltage supply device that supplies direct-current voltage generated by a power generation unit (P10, P11, P69-75, Figs. 1, 7, 8 ), the power generation control method comprising:
acquiring a first voltage that is voltage of a smoothing capacitor that smooths the direct-current voltage, and a second voltage that is voltage of a battery connected to the smoothing capacitor (P7 , P12, 69-75, Figs. 1, 7, 8) ;
computing a difference between the first voltage and the second voltage; judging that the smoothing capacitor is in an overvoltage state when the difference is equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold; and controlling the power generation unit to suppress or stop power generation by the power generation unit when it is judged that the smoothing capacitor is in the overvoltage state (P70-75) .
TAKANAMI fails to disclose that the voltage/power supplied from the power generation unit to a load and the battery connected to the smoothing capacitor is in parallel with the load.
ISHIHARA discloses that the voltage/power supplied from the power generation unit to a load and the battery connected to the smoothing capacitor in parallel with the load ( Abstract , see claim 1, and see Page 2, Fig. 1) .
Given the teachings of ISHIHARA it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of TAKANAMI such that the voltage/power supplied from the power generation unit to a load and the battery connected to the smoothing capacitor in parallel with the load since ISHIHARA suggest that it is conventional in the art and would provide voltage equalization of power supplies of a system.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TAKANAMI JP Publication 2022158675 A, translation and reference provided by Applicant in view of ISHIHARA, JP Publication 2022-152264A cited by Applicant , translation provided by Examiner as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of AMANO US Publication No. 20020158513 cited by Applicant.
Re Claim 3, TAKANAMI and ISHIHARA discloses the voltage supply device according to claim 1 but fails to disclose wherein the one or more processors executes the computer-executable instructions to cause the voltage supply device to control a switching element located between the smoothing capacitor and the battery to connect the smoothing capacitor and the battery with each other before the power generation unit starts power generation.
AMANO discloses wherein the one or more processors executes the computer-executable instructions to cause the voltage supply device to control a switching element located between the smoothing capacitor and the battery to connect the smoothing capacitor and the battery with each other before the power generation unit starts power generation (Abstract, P15, P27-28, P56 Fig. 1).
Given the teachings of Amano it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of TAKANAMI with wherein the one or more processors executes the computer-executable instructions to cause the voltage supply device to control a switching element located between the smoothing capacitor and the battery to connect the smoothing capacitor and the battery with each other before the power generation unit starts power generation.
Doing so gives the equipment an increased life and reduces its cost (P12).
Conclusion
The following reference is cited but not relied upon:
Kobayash discloses a smoothing capacitor connected between the high-voltage battery and the ISG inverter.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SONJI N JOHNSON whose telephone number is (571)270-5266. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-9pm.
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SONJI N. JOHNSON
Examiner
Art Unit 2876
/SONJI N JOHNSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
