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 18/609,218 filed on 03/19/2024 is presented for examination. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statement dated 03/19/2024 is 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 § 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 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 present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 6, 8-11, 16 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Graham (US 2015/0345984) in view of Sugihara et al. (US 2022/0176847).
With respect to claims 1 and 11, Graham discloses a vehicle battery conditioning method comprising: in a vehicle operated by power supplied from a first battery and a second battery (Fig. 1, battery pack 109; Para. # 0022: Battery pack 109, which may be comprised of one or hundreds or thousands of rechargeable batteries, supplies the power necessary for operation of motor(s) 107. Additionally, battery pack 109 may provide the power necessary for the various vehicle systems that require electrical power), comparing a temperature of the first battery with a target temperature (Para. # 0052: the current battery pack temperature is compared to the preferred operating temperature range of the vehicle's batteries (step 801)), wherein the regenerative conditioning mode corresponds to a mode in which the second battery is discharged while a motor is driven and the first battery is charged while power generation through the motor is performed (Para. # 0022: battery pack 109 is coupled to motor(s) 107 via a power control system 111 that ensures that the power delivered to the drive motor is of the proper form).
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Graham, does not expressly disclose a first and a second battery and performing driving by using the regenerative conditioning mode.
Sugihara, on the other hand, discloses a first and a second battery and performing driving by using the regenerative conditioning mode if the temperature of the first battery is lower than the target temperature (Para. # 0026/0039 and 0044: when regenerative power is output from the driving motor-generator 13, cause the regenerative power to be input to the first battery 11 if the state of charge of the first battery 11 is lower than a predetermined SOC and cause the regenerative power to be input to the second battery 12 if the state of charge of the first battery 11 is higher than or equal to the predetermined SO).
GRAHAM and Sugihara are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely Vehicle navigation route for electric vehicle charging and vehicle driving system.
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have added multiple batteries and driving by using the regenerative conditioning mode for vehicle charging of Graham in view of Sugihara for the benefit of the controller is configured to cause the first battery to be preferentially charged when regenerative power is output from the drive motor-generator, a larger amount of the regenerative power produced by the drive motor-generator can be recovered (Para. # 0045).
With respect to claims 6 and 16, the combined references of Graham and Sugihara disclose the method/system as described above, further Sugihara discloses comprising: determining whether the vehicle is in an ignition-ON state; and determining whether a request for driving the vehicle by using the regenerative conditioning mode is received from a user if the vehicle is in the ignition-ON state (Para. # 0046: when regenerative power is input from the drive motor-generator 13 to the first battery 11, the controller 15 may cause the relay r2 to be turned ON and cause the relay r1, the relay r3, and the relay r4 to be turned OFF).
With respect to claims 8 and 18, the combined references of Graham and Sugihara disclose the method/system as described above, further Sugihara discloses wherein the entrance condition for the regenerative conditioning mode is satisfied if a request for the regenerative conditioning mode is received from a user through a user input device (Para. # 009: when regenerative power is output from the drive motor-generator, cause the regenerative power to be input to the first battery if the state of charge of the first battery is lower than a predetermined SOC and cause the regenerative power to be input to the second battery if the state of charge of the first battery is higher than or equal to the predetermined SOC).
With respect to claims 9 and 19, the combined references of Graham and Sugihara disclose the method/system as described above, further Sugihara discloses
9/19. The method of claim 1, further comprising: comparing the temperature of the first battery with the target temperature while the vehicle is driven using the regenerative conditioning mode (Para. # 0026/0039 and 0042 the predetermined SOC of the first battery 11 may be set to 100% SOC, which is the upper limit SOC within the use range that can be set for the first battery 11. Alternatively, after charging, some extra charge level may be left in order to prevent deterioration of the first battery 11 or in order to accept regenerative energy); and turning off the regenerative conditioning mode if the temperature of the first battery is not lower than the target temperature (Paa. # 0039/0044: The controller 15 may be configured to obtain the state of charge (SOC) of the first battery 11 based on the detected data, such as the voltage value, the current value, and the temperature of the first battery 11, which are obtained from the sensor s1).
With respect to claims 10 and 20, the combined references of Graham and Sugihara disclose the method/system as described above, further Sugihara discloses wherein the first battery is a main battery of the vehicle and the second battery is an auxiliary battery of the vehicle (Fig. 1, main battery 11, and battery 12- high-capacity battery).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 12 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claims 3-5, 7 and 13-15 and 17 are dependent on the above objected claims of 2 and 12 above.
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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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DREW A DUNN can be reached at 571-272-2312. The fax phone number for
the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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