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
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) 1-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE 11 2019 004312 issued to Isuzu (Foreign Citation No. 3 in the IDS filed on 8/26/2024; all references to the translation supplied by Applicant) in view of U.S. Patent Publication 2021/0316602 issued to Suzuki.
Regarding Claim 1, Isuzu teaches in Figures 1-5B and respective portions of the specification of an electric-powered vehicle (11) comprising:
a drive unit (MF) including a drive motor (MF is an electric motor), a gear unit (20) configured to transmit a torque of the drive motor (MF), and
a drive shaft (32, 33) configured to transmit the torque of the drive motor (MF) transmitted through the gear unit (20) to a wheel (2L, 2R), wherein a lower surface of the drive unit (MF) is inclined upward (see Figure 1) from the drive shaft (32, 33) toward a center of the vehicle in a front-rear direction.
Isuzu does not explicitly disclose an inverter configured to control the drive motor (MF).
Inverters for electric drives are notoriously old and well-known for converting DC current from the battery to AC current for the drive motor.
Suzuki teaches of an inverter (6) for an electric vehicle drive device (100).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide an inverter, as taught by Suzuki, for the electric vehicle taught by Isuzu. One would be motivated to provide an inverter to convert stored DC current from the battery to AC current to drive the vehicle.
Regarding Claim 2, Isuzu teaches of the drive unit (MF) is located frontward of the center of the vehicle in the front-rear direction—see Figure 1.
Regarding Claim 3, Isuzu discloses the claimed invention except for showing the drive unit comprises a connector configured to electrically connect the inverter to the battery, the connector being located below an end of the drive unit that is close to the center of the vehicle in the front-rear direction and closer to the center of the vehicle in the front-rear direction than a lowermost end of the drive unit is.
Suzuki teaches that it is known to locate a connector (82) for a power terminal that supplies power from a high-voltage battery to the drive unit. Figure 3 shows the connector (82) is located below an end of the drive unit.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide connector located on a lower portion of the drive unit close to the center of the vehicle, as taught by Suzuki, for the electric vehicle taught by Isuzu. One would be motivated to provide the connector on the lower portion of the drive unit close to the center of the vehicle to position in the connector in a position where it would be least likely to be damaged by a collision, by being located facing the interior of the vehicle.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DE 11 2019 004312 issued to Isuzu (Foreign Citation No. 3 in the IDS filed on 8/26/2024; all references to the translation supplied by Applicant) in view of U.S. Patent Publication 2021/0316602 issued to Suzuki, as disclosed above, and in further view of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2021/0313860 issued to Jang et al.
Regarding Claim 4, Isuzu does not show a cooling unit located above the drive unit, wherein a coolant flows in the cooling unit, wherein the drive unit comprises a communication portion communicating with the cooling unit, the communication portion being located above an end of the drive unit that faces away from the center of the vehicle in the front-rear direction and farther away from the center of the vehicle in the front-rear direction than an uppermost end of the drive unit is.
Jang et al. teaches that it is known to provide a communication portion (11a, 11b) on an upper end of a drive unit (10).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide a communication portion to supply coolant from a cooler to the drive unit, as taught by Jang et al., for the drive unit taught by Isuzu. One would be motivated to provide a communication portion to supply coolant from a cooler to the drive unit to allow the drive unit to operate at its most efficient operating temperature. It would also have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to locate the communication portion on an end of the drive that faces away from the center of the vehicle in the front-rear direction and farther away from the center of the vehicle in the front-rear direction than an uppermost end of the drive unit is. One would be motivated to locate the communication portion in this position to optimize the cooling efficiency by having the communication portion pointing towards a cooler, arranged in the front of the vehicle, cooled by air in the vehicle direction.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN L SWENSON whose telephone number is (571)270-5572. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday (9-5).
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BRIAN SWENSON
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3618
/BRIAN L SWENSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3613