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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDSes filed 9/24/25, 3/30/26, 8/18/26 and 8/26/26 have all been considered and placed of record. The four (4) initialed copies are attached herewith.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because figures 2 and 3 include unlabeled rectangular boxes shown in the drawings should be provided with descriptive text labels. Although the boxes in the figures are numbered which allow a correlation to each box as one reads the specification, the numbers by themselves do not allow one to quickly ascertain the concept of the invention which is desirable during a later search of analogous art. The numbers should be complimented with words spelled out to facilitate future searches. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure should be carefully reviewed to ensure that any and all grammatical, idiomatic, and spelling or other minor errors are corrected. For example, referencing number 156 in claim 12 (last paragraph) should be deleted for consistency.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The limitation “an external device” on line 2 is indefinite because the same external device has already been defined in claim 1. If a second external device is claimed presently, it should be claimed differently from the claimed “an external device” in claim 1.
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.
Claims 1 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Japanese document JP2013031301A (see machine translation).
Re claim 1, the document discloses a battery pack (fig 10) operable to be electrically connected to an external device 100 for power supply or charging, wherein the battery pack having, inter alia, a temperature terminal 103; wherein the battery pack is configured such that when the external device is electrically connected to the battery pack (para 5), the external device can detect the temperature of the battery pack through the temperature terminal (para 9); and, wherein the battery pack is further configured to receive a PWM signal from the external device through the temperature terminal when in the electrical connection state, and, on the basis of the PWM signal, determine the type and/or operating state of the external device (para 14, 31 and 47).
Re claim 8, the document further discloses a display device 119 configured to receive a type and/or operating state of the external device from the control device and display same to a user (para 37).
Re claim 9, the document further discloses a temperature sensor 94 for detecting temperature information about the battery pack, wherein the temperature sensor is electrically connected to the temperature terminal and configured to transmit the temperature information to the temperature terminal (para 8).
Re claim 10, the document discloses an external device configured to be operable to be electrically connected to the battery pack for power supply or charging (para 1-4).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7 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 1-19 are allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication** should be directed to the Examiner at the below listed number. The Examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Thu from 7:00am-5:00pm.
The Examiner’s SPE is Drew Dunn and he can be reached at 571.272.2312. The fax number for the organization where this application is assigned is 571.273.8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866.217.9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800.786.9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571.272.1000.
/EDWARD TSO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859 571.272.2087
**All communication after 10/31/23 should be directed to SPE Drew Dunn at his number.
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