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 .
Response to Arguments
1. Applicant’s arguments, filed on 06/09/2026 with respect to the amendments of claim 1 have been fully considered and are persuasive. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Johansson et al (USPN 2017/0025841).
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.
2. Claims 1, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Johansson et al (USPN 2017/0025841).
Regarding claim 1, Johansson discloses an electrical switching device (an electronic fuse system 100, see figure 1) comprising:
a plurality of electrical loads (such as a plurality of outputs 110, see figure 1);
an electrical energy source (a power source PS 103) for supplying electrical energy to said plurality of electrical loads;
a bus line (a bus line 101, 104, see par. 0018) for conducting said electrical energy from said electrical energy source (103) to said plurality of electrical loads (110);
said plurality of electrical loads (110) being connected to said bus line (110);
a group of a plurality of electronic fuses (108) electrically arranged between said electrical energy source (103) and said plurality of electrical loads (110);
said plurality of electronic fuses (108) being separate from each other and being distributed in said electrical switching device (100); and
a control unit (a power distribution controller 105) being arranged in said bus line (101, 104) and being configured to address said plurality of electronic fuses (108) in said group via said bus line (101, 104) (see par. 0023, 0032); and
wherein said bus line for conducting the electrical energy is also used as a communication line for addressing the plurality of electronic fuses (the bus line 101, 104 provide both power and communication capabilities through the bus 101 via the bus connection means 104, see par. 0019).
Regarding claim 17, Johansson discloses wherein said plurality of electrical loads (110) are each connected to said bus line (101) via stub lines (104), and the electronic fuses (108) in said group of a plurality of electronic fuses are arranged in said stub lines (see figure 2).
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.
3. Claims 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Johansson et al (USPN 2017/0025841) in view of Morrison et al (USPN 2024/0092289).
Regarding claims 2-3, Johansson discloses addressing the group of the plurality of the electronic fuses (108) (see figure 1), but does not explicitly disclose a position of the electronic fuse as claimed.
Morrison discloses an electrical switching device (200, see figure 2) comprises a group of a plurality of electronic fuses (such as group C1-C3), wherein, when addressing said group of said plurality of electronic fuses (the group of e-Fuses C1-C3 assigned shown in table 1, see figure 2, and par. 0022), a position of the electronic fuse (such as a position of the e-fuse 214a assigned in a cluster C1) to be addressed from the group (214) relative to the other electronic fuses (214b-214f) from said group in said electrical switching device is determined and then an address is assigned to said electronic fuse to be addressed (see par. 0022, 0023), and wherein said address is assigned by said control unit (the controller 216).
It 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 to have modified the plurality of the electronic fuses, wherein a position of the electronic fuse is addressed and determined as disclosed by Morrison in order to synchronize operation of electronic fuses so that preventing an excess power across the loads in the switching device.
Allowable Subject Matter
4. Claims 4-16, 18, 21 are allowed over prior art of record.
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
The prior art of record neither anticipates nor renders obvious the claimed subject matter of the instant application as a whole either taken alone or in combination, in particular, prior art of record does not teach:
An electrical switching device comprising: a plurality of current measuring apparatuses, each of said plurality of electronic fuses being assigned a corresponding one of said current measuring apparatuses with a load resistor, at least part of the group of the plurality of electronic fuses belongs to an initial load group; said initial load group includes including: that electronic fuse in said group of said plurality of electronic fuses which is arranged furthest away from said electrical energy source along said bus line and at least one further electronic fuse in said group of said plurality of electronic fuses; and said control unit being configured such that, when addressing the plurality of electronic fuses in said group, all load resistors in said initial load group are first connected to said bus line and load said electrical energy source, said current measuring apparatuses assigned to said electronic fuses in said initial load group measure the current in said bus line downstream of the respectively associated electronic fuse, and said control unit assigns an address, via said bus line, to that electronic fuse in the initial load group which is associated with a current measured value below an open-circuit current value of said electrical switching device, said address being linked to the position furthest away from said electrical energy source along said bus line as recited in claim 4.
An electrical switching device comprising: each of the plurality of electronic fuses is assigned an addressing apparatus, when addressing said plurality of electronic fuses in the group, one addressing signal each runs through at least one part of said bus line for addressing each electronic fuse, each addressing apparatus can prevent the addressing signal from being conducted to the directly adjacent electronic fuse in the group along said bus line, and said electrical switching device is configured in such a way that the addressing apparatus of an electronic fuse in the group which has received an address then causes the directly adjacent electronic fuse in the group along said bus line to be addressed as recited in claim 13.
5. Claims 19-20 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.
Conclusion
6. 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.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANNY NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2054. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00AM-4:30PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Monica Lewis can be reached at 571-271-1838. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DANNY NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838
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