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 .
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because figure 15 #42 and figure 16 #207 and 208 need to be labelled descriptively with text . 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.
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) 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO2021/049230 cited by Applicant in view of JP7698656 .
WO2021/049230 discloses a motor driving device comprising an inverter (60) to receive a dc voltage from dc power supply (10) and to out voltage to motor (20) and control circuitry (40) to detect a failure of inverter and to control inverter based on detect failure, wherein inverter has a plurality of first switching elements of an upper arm connected between a plus side of dc power supply and the motor and plurality of sit freewheeling diode connected in parallel with plurality of fist switching element and plurality of second switching elements of lower arm connected between minus side of dc power supply and motor and plurality of second freewheeling diodes connected in parallel with plurality of second switching elements and outputting a control signal for setting all of plurality of second switching elements of lower arm in an on state when open failure of any one of first switching elements of upper arm on inverter is detected and outputting a control signal for setting all of plurality of first switching elements of upper arm in the on state when open failure of any one of second switching elements of lower arm of inverter is detected , see fig 1 and 2 and paragraphs 10-40 . WO2021/049230 lacks disclosing first switching elements and all of second switching elements to be off state in order to stop driving motor . JP7698656 discloses all first switching elements and all of second switching element to be in off state in order to stop driving motor , see description state 1 fig 19 . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the motor driving apparatus of WO2021/0492390 with all switching elements off state of JP 7698656 for improved control .
Claim(s) 2,9-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP2021-002942 disclosed by Applicant in view of JP7698656.
JP2021-002942 discloses a motor driving device comprising inverter (30) to receive a dc voltage from dc power supply (4) and to generate a voltage to be inputted to motor (8) and control circuitry (10) to detect a failure of inverter (30) and to control inverter based on detected failure, when inverter had plurality of first switching elements of upper arm connected between a plus side of dc power supply and motor and plurality of first freewheeling diode connected in parallel with first switching elements and plurality of second switching elements of lower arm connected between a minus side of dc power supply and motor and plurality of second freewheeling diodes connected in parallel with second switching elements, and outputting a control signal for setting all of plurality of first switching elements of upper arm in an on state when short circuiting failure of any one of first switching elements of upper arm of inverter is detected and outputting a control signal for setting all of plurality of second switching elements of lower arm in on state when short circuiting failure of any one of second switching elements of lower arm of inverter is detected , see paragraph 7 and 10-47 and fig 1-6 . JP2021-002942 lacks disclosing all first switching elements and all second switching elements off state to stop driving motor . JP 7698656 discloses all first and second switching element in off state to stop motor , see description state 1 fig 19 . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the motor driving device of JP2021-002942 with off state of all switching elements of JP7698656 for improved control.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAREN MASIH whose telephone number is (571)272-2068. The examiner can normally be reached m-f 8-5 with second friday off.
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/KAREN MASIH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2846