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 Amendment
The following is a final office action in response to applicant’s reply, filed on 06/26/2026, to the Non-Final Office Action mailed on 04/03/2026. Claims 7-18 are added. Claims 4-18 are pending and addressed below.
Applicant’s amendment to the drawing has overcome rejection of the drawings, previously set forth in the non-final office action.
Claim Objections
Applicant is advised that should claim 8 be found allowable, claim 16 will be objected to under 37 CFR 1.75 as being a substantial duplicate thereof. When two claims in an application are duplicates or else are so close in content that they both cover the same thing, despite a slight difference in wording, it is proper after allowing one claim to object to the other as being a substantial duplicate of the allowed claim. See MPEP § 608.01(m).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 4,6 and 9-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Furui; Nobuyasu et al US 20200343744 A1, hereinafter Furui, in view of CHENG; Tao et al US 20220317966 A1, hereinafter CHENG.
Regarding claim 4, Furui teaches, a system (Furui Fig. 1A) comprising: a first system component (Furui Fig. 1A, unit 10 together with unit 70 is considered to make a first system component) and a second system component (Furui Fig. 1A, unit 40 together with unit 100 is considered to make a second system component), the first system component being in the form of a power tool (Furui Fig. 1A, unit 10 of the first system component, is indicated in the figure as a power tool) or a charging apparatus, and the second system component being in the form of a rechargeable battery (Furui Fig. 1A, unit 40 of the second system component, is indicated in the figure as a battery pack), the rechargeable battery optionally releasably connected to the power tool (Furui Abstract “The power tool interface is configured to be physically and electrically connected to and disconnected from the battery pack interface of the power tool.”) or charging apparatus,
the first system component including at least one first transceiver (Furui Fig. 1A, 18 COMM, [224] teaches, communicators are used for wired or wireless communications, therefore, implies comprising transceiver i.e., a first transceiver 18 COMM) and one second transceiver (Furui Fig. 1A, 78 COMM, [224] teaches, communicators are used for wired or wireless communications, therefore, implies comprising transceiver i.e., a second transceiver 78 COMM), and the second system component including at least one third transceiver (Furui Fig. 1A, 48 COMM, [224] teaches, communicators are used for wired or wireless communications, therefore, implies comprising transceiver i.e., a third transceiver 48 COMM) and one fourth transceiver (Furui Fig. 1A, 108 COMM, [224] teaches, communicators are used for wired or wireless communications, therefore, implies comprising transceiver i.e., a fourth transceiver 108 COMM), the first transceiver and the third transceiver being configured for a wired transmission of a first volume of data, and the second transceiver and the fourth transceiver being configured for a wireless transmission of a second volume of data.
While teaching wired and wireless data transmission between the first transceiver and the third transceiver and between the second transceiver and the fourth transceiver, respectively as in (Furui Fig. 1A, between 18 and 48, between 78 and 108; [24] and [31]), Furui does not expressly teach, the first transceiver and the third transceiver being configured for a wired transmission of a first volume of data, and the second transceiver and the fourth transceiver being configured for a wireless transmission of a second volume of data.
However, in the same field of endeavor, CHENG teaches, the first transceiver and the third transceiver being configured for a wired transmission of a first volume of data, and the second transceiver and the fourth transceiver being configured for a wireless transmission of a second volume of data (The limitation, under BRI, is about having simultaneous wired and wireless connections between two entities (e.g., devices, system components, etc.) and data transmission occurring over the two connections. CHENG Fig. 3; [102] “the first electronic device may transmit the first part of the multimedia data to the second electronic device through the wired network link, and transmit the second part of the multimedia data through the wireless network link. The second part of data may be data other than the first part of data in the multimedia data.”, teaches transmitting a first part (=volume) of data between the wireline transceiver of the first device (i.e., the first transceiver) and the wireline transceiver of the second device (i.e., the third transceiver) of a wired link, and a second part of data between the wireless transceiver of the first device (i.e., the second transceiver) and the wireless transceiver of the second device (i.e., the fourth transceiver) of a wireless link).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Furui to include the features as taught by CHENG above in order to efficiently control data transmission (CHENG [2]-[4]).
Regarding claims 6, Furui, in view of CHANG, teaches the system, as outlined in the rejection of claim 4.
Furui further teaches, wherein the wireless transmission device for the second volume of data and the second transceiver and the fourth transceiver are configured on the basis of a Bluetooth technology (Furui [224] “The communicator(s) 18, 48, 78, 108 of each of the devices may comprise: … (ii) a wireless communication device, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN) device, e.g., WiFi (i.e. operating according to the wireless communication protocol enumerated by IEEE 802.11), a Bluetooth device, …”).
Regarding claims 9-15, Furui teaches a power tool system. Therefore, all components claimed are obvious from Furui or any related prior art.
Claims 5 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Furui in view of CHANG, as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Mooney; Stephen R. et al US 20140242927 A1, hereinafter Mooney.
Regarding claim 5, Furui, in view of CHANG, teaches the system, as outlined in the rejection of claim 4.
Furui and CHANG do not expressly teach, however, in the same field of endeavor, Mooney teaches, wherein the first volume of data is configured for an initial connection setup between the first system component and the second system component (The limitation, under BRI, is interpreted as using wired link for initial connection set up procedure between two devices or system components. Mooney [20] “the illustrated connector assembly 12 includes a set of IO contacts configured to receive and transmit wired IO signals, as well as an antenna assembly that is configured to receive and transmit wireless IO signals.”; [28] “Another aspect of computing systems that may benefit from the techniques described herein relates to the authentication of peripheral devices. For example, an advantageous feature of wired connections may be their safety and ease of set-up relative to wireless connections (e.g., in comparison to the Bluetooth pairing process). The techniques described herein therefore enable an initial connection to be made to a peripheral device using a wired connection in order to download a connector key from the host platform into the peripheral device (or vice versa), wherein subsequent connections are wireless and subject to verification of the key.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Furui and CHENG to include the features as taught by Mooney above in order to provide the ease of pairing and assurance that the connection is safe as for a wired connection, with the ease of use of wireless for connections after the initial connection (Mooney [31]).
Regarding claim 7, Furui, in view of CHANG and Mooney, teaches the system, as outlined in the rejection of claim 5.
Mooney further teaches, wherein the initial connection setup is a pairing, the first system component and the second system component being coupled to each other after the pairing (See Mooney [28]).
Claims 8 and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Furui in view of CHANG, as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Logvinov; Oleg et al US 20160075245 A1, hereinafter Logvinov.
Regarding claims 8, 16, 17 and 18, Furui, in view of CHANG, teaches the system, as outlined in the rejection of claim 4.
Furui and CHANG do not expressly teach, however, in the same field of endeavor, Logvinov teaches, wherein the second volume of data includes a state of charge or a state of health of the second system component (Logvinov [0039] “Wireless charging systems use wireless communications to communicate between the wireless EVSE and the device (or devices) (e.g., an EV) being charged. This is because EV batteries that are charged with external (off-board) chargers need to communicate with the charger. For example, charging an EV from an off-board charger and on-board battery charging system requires them to communicate data including charging, identity, and billing data. Charging data may, for example, include how much charge is needed by the batteries (charge status), charging state, what type of battery is being charged, battery temperature, and user preferences (e.g. cost of charging and when the charging should be complete). Other data communicated between the EVSE and EV (wired or wireless charging) may indicate the EV's identity, how the energy is billed, or a cost projection for the charging session.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Furui and CHENG to include the features as taught by Logvinov above in order to provide method and apparatus used for wireless communication between the wireless charging system and the device(s) it charges and for aligning charging pads of the wireless charging system and for associating and validating the relationship between the charging pads (Logvinov [0002]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks page 1, filed on 06/26/2026, with respect to Abstract have been fully considered and are persuasive. The objection of the Abstract has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed on 06/26/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues in Remarks, page 4 “One of ordinary skill in the art would not have combined the teachings of Furui and Cheng because Cheng is not “in the same field of endeavor” as Furui as asserted on page 8 of the Office Action. Cheng relates to a method and apparatus for screen projection control and an electronic device not at all relevant to the power tool system of Furui. Furui teaches in detail towards a number of types of data (i.e. control programs, power tool management information, battery pack status information, operational parameters, and maintenance information), but there is no indication that Furui is at all concerned with the transfer of multi-media data for screen projection as disclosed in Cheng . Data transmission in a power tool system is not related to screen projection.”.
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Applicant is using a technique in the claim where some data are transferred, between two different entities, over a wired connection, and some other data are transferred over a wireless connection. The entities are, in the case of the instant application, a power tool or a charging apparatus and a rechargeable battery. Furui teaches the entities, as disclosed in the claim, along with transceivers for wired and wireless data communications. While it can be obvious that both wired and wireless transceivers of Furui can be used for data communication, Furui does not explicitly teach the technique where some data is transferred over the wired connection and some other data is transferred over the wireless connection. Cheng, in the similar of field of data transmission using mixed wired and wireless connections between two entities (between two electronic devices in Cheng) teaches the technique. Therefore, the technique of Cheng can be applied to the power tool application of Furui to achieve sending some data over Furui’s wired connection and some other data over Furui’s wireless connection.
Examiner’s Note: The above-mentioned technique can be found in various applications, as disclosed in previously provided prior art such as Tian, US 11812303 B1 (Claim 9).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Davis, US 20240424655 A1 - Systems And Methods For Multi-Channel Power Tool Communication, para [41].
Tian, US 11812303 B1 - Mesh Networking Of Access Points For Load Balancing, Claim 9.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
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/MAHBUBUL BAR CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
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