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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea of mental process or data gathering equivalent to mathematical concept or mathematical manipulation function without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) “a second means configured to calculate a catalyst potential…”, “calculate an effective surface utilization factor...”, “a third means configured to calculate an electrode catalyst surface area…”, “a fourth means configured to calculate an estimated value…”. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the listed steps above are recited at a high level of generality and merely amount to a particulate field of use and/or insignificant post-solution activity. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the elements appear to be field of use and/or merely amounts to insignificant extra-solution output of the results. The dependent claims contain similar mathematical steps and are also an abstract idea without significantly more for the same reasons.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Okuyoshi (JP Publication 2011-192458) teaches a control method for a fuel cell system comprising: a first step of deriving the catalyst oxide film ratio, which is the percentage of the region on the surface of the catalyst on the cathode of the fuel cell where an oxide film is formed, by integrating the catalyst oxide production rate, which is the difference between the production reaction rate, which is the reaction rate at which the oxide of the catalyst is produced, and the reduction reaction rate, which is the reaction rate at which the oxide of the catalyst is reduced, with respect to time; a second step of deriving the current-voltage characteristics, which is the relationship between the output current and output voltage of the fuel cell, based on the catalyst oxide film ratio; a third step of obtaining a load request for the fuel cell; a fourth step of setting an operating point for the fuel cell, consisting of an output current and an output voltage, for generating power corresponding to the load request obtained in the third step, based on the current-voltage characteristics derived in the second step; and a fifth step of causing the fuel cell to generate power at the operating point set in the fourth step.
Matsusue (U.S. Patent Publication 2012/0183873) teaches a fuel cell system that supplies a fuel gas including hydrogen and an oxidant gas to a fuel cell to generate electrical power, the fuel cell system comprising: an operation state acquisition unit that acquires a relationship between an oxidation-reduction reaction rate of a Pt catalyst used in the fuel cell and an output voltage and temperature of the fuel cell from a map due to prior evaluation; and a characteristic estimation unit that estimates an IV characteristic that indicates a relationship between a current and a voltage in the fuel cell, wherein the characteristic estimation unit determines a current-voltage hysteresis as being the current-voltage hysteresis that follows an effective surface area of the Pt catalyst that was determined from the relationship between the oxidation-reduction reaction rate of the Pt catalyst and the output voltage and temperature of the fuel cell acquired by the operation state acquisition unit, and estimates the IV characteristic by reducing the determined current-voltage hysteresis as an amount of fall due to an oxidation of the Pt catalyst of the IV characteristic.
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BRITTANY L. RAYMOND
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1722
/BRITTANY L RAYMOND/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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