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 .
Claims 1-9 are pending in this application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) were submitted on 06/24/2024 and 09/17/2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-3, 7 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Higuchi (US 20130163138 A1), and further in view of Kakade (US 20180195911 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Higuchi teaches a vehicle control device ([0023], a vehicle wire harness is intended as a wire to be protected), comprising:
a current detecting unit ([0025], detection of the applied-current I) that detects a current flowing through a lead wire ([0025], which is supplied to a load via the wire) and outputs a current detection value ([0025], using the detected applied-current);
a current interrupting unit ([0025], stopping of electric power supply) that interrupts the current flowing through the lead wire ([0025], stopping of electric power supply to the load); and
a computing unit (i.e. microcomputer 10, fig.2) that computes a temperature rise value caused by Joule heat in the lead wire using the current detection value ([0025], calculation of a temperature change in the wire per the predetermined time is operated using the detected applied-current), estimates an environmental temperature of an environment in which the lead wire is wired (i.e. reference-temperature setting circuit 40, fig.2) based on the temperature rise value ([0047], microcomputer 10 estimates the present wire temperature Tp by adding the calculated wire rise temperature .DELTA.Tw to the reference temperature), inside air temperature information in a vehicle cabin ([0033], temperature sensor is, for example, provided in an engine room of a vehicle), and determines whether to output a current interrupting instruction to the current interrupting unit ([0050], microcomputer 10 generates a protection signal) based on the temperature of the lead wire estimated using the environmental temperature ([0050], upon determination that the wire temperature Tp is not lower than the upper limit temperature Tmax).
Higuchi does not teach estimating the environmental temperature based on outside air temperature information of a vehicle, and solar radiation information.
Kakade teaches in a similar field of endeavor of estimating cabin temperature of a vehicle, estimating the environmental temperature based on outside air temperature information of a vehicle ([0022], an ambient air temperature sensor 42 that measures the ambient air temperature outside of the vehicle 12), and solar radiation information (i.e. solar load sensor 40, fig.1).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have optionally included the estimating the environmental temperature based on outside air temperature information of a vehicle, and solar radiation information in Higuchi, as taught by Kakade, as it provides the advantage of accurate method or apparatus for estimating the cabin environmental temperature, with real-time corrections.
Regarding claim 2, Higuchi and Kakade teach the vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the environment is a shielded space in which the lead wire is wired (Higuchi, [0069], disposed in a vehicle compartment), and
the computing unit estimates the temperature of the lead wire by adding the environmental temperature of the shielded space to the temperature rise value (Higuchi, [0047], microcomputer 10 estimates the present wire temperature Tp by adding the calculated wire rise temperature .DELTA.Tw to the reference temperature).
Regarding claim 3, Higuchi and Kakade teach the vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein a shielded space in which the lead wire is wired is formed between an outside air environment of the vehicle and an inside air environment (Higuchi, [0069], disposed in a vehicle compartment), the shielded space being thermally shielded from the outside air environment and the inside air environment (Higuchi, [0070], in a case where the wire to be protected extends over environments having different temperatures (such as the engine room and the inside of the vehicle compartment)),
the outside air temperature information is temperature information of the outside air environment (Kakade, [0022], an ambient air temperature sensor 42 that measures the ambient air temperature outside of the vehicle 12), and the inside air temperature information is temperature information of the inside air environment (Higuchi, [0033], temperature sensor is, for example, provided in an engine room of a vehicle).
Regarding claim 7, Higuchi and Kakade teach the vehicle control device according to claim 1, wherein the computing unit obtains the outside air temperature information from an outside air temperature detecting unit installed in the vehicle (Kakakde, [0022], an ambient air temperature sensor 42 that measures the ambient air temperature outside of the vehicle 12), obtains the inside air temperature information from an inside air temperature detecting unit installed in the vehicle (Higuchi, [0033], temperature sensor is, for example, provided in an engine room of a vehicle), and obtains the solar radiation information from a solar radiation detecting unit installed in the vehicle (Kakade, i.e. solar load sensor 40, fig.1).
Regarding claim 9, Higuchi and Kakade substantially teach the claim limitations as stated above for claim 1. Higuchi and Kakade further teach, an overheat protection device (Higuchi, abstract, estimated wire temperature has become equal to or higher than the predetermined upper limit temperature, the electric power supply from the power source to the load is stopped so that the wire is protected).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 and 8 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 4, Higuchi (US 20130163138 A1) and Kakade (US 20180195911 A1) teach the vehicle control device according to claim 3.
Higuchi and Kakade do not teach, wherein the computing unit estimates the environmental temperature by adding a temperature rise value based on the solar radiation information to a weighted average value of the inside air temperature information and the outside air temperature information.
Prior art Li (JP 2020131804 A), Minami (JP 2019142316 A) and Isonaga (JP 2013169113 A) have been found to be the closest prior art.
However, none of the prior art, taken singly or in combination, teach “wherein the computing unit estimates the environmental temperature by adding a temperature rise value based on the solar radiation information to a weighted average value of the inside air temperature information and the outside air temperature information.”
Claims 5-6 and 8 are indicated as allowable, as they depend on allowable claim 4.
Conclusion
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/SREEYA SREEVATSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838 02/05/2026