DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response preliminary amendments filed on 07/08/2024. Claims 1-10 are pending.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/08/2024 was filed on the filing date of the application. 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 § 102
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.
Claims 1-2 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by O’Gorman US 6456946 B1 (Hereinafter “O’Gorman”).
Regarding Claim 1, O’Gorman teaches a control device (Fig. 3, 104) that controls an N-phase inverter (Fig. 3, 324) when N is an integer of three or more, the control device comprising:
a low-pass filter (Fig. 3, 330) having a frequency characteristic according to a time constant;
a current detection unit (Figs. 3 & 4, 328) that detects, via the low-pass filter, current flowing through an electric resistance unit connected between a DC power supply unit (Figs. 3 & 4, 110) and the N-phase inverter; and
an averaging processing unit (Fig. 3, 220) that executes averaging processing on a current value of the current detected by the current detection unit at a plurality of current detection times (Col. 5, lines 27-31).
Regarding Claim 2, O’Gorman teaches the control device according to claim 1, wherein the N is three (Fig. 4, 334, 336, 338).
Regarding Claim 9, O’Gorman teaches a motor module (Fig. 3, 214, 334, 326) comprising:
the control device (Fig. 3, 104) according to claim 1; and
a motor (Fig. 3, 214) driven by an N-phase inverter (Fig. 3, 324) controlled by the control device when N is an integer of three or more (Fig. 4, 334, 336, 338).
Regarding Claim 10, O’Gorman teaches a control method executed by a control device (Fig. 3, 104) that controls an N-phase inverter when N is an integer of three or more, the control method comprising:
a current detection step of detecting, via a low-pass filter (Fig. 3, 330), current flowing through an electric resistance unit (Figs. 3 & 4, 328) connected between a DC power supply unit (Figs. 3 & 4, 110) and the N-phase inverter; and
an averaging processing step of executing averaging processing on a current value of the current detected by the current detection step at a plurality of current detection times (Col. 5, lines 27-31).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-8 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Imura US 20190190409 A1 teaches a current detection circuit 21 may include an amplifier and a low-pass filter circuit (both not shown)
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/CORTEZ M COOK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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