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 § 102
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 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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2020/0319261 A1 to Kawamura (hereinafter “Kawamura”)
Kawamura discloses a ground fault detection apparatus (ground fault detection device 100 in Fig. 1) for detecting a decrease in an insulation resistance of a system including a battery that is not grounded (ungrounded high voltage battery 300 in Fig. 1) and a Y capacitor (Y capacitors CYp and CYn in Fig. 1), comprising:
a first capacitor (detection capacitor C1 in Fig. 1);
a switching portion (positive-side C-contact switch 111, negative-side C-contact switch 112, and optical MOS-FET 113 in Fig. 1) configured to switch among
a first charging route in which the first capacitor is connected between a cathode and an anode of the battery without being connected to the ground (V0 charging path in Fig. 1),
a second charging route in which the first capacitor is connected between the cathode of the battery and the ground (Vcn charging path in Fig. 1),
a third charging route in which the first capacitor is connected between the anode of the battery and the ground (Vcp charging path in Fig. 1), and
a measurement route for measuring a charging voltage of the first capacitor (measurement path in Fig. 1);
and a control portion (control device 120 in Fig. 1) configured to control the switching portion to measure the charging voltage of the first capacitor,
wherein the control portion is configured to initiate a detection for the decrease in the insulation resistances when a first period has elapsed from an end of a startup process for starting up the ground fault detection apparatus (control device 120 initiates the full detection cycle as shown in the timing charts of Figs. 2-7 after power-up/startup of the ground fault detection device 100).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-9 allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 2-7 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.
As to claim 2-7, the prior art in record in alone and/or in combination does not discloses wherein the first period is calculated based on a value of the insulation resistance and a capacity of the Y capacitor, as recited in claims 2-7; and controlling the switching portion to measure a charging voltage of the first capacitor and to perform a detection of a decrease in the insulation resistance based on the measured charging voltage of the first capacitor, wherein the insulation-resistance-decrease detection step is initiated when a first period has elapsed from a startup process for starting up the ground fault detection apparatus is finished, as recited in claims 8-9.
Conclusion
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/TUNG X NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858 3/21/26