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 § 103
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kitanaka (US 20090015199) in view of Nakamura et al. (US 20080185197) in view of Otsuka et al. (US 20230387713).
With respect to claim 1 Kitanaka teaches an electric vehicle control device, comprising:
a power converter (50) mountable on an electric vehicle and configured to receive power from a power supply (1) and convert direct current power to direct current power;
a breaker (8) to switch between connection and disconnection of a current flowing between the power supply and the power converter;
a first contactor (31b/71b) connected in series to a resistor (32) between (seen best in Fig. 1) the power converter and the breaker; and
a second switch (46c) connected in parallel (see for example parallel path of discharge circuit shown in Fig. 1) to the resistor and the first contactor and configured to switch between connection and disconnection of a current flowing between the power converter and the power supply,
wherein when the power converter charges a capacitor (43) with power from the power supply (1) by turning off the second switch and turning on the breaker and the first contactor (precharge path 31b closed),
the power converter turns on the second contactor (46c) after performing control to turn off the breaker (1 during sudden switch off or excess current paragraph 0201) to disconnect power from the power supply upon detecting an abnormality (see sudden interruption paragraph 0222 for example) in the electric vehicle.
Kitanaka does not teach the converting alternating current. Nakamura teaches the known use of a direct current to alternating current (see inverter). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Kitanaka to include the known use of a direct current to alternating current conversion for the benefit of efficiently driving a vehicle motor.
Kitanaka does not teach the second switch is contactor. Otsuka teaches the known use of a contactor as a known alternative in discharge operations (see 61). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Kitanaka to include the use of a contactor for the benefit of increased safety.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 is allowed. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: Kitanaka as modified above teaches the electrical vehicle control system however does not teach the further limitation notifying the power converter in the second electric vehicle control device of the abnormality in the first electric vehicle control device, and the power converter in the second electric vehicle control device turns on the second contactor in the second electric vehicle control device upon being notified of the abnormality in the first electric vehicle control device by the power converter in the first electric vehicle control device. At least this further limitation is not taught or rendered obvious by the prior art of record.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Chiba et al. (WO 2020110288) teaches a architecture and arrangement of contactors relevant to the claims.
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MICHAEL FIN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2836
/MICHAEL R. FIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836
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