DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to applicant’s communication filed on 11.5.24. In view of this communication, claims 1-8 are now pending in this application.
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 Objections
Claims below are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 5 recites “a battery that applies an operating power source of the prime mover” wherein underlined as per specification Para 0024 should be corrected to “a battery that applies an operating power source for the prime mover” .
Appropriate correction is required.
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4,6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Scott et al (US5886504A), hereinafter Scott.
Regarding Claim 1, Scott discloses (Figs 1-2,5,27-28,30) a power generator (20,18) that is provided with a cylindrical rotor (20) including a plurality of permanent magnets (204), and a cylindrical stator (18) that includes a plurality of coils (400) and is arranged concentrically (Fig 2) with the rotor, and generates a voltage by rotating the rotor(this is inherent to generator), comprising:
a rotational position detection unit (512 is zero crossing detector) that detects a rotational position of the rotor;
a first switching element (2702,2708) provided on a first path (2703-2702-L1, L2-2708-2707) through which an induced current generated in the coils flows in correspondence with a variation in a distance between the permanent magnet and the coils(This is inherent in a generator such as in Fig 2 where current and voltage are a function of rate of change of magnetic flux which in turn depends upon the approach and departure of rotor magnets relative to coils); and
a control unit (22) that controls the first switching element (2702,2708) to be turned off in a first period (Fig 28, 2802) that is at least a part of a period (Fig 28 time period includes periods where electromagnetic resistance due to back emf and Fig 28 discloses a creation of a sinusoidal wave similar to Applicant Fig 6c using a cylindrical rotor stator configuration similar to Applicant ) in which electromagnetic resistance in a direction opposite to a rotational direction of the rotor occurs due to flowing of the induced current and controls the first switching element to be turned on (Fig 30) in a period other than the first period (Col 45, Line 61-63 discloses either turned or turned off, therefore time periods are not overlapping) on the basis of a rotational position of the rotor (Fig 28 is based on zero crossing which is measured by rotor position) which is detected by the rotational position detection unit (512) [Col45, lines 53-60 discloses generation of a desired sine wave by selectively actuating and deactuating power switch circuits 2702-2708].
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Regarding Claim 2, Scott discloses the power generator according to claim 1. Scott further discloses comprising: a second switching element (2704,2706) provided on a second path (2703-2704-L2, L1-2706-2707) for causing a current to flow through the coil in a direction opposite to a direction in which the induced current flows, wherein the control unit controls the second switching element to be turned (Col 45, Line 61-63) on in a second period (Fig 28, another 2802) that is at least a part of the first period (Second 2802 duration T2 to T3 is at least equal to a portion of 0 to T1 in Fig 28 ) in which the first switching element is turned off, and controls the second switching element to be turned off in a period other than (0 to T2) the second period (T2-T3).
Regarding Claim 3, Scott discloses the power generator according to claim 2. Scott further discloses wherein the first switching element (2702,2708) and the second switching element (2704,2706) form an H-bridge circuit (Fig 27 arrangement is H-bridge).
Regarding Claim 4, Scott discloses the power generator according to claim 1. Scott further discloses wherein the control unit (22) monitors whether the rotor has reached a steady state of constant speed rotation [Col 50, Lines 18-46] on the basis of detection result signals sequentially output from the rotational position detection unit in correspondence with rotation of the rotor, and controls on/off of the switching elements after detecting that the steady state has been reached [Col 50, Lines 18-46 discloses throttle control 3908 to maintain engine speed as indicated by ZEROX which is rotational position detection].
Regarding Claim 6, Scott discloses the power generator according to claim 2. Scott further discloses wherein the control unit (22) monitors whether the rotor has reached a steady state of constant speed rotation [Col 50, Lines 18-46] on the basis of detection result signals sequentially output from the rotational position detection unit in correspondence with rotation of the rotor, and controls on/off of the switching elements after detecting that the steady state has been reached [Col 50, Lines 18-46 discloses throttle control 3908 to maintain engine speed as indicated by ZEROX which is rotational position detection].
Regarding Claim 7, Scott discloses the power generator according to claim 3. Scott further discloses wherein the control unit (22) monitors whether the rotor has reached a steady state of constant speed rotation [Col 50, Lines 18-46] on the basis of detection result signals sequentially output from the rotational position detection unit in correspondence with rotation of the rotor, and controls on/off of the switching elements after detecting that the steady state has been reached [Col 50, Lines 18-46 discloses throttle control 3908 to maintain engine speed as indicated by ZEROX which is rotational position detection].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5,8 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:
Claim 5 recites “A power generation system, comprising:the power generator according to claim 2 or 3;a prime mover that applies a rotational driving force to the rotor;a battery that applies an operating power source of the prime mover; a charge and discharge changeover switch that switches charge or discharge of the battery; and a second control unit that controls the charge and discharge changeover switch to be switched from a discharge side to a charge side in a case where a current flowing back through the second switching element occurs in the second period so as to charge the battery by the flowing back current”. Scott recites power generator system (Fig 1) with power generator (18,20) , a prime mover (14) that applies a rotational driving force to the rotor (20) and charge and discharge mechanism for the capacitive circuit 2710 in Col 43 Lines 5 to30 but does not explicitly disclose charge and discharge of battery with switching mechanism during a current flowback in the second period. Therefore claim 5 is allowable. Claim 8 has similar limitations as Claim 5, therefore is allowable.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VISWANATHAN SUBRAMANIAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4814. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 5:00 pm.
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/VISWANATHAN SUBRAMANIAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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