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
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ramakrishnan et al. US 2025/0096614.
Ramakrishnan teaches:
1. A contactless power transmission system comprising:
a power transmitting device comprising:
a power transmitting unit that has a coil (see transmission coil, FIG1) for sending out AC power to be transmitted to a power receiving device in a non-contact manner;
a power transmission power converter that has a plurality of switching elements [as comprising the disclosed bridge circuitry, Spec @ [0035]) connected to the coil, and converts DC power supplied from a power source to AC power (see inverter 114); and
a power transmission side control device (COMMS, 128 and/or CONTROLLER/COMMS 126) comprising a processor configured to execute a program that controls a switching operation of the plurality of switching elements (see [0042] emphasis on “ … the controller/communications module may be configured to send information to the PTx device to effectively control the power delivered to the receiver.”,
wherein the processor of the power transmission side (116 as it is in control of the inverter and thus power control, see [0035, 0037]) executes the program to:
sets a transmission power in an initial power transmission start period at a beginning of power transmission by the power transmitting unit to less than a predetermined power (set point 241a, FIGURE 2 during initial period 242), and
change changes the transmission power in a tendency of an increasing manner toward the predetermined power as a time elapses from a start of power transmission by the power transmitting unit (points 241b, 241c toward 241d).
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(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramakrishnan et al. US 2025/0096614 in view of Cheon et al. US 2023/0387724.
Ramakrishnan fails to teach:
3. The contactless power transmission system according to claim 1,
wherein the power transmission side control device further executes the program to:
control the transmission power according to a duty ratio, or
control the transmission power according to a phase shift amount of a signal that instructs instructing the switching operation of the power transmission power converter.
Cheon teaches wherein an inverter is controlled according to a duty ratio (read on by PWM, see Spec @ [0083]).
It would have been obvious to incorporate the PWM inverter control as taught by Cheon into the system of Ramakrishnan with the motivation of using a known and available technique to realized the power control as well as benefits of PWM including high efficiency and precise control over analog means.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 4 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
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL CAVALLARI whose telephone number is (571)272-8541. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 0900-18:30.
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/DANIEL CAVALLARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836