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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim(s) 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s):
1. A server apparatus comprising:
a communication interface; and
a controller configured to:
communicate using the communication interface; and
transmit, when a power sale price corresponding to a predetermined electrical energy of a battery of a vehicle is equal to or higher than a power purchase price corresponding to the predetermined electrical energy, permission information to enable sale of power of the predetermined electrical energy from the battery.
The underlined limitations represent certain methods of organizing human activity, commercial interactions comprising sales activities because the claims recite promoting the sale of energy.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims add the words "apply it", or the like by including the use of a server apparatus to execute the abstract idea. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the server apparatus is generically recited such that it is not a particular machine or does not perform operations which cannot be performed manually.
The remaining claims merely narrow the abstract idea by performing determinations of when to discharge power and at what prices.
As a whole and n combination, the claims comprise the abstract idea with the words apply it and are therefore patent-ineligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sakata (2023/0070376) and further in view of Naito (2016/0241071).
Sakata discloses:
1. A server apparatus comprising:
a communication interface (0012, 0013); and
a controller (0012, 0013) configured to:
communicate using the communication interface (0013); and
transmit, when a power sale price corresponding to a predetermined electrical energy of a battery of a vehicle is equal to or higher than a power purchase price corresponding to the predetermined electrical energy (0048, resource aggregator 13 may control the price of electricity…raising the electricity purchase price…enables…to attract more electric vehicles…to respond to the request for discharging), permission information to enable sale of power of the predetermined electrical energy from the battery (0013, permit interchange of electric power).
Sakata does not specifically disclose that the sale price is higher than the purchase price, however;
Naito discloses:
(0010, and the control unit being configured to cause the storage battery to perform a discharge to the load when the electricity price is equal to or higher than the unit charging price.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Sakata so that the sale price is greater than the purchase price to help save the consumer money.
Sakata does not disclose; however, Naito discloses:
4. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to derive the power purchase price using a price at a time when the predetermined electrical energy was charged (0030, In this connection, when the electric energy at 1.25 kWh is charged from the electric power system to the storage battery 2 having the above-described charge/discharge efficiencies in the time slot of electricity price: 10 yen/1.00 kWh, the electric energy dischargeable to the load is 1.00 kWh. Therefore, the electricity price which costs for charging this electric energy to the storage battery 2 is 12.5 yen. Therefore, the unit charging price of the storage battery 2 per 1.00 kWh is 12.5 yen in this case.), or a price that is predicted at a time when the predetermined electrical energy is to be purchased after the sale of power of the predetermined electrical energy.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Sakata to determine the sale price to help save the consumer money.
Claim(s) 2 and 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sakata (2023/0070376) and further in view of Naito (2016/0241071) and OH (2012/0005126).
Sakata does not disclose; however, OH discloses:
2. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to transmit a power sale plan indicating a time period in which the sale of power of the predetermined electrical energy from the battery is to be performed ([0168] That is, the scheduler 73 identifies charging and discharging timing at which the user can make the most profit using the price information of electricity depending on time of day and accordingly determines the charging schedule and the discharging schedule.).
Sakata does not disclose; however, OH discloses:
3. The server apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the controller is configured to predict a change in the power sale price based on a time (0175, scheduler sorts 2 hours…with reference to the price…depending on time of day…from 14 o’clock to 16 o’clock.) and/or a location at which the sale of power is to be performed, and/or a weather.
One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to modify Sakata with the charging schedule so that the consumer may predictably charge and discharge electricity reliably and economically.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sakata (2023/0070376) and further in view of Naito (2016/0241071) and Nakajima (2011/0178959).
Sakata does not disclose; however, Nakajima discloses:
5. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to use, when a plurality of power sale prices corresponds to the sale of power of the predetermined electrical energy, an average of the plurality of power sale prices (0014, a determination unit to determine a first electricity price threshold and a second electricity price threshold, the first electricity price threshold being determined by using an average data or a middle value of the time-series data during a certain duration).
One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to modify Sakata with the price determination so that the consumer may economically charge and discharge electricity.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM E RANKINS whose telephone number is (571)270-3465. The examiner can normally be reached on 9-530 M-F.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Bennett Sigmond can be reached on 303-297-4411. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WILLIAM E RANKINS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3694