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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 23 October 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 12 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 7,274,170 by Benckenstein et al. (Benckenstein hereinafter) in view of US 9,880,224 by Kudo et al. (Kudo hereinafter).
Regarding claim 12, Benckenstein discloses a battery unit [see at least Figure 1, (202)] configured to be exchangeable with respect to an external load [see at least Figure 1, (46); Abstract, “The plurality of cells or groups of cells connected in series is balanced when the battery pack control module operates in a charging phase, a discharging phase, a quiescent phase, or a storage phase”; column 4, lines 59-65, “A load 46, which is also referred to herein as an application, can be connected to a battery pack system module 202”], the battery unit comprising: a battery member [see at least Figure 1, (19) and (20) to (12) to (46); the battery pack is designed to connect to a load and as “battery member” is very broad, the connection is considered to have a battery member] capable of supplying power to the external load in a state where the battery unit is connected to the external load [see at least column 4, lines 59-65, “A load 46, which is also referred to herein as an application, can be connected to a battery pack system module 202”]; a voltage equalization circuit [see at least Figure 1, (25a), (25b) and (8)] connected to the battery member [see at least Figure 1, (20) to (25a) and (19) to (25b)] and configured to equalize voltages of the battery member [see at least column 6, lines 27-36, “The embodiments can be used to make sure the voltage across the cells is not excessively high, or low”; column 2, lines 42-52, “The battery pack control module enables lithium ion battery pack systems to be balanced at all times or continuously balanced”]; a measurement unit [see at least Figure 1, (24)] that measures at least either a current or a voltage [see at least column 3, line 65 – column 4, line 8, “has a device for measuring cell voltages 24 between cells, between groups of cells or combinations thereof. One or more current measuring, cell voltage measuring”]; and a control unit [see at least Figure 1, (8)] configured to operate with the battery member as a power source in a state where the battery unit is removed from the external load [see at least column 2, lines 1-6, “The embodiments address cell balancing in any one of four states, which include quiescent, charge, discharge and storage”].
Benckenstein fails to explicitly disclose a measurement unit that measures at least either a current flowing through the voltage equalization circuit or a voltage applied to the voltage equalization circuit; and cause a current to flow to the voltage equalization circuit from the battery member at a predetermined timing and acquire a measurement result measured by the measurement unit at a time when the current is caused to flow. However, Kudo discloses a battery monitoring device [see at least Abstract] which balances voltages among battery cells [see at least Figure 5, (S10) to (S40) and (S50)] and measures voltages and currents flowing at predetermined timing [see at least Figure 3; column 6, lines 3-25, “timing of measurement of a cell voltage performed by the cell voltage measurement unit 6 and an example of a variation of a balancing current and a cell voltage. In FIG. 3, a waveform 31 indicated by a solid line on an upper side indicates a cell voltage of a high-order cell and a waveform 32 indicated by a broken line indicates a cell voltage of a low-order cell. Also, a waveform 33 indicated by a solid line on a lower side indicates a balancing current flowing from the high-order cell through the balancing resistor 102 and a waveform 34 indicated by a broken line indicates a balancing current flowing from the low-order cell through the balancing resistor 102.”] when the current is caused to flow [see at least Figure 2, (8a)-(8f); Figure 5, (S40) and (S50); column 9, line 40 – column 11, line 46, “based on a measurement value Id of a discharge current and a resistance value Rs of the resistance component 3… a measurement value of the cell voltage of when current flows from each cell 110 to each balancing resistor 102 are acquired”].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the Applicant's invention to modify the battery pack control module of Benckenstein to include the timing and measuring, as disclosed by Kudo, to accurately measure a cell voltage in a stable state after a transient response from the start of cell balancing. Thus, providing better cell balancing within the system.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 and 5-11 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: claims 1 and 5-11 are allowed as the independent claims have incorporated the allowable subject matter discussed in the previous Office Action dated 2 October 2025.
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
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 Joel Barnett whose telephone number is (571)272-2879. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Regis Betsch can be reached at 571-270-7101. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOEL BARNETT/Examiner, Art Unit 2836
/REGIS J BETSCH/SPE, Art Unit 2836
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