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 .
Status of the Application
Claims 1-20 have been examined in this application filed on or after March 16, 2013, and are being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . 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. This communication is the First Office Action on the Merits.
Key to Interpreting this Office Action
For readability, all claim language has been bolded. Citations from prior art are provided at the end of each limitation in parenthesis. Any further explanations that were deemed necessary the by Examiner are provided at the end of each claim limitation. The Applicant is encouraged to contact the Examiner directly if there are any questions or concerns regarding the current Office Action.
Double Patenting
Claims 1-2 and 11-12 are provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims of copending Application No. 18/962372, published as Lee (US 20250388125 A1).
Claims 1 and 11 are rejected as the same or obvious variants in view of claims 1 and 17 of copending Application No. 18/962372.
Claims 2 and 12 are rejected as the same or obvious variants in view of claims 8 and 9 of copending Application No. 18/962372.
This is a provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection.
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 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.
Claims 1 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Karim et al. (US 20130141045 A1) herein Karim.
In regards to Claim 1, Karim discloses the following:
1. A method of controlling batteries for a vehicle, (see Fig. 2 and [0030], main battery pack (MBP) 240 and a supplemental battery pack (SBP) 250) the vehicle including a driving motor (see Fig. 2, motor/generator 270) for providing a driving force to a wheel of the vehicle, (see [0005] “electric vehicle”) the method comprising:
selecting, by a controller, a battery among a first battery and a second battery based on a plurality of driving areas and an operation point for the driving motor, (see at least Fig. 4C “MBP” and “SBP”, Fig. 6B, step 620 “POWER DEFICIT AT MOTOR”, [0047] “the SBP is… designed in the battery pack so as to satisfy the power demands of the load, e.g. the EV electric motor” and [0049] “operation 620 determines whether a power deficit exists in the SBP, and if so, proceeds to operation 626 to discharge the MBP in parallel with discharging the SBP in order to supplement the SBP with additional current.”) and
controlling, by the controller, use of the selected battery to supply power to the driving motor (see at least Fig. 6B and [0047]) or receive power regenerated by the driving motor, (see at least [0006] “charge the battery from regenerative braking”)
wherein selecting the battery includes classifying the plurality of driving areas according to a reference power. (see at least Fig. 4C, “SoC”, “DISCHG MAIN BTTY”, “DISCHG SUPPL BTTY”, “DISCHG MAIN + SUPPL BTTY” and point PD)
Karim discloses a plurality of SOC conditions in the graph of Fig. 4C that provide for determination (i.e. selection) of main and supplemental battery use, that is within the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) of “driving areas”, as claimed, wherein the BRI of “driving areas” includes areas on a graph as a vehicle drives. Karim also discloses a motor power deficit condition, within the BRI of an operating point for the driving motor, and selection of a battery thereof, as claimed. The classification of said plurality of driving areas of Karim (e.g. “DISCHG MAIN BTTY”, “DISCHG SUPPL BTTY”, “DISCHG MAIN + SUPPL BTTY”) is based on the “SoC” (i.e. state of charge, AKA a voltage measurement) of the batteries, and therefore is not explicitly a reference power. It should be further noted that battery power levels are also disclosed in Karim. (See at least Table 1 “Peak Power”, Table 2 “Max Power”, “Min Power”, and Table 3 “max power P1”, “max power P2”)
However, as is well known in the art, Power (P) = current (I) * voltage (V). Further, battery SoC is a well-known determination of battery power available in a statis battery (i.e. current = 0). Accordingly, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to use a battery SoC as the power reference function to control the driving areas of Karim, with a reasonable expectation of success, with the motivation of matching battery design ratings to a particular application. The application's need may be in terms of power (rate), total energy (capacity), quantity of cycling, depth of cycling, thermal characteristics, impedance, etc. or some combination of these. (Karim, [0004]) Further, the results of this modification would have been predictable.
In regards to claim 11: Claim 11 is the vehicle controller configured to perform the method of claim 1, and is therefore rejected the same or similar to claim 1, above.
Claims 2-3 and 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Karim et al. (US 20130141045 A1) herein Karim in view of Moriki et al. (US 20130013159 A1).
In regards to claim 2, Karim is silent, but Moriki teaches the following:
2. The method of claim 1, wherein classifying the plurality of driving areas includes classifying the plurality of driving areas according to an equal power reference line of the reference power based on a torque-rotations per minute (RPM) map of the driving motor. (see at least Fig. 1, “Equal power curve L1” and “Equal power curve L2” of a torque-rotations per minute (RPM) map of electric motor during motoring and regeneration, per [0014], of an electric forklift truck, per Fig. 3 and [0023])
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to include the features of Moriki with the invention of Karim, with a reasonable expectation of success, with the motivation of reducing variations in the electric motor when a load is applied. (Moriki, [0005])
In regards to claim 3, Karim discloses the following:
3. The method of claim 2, wherein classifying the plurality of driving areas further includes determining the reference power based on respective usage levels of the first battery and the second battery, the respective usage levels determined based on respective charge levels of the first battery and the second battery. (see at least Fig. 4C, “SoC”, “DISCHG MAIN BTTY”, “DISCHG SUPPL BTTY”, “DISCHG MAIN + SUPPL BTTY” and point PD)
In regards to claims 12-13: Claims 12-13 are the vehicle controllers configured to perform the methods of claims 1-2, and are therefore rejected the same or similar to claims 1-2, above.
Claims 4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Karim in view of Moriki, and further in view of Kelty et al. (US 20120041626 A1) herein Kelty.
In regards to claim 4, Karim is silent, but Kelty teaches the following:
4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the reference power includes determining the reference power based on an expected driving route and the respective usage levels of the first battery and the second battery. (see at least Fig. 3 and [0035] FIG. 3 illustrates the basic methodology associated with… a power source comprised of at least two battery packs of different battery types” and [0037] “In step 309, controller 107 determines the optimal split of battery pack usage based on the distance to travel before recharging and on the calculated power required to reach that distance.” And [0058] “if controller 107 has access to specific route information, for example due to the user inputting a specific destination or travel itinerary into the vehicle's navigation system during step 307, then the vehicle efficiency data input in step 305 is fine tuned.”)
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to include the features of Kelty with the invention of Karim, with a reasonable expectation of success, with the motivation of providing a system that combines a metal-air battery pack with a conventional battery pack in order to gain the benefits and advantages associated with each battery pack type. (Kelty, [0004]-[0006])
In regards to claim 14: Claim 14 is the vehicle controller configured to perform the method of claim 4, and is therefore rejected the same or similar to claim 4, above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 15 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.
Claims 6-10 and 16-20 are also objected to in a similar fashion at least due to dependency upon claims 5 and 15, respectively.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jason Roberson, whose telephone number is (571) 272-7793. The examiner can normally be reached from Monday thru Friday between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM. The examiner may also be reached through e-mail at Jason.Roberson@USPTO.GOV, or via FAX at (571) 273-7793. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Navid Z Mehdizadeh can be reached on (571)-272-7691.
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Applicants are invited to contact the Office to schedule either an in-person or a telephone interview to discuss and resolve the issues set forth in this Office Action. Although an interview is not required, the Office believes that an interview can be of use to resolve any issues related to a patent application in an efficient and prompt manner.
Sincerely,
/JASON R ROBERSON/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3669
January 9, 2026
/NAVID Z. MEHDIZADEH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3669