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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Casares (US 2014/0104902 A1).
For claim 1, Casares discloses an abnormality determination device used in a motor device and that determines an abnormality in the motor device (see Casares, Fig., paragraph [0006], lines 1-11), the abnormality determination device comprising:
a multi-phase alternating current motor (single Fig. of Casares discloses a multi-phase alternating current motor 6 – see Casares, single Fig., paragraph 0024]);
an inverter that drives the multi-phase alternating current motor (single Fig. of Casares discloses an inverter 1 that drives the multi-phase alternating current motor 6 -- see Casares, single Fig., paragraph 0024]), and
a plurality of wires that connects the inverter and a coil of each phase of the multi-phase alternating current motor (single Fig. of Casares discloses a plurality of wires 7-9 that connects the inverter 1 and a coil of each phase of the multi-phase alternating current motor 6 -- see Casares, single Fig., paragraph 0024]), wherein
the abnormality determination device includes a plurality of temperature sensors provided for each of the wires (single Fig. of Casares discloses the abnormality determination device includes a plurality of temperature sensors 16-18 provided for each of the wires 7-9 – see Casares, single Fig., paragraph [0026]), the temperature sensors each being configured to detect a temperature at a position at which an influence of a temperature of a connection portion between the inverter and each of the wires is reduced (Casares discloses the temperature sensors 16-18 each being configured to detect a temperature at a position at which an influence of a temperature of a connection portion between the inverter 1 and each of the wires 7-9 – see Casares, single Fig., paragraphs [0026]. Casares does not specifically disclose an influence of a temperature of a connection portion between the inverter and each of the wires to be reduced. However, Casares discloses the temperature of a connection portion reduced to temperature of the environment when no current flown through inverter because the inverter deactivated by controller –see Casares, paragraphs [0003] and [0008]. Speak differently, Casares obviously discloses an influence of a temperature of a connection portion between the inverter and each of the wires to be reduced. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify teaching of Casares to include influence of a temperature of a connection portion between the inverter and each of the wires to be reduced for purpose of reducing electrical resistance losses), and
the abnormality determination device is configured to determine an abnormality of the motor device based on a variation in a temperature detected by each of the temperature sensors (see Casares, single Fig.; claims 5 and 9; paragraph [0027]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THAI T DINH whose telephone number is (571)270-3852. The examiner can normally be reached (571)270-3852.
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/THAI T DINH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
Aug 22, 2026
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