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
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) 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP2486648 in view of Mondoux et al (2020/0373861) and Kern (2012/0049776).
EP 2486648 discloses controller for controlling brushless dc motor, control comprising fist control loop configured to calculate duty cycle based on sensor signal received from position sensor in motor, see claims. EP2486648 lacks disclosing second control loop to calculate update commutation timing based on present commutation timing, and control commutation in bldc motor based on calculated duty cycle and updated commutation timing. Mondoux et al disclosed calculate update commutation timing see paragraph 10-12. Kern discloses control commutation in bldc motor based on calculated duty cycle and update commutation timing, see paragraph 17. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to combine controller of EP2486648 with commutation timing of Mondoux et al and control with duty cycle and update commutation timing of Kern for improved control.
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.
Claims 15-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claims recite routine data gathering such as adjusting duty cycle and adjusting commutation phase. there is nothing else being done to the motor. The judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. Additional elements that are not abstract such as stator winding and power supply are generic and are not adding significantly more than abstract idea. Additional elements do not integrate abstract idea into practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limit s on practicing abstract idea.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-14 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base cclaim butwould be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Prior art does not disclose measured variable tracks reference value and adaptive control loop.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. 5780986 discloses duty cycle and commutation timing.
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KAREN. MASIH
Examiner
Art Unit 2837
/KAREN MASIH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837