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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/9/25 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1, claim 1 contains the phrase “on a basis of a detection current that is a motor current” is indefinite because it was already claimed prior to the phrase and creates confusion as it should be labelled “the motor current”.
Claims 2-10 are also rejected as they depend upon claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Takahashi et al. (US 2022/0294377).
Regarding claim 1,
Takahashi discloses (Fig. 15):
A motor control device (fig. 15, 2A), comprising: an inverter (6) that converts a direct current (DC) voltage supplied from a DC power source (3) into an alternating current (AC) voltage (¶0039) and applies the AC voltage to a motor by PWM control (¶0100); a calculation unit (12) that detects a bus current of the inverter (ibus) using a resistor (11, ¶0059) connected between the DC power source (3) and the inverter (6) and calculates, on a basis of the bus current (ibus), a motor current (iu, iv, iw) flowing through the motor (1) at intervals of a predetermined control period (Tb, ¶0074);
a speed estimation unit (15A) that estimates a motor speed (ωe) on a basis of a detection current (ibus) that is a motor current (iu, iv, iw) detected by being calculated by the calculation unit (12); and a current control unit (Fig. 24, 32) that controls the motor current (id, iq, is the motor current in the d-q axis, ¶0197) such that the speed estimated by the speed estimation unit (Fig. 24, 15B, the equivalent to 15A in Fig. 15) is a command speed (30, speed controls based on estimated speed and speed command, ¶0194), the current control unit (32) including an integrator (not shown) that performs integral control at intervals of the predetermined control period (Tb) and stopping performing the integral control in a control period in which the detection current could not be detected (¶0197, ¶0109-¶0113, uses time difference to perform integration and control current).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-10 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sumita et al. (US 2012/0001581) – AC motor controller
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/C.S.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2837 /KAWING CHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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