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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending, of which claims 1, 8, and 16 are independent claims.
Specification Objections
In accord with MPEP 606, the title of an invention should not begin with “A” or “An”. Also, the title of the invention is not fully descriptive. A new title is required that includes the invention to which the claims are directed, specifically to ‘SYSTEM AND METHOD OF COMMUNICATING TO REQUEST MANUAL RESET AT THE CHARGING STATION’.
Claim Objections
The following claims are objected to for lack of antecedent support or for redundancies. The Examiner recommends the following changes:
Claim 1, line 9, replace “a current” with “the current”.
Appropriate correction is respectfully requested.
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.
Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 5 recites “the visual alert protocol comprises initiating flashing lights at a charging station that requires manual restart to resume charging”. Claim 6 recites “wherein the visual alert protocol comprises initiating flashing lights of the car that is connected to a charging station that requires manual restart to resume charging.” However, the visual alert protocol is not recited in independent claim 1, from which claims 5 and 6 depend. Rather, the visual alert protocol is first introduced in claim 4. Therefore, for purposes of examination, claims 5 and 6 will be construed as depending from claim 4. Appropriate correction
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.
Claims 1-3, 8-15, and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US Patent Publication No. 2024/0326639 A1 to Ahtikari (“Ahtikari”).
Regarding independent claim 1, Ahtikari teaches:
A system, comprising: Ahtikari: Paragraph [0022] (“FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a fault management system of a network of electric vehicle charging stations according to an example embodiment;”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0029] (“Electric vehicle charging stations are used to charge electric vehicles (EV). In this disclosure, the electric vehicle charging stations can be called charging stations. The charging stations may be connected to a Charging Station Management System (CSMS) with OCPP protocol (Open Charge Point Protocol). EV drivers own electric vehicles (EV) and charge their EVs on charging stations.”)
a memory that stores computer executable components; and a processor that executes the computer executable components stored in the memory, wherein the computer executable components comprise: Ahtikari: Paragraph [0081] (“FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an apparatus 600 configured to practice one or more example embodiments.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0083] (“The apparatus 600 may further comprise at least one memory 604. The memory may be configured to store, for example, computer program code 606 or the like, for example operating system software and application software. The memory 604 may comprise one or more volatile memory devices, one or more non-volatile memory devices, and/or a combination thereof. For example, the memory may be embodied as magnetic storage devices (such as hard disk drives, magnetic tapes, etc.), optical magnetic storage devices, or semiconductor memories (such as mask ROM, PROM (programmable ROM), EPROM (erasable PROM), flash ROM, RAM (random access memory), etc.).”)
a fault detection component that monitors a current charging session for a fault and determines a fault type if the fault is detected; Ahtikari: Paragraph [0038] (“The network 100 may comprise hundreds of charging stations.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0039] (“Each charging station may be communicatively coupled to a CSMS server 102. The CSMS server 102 may be configured to perform one or more actions based on triggers received from the network 100. The CSMS server 102 may be configured to determine a fault priority index for each of the charging stations based on a trigger received from the respective charging station.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0040] (“The one or more actions may be performed based on the fault priority indexes. The fault priority indexes may be used by the CSMS server 102 to prioritize some faults over other faults. The faults may be prioritized such that instead of reporting each fault 104 to maintenance 106, only the faults which are determined to require attention from the maintenance cause creation of a notification. The notification may be created after automated actions initiated by the CSMS server 102 do not solve the fault and when the fault priority index exceed a predetermined threshold. Hence, maintenance of the network 100 may be automated and speeded up as the number of alerts requiring attention from maintenance personnel 106 may be reduced and focused based on their urgency.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0058] (“…the report indicates the most urgent faults.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0042] (“At 202, the method may comprise detecting a trigger for calculation of a fault priority index for at least one electric vehicle charging station. In an embodiment, the trigger may be obtained from a healthy charging station indicating the charging station has gone offline or has some other kind of a fault. A healthy charging station may refer to a charging station which is online and works as it should, i.e., there are no faults.”) [The CSMS server receiving a fault from the network (i.e., charging station) and based on the fault, initiating an automated action to solve the fault reads on “a fault detection component that monitors a current charging session for a fault and determines a fault type if the fault is detected”.]
a fault resolution component that initiates correction actions, provides visual indication that charging has stopped and determines if manual restart is required to resume charging; and Ahtikari: Paragraph [0040] [As described above.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0056] (“After the one or more automatic actions are performed, the method may comprise determining if manual actions are required. If yes, then the method may comprise creating a ticket to a remote maintenance personnel or to onsite maintenance personnel in a hierarchical manner.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0059] (“The report may comprise detailed information about the charging stations, such as their owner and contact person. A user may select any of the reported charging stations to view more details on individual faults. The detailed fault report may comprise, for example, basic information of the charging station such as name of the charging station, a location, a company, the contact information, POI (point-of-interest) information, etc. The report may show in detail from which things (fault indicators) the fault priority index comes from, how serious the problem is, and possible actions needed to fix the issues.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0062] (“When a charging station has some fault... Each trigger may be associated with a timestamp. Alternatively, or in addition, the fault trend of an individual charging stations may be tracked by summing up the fault priority index values of the individual charging station on the given time period. In an embodiment, the method may comprise providing such fault trends to be displayed to a user.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0033] (“A charging station may be also rebooted automatically when the charging station sends an alert of a fault. This may solve some problems, but not all of them. Further, the charging station may be offline so it may not be rebooted remotely, or the charging station may not even send the alert which would trigger the reboot in a first place.”) [The CSMS server transmitting the automated actions and/or rebooting automatically a charging station based on a fault reads on “a fault resolution component that initiates correction actions”. The report including detailed information including individual faults displayed to a user reads on “provides visual indication that charging has stopped”. Determining that a manual action is required reads on “determines if manual restart is required to resume charging”.]
a notification component notifies an owner of a current charging session if determined that manual restart is required. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0040] and [0056] [As described above.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0057] (“For example, rebooting may be tried first, and if that does not solve the fault, the method may comprise next trying remote firmware update. If that does not help, the method may comprise trying to reset the internet connectivity. One further option is to alert remote maintenance. Some faults may be caused, for example, by invalid configurations, old firmware versions, etc., which may be solved remotely by the maintenance personnel. One further option is to alert onsite maintenance. For example, when something is physically broken it may be needed to alert a maintenance person to replace one or more components of the charging station or do other maintenance tasks onsite.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0059] (“The report may comprise detailed information about the charging stations, such as their owner and contact person. A user may select any of the reported charging stations to view more details on individual faults. The detailed fault report may comprise, for example, basic information of the charging station such as name of the charging station, a location, a company, the contact information, POI (point-of-interest) information, etc. The report may show in detail from which things (fault indicators) the fault priority index comes from, how serious the problem is, and possible actions needed to fix the issues.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0068] (“As shown in the example of FIG. 4 , only higher priority level issues may be notified to remote or onsite maintenance if the configured automatic actions are not enough to solve the issue. Hence, only the most urgent problems, which cannot be solved automatically or remotely, may be reported for onsite maintenance.”)
Regarding claim 2, Ahtikari teaches all the claimed features of claim 1, from which claim 2 depends. Ahtikari further teaches:
The system of claim 1, further comprising: a communication component transmits a manual reset request message to the owner of the current charging session, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station and instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0043] and [0059] [As described in claim 1.] [The location of the charging station transmitted to the user reads on “a location data of the charging station”. The possible actions needed to fix the issues based on the report read on “instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type”.]
Regarding claim 3, Ahtikari teaches all the claimed features of claim 1, from which claim 3 depends. Ahtikari further teaches:
The system of claim 1, further comprising: a communication component broadcasts a manual reset request message, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station and instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0043] and [0059] [As described in claim 1.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0055] (“In many cases, rebooting the charging station helps to correct the fault. In addition to the reboot, for example doing a firmware update to a latest firmware version may help to overcome the problem. Further, the automated action may comprise sending a ‘cancel location’-message to a sim-card of the charging station to reset internet connectivity of the charging station.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0056] (“After the one or more automatic actions are performed, the method may comprise determining if manual actions are required. If yes, then the method may comprise creating a ticket to a remote maintenance personnel or to onsite maintenance personnel in a hierarchical manner.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0057] (“For example, rebooting may be tried first, and if that does not solve the fault, the method may comprise next trying remote firmware update. If that does not help, the method may comprise trying to reset the internet connectivity.”) [The CSMS server transmitting the ticket or report to reboot the internet connectivity of the faulted charging station at the location of the charging station reads on “a communication component broadcasts a manual reset request message, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station”. The possible actions needed to fix the issues based on the report read on “instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type”.]
Regarding independent claim 8, Ahtikari teaches:
A method for controlling an enclosure of a vehicle, comprising: Ahtikari: Paragraph [0005] (“…a method to manage faults of electric vehicle charging stations …”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0022] (“FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a fault management system of a network of electric vehicle charging stations according to an example embodiment;”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0029] (“Electric vehicle charging stations are used to charge electric vehicles (EV). In this disclosure, the electric vehicle charging stations can be called charging stations. The charging stations may be connected to a Charging Station Management System (CSMS) with OCPP protocol (Open Charge Point Protocol). EV drivers own electric vehicles (EV) and charge their EVs on charging stations.”)
monitoring, by a system of the charging stations comprising one or more components, a current charging session for a fault; determining, by the system, a fault type if the fault was detected; Ahtikari: Paragraph [0038] (“The network 100 may comprise hundreds of charging stations.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0039] (“Each charging station may be communicatively coupled to a CSMS server 102. The CSMS server 102 may be configured to perform one or more actions based on triggers received from the network 100. The CSMS server 102 may be configured to determine a fault priority index for each of the charging stations based on a trigger received from the respective charging station.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0040] (“The one or more actions may be performed based on the fault priority indexes. The fault priority indexes may be used by the CSMS server 102 to prioritize some faults over other faults. The faults may be prioritized such that instead of reporting each fault 104 to maintenance 106, only the faults which are determined to require attention from the maintenance cause creation of a notification. The notification may be created after automated actions initiated by the CSMS server 102 do not solve the fault and when the fault priority index exceed a predetermined threshold. Hence, maintenance of the network 100 may be automated and speeded up as the number of alerts requiring attention from maintenance personnel 106 may be reduced and focused based on their urgency.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0058] (“…the report indicates the most urgent faults.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0042] (“At 202, the method may comprise detecting a trigger for calculation of a fault priority index for at least one electric vehicle charging station. In an embodiment, the trigger may be obtained from a healthy charging station indicating the charging station has gone offline or has some other kind of a fault. A healthy charging station may refer to a charging station which is online and works as it should, i.e., there are no faults.”) [The CSMS server receiving a fault from the network (i.e., charging station) and based on the fault, initiating an automated action to solve the fault reads on “monitoring, by a system of the charging stations comprising one or more components, a current charging session for a fault; determining, by the system, a fault type if the fault was detected”.]
providing, by the system, a visual indication if the charging has stopped and manual restart is required to resume charging; and Ahtikari: Paragraph [0040] [As described above.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0056] (“After the one or more automatic actions are performed, the method may comprise determining if manual actions are required. If yes, then the method may comprise creating a ticket to a remote maintenance personnel or to onsite maintenance personnel in a hierarchical manner.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0059] (“The report may comprise detailed information about the charging stations, such as their owner and contact person. A user may select any of the reported charging stations to view more details on individual faults. The detailed fault report may comprise, for example, basic information of the charging station such as name of the charging station, a location, a company, the contact information, POI (point-of-interest) information, etc. The report may show in detail from which things (fault indicators) the fault priority index comes from, how serious the problem is, and possible actions needed to fix the issues.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0062] (“When a charging station has some fault... Each trigger may be associated with a timestamp. Alternatively, or in addition, the fault trend of an individual charging stations may be tracked by summing up the fault priority index values of the individual charging station on the given time period. In an embodiment, the method may comprise providing such fault trends to be displayed to a user.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0033] (“A charging station may be also rebooted automatically when the charging station sends an alert of a fault. This may solve some problems, but not all of them. Further, the charging station may be offline so it may not be rebooted remotely, or the charging station may not even send the alert which would trigger the reboot in a first place.”) [The report including detailed information including individual faults displayed to a user reads on “providing, by the system, a visual indication if the charging has stopped”. Determining that a manual action is required reads on “manual restart is required to resume charging”.]
notifying, by the system, an owner of a current charging session if determined that manual restart is required. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0040] and [0056] [As described above.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0057] (“For example, rebooting may be tried first, and if that does not solve the fault, the method may comprise next trying remote firmware update. If that does not help, the method may comprise trying to reset the internet connectivity. One further option is to alert remote maintenance. Some faults may be caused, for example, by invalid configurations, old firmware versions, etc., which may be solved remotely by the maintenance personnel. One further option is to alert onsite maintenance. For example, when something is physically broken it may be needed to alert a maintenance person to replace one or more components of the charging station or do other maintenance tasks onsite.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0059] (“The report may comprise detailed information about the charging stations, such as their owner and contact person. A user may select any of the reported charging stations to view more details on individual faults. The detailed fault report may comprise, for example, basic information of the charging station such as name of the charging station, a location, a company, the contact information, POI (point-of-interest) information, etc. The report may show in detail from which things (fault indicators) the fault priority index comes from, how serious the problem is, and possible actions needed to fix the issues.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0068] (“As shown in the example of FIG. 4 , only higher priority level issues may be notified to remote or onsite maintenance if the configured automatic actions are not enough to solve the issue. Hence, only the most urgent problems, which cannot be solved automatically or remotely, may be reported for onsite maintenance.”)
Regarding claim 9, Ahtikari teaches all the claimed features of claim 8, from which claim 9 depends. Ahtikari further teaches:
The method of claim 8, further comprising:
initiating, by the system, correction actions; and Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0040], [056], [0059], and [0062] [As described in claim 8.]
transmitting, by the system, a manual reset request message to the owner of the current charging session, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station and instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0043] and [0059] [As described in claim 8.] [The location of the charging station transmitted to the user reads on “a location data of the charging station”. The possible actions needed to fix the issues based on the report read on “instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type”.]
Regarding claim 10, Ahtikari teaches all the claimed features of claim 8, from which claim 10 depends. Ahtikari further teaches:
The method of claim 8, further comprising: initiating, by the system, correction actions; and Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0040], [056], [0059], and [0062] [As described in claim 8.]
broadcasting, by the system, a manual reset request message, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station and instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0043] and [0059] [As described in claim 8.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0055] (“In many cases, rebooting the charging station helps to correct the fault. In addition to the reboot, for example doing a firmware update to a latest firmware version may help to overcome the problem. Further, the automated action may comprise sending a ‘cancel location’-message to a sim-card of the charging station to reset internet connectivity of the charging station.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0056] (“After the one or more automatic actions are performed, the method may comprise determining if manual actions are required. If yes, then the method may comprise creating a ticket to a remote maintenance personnel or to onsite maintenance personnel in a hierarchical manner.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0057] (“For example, rebooting may be tried first, and if that does not solve the fault, the method may comprise next trying remote firmware update. If that does not help, the method may comprise trying to reset the internet connectivity.”) [The CSMS server transmitting the ticket or report to reboot the internet connectivity of the faulted charging station at the location of the charging station reads on “broadcasting, by the system, a manual reset request message, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station”. The possible actions needed to fix the issues based on the report read on “instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type”.]
Regarding claims 11-13, in accordance with MPEP 2111.04 (II), Contingent Limitations, “The broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition(s) precedent are not met. For example, assume a method claim requires step A if a first condition happens and step B if a second condition happens. If the claimed invention may be practiced without either the first or second condition happening, then neither step A or B is required by the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim.” Thus, the claimed features of claims 11-13 are not given patentable weight in view of the conditional limitations. For instance, regarding claim 11, the initiating is only performed if there is no response received from the owner of the current charging station. Broadly and reasonably construed, the claim is construed as a response being received from the owner. No patentable weigh is given to the initiating limitation of the visual alert protocol. Claims 12 and 13 are not given patentable weight as the claims are further defining the initiating of the visual alert protocol of claim 11.
Regarding claim 14, in accordance with MPEP 2111.04 (II), Contingent Limitations, “The broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition(s) precedent are not met. For example, assume a method claim requires step A if a first condition happens and step B if a second condition happens. If the claimed invention may be practiced without either the first or second condition happening, then neither step A or B is required by the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim.” Thus, the claimed features of claim 14 is not given patentable weight in view of the conditional limitations. Specifically, the notification is only performed if manual restart has not occurred within a predetermined time. Broadly and reasonably construed, the claim is construed as a manual restart has occurred within a predetermined time. No patentable weigh is given to the notification limitation.
Regarding claim 15, in accordance with MPEP 2111.04 (II), Contingent Limitations, “The broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition(s) precedent are not met. For example, assume a method claim requires step A if a first condition happens and step B if a second condition happens. If the claimed invention may be practiced without either the first or second condition happening, then neither step A or B is required by the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim.” Thus, the claimed features of claim 15 is not given patentable weight in view of the conditional limitations. Specifically, the notification is only performed if manual restart has not occurred within a predetermined time. Broadly and reasonably construed, the claim is construed as a manual restart has occurred within a predetermined time. No patentable weigh is given to the notification limitation.
Regarding independent claim 16, Ahtikari teaches:
A non-transitory machine-readable medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising: Ahtikari: Paragraph [0086] (“The functionality described herein may be performed, at least in part, by one or more computer program product components such as software components. According to an embodiment, the apparatus comprises a processor or processor circuitry, such as for example a microcontroller, configured by the program code when executed to execute the embodiments of the operations and functionality described.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0091] (“An apparatus may be configured to perform or cause performance of any aspect of the method(s) described herein. Further, a computer program may comprise instructions for causing, when executed, an apparatus to perform any aspect of the method(s) described herein. Further, an apparatus may comprise means for performing any aspect of the method(s) described herein. According to an example embodiment, the means comprises at least one processor, and memory including program code, the at one memory and the program code configured to, when executed by the at least one processor, cause performance of any aspect of the method(s).”)
monitoring a current charging session for a fault; determining a fault type if the fault was detected; Ahtikari: Paragraph [0038] (“The network 100 may comprise hundreds of charging stations.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0039] (“Each charging station may be communicatively coupled to a CSMS server 102. The CSMS server 102 may be configured to perform one or more actions based on triggers received from the network 100. The CSMS server 102 may be configured to determine a fault priority index for each of the charging stations based on a trigger received from the respective charging station.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0040] (“The one or more actions may be performed based on the fault priority indexes. The fault priority indexes may be used by the CSMS server 102 to prioritize some faults over other faults. The faults may be prioritized such that instead of reporting each fault 104 to maintenance 106, only the faults which are determined to require attention from the maintenance cause creation of a notification. The notification may be created after automated actions initiated by the CSMS server 102 do not solve the fault and when the fault priority index exceed a predetermined threshold. Hence, maintenance of the network 100 may be automated and speeded up as the number of alerts requiring attention from maintenance personnel 106 may be reduced and focused based on their urgency.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0058] (“…the report indicates the most urgent faults.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0042] (“At 202, the method may comprise detecting a trigger for calculation of a fault priority index for at least one electric vehicle charging station. In an embodiment, the trigger may be obtained from a healthy charging station indicating the charging station has gone offline or has some other kind of a fault. A healthy charging station may refer to a charging station which is online and works as it should, i.e., there are no faults.”) [The CSMS server receiving a fault from the network (i.e., charging station) and based on the fault, initiating an automated action to solve the fault reads on “monitoring a current charging session for a fault” and “determining a fault type if the fault was detected”.]
initiating correction actions; providing a visual indication if the charging has stopped and manual restart is required to resume charging; and Ahtikari: Paragraph [0040] [As described above.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0056] (“After the one or more automatic actions are performed, the method may comprise determining if manual actions are required. If yes, then the method may comprise creating a ticket to a remote maintenance personnel or to onsite maintenance personnel in a hierarchical manner.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0059] (“The report may comprise detailed information about the charging stations, such as their owner and contact person. A user may select any of the reported charging stations to view more details on individual faults. The detailed fault report may comprise, for example, basic information of the charging station such as name of the charging station, a location, a company, the contact information, POI (point-of-interest) information, etc. The report may show in detail from which things (fault indicators) the fault priority index comes from, how serious the problem is, and possible actions needed to fix the issues.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0062] (“When a charging station has some fault... Each trigger may be associated with a timestamp. Alternatively, or in addition, the fault trend of an individual charging stations may be tracked by summing up the fault priority index values of the individual charging station on the given time period. In an embodiment, the method may comprise providing such fault trends to be displayed to a user.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0033] (“A charging station may be also rebooted automatically when the charging station sends an alert of a fault. This may solve some problems, but not all of them. Further, the charging station may be offline so it may not be rebooted remotely, or the charging station may not even send the alert which would trigger the reboot in a first place.”) [The CSMS server transmitting the automated actions and/or rebooting automatically a charging station based on a fault reads on “initiating correction actions”. The report including detailed information including individual faults displayed to a user reads on “providing a visual indication if the charging has stopped”. Determining that a manual action is required reads on “manual restart is required to resume charging”.]
notifying an owner of a current charging session if determined that manual restart is required. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0040] and [0056] [As described above.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0057] (“For example, rebooting may be tried first, and if that does not solve the fault, the method may comprise next trying remote firmware update. If that does not help, the method may comprise trying to reset the internet connectivity. One further option is to alert remote maintenance. Some faults may be caused, for example, by invalid configurations, old firmware versions, etc., which may be solved remotely by the maintenance personnel. One further option is to alert onsite maintenance. For example, when something is physically broken it may be needed to alert a maintenance person to replace one or more components of the charging station or do other maintenance tasks onsite.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0059] (“The report may comprise detailed information about the charging stations, such as their owner and contact person. A user may select any of the reported charging stations to view more details on individual faults. The detailed fault report may comprise, for example, basic information of the charging station such as name of the charging station, a location, a company, the contact information, POI (point-of-interest) information, etc. The report may show in detail from which things (fault indicators) the fault priority index comes from, how serious the problem is, and possible actions needed to fix the issues.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0068] (“As shown in the example of FIG. 4 , only higher priority level issues may be notified to remote or onsite maintenance if the configured automatic actions are not enough to solve the issue. Hence, only the most urgent problems, which cannot be solved automatically or remotely, may be reported for onsite maintenance.”)
Regarding claim 17, Ahtikari teaches all the claimed features of claim 16, from which claim 17 depends. Ahtikari further teaches:
The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising: transmitting a manual reset request message to the owner of the current charging session, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station and instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0043] and [0059] [As described in claim 16.] [The location of the charging station transmitted to the user reads on “a location data of the charging station”. The possible actions needed to fix the issues based on the report read on “instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type”.]
Regarding claim 18, Ahtikari teaches all the claimed features of claim 16, from which claim 18 depends. Ahtikari further teaches:
The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising: broadcasting a manual reset request message, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station and instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type. Ahtikari: Paragraphs [0043] and [0059] [As described in claim 16.] Ahtikari: Paragraph [0055] (“In many cases, rebooting the charging station helps to correct the fault. In addition to the reboot, for example doing a firmware update to a latest firmware version may help to overcome the problem. Further, the automated action may comprise sending a ‘cancel location’-message to a sim-card of the charging station to reset internet connectivity of the charging station.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0056] (“After the one or more automatic actions are performed, the method may comprise determining if manual actions are required. If yes, then the method may comprise creating a ticket to a remote maintenance personnel or to onsite maintenance personnel in a hierarchical manner.”) Ahtikari: Paragraph [0057] (“For example, rebooting may be tried first, and if that does not solve the fault, the method may comprise next trying remote firmware update. If that does not help, the method may comprise trying to reset the internet connectivity.”) [The CSMS server transmitting the ticket or report to reboot the internet connectivity of the faulted charging station at the location of the charging station reads on “broadcasting a manual reset request message, the manual reset request message comprising a location data of the charging station”. The possible actions needed to fix the issues based on the report read on “instructions on how to restart charging based on the fault type”.]
Regarding claims 19 and 20, in accordance with MPEP 2111.04 (II), Contingent Limitations, “The broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition(s) precedent are not met. For example, assume a method claim requires step A if a first condition happens and step B if a second condition happens. If the claimed invention may be practiced without either the first or second condition happening, then neither step A or B is required by the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim.” Thus, the claimed features of claims 19 and 20 are not given patentable weight in view of the conditional limitations. For instance, regarding claim 19, the initiating is only performed if there is no response received from the owner of the current charging station. Broadly and reasonably construed, the claim is construed as a response being received from the owner. No patentable weigh is given to the initiating limitation of the visual alert protocol. Claim 20 is not given patentable weight as the claim further defines the initiating of the visual alert protocol of claim 19.
It is noted that any citations to specific paragraphs or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Allowable Subject Matter
The subject matter of claims 4 and 7 are allowable over prior art and claims 5 and 6 are found to be allowable over the prior art of record and would be considered allowable pending the indefiniteness rejection under 35 USC 112(b) rejection given above.
While the prior art shows he simulation of the computer-modelled part included a computer performing the following: accessing, by the computer, the computer-modelled part representing the physical part to be formed using the additive manufacturing process; populating, by the computer, first nodes within a first region of the computer- modelled part with temperature values, such that each of the first nodes has a corresponding temperature value, the first region of the computer-modelled part having a first density of the first nodes, the first region of the computer-modelled part being proximal a surface of the computer-modelled part at which material is added to the computer-modelled part during a simulation of the additive manufacturing process (see US Patent Publication No. 2024/0326639 A1 to Ahtikari; US Patent Publication No. 2020/0189407 A1 to Fong et al.; US Patent Publication No. 2025/0065738 A1 to Haspiel et al.) the prior art, individually or combined, does not teach or suggest “notification component executes a visual alert protocol if no response is received from the owner of the current charging session”, as recited in claim 4; and “wherein the notification component notifies charging station operator if manual restart has not occurred within a predetermined time”, as recited in claim 7. It is this concept that defines the present application over the prior art of record.
As allowable subject matter has been indicated, applicant's reply must either comply with all formal requirements or specifically traverse each requirement not complied with. See 37 CFR 1.111(b) and MPEP § 707.07(a).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US Patent Publication No. 2020/0189407 A1 to Fong et al. (“Fong”): Paragraph [0043] (“The control system 50 is configured to control charging of the electrified vehicle 12 once connected to the charging station 32. The control system 50 may be part of an overall vehicle control system or could be a separate control system that communicates with the vehicle control system. The control system 50 may include one or more control modules 56 equipped with executable instructions for interfacing with and commanding operation of various components of the charging system 30. Each control module 56 of the control system 50 may include a processing unit 58 and non-transitory memory 60 for executing the various control strategies and modes of the charging system 30, including but not limited to the ability to restart a charging sequence without requiring the charge cord 38 to be unplugged and replugged in response to certain vehicle faults.”) Fong: Paragraph [0052] (“In an embodiment, the control system 50 is configured to monitor the electrified vehicle 12 for detecting vehicle faults that may occur during charging events (e.g., DC fast charging events). The vehicle faults may be categorized as either recoverable faults or non-recoverable faults. Example recoverable faults include, but are not limited to, coolant pump faults, communication faults, time-out faults, battery pack over-temperature faults, etc. Example non-recoverable faults include, but are not limited to, battery cell damage faults, battery cell overvoltage faults, etc.”) Fong: Paragraph [0053] (“The control system 50 may attempt to automatically command a restart of the charging sequence without notifying the user in response to detecting a recoverable fault during a charging event. The control system 50 may further be configured to communicate a remote notification of the vehicle fault to the mobile device 54 of the user, such as in response to detecting a non-recoverable fault or when a charging sequence restart has been attempted a predefined number of times without success. In response to receiving the remote notification from the communication system 52, the user of the electrified vehicle 12 may, via the application 70 of the mobile device 54, command operation of the charging system 30 in a certain manner For example, the user may utilize the application to 70 command a restart of the charging sequence without the need to unplug and replug the charge cord 38.”)
US Patent Publication No. 2025/0065738 A1 to Haspiel et al. (“Haspiel”) describes a bi-directional lighted charging system. Haspiel: Paragraph [0041] (“For example, the processor 220 may cause the LED strip 214 to emit light in a predefined color (and intensity), e.g., red, to visually indicate to the user 130 that the fault may be the charging station 110, as depicted in FIG. 3A. In some aspects, the processor 220 may activate the LEDs throughout the charging cord length to indicate the fault. In further aspects, the processor 220 may cause the LEDs to emit flashing red light to visually indicate the fault in the charging station 110.”)
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/ALICIA M. CHOI/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2117
