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 .
Response to Remarks
Applicant's arguments filed 07/09/2026 have been fully considered.
First, regarding the consideration of the IDS filed on 06/12/2026, the Examiner thanks Applicant for supplying JP 2017-177971 for consideration. Having no U.S. counterpart application or WO counterpart application, this reference is considered based on the supplied English translation. The Examiner has considered the supplied Japanese reference.
Secondly, the Examiner notes Applicant’s change of title to “VEHICLE CONTROL DEVICE FOR MAINTAINING POWER SUPPLY UNDER ABNORMAL CONDITIONS.” This change is found to be satisfactory in meeting the requirements of a title under MPEP 606 and is accepted.
The previously allowed claims were interpreted as invoking 35 U.S.C. 112(f). Applicant has amended the claims in a manner which removes the invocation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f). As such, the claims will not be interpreted as invoking 35 U.S.C. 112(f) for the purposes of this Office action.
In light of the newly supplied reference in the IDS filed on 06/12/2026 and the amendments to the previously allowed claims (which modifies the interpretation of the claims), the Examiner finds that JP 2017-177971 does appear to read upon the subject matter of at least claims 1, 2, and 5 as currently amended. A rejection of the claims is provided below.
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.
Claims 1 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2017-177971 in view of JP 2013-199160.
Regarding claim 1, JP 2017-177971 discloses a control device for a vehicle (At least vehicle control mechanism, 1) including:
an engine (At least engine, 10),
a generator coupled to the engine (At least first motor generator, 20),
a high voltage battery that is able to perform power transfer with the generator (At least high-voltage battery 50, which is disclosed as driving the first motor generator, 20),
a low voltage battery that supplies power to an auxiliary device driving the engine (At least low-voltage battery 60, which is disclosed as the main power source of the hybrid vehicle system which includes ECU 200 to control a throttle opening, ignition timing, and fuel injection based on engine sensors and ECU 400 to control first and second motor generators), the low voltage battery having a lower voltage than a voltage of the high voltage battery (At least where high voltage battery 50 is disclosed as being a 200V battery while low voltage battery 60 is disclosed as having a rated voltage of 12V), and
a DC/DC converter provided between the high voltage battery and the low voltage battery (At least DC/DC converter, 5), the auxiliary device including at least one of a throttle actuator, a fuel injection device, and an ignition device (At least where ECU 200 is disclosed as controlling a throttle opening, ignition timing, and fuel injection based on engine sensors and ECU 400 to control first and second motor generators), and
the control device comprising a processor configured to, in a case where the generator is set to a power generation amount non-control state due to an occurrence of an abnormal state of the generator (At least where JP 2017-177971 discloses that when the motor ECU 400 that controls the first motor generator 20 fails, no current is supplied to the first motor generator 20, and the rotor cannot be excited during a failure state of the generator control device.), execute an increase control that causes a rotational speed of the engine to increase such that a counter electromotive force generated in the generator becomes equal to or more than the voltage of the high voltage battery (At least where JP 2017-177971 discloses that there is provided a vehicle control including a transmission that increases the rotational speed of the connecting shaft to the generator to an extent that the rotational speed of the generator is increased to a rotational speed at which an excitation voltage related to charging of the battery is generated.), and supply power from the high voltage battery to the low voltage battery via the DC/DC converter (At least where JP 2017-177971 discloses that the DC / DC converter 55 steps down the voltage of the DC power of the high voltage battery 50 and supplies the charging power to the low voltage battery 60.).
JP 2017-1771971 appears to expressly disclose most of the limitations of claim, but does not appear to explicitly state that the auxiliary device constitutes at least one element from the recited listing of a throttle actuator, a fuel injection device, and an ignition device; however, JP 2017-177971 expressly discloses that the low voltage battery is used as a main power source of a hybrid vehicle system. Even though it is believed that these elements would be included in the hybrid vehicle system since JP 2017-177971 expressly discloses all of the claimed auxiliary elements (At least where ECU 200 is disclosed as controlling actuators associated with throttle opening, ignition timing, and fuel injection based on various engine sensors), JP 2013-199160 is relied upon for the express teaching of using a low voltage battery to supply power to auxiliary devices.
JP 2013-199160 teaches the use of a low voltage battery to power auxiliary devices including a throttle component via a step-down function from a high-voltage battery to a low-voltage battery using an inverter (At least where JP 2013-199160 discloses 52, a low-voltage battery that supplies power to an auxiliary machine (for example, a throttle motor (not shown) used for controlling the engine 22 or an EGR valve that adjusts the recirculation amount of exhaust gas in an exhaust circulation device (not shown)) 60 (for example, the rated voltage is 12V) and the inverter 4 , 42 is connected to the drive shaft 32 and a DC / DC converter 62 that steps down the power from the power line 54 (hereinafter referred to as “high voltage system power line”) 54 and supplies it to the low voltage battery 60.).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a PHOSITA at the time of effective filing to have modified the system of JP 2017-177971 to utilize the low voltage battery to power auxiliary devices, as expressly taught by JP 2013-199160, in order to ensure power to working components when the high-voltage battery is depleted.
Further, as discussed above, though not expressly linked within the disclosure of JP 2017-177971, the low voltage battery of JP 2017-177971 is disclosed as serving as the main power source of the hybrid vehicle system. As such, it is likely that the orientation of the elements and power relationships of JP 2017-177971 necessarily meet the limitations of the claim.
Regarding claim 5, the primary reference, JP 2017-177971, discloses that the vehicle further includes an electric motor being a traveling power source driven by power supplied from the high voltage battery; and in the case where the generator is set to the power generation amount non-control state due to the occurrence of the abnormal state, the electric motor is set to a non-driven state (At least where JP 2017-177971 discloses that when the motor ECU 400 fails, the first motor generator stops its operation).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2017-177971 in view of JP 2013-199160 and in further view of U.S. 2004/0168435 to Ichimura et al.
Regarding claim 2, the primary reference, JP 2017-177971, discloses that, in a case where the generator is set to the power generation amount non-control state due to the occurrence of the abnormal state, the processor is configured to execute the increase control (At least the excitation procedure cited in the rejection of claim 1).
However, JP 2017-177971 does not expressly disclose a condition of the increase including the condition the of motor failure where vehicle is in a stopped state.
Nevertheless, Ichimura teaches a vehicle where a motor breakdown is incurred and the vehicle speed is reduced to put the vehicle in a stop state without complete power loss (At least at Par. [0067]; vehicle is made to stop traveling during a motor failure event).
As such, it would have been obvious to a PHOSITA at the time of effective filing to have modified the system of JP 2017-177971/JP 2013-199160 to provide its increase the stopped state taught by Ichimura in order to incorporate the benefit of placing the vehicle in a stopped state to allow a repair man to troubleshoot the motor during operation in a low speed/ no speed state for increased safety during evaluation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art references of record, either taken alone or in combination do not fairly disclose or suggest the specifics of claims 3 and 4 wherein the vehicle acceleration is not able to be controlled within the predetermined allowance range while the vehicle is in a traveling state when the generator is set to the power generation amount non-control state due to the occurrence of the abnormal state.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brodie Follman whose telephone number is (571)270-1169. The examiner can normally be reached 8am-4:30pm EST M-F.
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/BRODIE J FOLLMAN/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3669
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