DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 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.
Drawing Objections
2. The drawings are objected to because the unlabeled rectangular box(es) shown in the drawing corresponding to Figure 9 should be provided with descriptive text. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
2.1. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
3. 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.
4. Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
5. Claim 1 is directed to “calculate various obtained parameters of the batteries including at least one of a voltage, current and temperature as physical data ... perform deep learning, induction, summarization and repetition training, so as to perform calculation based on an optimal AI model to predict health state and life span of the battery under test”, which are mathematical-calculations/mental-steps that could also be performed by a general purpose processor. The additional elements “A power battery health prediction and evaluation system for an electric vehicle, energy storage system and uninterruptible power supply, which comprises: a database unit, a reading unit connected with the database unit, and an artificial intelligence (Al) processing unit, wherein the database unit is connected with batteries of the electric vehicle, the energy storage system and the uninterruptible power supply through a protocol signal device, and stores data of various electrical characteristics of batteries of different brands and tested batteries to establish a database; the reading unit comprises: a microcontroller; and a voltage-current sensor and a local area network controller connected with the microcontroller, wherein the microcontroller is arranged to manage various associated data of batteries ... and convert the physical data into digital data; the voltage current sensor reads values comprising voltages and currents from the battery under test and transmits the values to the microcontroller; the LAN controller is used for transmitting state data of the battery under test processed by the microcontroller to the AI processing unit; the AI processing unit is arranged to refer to data associated with electrical characteristics of different brands of batteries in the database unit as historical data, and refer to state data of the battery under test of the electric vehicle obtained by the reading unit as substantive data ...” are merely insignificant extra-solution activity that include but is not limited to data acquisition and/or that is simply the result of the mathematical-calculations, which both simply include routine and conventional structures previously known to the pertinent industry that serve to generate the data to be processed by implementing the idea on a computer, and/or recitation of generic computer structure and also serve to perform generic computer functions that are well-understood routine, and conventional activities previously known to the pertinent industry and/or mere instructions to apply the judicial-exception/abstract-idea.
Independent claim 1 is Ineligible due to the following analysis:
5.1. Step 1 (Statutory Category): claim 1 is directed to a power battery health prediction and evaluation system for an electric vehicle, therefore, it is directed to a statutory category, i.e., a machine (Step 1: YES).
5.2.1. Step 2A, Prong-1 (the claim is evaluated to determine whether it is directed to a judicial-exception/abstract-idea): claim 1 recites: “calculate various obtained parameters of the batteries including at least one of a voltage, current and temperature as physical data ... perform deep learning, induction, summarization and repetition training, so as to perform calculation based on an optimal AI model to predict health state and life span of the battery under test”, which are mathematical-calculations/mental-steps that could also be performed with the help of a pen and paper. Therefore, it is directed to a judicial-exception/abstract-idea (Step 2A, Prong-1: YES).
5.2.2. Step 2A, Prong-2 (the claim is evaluated to determine whether the judicial-exception/abstract-idea is integrated into a Practical Application): claim 1 does not claim a particular machine because the electric vehicle, energy storage system and uninterruptible power supply, database unit, a reading unit, processing unit, voltage current sensor, AI processing unit, LAN controller and battery is not claimed with sufficient specificity and the computation are generated by a microcontroller that is a general purpose computer processor, and does not claim any transformation of a particular article to a different state. Furthermore, the power battery health context, is simply linking the claim to a technological environment, industry or field of use but does not explain with sufficient details so one ordinary skilled in the art could determine an improvement in the power battery health technology. Consequently, the claimed judicial-exception/abstract-idea above are/is not integrated into a practical application and/or apply, rely on, or use to an additional element or elements in a manner that imposes a meaningful limit on the mathematical-calculations/mental-steps, thus, monopolizing the mathematical-calculations/mental-steps in a variety of technologies using power battery, etc., and/or mere instructions to apply the judicial-exception/abstract-idea (Step 2A, Prong-2: NO. There is no integration of said judicial-exception/abstract-idea into a practical application. The claim is just linking said judicial-exception/abstract-idea to the technological field relative to systems and a methods for power battery health prediction and evaluation).
5.3. Step 2B (the claim is evaluated to determine whether recites additional elements that amount to an inventive concept, or also, the additional elements are significantly more than the recited the judicial-exception/abstract-idea): claim 1 recites the additional element(s) “A power battery health prediction and evaluation system for an electric vehicle, energy storage system and uninterruptible power supply, which comprises: a database unit, a reading unit connected with the database unit, and an artificial intelligence (Al) processing unit, wherein the database unit is connected with batteries of the electric vehicle, the energy storage system and the uninterruptible power supply through a protocol signal device, and stores data of various electrical characteristics of batteries of different brands and tested batteries to establish a database; the reading unit comprises: a microcontroller; and a voltage-current sensor and a local area network controller connected with the microcontroller, wherein the microcontroller is arranged to manage various associated data of batteries ... and convert the physical data into digital data; the voltage current sensor reads values comprising voltages and currents from the battery under test and transmits the values to the microcontroller; the LAN controller is used for transmitting state data of the battery under test processed by the microcontroller to the AI processing unit; the AI processing unit is arranged to refer to data associated with electrical characteristics of different brands of batteries in the database unit as historical data, and refer to state data of the battery under test of the electric vehicle obtained by the reading unit as substantive data ...” of which when evaluated individually and as a whole, it is concluded that are/is simply mere instructions to apply the judicial-exception/abstract-idea and/or routine and/or conventional activities that falls into a well-understood, routine, conventional activity and using well-understood, routine, conventional structure previously known, which includes but not limited to a microprocessor(s), sensors, and/or acquiring data that are insignificant extra solution activity (see the prior art made of record below). Therefore, the claim limitations individually and as whole do not include additional element(s) significantly more, or, does not amount to more than the judicial-exception/abstract-idea itself and the claim is not patent eligible (Step 2B: NO).
Allowable Subject Matter
6. Claim(s) 2-12 are/is 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.
7. The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for the objection:
8. Regarding claim 2, the prior art of record, alone or in combination, does not disclose or suggest the below underlined limitations incorporated together with the other claimed limitations not mentioned herein:
wherein the protocol signal device is a protocol signal trace, which provides a communication protocol for connection between the system and the power batteries of the electric vehicles, energy storage system or uninterruptible power supply, and the protocol signal trace is connected with an on-board diagnosis system (OBD II) on the electric vehicles, energy storage system or uninterruptible power supply, so as to synchronously read data of various electric characteristics of the power batteries of the electric vehicles, energy storage system or uninterruptible power supply.
9. Claim(s) 3-12 would also be allowable because they further limit and depend on claim 2.
10. The prior art of record does not anticipate the limitations of the independent claims.
Furthermore, there is not any obvious motivation for an ordinary skilled in the art to combine some and/or all of the features of the prior art of record to achieve the features of the allowable subject matter. In addition, it will further require substantial structural modification of the components that will also require substantial modification of the measurements, signal processing and configurations to achieve the features of the allowable subject matter.
11. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
a) Dhawan (Patent No.: US 11,444,338) teaches “a system comprising: a rechargeable energy storage battery system comprising a monitoring module and an Internet of Things (IoT) based control module; a block chain network; a processor; and a tangible non-transitory memory; wherein system is operable to receiving periodically by a smart battery management platform, battery related information and one or more environment factors; extracting, processing and analyzing, the battery related information to retrieve a real-time feature of the rechargeable energy storage battery system and the one or more environment factors affecting the battery life and the battery performance by a smart battery management platform; predicting in real-time battery health and life status by the smart battery management platform” (Abstract and Fig.1 with columns 23-24, and Fig. 12 with column 43).
b) ECKART (Pub. No.: US 2023/0224158) teaches “A system and method for processing a battery passport that include receiving battery related data associated with a battery. The system will therefore store battery related data associated with many batteries and also be able to capture aggregated data across all of these. The system and method also include determining a level of sustainability associated with the battery” (Abstract and Fig. 1 with paragraphs [0026]-[0056]).
c) ZEIER (Pub. No.: US 2020/0110135) teaches “a battery optimization and restoration device that uses a means of varying the regulator voltage as a function of time and discharge event timing and depth in order to establish a consistent power level for the charging of the capacitor. The device models the power supply regulation voltage as a first order factor as a function of time. The regulation voltage is modeled as a function of time so as to maintain an acceptable charging current at all times by charging a large capacitive load which is periodically discharged in a rapid pulse-like manner requires a modeled regulation voltage that is synchronized to the discharge frequency of the capacitor. The modeled charging is a function of the discharge depth and the charging height in initial capacitor voltage before the discharge and the final capacitor voltage after the discharge” (Abstract and Fig. 1 with paragraphs [0219]-[0223]).
d) HU (Pub. No.: US 2014/0088896) teaches “A device for detecting state-of-health (SOH) of batteries has a detection module, a computation control module and an output module. The computation control module is electrically connected to the detection module and the output module. The detection module detects voltage values of a battery at multiple test points. The computation control module converts the voltage values at the test points into a ratio and maps the ratio to a SOH value in a SOH curve of the battery indicative of a state of health of the battery and the SOH value is outputted through the output module” (Abstract and Fig. 1).
e) Foland (Pub. No.: US 2023/0154337) teaches “a system of automated fleet management for aerial vehicles, including a first aerial vehicle, the aerial vehicle comprising: a first sensor configured to measure an external metric and generate external datum based on the external metric; and a second sensor configured to measure an aircraft metric and generate aircraft datum based on the aircraft” (Abstract).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALVARO E. FORTICH whose telephone number is (571) 272-0944. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday thru Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Huy Phan, can be reached on (571)272-7924. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALVARO E FORTICH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
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