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 Arguments
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102:
Applicant’s arguments filed 6/10/2026, with respect to the rejection of claim 1 has been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of amendment to claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103:
Applicant’s arguments filed 6/10/2026 have been fully considered and are not moot due to new grounds of rejection for independent claim 1; as well as new claims 6-13.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 6/30/2026 was filed after the mailing date of the Non-Final Office Action on 5/13/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Examiner Note:
Cited references are bold italicized. Examiner interpretations are proceeding with an asterisk *.
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, 5-6, 9-11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamamoto et al. (US 20250388075 A1; hereinafter Yamamoto) in view of Li et al. (CN 115503554 A; hereinafter Li).
Regarding claim 1, Yamamoto teaches a vehicle management system (see at least, [0082] The controller 60 serves as a control unit that controls the operation of each of the various control target devices) comprising: a temperature control device (see at least, Fig 2, [0018] electric control unit of the refrigeration cycle device) configured to cool and control the temperature of a target in-vehicle device that generates heat as a vehicle travels (see at least, [0187] supplies the coolant whose temperature has reached the target temperature to the inverter 35 and the motor-generator 36, making it possible to cool the inverter 35 and the motor-generator 36); and a management controller that controls driving of the temperature control device (see at least, [0022] Fig 6, a control routine to be executed by a controller of the refrigeration cycle device); wherein the management controller is configured to change a limit threshold value of a control parameter of the temperature control device in a manner to increase a cooling capability when a special mode (see at least, [0231] Upon determining that the selected driving mode is the Sport mode…the controller 60 sets the target temperature for the
coolant in the low-temperature coolant circuit 30 to a Sport-mode temperature LT1 that is lower than the Eco-mode temperature), in which a travel performance is prioritized over a fuel consumption, is set as compared with a case where the special mode is not set (see at least, [0102] Sport mode is a performance-oriented driving mode in which the output of the motor-generator 36 is not restricted for the sake of energy saving; *Examiner interprets the sport mode as a special mode as defined in applicant’s specification as filed, e.g. [0006] when the special mode such as the sports traveling mode is set); and the load amount of the temperature control device is an integrated time during which the temperature control device operates beyond a predetermined standard limit threshold value, or an integrated value of a time during which the temperature control device operates beyond the standard limit threshold value and an excess amount from the standard limit threshold value (see at least, 0150] in response to determination that the temperature of at least one of the inverter 35 and the motor-generator 36…has exceeded the corresponding at least one of the predetermined thresholds PT…the controller 60 sets the circulation mode of the low-temperature coolant circuit 30 to the chiller cooling mode. This results in, as illustrated in FIG. 5, heat wasted from the inverter 35 and motor-generator
36 being cooled by the refrigerant of the refrigeration cycle device 10).
Yamamoto does not explicitly teach the management controller includes a storage provided inside or outside the vehicle, the management controller is configured to store a load amount of the temperature control device in the storage when the special mode is set. However, Li teaches this limitation.
Li teaches the management controller includes a storage provided inside or outside the vehicle (see at least, [~0022] preset cooling mode threshold mapping table or preset heating mode threshold mapping table, respectively correspondingly executing different battery heat management cooling strategy or different battery heat management heating strategy), and the management controller is configured to store a load amount of the temperature control device in the storage when the special mode is set (see at least, [~0050] when the vehicle is in the sport mode, the vehicle cooling preset entering temperature threshold value and the preset exit temperature threshold value under the same condition are reduced by 1-2 degrees centigrade…according to the large data statistics can judge the driving habit of the user…the battery management system BMS will self-adaptively match the driving cooling strategy in the sport mode).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filed date of the claimed invention to have modified Yamamoto to include wherein the management controller includes a storage provided inside or outside the vehicle, and the management controller is configured to store a load amount of the temperature control device in the storage when the special mode is set as taught by Li in order to execute an intelligent matching cooling strategy in different modes to improve the driving experience and optimize the vehicle energy consumption.
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Yamamoto and Li teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 2. Li further teaches wherein the management controller is further configured to store the load amount of the target in-vehicle device in the storage when the special mode is set (see at least, claim 8, The electric automobile intelligent battery thermal management control method according to…the battery thermal management mode, and….the battery charge state, preset cooling mode threshold mapping table…executing different battery heat management cooling strategy….matching the battery heat management cooling strategy…in vehicle sport mode) and the management controller is configured to determine a compensation content of the vehicle based on the load amount of the target in-vehicle device (see at least, [~0044], when judging that the driving habit type is the aggressive type, then matching the battery heat management cooling strategy or battery heat management heating strategy in vehicle sport mode).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filed date of the claimed invention to have modified Yamamoto to include wherein the management controller is further configured to store the load amount of the target in-vehicle device in the storage when the special mode is set, and the management controller is configured to determine a compensation content of the vehicle based on the load amount of the target in-vehicle device as taught by Li in order to execute an intelligent matching cooling strategy in different modes to improve the driving experience and optimize the vehicle energy consumption.
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Yamamoto and Li teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 1. Yamamato further teaches wherein the temperature control device includes at least one of a compressor, a radiator fan, or a water pump (see at least, 0042] The compressor 11 is an electric compressor driven by the power supplied from the battery 33. The compressor 11 is configured to draw the refrigerant in the refrigeration cycle device 10, compresses the refrigerant, and thereafter discharge the compressed refrigerant), and the standard limit threshold value is a power upper limit value or a rotation speed upper limit value of the temperature control device (see at least, [0120] The controller 60 determines a control signal to be output to the compressor 11, which corresponds, for example, to a target rotation speed, based on the deviation between the target temperature TEO and the temperature TE1 of the first evaporator 14).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Yamamoto and Li teaches vehicle management system according to claim 1. Yamamoto further teaches wherein when the special mode is set, the management controller lowers a cooling start temperature and a cooling target temperature as compared with a case where the special mode is not set (see at least, [0231] Upon determining that the selected driving mode is the Sport mode…the controller 60 sets the target temperature for the coolant in the low-temperature coolant circuit 30 to a Sport-mode temperature LT1 that is lower than the Eco-mode temperature LT3).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Yamamoto and Li teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 1. Li further teaches wherein the management controller is configured to automatically set the special mode when a current position of the vehicle corresponds to a location stored in the storage (see at least, [~0032-0034] based on the position of the vehicle…preset cooling mode threshold mapping table or preset heating mode threshold mapping table, respectively correspondingly executing different battery heat management cooling strategy or different battery heat management heating strategy before the step…then matching the battery heat management cooling strategy or battery heat management heating strategy in vehicle sport mode).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filed date of the claimed invention to have modified Yamamoto to include the management controller is configured to automatically set the special mode when a current position of the vehicle corresponds to a location stored in the storage as taught by Li in order to execute an intelligent matching cooling strategy in different modes to improve the driving experience and optimize the vehicle energy consumption.
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Yamamoto and Li teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 1. Li further teaches wherein the management controller is configured to automatically set the special mode in response to receiving program data from an external communication device (see at least, [~0042] a driving habit type module in communication connection with the cooling and heating strategy module for judging the driving habit type of the driver…
matching the battery thermal management cooling strategy or battery thermal management heating strategy under the vehicle sport mode).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filed date of the claimed invention to have modified Yamamoto to include the management controller is configured to automatically set the special mode in response to receiving program data from an external communication device as taught by Li in order to execute an intelligent matching cooling strategy in different modes to improve the driving experience and optimize the vehicle energy consumption.
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Yamamoto and Li teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 5. Yamamoto further teaches wherein the load amount of the target in-vehicle device includes at least one of a number of times a temperature of the target in-vehicle device exceeds a predetermined reference value, an integrated time during which the temperature of the target in-vehicle device exceeds the predetermined reference value, or a number of times the special mode is set (see at least, [0148] the controller 60 performs a determination process of determining whether each of the temperature of the inverter 35…and the temperature of the motor-generator 36…has exceeded the corresponding one of the predetermined thresholds PT in step S170. The determination process is repeatedly executed to follow the changes in the temperature conditions of the inverter 35 and the motor-generator 36).
Claims 3-4, 7-8 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamamoto et al. (US 20250388075 A1; hereinafter Yamamoto) in view of Li et al. (CN 115503554 A; hereinafter Li) in further view of Carlson et al. (US 20200343601 A1; hereinafter Carlson).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Yamamoto and Li teaches vehicle management system according to claim 2. The combination does not explicitly teach wherein the management controller is configured to: estimate a lifetime of the temperature control device based on the load amount stored in the storage; and correct the limit threshold value of the control parameter of the temperature control device based on the lifetime which is estimated. However, Carlson teaches this limitation.
Carlson teaches wherein the management controller is configured to: estimate a lifetime of the temperature control device based on the load amount stored in the storage (see at least, [0002] The system monitors a current battery temperature and calculates an actual average battery temperature. The system compares the calculated actual average battery temperature to a target
lifetime battery temperature); and correct the limit threshold value of the control parameter of the temperature control device based on the lifetime which is estimated (see at least, [0008] When the actual average battery temperature is less than the target lifetime battery temperature, and the current battery temperature is greater than the target lifetime battery temperature, the system
alters cooling behavior based on the calculated coefficients of performance).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filed date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Yamamoto and Li to include the management controller is configured to: estimate a lifetime of the temperature control device based on the load amount stored in the storage; and correct the limit threshold value of the control parameter of the temperature control device based on the lifetime which is estimated as taught by Carlson in order to actively cool the battery by determining cooling aggressiveness, which may alter the speed/time to the target temperature (Carlson, [0129]).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Yamamoto, Li and Carlson teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 3. Yamamoto further teaches wherein the load amount includes at least one of the number of times the special mode is turned on and an amount of operation of the temperature control device at a load equal to or higher than a predetermined standard limit threshold value (see at least, [0050] throttle opening, of the refrigerant passage when the pressure of the refrigerant at the outlet side of the first evaporator 14 exceeds the predetermined value).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Yamamoto, Li and Carlson teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 3. Carlson further teaches wherein the management controller calculates a lifetime coefficient which becomes smaller as the load amount stored in the storage becomes larger, and the management controller calculates an estimated lifetime of the temperature control device based on a standard lifetime of the temperature control device and the lifetime coefficient (see at least, [0008] The system may also calculate a current coefficient of performance and a future coefficient of performance along the predicted driving route…When the actual average battery temperature is less than the target lifetime battery temperature, and the current battery temperature is greater than the target lifetime battery temperature, the system alters cooling behavior based on the calculated
coefficients of performance…if the current coefficient of performance is less than future coefficient of performance along the predicted driving route, the system may delay cooling the battery).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filed date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Yamamoto and Li to include the management controller calculates a lifetime coefficient which becomes smaller as the load amount stored in the storage becomes larger, and the management controller calculates an estimated lifetime of the temperature control device based on a standard lifetime of the temperature control device and the lifetime coefficient as taught by Carlson in order to actively cool the battery by determining cooling aggressiveness, which may alter the speed/time to the target temperature (Carlson, [0129]).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Yamamoto, Li and Carlson teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 3. Carlson further teaches wherein when the lifetime which is estimated is equal to or less than a prescribed reference value, the management controller prohibits setting of the special mode (see at least, [0003] if the actual average battery temperature is less than the target lifetime battery temperature…the system delays cooling the battery…the system may avoid expending energy to cool the battery if the actual average battery temperature is less than the target lifetime battery, which may extend driving range).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filed date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Yamamoto and Li to include when the lifetime which is estimated is equal to or less than a prescribed reference value, the management controller prohibits setting of the special mode as taught by Carlson in order to actively cool the battery by determining cooling aggressiveness, which may alter the speed/time to the target temperature (Carlson, [0129]).
Claims 3-4, 7-8 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamamoto et al. (US 20250388075 A1; hereinafter Yamamoto) in view of Li et al. (CN 115503554 A; hereinafter Li) in further view of Carlson et al. (US 20200343601 A1; hereinafter Carlson) and Ishikawa et al. (US 20200070683 A1; hereinafter Ishikawa).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Yamamoto, Li and Carlson teaches the vehicle management system according to claim 7. The combination does not explicitly teach wherein the management controller calculates a correction value based on the estimated lifetime, and the management controller sets a value obtained by subtracting the correction value from a special limit threshold value in the special mode as the limit threshold value in the special mode. However, Ishikawa teaches this limitation.
Ishikawa further teaches wherein the management controller calculates a correction value based on the estimated lifetime, and the management controller sets a value obtained by subtracting the correction value from a special limit threshold value in the special mode as the limit threshold value in the special mode (see at least, Fig 9, [0076] In order to correct the residual lifetime of the target battery 40X and calculate the display residual lifetime, correction in which a straight line indicated by a solid line N1 shown in FIG. 9 is converted into a straight line indicated by a dotted line N3 may be performed.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filed date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Yamamoto and Li to include the management controller calculates a correction value based on the estimated lifetime, and the management controller sets a value obtained by subtracting the correction value from a special limit threshold value in the special mode as the limit threshold value in the special mode as taught by Ishikawa so that a degree of deterioration of a secondary battery for supplying travel power of a vehicle (Ishikawa, [0013]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Peng et al. (CN 117818340 A) discloses a management controller that controls driving of the temperature control device (e.g., [~0007] the cooling loop, the battery loop, the heating loop and the AC refrigerating loop of the electric drive system are controlled by the whole vehicle controller VCU so as to realize the comprehensive thermal management of the whole vehicle).
Rangel et al. (US 20210396437 A1) discloses the management controller is configured to: estimate a lifetime of the temperature control device based on the load amount stored in the storage (e.g., [0043] predicting, at the diagnostic device, remaining lifetime of the climate control device at least partially from a database associating climate control devices with respective lifetime information).
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TOYA PETTIEGREW whose telephone number is (313)446-6636. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30pm - 5:00pm M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jelani Smith can be reached at 571-270-3969. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TOYA PETTIEGREW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3662
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