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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 03/12/2025 have been considered by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 of this title, 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.
Claim(s) 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KIM et al. (US 20130302651; hereinafter KIM) in view of Ohkuma et al. (US 20130130534).
Regarding claim 1, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 a battery monitoring device for monitoring a state of a battery mounted on a vehicle, comprising:
a wiring board (182; fig. 1) having a portion of a wiring provided on a first surface;
a circuit component (181) surface-mounted on the first surface and connected to the wiring (connection wire 185); and
a connector member (connector C) for electrically connecting the wiring board (182) and at least the battery (10), the connector member having a terminal (190) connected to a land that is a part of the wiring provided on the first surface and a housing (R1,R2) in which the terminal is provided (paras. 57-61; fig. 1); wherein
KIM does not teach explicitly the wiring board has a cutout portion on a part of its side surface that is recessed from a surrounding area, and at least a part of the housing is disposed in the cutout portion.
However, Ohkuma teaches in figure(s) 1-29 the wiring board (1,11; figs. 1,2,13,15-16) has a cutout portion (1a, 13a) on a part of its side surface that is recessed from a surrounding area, and at least a part of the housing is disposed (13) in the cutout portion (paras. 40-45; figs. 1,2,13,15-16).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of KIM by having the wiring board has a cutout portion on a part of its side surface that is recessed from a surrounding area, and at least a part of the housing is disposed in the cutout portion as taught by Ohkuma in order to provide a known efficient structure for the mounting of connector disposed within a cutout and positioned flush with bottom surface of the wiring board as evidenced by “substrate with the connectors mounted thereon can be installed without being restricted by substrate installation space even in a small device, which has a small substrate installation space in a thickness direction of the substrate." (abstract).
Regarding claim 2, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the connector member is arranged such that, in a thickness direction of the wiring board, a bottom surface of the housing is flush with a second surface opposite to the first surface of the wiring board (para. 84 - second circuit board 182 is disposed in a direction crossing the central regions of the battery cells 10; figs. 5,9).
Regarding claim 3, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the wiring board has, as the side surface, a short side surface (151; fig. 9) along a lateral direction of the first surface, and a long side surface (140) on which the cutout portion (g) is provided along a longitudinal direction of the first surface, and at least a part of the circuit component (181,185) is disposed in a narrow area adjacent to the cutout portion in the lateral direction on the first surface.
Regarding claim 4, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 the battery monitoring device according to claim 3, wherein the battery supplies power to an electric motor that drives the vehicle (para. 6 - a hybrid vehicle, or the like that requires a great amount of power, a battery pack is preferred due to an output and capacity issue, and the battery pack may increase an output voltage or an output current according to the number of included battery cells.), and the circuit component has a function of monitoring a voltage of the battery (para. 69 - status information of each of the battery cells 10 may be used to check for an incorrect operation, such as overheating of the battery cell 10 or overcharging of the battery cell 10, or to detect a charge or discharge level such as a full charge, and may include a temperature measurement signal or a voltage measurement signal with respect to the battery cell 10).
Regarding claim 5, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 the battery monitoring device according to claim 3, wherein the wiring board is warped so that a convex shape is formed on the first surface side (para. 104 - support frame 125 may be bent to face the side plate 140 and may include a bending part 125a that overlaps on the side plate 140).
Regarding claim 6, KIM in view of Ohkuma teaches the battery monitoring device according to claim 3,
Ohkuma additionally teaches in figure(s) 1-29 wherein the circuit component and the connector member are connected to the wiring by reflow soldering (para. 51 - joining portions 13a of the fastening members 13 are joined to the connector fasteners 1b of the substrate 1 by soldering and the connecting parts 12c of the terminals 12 are connected to the terminal connecting parts 1c of the substrate 1 by soldering).
Regarding claim 7, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein the wiring board has cutout portions (g) formed in a plurality of locations on the side surface, and the housing (150) is disposed in each cutout portion (g,125).
Regarding claim 8, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, further comprising, a base (120) to which the wiring board is fixed, and a cover (140,150) attached to the base and forming an accommodation space for the wiring board together with the base, wherein the wiring board (182) is provided with a fixing portion (10a, 125a) for fixing to the base at positions that sandwich the cutout portion.
Regarding claim 9, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein in the wiring board (182; fig. 9), a lateral direction of the first surface is aligned along a left- right direction of the vehicle (para. 5 - electric vehicles using the secondary battery, the secondary battery may be used in the form of a single battery or in the form of a battery module obtained by grouping a plurality of secondary batteries.) and a longitudinal direction of the first surface is aligned along a front-rear direction of the vehicle, and the wiring board is disposed between a plurality of batteries (10) arranged in the left-right direction.
Regarding claim 10, KIM teaches in figure(s) 1-10 the battery monitoring device according to claim 1, wherein, the wiring board is provided with a fixing land around the cutout portion on the first surface (para. 100 - support frame 125 that extends from the base frame 121 toward the side plates 140; fig. 9), and the connector member has a fixing terminal provided on a side wall (140) of the housing, and the fixing terminal is connected to the fixing land.
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
SATO et al. (US 20210066695) discloses "battery wiring module".
Yoshida et al. (US 20200127259) discloses "battery module and battery monitoring unit mounting structure".
Nishihara et al. (US 20120019061) discloses "battery module, battery system and electric vehicle”.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AKM ZAKARIA whose telephone number is (571)270-0664. The examiner can normally be reached on 8-5 PM (PST).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Judy Nguyen can be reached on (571) 272-2258. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AKM ZAKARIA/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2858
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