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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-8 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected claims, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 9/15/2026.
Claim Objections
Claims 9 and 10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim limitations in parathesis, eg. (a), (b), (i), (ii), etc. are unnecessary and should be removed.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mirafzal et al. US 2008/0080106 in view of Dillig et al. US 2013/0235618.
Mirafzal teaches:
A system comprising:
(a) a supply-side common-mode current sensor (12, FIG1) for measuring (noting intended use claim language) a supply-side common- mode current entering a midpoint between split power supplies (noting multiple power supplies could be supplied and rectified or read on by said plural phase “split” power (26, 28, 20) and “midpoint” between said supply and load, FIG1);
(b) a supply-side switch (27) electrically coupled to the power supplies to permit adjusting of a magnitude of the supply-side common-mode current; and
(c) a fault management controller (24) communicatively coupled to the supply-side common-mode current sensor and the supply-side switch and configured to:
(i) determine that, at least for an instance, the supply-side common- mode current has met or exceeded a magnitude threshold ([0023, 0026] and Steps 104, FIG3, @ [0041]); and then
(ii) reduce the supply-side common-mode current using the supply-side switch such that the supply-side common-mode current is less than the magnitude threshold (read on by opening said switch 27, see [0026]).
Mirafzal fails to teach wherein said instance is a duration threshold.
Dillig teaches a system wherein said instance is a duration threshold (See Specification @ [0043] wherein a time reserve is used and has elapsed [0016]).
It would have been obvious to include the duration threshold as taught by Dillig into the system of Mirafzal with the motivation of preventing false triggering and unnecessary and unwanted system down time and outage.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-16 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL CAVALLARI whose telephone number is (571)272-8541. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 0900-18:30.
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/DANIEL CAVALLARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836
