Appeal No. 2003-0725
Application 09/629,978
reduce pollution (col. 2, lines 40-45). Koga calculates the
quantity of supplied consumable fuel (gasoline) and when the
value of total quantity of fuel supplied since the external
charging of the battery exceeds a predetermined value, the drive
management controller limits an output torque of the electric
drive motor (col. 9, lines 58-61). Owing to this torque
limitation, the driver perceives an insufficient output from the
car so that the driver is urged to perform external recharging
(col. 10, lines 21-25). Note that this serial version limits the
torque of the motor, not of the engine assisting the motor. The
torque limitation is removed following battery recharge. In the
parallel situation, which is what must be considered here, the
controller limits the internal combustion engine output rather
than the motor output (col. 19, lines 1-18), i.e., it limits the
assistance that the engine provides to the motor, not the
assistance that the motor provides to the engine, as claimed.
The examiner points to portions of Koga which describe
detecting the quantity of fuel in the tank and that the output of
the electric motor is restricted based on the fuel use state
(EA3-4; EA6-8). The examiner finds that Koga has an assistance
restricting unit which restricts the assistance of the output of
the engine when the remaining quantity detector detects that the
remaining quantity of fuel is under a fixed value (EA3).
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