Many power-electronics patents pair a converter with a control scheme, and the question for claim 1 is always which half carries the novelty. In US11018605B2, granted to L7 Drive Oy on May 25, 2021, the CPC tags say it is the control.
The classification mixes converter and motor: H02M 3/1582 and 3/1584 (DC-DC step-up/down with regulation) sit alongside H02P 6/08 and H02P 7/292 (electronic motor control). That pairing is the tell — this is a converter fenced in the context of controlling a motor or a variable load, with the control scheme as the distinguishing element.
Reading the limitation: the converter topology itself (step-up/step-down DC-DC) is well-trodden prior art. The novelty has to be in the control scheme — the regulation method that adapts the converter's behavior, likely to the demands of a motor drive. Claim 1's defensibility depends entirely on how distinct that control method is.
This is a representative specimen of a huge category: converter-plus-control patents where the control is the claim. They are the connective tissue of power electronics — incremental, specific, and individually modest, but collectively the substance of the field. For a grid-IP reader, they matter because the same control techniques migrate into grid-tied converters and EV drivetrains.
The discipline: claim 1 owns a control scheme for a converter in this context, not DC-DC conversion and not motor control. It is a narrow fence on a regulation method. For the landscape, it is a 2021 data point reinforcing that the power-electronics IP that ultimately serves the grid is dominated by control-method claims layered on commodity topologies — the topology is the canvas, the control is the patent.