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 .
Status of Claims
Applicant’s amendment and arguments filed 10/02/2025 have been fully considered. Claim(s) 1 is/are amended; claim(s) 2, 5-6, 8-11 stand as originally or previously presented; and claim(s) 3-4, 7, 10 is/are canceled. Examiner affirms that the original disclosure provides adequate support for the amendment.
Upon considering said amendment and arguments, the previous rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 set forth in the Office action mailed 07/10/2025 has/have been withdrawn. Applicant’s amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection below.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 recites the structure of ‘hollows’ (pp. 1, ¶3) and in some instances refers to these structures as ‘hallows’ (pp. 1 ¶6-8, pp. 2 ¶5), and should be amended to follow a consistent spelling of this structure.
Claim 1 also recites the component of ‘cylindrical battery cells’ (pp. 1, ¶2) and in some instances refers to these components as ‘batteries’ (pp. 1 ¶8, pp. 2 ¶5), and should be amended to follow a consistent spelling of this component.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-2, 5-6, 8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nishikawa et al. (US20140045037A1 cited in Office action filed 07/10/2025) in view of Stranger et al. (EP3503244A1 cited in Office action filed 06/04/2024, US20200335740A1 cited as English equivalent)
Regarding claims 1-2, 11, Nishikawa discloses a battery module (100, “battery block”, [0002]) comprising:
a plurality of cylindrical battery cells (40) ([0060], FIG. 8);
a module case having an accommodation portion (30, “members”) including a plurality of hollows ([0051-0052], FIG. 3B), each hollow accommodating a respective one the plurality of cylindrical battery cells (40) ([0060], FIGs. 1B, 7)
a bus bar (10, “electrode plate”) including an electrically conductive body portion having a plate shape, and a connection portion configured to electrically connect the plurality of cylindrical battery cells (40) to each other ([0046-0047], FIG. 1A, see Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 1B below); and
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Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 1B
a fill material (“insulating resin”) having electric insulation and hardened in a state of being filled in gaps (80-4, 80-5) between at least two of the plurality of cylindrical battery cells (40), the module case (39) and the bus bar (not shown) ([0075-0078], FIGs. 7, 8),
wherein a plurality of inlet holes (36, “cutouts”) are defined through walls of the accommodation portion (30) separating respective adjacent hollows of the accommodation portion ([0071], FIG. 4B), each inlet hole connecting (36) each hollow with a respective first adjacent hollow so that the fill material is introduced through the plurality of inlet holes (36), ([0078], FIGs. 9A-9C).
Nishikawa further discloses the accommodation portion has an open structure (80-6, “gap”) in which at least one wall is opened via cutouts (36) provided to the open structure (80-6) ([0063], see Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 8, below). While each open structure in Nishikawa’s battery module forms a continuous space with each hollow to allow the fill material to fill the module with a single application ([0078-0079], FIGs. 8, 9A-9C), necessitating each hollow to be at least indirectly exposed to a respective second adjacent hollow and a respective third adjacent hollow, Nishikawa fails to specify the open structure as directly exposing each hollow to an adjacent hollow. However, Nishikawa discloses that providing cutouts improves the efficiency of injecting the fill material (“resin”) ([0071]); it would be reasonably apparent to a person having ordinary skill in the art that duplicating the cutouts in one hollow’s wall to provide the cutout in the walls of adjacent hollows would improve the injection efficiency. As such, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to provide additional cutouts in the wall of each hollow to the open structure such that each hollow may be directly exposed to a respective second and third adjacent hollow in order to improve the efficiency of injecting the fill material into the open structure. Such a modification would be made with a reasonable expectation of success, as the modification would not change the function of allowing the fill material to be injected into the open structure, with no more than predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art (MPEP 2144.04 VI. B.).
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Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 8
Modified Nishikawa’s battery module comprises gaps (80-4) surrounding the surface, e.g., side portion of batteries (40), the side portions being exposed in the gaps. The gaps (80-4) are further in communication with other gaps in adjacent hollows via cutouts (36) ([0078], FIG. 8); consequently, a side portion of a battery (40) accommodated in each hollow is exposed to and communicates with a side portion of each battery accommodated in the respective second adjacent hollow and the respective third adjacent hollow ([0078], Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 8).
Modified Nishikawa’s connection portion of the bus bar (10) includes a connection hole at a location corresponding to an electrode terminal (41, “electrode”) of the cylindrical battery cell (40) and a connection terminal configured to extend and protrude from the connection hole to be connected to the electrode terminal (41) of the cylindrical battery cell ([0046-0047], Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 1B).
While Nishikawa envisions considerations of improving the heat dissipation and insulation of the battery ([0012], [0031]) through use of the electrically insulating filling material ([0057]), modified Nishikawa does not explicitly disclose a configuration wherein the fill material is at least partially filled between the connection hole and the electrode terminal.
Stranger, directed to an analogous battery module (10) (“battery pack”), comprising batteries (1, 2, Stranger [0022], FIG. 1) and a fill material to provide insulation (8, “potting material”, [0010]), teaches providing the filling material (8) completely surrounding the batteries (1, 2) and bus bar (5, “cell connector”) contacting the electrode terminals ([0025-0026], FIG. 2) to further improve heat dissipation of the battery modules ([0010-0011], FIG. 2).
As such, in seeking to provide these advantages to modified Nishikawa’s battery module, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to provide the filling material completely surrounding the batteries and cell connector as taught by Stranger. Such a modification would be made with a reasonable expectation of success because Stranger and Nishikawa are both directed to the use of a filling material to provide electrical insulation in similar battery module configurations (Nishikawa FIG. 8, Stranger FIG. 1). As a result of surrounding the bus bar and battery with the fill material, the fill material would necessarily be filled between the connection hole of the bus bar and the electrode terminal of the battery (claim 1) and thus be configured to surround at least a part of an outer surface of the plurality of cylindrical battery cells (40), the module case (39) and the bus bar (Nishikawa FIG. 8, [0078], [0063], Stranger FIG. 2) (claim 2). The fill material would further cover and contact sides of the connection portion and electrically conductive body portions respectively facing towards and away from the cylindrical batteries (Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 1B, Stranger FIG. 2) (claim 11).
Furthermore, modified Nishikawa fills each of the gaps (80-4) surrounding the side portions of the batteries in the hollows with the fill material (Nishikawa [0078], Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 8); thus, fill material is filled between the battery accommodated in each hollow and each battery accommodated in the respective second and third adjacent hollows.
Regarding claim 5, 6, modified Nishikawa discloses the battery module according to claim 1. The connection holes of Nishikawa’s bus bar, being formed in the body portion of Nishikawa’s bus bar (Annotated Nishikawa FIG. 1B) and modified in view of Stranger to be configured to be surrounded by the fill material (Stranger [0025-0026], FIG. 2), is thus broadly and reasonably interpreted as the claimed opening formed in the body portion of the bus bar so that the fill material is introduced therethrough (claim 5). Furthermore, as Nishikawa teaches use of the fill material for fixing the battery module components (Nishikawa [0063]), the connection holes filled with the fill material are also broadly and reasonably interpreted as the fixing hole formed so that the fill material is introduced therethrough (claim 6).
Regarding claim 8, modified Nishikawa discloses the battery module according to claim 1,
wherein the module case includes a guide wall (39) having electric insulation from being covered with insulating layer (80-2) ([0048]) and configured to protrude outward from a bottom frame so that the fill material is guided to be injected between at least two of the plurality of cylindrical battery cells, the module case and the bus bar ([0075-0078], FIGs. 9A-C).
Regarding claim 9, modified Nishikawa discloses a battery pack (“power supply apparatus”) comprising at least one battery module according to claim 1 (Nishikawa [0074]).
Regarding claim 10, modified Nishikawa discloses that the battery pack of claim 9 comprising multiple battery modules is sufficiently durable to be used in a place subject to vibration (Nishikawa [0031]). Nishikawa’s disclosure of “a place subject to vibration” comprising the power storage capabilities of multiple battery modules would be recognized by a person skilled in the art as referring to at least some form of vehicle.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 as unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103 in view of Nishikawa’s disclosure (remarks pp. 1-3) have been considered but are moot since Applicant's amendment necessitated a different interpretation of Nishikawa as laid out in the rejections of record, or are moot as the claim amendment has necessitated new grounds of rejection discussed above.
Conclusion
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 EVERETT T CHOI whose telephone number is (703)756-1331. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 11:00-8:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jonathan G Leong can be reached on (571) 270 1292. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/E.C./Examiner, Art Unit 1751
/JONATHAN G LEONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1751 1/14/2026
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