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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 9/8/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The amendments filed 9/8/2025 have been entered. Claim 1 is amended, Claim 3 is cancelled, and Claims 18-22 are new.
Support for the amendments can be found in original Claims 1-2, 4-5, and 13-15, and paragraph 0077 of the instant specification.
Claims 1-2, 4-5, and 7-22 are pending; of these, Claims 7-12 and 16-17 are withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chae `096 (KR 20180117483 A1, US 20190372096 A1 is used as an English equivalent).
Regarding Claim 1, Chae `096 teaches a negative electrode (Title) comprising a negative electrode current collector (Abstract – negative electrode collector), a primer layer applied to an outer surface of the current collector (Abstract – the negative electrode active material layer can be viewed as a primer layer and is formed on an outer surface of the current collector), and a lithiophilic material formed on at least a portion of the primer layer by coating (Abstract – a coating comprising lithium metal and a metal oxide is formed on the surface of the negative electrode active material layer), wherein the lithiophilic material can comprise zinc oxide (ZnO), copper oxide (CuO), cobalt oxide (CoO), or manganese oxide (MnO) (0037).
Regarding Claim 2, the negative electrode current collector comprises at least two surfaces (0072 – one surface of the current collector is coated with an active material slurry, meaning that there is at least one other surface). One of the surfaces can be viewed as a first surface that does not face a separator and the other surface can be viewed as a second surface that faces a separator. The primer layer is applied to one of the surfaces of the negative electrode current collector (0072).
Regarding Claim 4, the negative electrode active material layer/primer layer can comprise carbon (0072 – the negative electrode active material layer comprises Denka black as a conductive agent).
Regarding Claim 5, the negative electrode active material layer/primer layer and lithiophilic material are coated on one side of the negative electrode current collector (0037, 0072, 0073 – Although the embodiment shown in Example 1 uses Al2O3 as the metal oxide, other metal oxides can be used). Examiner notes that Claim 1 only claims a negative electrode and not a separator. Therefore, the side of the current collector on which the active material layer/primer layer and lithiophilic material are coated on can be viewed as the first surface.
Regarding Claim 13, the first anode active material layer/primer layer includes a conductive agent and a binder (0072 – the active material layer includes Denka black as a conductive agent and SBR as a binder).
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chae `282 (KR 20180087169 A, US 20200052282 A1 is used as an English equivalent).
Regarding Claim 1, Chae `282 teaches a negative electrode (Title) comprising a negative electrode current collector (0069), a primer layer applied to an outer surface of the current collector (0069 – the negative electrode active material layer can be viewed as a primer layer and is applied to an outer surface of the current collector), and a lithiophilic material formed on at least a portion of the primer layer by coating (0027 – a metal oxide layer is formed on the surface of the negative electrode active material layer), wherein the lithiophilic material can comprise zinc oxide (ZnO), copper oxide (CuO), cobalt oxide (CoO), or manganese oxide (MnO) (0029).
Regarding Claim 2, the negative electrode current collector comprises at least two surfaces (0069 – one surface of the current collector is coated with an active material slurry, meaning that there is at least one other surface). One of the surfaces can be viewed as a first surface that does not face a separator and the other surface can be viewed as a second surface that faces a separator. The primer layer is applied to one of the surfaces of the negative electrode current collector (0069).
Regarding Claim 4, the negative electrode active material layer/primer layer can comprise carbon (0069 – the negative electrode active material layer comprises Denka black as a conductive agent).
Regarding Claim 5, the negative electrode active material layer/primer layer and lithiophilic material are coated on one side of the negative electrode current collector (0027, 0069 – although the embodiment of Example 1 does not include a metal oxide layer between the active material layer and the LiF, other embodiments form a metal oxide layer on the active material layer and the LiF layer on the metal oxide layer). Examiner notes that Claim 1 only claims a negative electrode and not a separator. Therefore, the side of the current collector on which the active material layer/primer layer and lithiophilic material are coated on can be viewed as the first surface.
Regarding Claim 13, the first anode active material layer/primer layer includes a conductive agent and a binder (0069 – the active material layer includes Denka black as a conductive agent and SBR as a binder).
Claim(s) 1-2, 4, and 13-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim (US 20140363736 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Kim teaches a negative electrode (0019, Fig. 1: part 200) comprising a negative electrode current collector (0019, Fig. 1: part 20), a primer layer applied to an outer surface of the negative electrode current collector (0019, Fig. 1: part 13 – the first anode active material can be viewed as a primer layer and is formed on an outer surface of the current collector), and a lithiophilic material formed on at least a portion of the primer layer by coating, wherein the lithiophilic material is CoO (0019, Fig. 1: part 14 – a second anode active material is formed on the first anode active material/primer layer; 0038 – the second anode active material layer can comprise CoO).
Regarding Claim 2, the negative electrode current collector comprises two surfaces (Fig. 1 – part 20). One of the surfaces can be viewed as a first surface that does not face a separator (Fig. 1: part 30) and the other surface can be viewed as a second surface that faces a separator. The primer layer is applied to both surfaces of the negative electrode current collector (Fig. 4 – frameworks 102 and 103 are applied to one of the surfaces of the current collector 101).
Regarding Claim 4, the first anode active material layer/primer layer can comprise carbon (0013).
Regarding Claim 13, the first anode active material layer/primer layer includes a conductive agent and a binder (0078).
Regarding Claim 14, the current collector can have a thickness of about 20 µm (0079).
Regarding Claim 15, the lithiophilic material is distributed throughout the second anode active material layer, which is shown to cover at least 5% of the total area of the negative electrode current collector (Fig. 1 – the second anode active material layer 14 covers at least 5% of the negative electrode current collector 20)
Claim(s) 1-2 and 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chen (US 20230043821 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Chen teaches a negative electrode plate comprising a negative electrode current collector (Abstract), a primer layer applied to an outer surface of the negative electrode current collector (Abstract, Fig. 4 – the frameworks 102 and 103 can be viewed as a primer layer applied to the outer surface of the current collector 101), and a lithiophilic material formed on at least a portion of the primer layer by coating (0064 – the framework/primer layer is covered by an inorganic material which can be in the form of a coating), wherein the lithiophilic material comprises CuO or ZnO (0064).
Regarding Claim 2, the negative electrode current collector comprises two surfaces (Fig. 4 – part 101). One of the surfaces can be viewed as a first surface that does not face a separator and the other surface can be viewed as a second surface that faces a separator. The primer layer is applied to one of the first or second surfaces of the negative electrode current collector (Fig. 4 – frameworks 102 and 103 are applied to one of the surfaces of the current collector 101).
Regarding Claim 4, the framework/primer layer can comprise carbon (0064).
Regarding Claim 5, the framework/primer layer and lithiophilic material are coated on one side of the negative electrode current collector (Fig. 4). Examiner notes that Claim 1 only claims a negative electrode and not a separator. Therefore, the side of the current collector on which the framework/primer layer and lithiophilic material are coated on can be viewed as the first surface.
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) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chae `096 (KR 20180117483 A1, US 20190372096 A1 is used as an English equivalent).
Regarding Claim 14, Chae `096 teaches the negative electrode of Claim 1. The negative electrode current collector can have a thickness between 3 µm and 500 µm (0042). This range overlaps the claimed range of 5 µm to 30 µm.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have routinely selected the overlapping portions of the disclosed thickness ranges as selection of overlapping portions of ranges has been held to be a prima facie case of obviousness (see MPEP 2144.05).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 18-22 allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art does not teach or suggest the lithium battery of Claim 18. Specifically, the prior art does not teach or suggest a negative electrode comprising a negative electrode current collector, a primer layer applied to an outer surface of the negative electrode current collector, and a lithophilic material formed on at least a portion of the primer layer by coating, wherein the negative electrode current collector comprises a first surface that does not face the separator and a second surface that faces the separator, and the lithiophilic material is coated on only the primer layer on the first surface (not facing the separator).
The closest prior art is Kim (US 20140363736 A1), which teaches a battery (Title) comprising a positive electrode (part 100), a negative electrode (part 200), and a separator between the electrodes (part 30) (Fig. 1). The negative electrode comprises a current collector (part 20), primer layers formed on both the surface of the current collector facing the separator and the surface not facing the separator (parts 13) and a lithiophilic material formed on at least a portion of the primer layer by coating (parts 14, 0019 – second anode active materials are formed on the first anode active materials/primer layers; 0038 – the second anode active material layer can comprise CoO) (Fig. 1).
However, the second anode active material layers containing the lithiophilic material are coated on both the first anode active material layers (Fig. 1, parts 13 and 14). Kim does not teach or suggest only providing the second anode active material layer on the side of the current collector that does not face the separator.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZIHENG LU whose telephone number is (703)756-1077. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30 - 5 ET.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas Smith can be reached at (571) 272-8760. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ZIHENG LU/ Examiner, Art Unit 1752
/NICHOLAS A SMITH/ Supervisory Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1752