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 10/07/2025 have been fully considered. Claim(s) 1, 6 is/are amended; claim(s) 6-9 remain withdrawn; and claim(s) 3 is/are canceled.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arguments, the previous rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 set forth in the Office action mailed 10/07/2025 has/have been withdrawn. Applicant’s amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection below.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 has been objected to for failing to accurately depict the changes made.
Claim 1 has been amended as follows (filed 10/07/2025):
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wherein the emphasized limitation of the previously filed claims (filed 06/09/2025, see below) appears to have been deleted instead of being struck-through to indicate the limitation is removed in most recently filed set of claims.
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Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1, 4-5, 10-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Konishi (US20130164618A1 cited in IDS filed 03/12/2023)
Regarding claims 1, 10-13 Konishi discloses a negative electrode plate for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery ([0013]), comprising:
a negative electrode active material layer (“negative electrode mixture layer”, [0013]), which contains three active materials ([0017]); the space occupied by each active material is
interpreted as a respective region, wherein the three active materials are thus contained in a first, second, and third region in the negative electrode active material layer;
the first region includes a first carbon material (“second active material”, “first carbon material” [0019]);
the second region includes a second carbon material (“first active material”, “high crystalline graphite material” [0018]);
the third region includes a silicon-based active material ([0036]), silicon being known in the art as storing lithium through alloying and thus being recognized as an alloy-based negative electrode active material;
wherein an R value (“D/G ratio”) is determined by an equation (1) R=I1360/I1580 where I1360 denotes an intensity of a peak at or near 1360 cm-1 in a Raman spectrum and I1580 denotes an intensity of a peak at or near 1360 cm-1 in a Raman spectrum ([0013]);
an experimental example of the negative electrode plate comprises an R value of the first region of 0.252 (Example 1, [0089]), which is higher than an R value of the second region of 0.072 ([0088]), the R value of the first region being less than 0.8 (claim 1) and the R value of the second region being less than 0.2 (claim 12).
A difference between the R value of the first and second region is 0.180 ([0088-0089]), which falls within the claimed ranges of 0.1-0.5 (claim 10) and 0.1-0.3 (claim 11).
Konishi discloses mixing and dispersing the negative electrode active materials and the binder as a slurry ([0059]), which would inherently would result in some portion of the binder in contact with the first carbon material of the first region; this portion of the binder is recognized as the first binder as claimed. Konishi further discloses an experimental example of the negative electrode plate wherein the first carbon material of the first region is a first graphite particle (“pitch-coated graphite”) ([0089]) and the first binder includes styrene-butadiene rubber ([0092]) (Example 1, [0087-0093]).
The second region of Konishi Example 1 includes a second graphite particle (“artificial graphite”) ([0088]), and a first amount of coating of amorphous carbon for the first graphite particle ([0033], [0089]) is necessarily greater than a second amount of coating of amorphous carbon for the second graphite particle (claim 1) which has zero coating of amorphous carbon (claims 1, 13) ([0029-0030]).
Regarding claim 4, Konishi discloses the negative electrode plate according to claim 1, and discloses mixing and dispersing the negative electrode active materials and the binder as a slurry ([0059]), which would inherently would result in some portion of the binder in contact with the second carbon material of the second region; this portion of the binder is recognized as the second binder.
Regarding claim 5, Konishi discloses a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery comprising the negative electrode plate according to claim 1 ([0013]).
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.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Konishi (US20130164618A1) as applied to claim 1.
Regarding claim 2, Konishi discloses the negative electrode plate according to claim 1, and teaches maintaining an R value (“D/G ratio”) of the first carbon material (forming the first region) within a range of 0.2 to 2.0 ([0019]) in order to provide an appropriate thickness of amorphous carbon coating ([0033]), which improves the efficiency of supplying electrolytic solution to the negative electrode active material layer at the expense of material conductivity ([0019]).
As such, in seeking to balance providing sufficient supply of electrolytic solution without impacting material conductivity in Konishi’s first carbon material, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to optimize the amorphous carbon coating thickness, and correspondingly optimize the R value of Konishi’s first region within a range of 0.2 to 2.0, encompassing the claimed range (R=0.38-0.8, claims 1, 2) such that a skilled artisan would have selected within this range through routine optimization under Konishi’s teaching with a reasonable expectation of success (MPEP 2144.05 II).
Modified Konishi Example 1 further provides an R value of the second region of 0.072 ([0088]), which is less than 0.38.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the previous rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable under Daigo (JP2015-164127) (remarks pp. 6-7) 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; specifically, new prior art Konishi (US20130164618A1) is applied with regard to the first binder of the first region as Applicant’s 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.
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/E.C./Examiner, Art Unit 1751
/JONATHAN G LEONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1751 1/15/2026