DETAILED ACTION
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 .
2. The Applicant's amendments filed on September 19, 2025, were received. Claim 1 has been amended. Claim 5 has been cancelled. Claims 2-3, 8 and 11-18 have been previously withdrawn from consideration. No new Claims have been added. Therefore, Claims 1, 4, 6-7 and 9-10 are pending in this office action.
3. The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S.C. code not included in this action can be found in the prior Office Action issued on June 24, 2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. Claims 1, 4, 6-7 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uhm et al. (US 2019/0058223 A1) in view of Choi et al. (US 11,223,037).
With regard to Claims 1 and 4, Uhm et al. disclose in Figures 2-4, a flexible secondary battery, called a cable type secondary battery (100), comprising: a cable type core portion (10) including a metallic cable including copper, aluminum or nickel (paragraph 0055); a positive electrode wire (20) spirally wound around an outer surface of the core portion (10), spaced apart at a predetermined interval, the positive electrode wire (20) including a first porous coating layer (23) formed on an outer surface; and a negative electrode wire (30) spirally wound around the outer surface of the core portion (10) in an alternating manner with the wound positive electrode wire (20) corresponding to the predetermined interval, the negative electrode wire (30) including a second porous coating layer (33) formed on an outer surface, and wherein the negative electrode has an open structure (paragraphs 0038-0044). Uhm et al. do not specifically disclose a lithium metal coated wire, and wherein the lithium metal coated wire is a lithium metal coated copper wire or a lithium metal coated nickel wire.
Choi et al. disclose in Figures 3-4, an anode (10) for a cable-type secondary battery (100) including a wire-type current collector (12) and a lithium-containing electrode layer (14) formed on a surface of the wire-type current collector (column 11, lines 10-16), wherein the wire-type current collector (12) may be made of stainless steel, aluminum, nickel, titanium baked carbon, or copper (column 6, lines 17-18), and wherein the lithium-containing electrode material may include one selected from lithium, lithium oxides, lithium alloys and lithium alloy oxides (column 6, lines 35-38). Before the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the flexible secondary battery of Uhm et al. to include a lithium metal coated wire, wherein the lithium metal coated wire is a lithium metal coated copper wire or a lithium metal coated nickel wire, because Choi et al. teach that this configuration ensures the electroconductivity of the anode capable of realizing the capacity of a battery and to inhibit degradation of the performance of a battery caused by high resistance of an electrode (column 6, lines 30-34).
The recitation, "to allow a lithium ion of the lithium metal coated wire in contact with the negative electrode to move to the positive electrode by liquid diffusion", is functional language which imparts intended use to the structural features of the product. Therefore, while the claim language has been considered with regard to structure, the intended use language it is not given patentable weight because it is directed to a process and not directed to the structural features of the product. While features of an apparatus may be recited either structurally or functionally, claims directed to an apparatus must be distinguished from the prior art in terms of structure rather than function. See MPEP 2114. A claim containing a “recitation with respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus is intended to be employed does not differentiate the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus” if the prior art apparatus teaches all the structural limitations of the claim. See MPEP 2113.
With regard to Claim 6, Uhm et al. disclose in Figures 2-4, wherein the surface on which the positive electrode wire (20) is wound and the surface on which the negative electrode wire (30) are placed on a same circumferential surface (paragraphs 0038-0044).
With regard to Claim 7, Uhm et al. disclose in Figures 2-4, wherein the first porous coating layer (23) and the second porous coating layer (33) are an electrolyte layer or a separator independently of each other (paragraphs 0038-0044).
With regard to Claim 9, Uhm et al. disclose in Figure 4, wherein an outer surface of the flexible secondary battery (100) is coated with a protective coating (40) (paragraphs 0045-0046).
With regard to Claim 10, Uhm et al. disclose in Figures 2-4, wherein the flexible secondary battery (100) is a lithium secondary battery (paragraphs 0041-0042).
Response to Arguments
5. Applicant's arguments filed September 19, 2025, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues, “the combined teaching of Uhm and Choi fails to provide any suggestion to arrive at the claimed structure, i.e., wherein the negative electrode has an open structure to allow a lithium ion of the lithium metal coated wire in contact with the negative electrode to move to the positive electrode by liquid diffusion”.
Uhm et al. teach the exact same structural configuration as that of the claimed invention, thereby meeting the newly claimed structural limitation of the negative electrode having an open structure. The rest of the recitation, “to allow a lithium ion of the lithium metal coated wire in contact with the negative electrode to move to the positive electrode by liquid diffusion”, is considered functional language because it imparts intended use to the newly amended structural features of the negative electrode. Therefore, Applicant’s argument is not persuasive.
Conclusion
6. 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.
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KARIE O APICELLA whose telephone number is (571)272-8614. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday; 8:00AM to 5:00PM EST.
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/KARIE O'NEILL APICELLA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1725