DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-7, in the reply filed on 04/02/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 8-15 are withdrawn.
Claims 1-7 have been fully considered in examination.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramin (US20200407543A1) in view of Avison (US-20200266414-A1) and Johan (EP2911221A1) (refer to enclosed translations for citations).
Regarding claim 1,
Ramin teaches method for manufacturing a lithium secondary battery [0001] [0091] [0093] comprising: (S10) preparing a separator [0001] comprising:
a porous polymer substrate [0087]
and a porous coating layer on at least one surface of the porous polymer substrate ([0087], wherein the coating layer increases the volume of space that a liquid electrolyte infiltrates, such that it too is porous);
(S20) thermally treating the separator ([0111] of Ramin teaches heat treating separator with a non-aqueous composition with organic particles);
(S30) placing an electrode assembly comprising the thermally treated separator interposed between a positive electrode and a negative electrode in a battery case and injecting an electrolyte solution into the battery case to manufacture a battery [0093],
wherein the porous coating layer comprises inorganic particles [0108] and a binder polymer (see Ramin claim 6),
wherein the binder polymer comprises a fluorine-based copolymer [0050],
the fluorine-based copolymer comprises a vinylidene fluoride (VDF) monomer and a comonomer that is copolymerizable with the vinylidene fluoride [0042],
wherein the comonomer content is 5% to 15% by weight based on 100% by weight of the fluorine-based copolymer (most preferably 3-10 wt%, [0042]),
wherein the separator composition results in improved ionic conductivity (high ion conductivity is inventive goal per Ramin [0004, 0078]).
Ramin is silent to the specific ionic conductivity of the separator and fails to teach thermally treating the separator in the presence of a solvent.
Avison teaches thermally treating ([0056], “heat”) the separator ([0056], “separator”) in the presence of an organic solvent ([0056], “organic solvent”; note that [0056] describes the process of forming the separator on its own wherein other aspects of the invention describe using this separator [0057] in a battery [0057], such that Avison also teaches S20 in sequence of being formed before assembling the battery). Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to modify the thermally treatment step [0111] of Ramin such that it is performed in the presence of an organic solvent, as suggested by Avison [0056]), in order to better prevent subsequent delamination from the substrate [0056]. Avison is silent to a specific ionic-conductivity of the separator.
Johan teaches wherein a separator has ionic conductivity of 4.75 X 10-4 S/cm or more [0082] such that it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to a separator made of similar materials would also have a similar ionic conductivity. Johan [0001, 0003, 0081-0082] teaches that the inventive separators beneficially protect electrodes from electrical short-circuit while achieving lithium-ion conductivity.
Regarding claim 2,
Ramin in view of Avison and Johan teaches the method for manufacturing the lithium secondary battery according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above), wherein (S20) the thermal treatment step is performed at a temperature from about 50 to 110 C [0095], which overlaps with claimed range of 75 °C or more. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have selected the overlapping portion of the ranges disclosed by the reference because selection of overlapping portion of ranges has been held to be a prima facie case of obviousness. See MPEP § 2144.05.I.
Regarding claim 3,
Ramin in view of Avison and Johan teaches the method for manufacturing the lithium secondary battery according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above), wherein the step (S10) comprises coating a porous coating layer forming slurry on the porous polymer substrate [0087] and drying the porous coating layer, wherein the slurry comprises the inorganic particles and the binder polymer ([0092], “dried”).
Regarding claim 4,
Ramin in view of Avison and Johan teaches the method for manufacturing the lithium secondary battery according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above), wherein the organic solvent comprises at least N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) [0108].
Regarding claim 5,
Ramin in view of Avison and Johan teaches the method for manufacturing the lithium secondary battery according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above), but fails to teach wherein the step (S20) comprises thermally treating the separator to form a macro pore that is one to five times larger than an average diameter of an interstitial volume in the porous coating layer within the separator. However, Ramin uses the same materials and processing steps claimed, including a thermal treatment step (S20) (see rejection of claim 20 above) such that there is a reasonable basis to conclude that thermally treating the separator must also form a macro pore that is one to five times larger than an average diameter of an interstitial volume in the porous coating layer within the separator. Products of identical composition may not have mutually exclusive properties. See MPEP 2112.01 and In re Spada 15 USPQ2d 1655,1658 (Fed. Circ. 1990).
Regarding claim 6,
Ramin in view of Avison and Johan teaches the method for manufacturing the lithium secondary battery according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above), wherein the fluorine-based copolymer has crystallinity of 30% or less (abutting range of at least 30 wt%, [0042] – see MPEP 2144.05 I) or a melting temperature of 155°C or less (“or” is an optional limitation – Ramin [0073] does teach fluoropolymer melting point range abutting at 155°C, see also MPEP 2144.05 I),
Regarding claim 7,
Ramin in view of Avison and Johan teaches the method for manufacturing the lithium secondary battery according to claim 1 (see rejection of claim 1 above), further comprising: after the step (S30), (S40) activating the battery comprising the injected electrolyte solution ([0093], wherein, once the final battery is formed, comprising the injected electrolyte solution [0116], the battery is ready for use such that is meets the limitation “activated”.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-7 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.
Applicant argues that all other claims should be allowable based off allowable independent claims. However, the rejections on all claims have been sustained.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAUL WYROUGH whose telephone number is (571)272-4806. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 10am-5pm.
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/PAUL CHRISTIAN ST WYROUGH/Examiner, Art Unit 1728 /TIFFANY LEGETTE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1723