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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 6/16/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 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 § 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.
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nakamura (US 20110052984 A1) in view of the machine translation of Ikegami (JP 2020095779 A) and further in view of Liu (US 20180287198 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 2, Nakamura teaches a method of first preparing the slurry of the active material, binder, and solvent, and then teaches an optional step of adding the component [E] additive. After the slurry is prepared, a method of coating at least one main surface of the current collector is taught (para. 0065).
In further detail, Nakamura teaches a coating method comprising:
a first step of kneading an active material, a binder, and a solvent to obtain a kneaded slurry (para. 0025 [the negative electrode active material contains an active material, [A] a polyvinyl fluoride component (para. 0047, binder), [B] a styrene butadiene component, [C] a non-ionic surfactant, and [D] N-methylpyrrolidone (para. 0057 solvent)]) (para. 0028 [preparing the slurry containing components A-D]) (para. 0148, explains that the mixture is kneaded).
a second step of adding an additive to the kneaded slurry and stirring the kneaded slurry and the additive to obtain a coating slurry (para. 0076 [component [E] (para. 0060 additive)] may be directly added to the negative electrode composition slurry [kneaded mixture [A-D]]
a third step of intermittently applying the coating slurry onto a current collector to form a coated part and a non-coated part (para. 0096-0097 [describes a coating treatment with an intermittent coating setting. An intermittent coating setting would produce coated and non-coated areas on the current collector.])
the additive contains a cellulose component (para. 0093).
Nakamura does not teach:
the additive contains at least one of castor oil, cellulose nanofibers, modified silicone, an amide, polyethylene oxide, propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate, polyaniline, and polycarboxylic acid.
Ikegami, in the same field of endeavor, active materials for electrodes, teaches:
an additive contains at least cellulose nanofibers and lignocellulose nanofibers (pg. 1, para. 9).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have used the cellulose nanofibers as the cellulose additive of Nakamura, specifically a lignocellulose nanofiber, as taught by Ikegami, in order to effectively suppress the aggregation of particles in the active material, as taught by Ikegami (pg. 2, para. 3). Suppressing the aggregation of particles leads to a battery having excellent charge/discharge characteristics (pg. 2, para. 3).
Modified Nakamura does not teach,
in the second step, an addition amount of the additive corresponding to a coating speed of the coating slurry or a basis weight of the coated part set in advance is set based on a relationship in which the addition amount of the additive increases in accordance with an increase in the coating speed of the coating slurry or an increase in the basis weight of the coated part
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, electrodes, teaches,
an addition amount of the additive (para. 0028, [suspending agent … carboxymethylcellulose sodium] … [1% of carboxymethylcellulose sodium is added]) corresponding to a coating speed of the coating slurry (para. 0028, [the coating speed of the anode electrode slurry can be increased to 25 m/min – 30 m/min])) is set based on a relationship in which the addition amount of the additive increases (para. 0028 teaches that the additive increased from none to 1%) in accordance with an increase in the coating speed of the coating slurry (para. 0028 teaches that the coating speed increased to 25-30 m/min ).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have set the coating speed based on the additive amount in Nakamura’s second step, as taught by Liu, where the additive amount increases in accordance with the coating speed, as taught by Liu, in order to prevent drying-cracking of the electrode film, which affects the appearance and quality of the electrode plate and may lead to safety problems for the battery, and in order to increase production capacity, as taught by the background disclosure of Liu (para. 0004, [one way for battery manufacturers to increase production capacity is to increase the speed of each of battery production processes , in which coating is one of the key processes for battery production and the goal thereof is to increase the current speed of 16 - 20 m / min to 50 m / min or more . However, for the anode electrode slurry, as the coating speed is increased, the phenomenon of drying - cracking of the anode electrode film is more obvious, which affects the appearance and the quality rate of the anode electrode plate , and is even serious , the anode will precipitate lithium and lead to safety problems for the battery]) (para. 0027 and 0028 explains the relationship between the coating speed and the additive amount).
Regarding claim 3, modified Nakamura teaches the coating method according to claim 1.
Further, Ikegami teaches wherein the cellulose nanofibers, and the cellulose nanofibers contain 50% or more (relative particle amount based on 100% as a whole) of particles having a number average width of a short width of 3 to 100 nm (pg. 3, para. 4 [The average fiber diameter of CNF (A) is 50 nm or less, preferably 20 nm or less, and more preferably 10 nm or less. The lower limit is not particularly limited, but is usually 1 nm or more]), an aspect ratio of 40 (pg. 3, para.4 (2 micron long width to 50 nm of the short width yields a 40 aspect ratio)) or more, and a number average width of a long width of 100 μm (pg. 3, para. 4 [The average length of CNF(A) is preferably 100 nm to 100 μm, more preferably 1 μm to 100 μm]).
Regarding claim 4, modified Nakamura teaches the coating method according to claim 1, and further teaches wherein the additive contains the cellulose nanofibers.
Ikegami teaches that the additive contains the cellulose nanofibers, and the cellulose nanofibers are contained in an amount of 0.01 mass % to 0.2 mass % based on 100 mass % of a solid content of the coating slurry (pg. 3, para. 6 [0.01 parts by mass to 50 parts by mass, relative to 100 parts by mass of the solvent in the slurry]).
Conclusion
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/V.G./Examiner, Art Unit 1721
/ALLISON BOURKE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1721
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