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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This Office action regarding Application No. 17/926,459 to Nogami, assigned to SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., Osaka, Japan, filed 11/18/2022 and published as U.S.PG Publication 2023/0187746 published on 06/15/2023, is in response to applicant's request for continued examination, RCE, filed 05/13/2026. Applicant's response is fully considered.
This application is a 35 U.S.C. § 371 National Stage entry of International Patent Application PCT/JP2021/017972 filed 05/12/2021. It claims priority from Japanese Patent Application JP2020-093066 filed 05/28/2020.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/13/2026 has been entered.
Status of the Claims
The status of the claims stand as last filed in the after-final response dated 04/03/2026. In the after-final response applicant has amended independent claim 1 by incorporation of limitations of claim 2, and addition of a new limitation, “…the insulation plate is fixed by and contacts both the upper end face of the first cylinder part and the inclination par.” Claim 2 has been canceled.
4.1 Currently amended 1
Claim 1 is the only claim currently pending in this application.
Withdrawal of Claim Rejection – 35 USC § 102
The rejection of the claims 1 and 2 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Uh (U.S. PG Publication 2009/0311594) is withdrawn in this RCE Office action since claim 1 as amended is not anticipated or rendered obvious by the previously applied reference of Uh.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okutani Oose (WO 2019/194253; the U.S. Equivalent Document to Okutani et al. U.S. PG Publication 2021/0057684 is used here) in view of Yamaguchi et al. (U.S. PG Publication 2020/0136097)
Regarding claim 1 Okutani discloses cylindrical battery (Okutani paragraph 0005, 0013, 0026) comprising an electrode body (Okutani paragraph 0005, 0013, 0026), the electrode body equivalent to the electrode assembly. The electrode body or electrode assembly of the cylindrical battery is of a wound type and is formed by spirally winding a positive electrode and a negative electrode with a separator interposed therebetween (Okutani paragraph 0048). The battery further comprises an electrolyte (Okutani paragraph 0058, 0059, 0060), a bottomed cylindrical outer can that accommodates the electrode assembly and an electrolyte (Okutani paragraph 0013), and a sealing plate with gasket on its outer circumferential edge configured to seal the outer can (Okutani paragraph 0014).
The outer can has a bottom part accommodating the electrode assembly and an upper part for compressing the gasket, and an inclination that connects the bottom part and the upper part (Okutani Fig. 1A) considered equivalent to the first cylindrical bottom part that accommodates the electrode assembly, and a second cylindrical part for compression of the gasket and the inclination part that connects the first part and the second part.
Okutani shows in the drawing that the upper cylindrical part, equivalent to the second cylinder part, to have a smaller thickness than the cylindrical bottom part, equivalent to the first cylindrical part (Okutani Fig. 1A).
Okutani discloses a plate between the electrode assembly and the sealing plate, and that is in contact with upper end face of the lower cylinder part (the first cylindrical bottom part) and the inclination part (Okutani Fig. 1A, 2A), but Okutani is silent about identifying the unlabeled plate to be the insulating plate fixed by and contact the first cylinder and the inclination plate.
Yamaguchi discloses a cylindrical secondary battery, an electrode body and an electrolyte housed in a bottomed cylindrical exterior can (Yamaguchi Fig. 1, paragraph 0021), the exterior can has a bottom part accommodating the electrode body, an upper part for compressing a gasket and an inclination part that connects the bottom part and the upper part, sealing plate to seal the battery can, and a gasket compressed in radial direction between the seal plate and the outer can (Yamaguchi Fig.1). Yamaguchi discloses an insulating plate disposed above the electrode body (Yamaguchi Fig. 1, paragraph 0021) and is fixed by the and in contact with the upper part of the bottom cylindrical part and the inclination part (Yamaguchi Fig. 1) considered equivalent to the locking part. The insulating plate, therefore, insulates the end of the electrode assembly from the sealing plate and prevents any possible short circuit of the electrodes.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill to have disposed a similar insulating plate as disclosed by Yamaguchi (Yamaguchi Fig. 1, paragraph 0021) in the battery of Okutani to be fixed by the bottom cylindrical part and in the inclination part for the same benefit of insulting the end of the electrode assembly and prevent any short circuit of the electrodes. According to the MPEP such a modification is considered the use of known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way (MPEP 2143 I C).
Response to Argument
In the after-final response applicant traverses the rejection of the claims presented in the previous final Office action under 102(a)(1) over Uh (U.S. PG Publication 2009/0311594). Applicant argues that the reference of Uh does not anticipate the limitations of amended claim 1. Examiner notes that the previous rejection under 102(a)(1) over the reference of Uh has been withdrawn as presented above this Office action. Upon further consideration and search pending claim 1 is rejected under 103 over the references of Okutani et al. (U.S. PG Publication 2021/0057684) in view of Yamaguchi et al. (U.S. PG Publication 2020/0136097). The combined teaching of the references renders the claimed invention obvious.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR M KEKIA whose telephone number is (571)270-5918. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00am-5:00 pm,.
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/JONATHAN G JELSMA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
/OMAR M KEKIA/Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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