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 05/11/2026 have been fully considered. Claim(s) 1 and 19 is/are amended; claim(s) 4 remain withdrawn; and claim(s) 5 has/have been canceled. Examiner affirms that the original disclosure provides adequate support for the amendment.
Upon considering said amendment and arguments, the previous rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 103 set forth in the Office action mailed 02/09/2026 has/have been maintained for the reasons presented below:
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments to the specification to remove Experimental Example 3, which appears to be an identical duplicate of the Comparative Example 1, overcomes the objection to the specification (Remarks pp. 10).
Applicant’s amendments to claim 19 to recite the anode active material layer and additional anode active material layer are continuous with the respective first and second solid electrolyte layer overcome the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112 applied to this claim, where claim 19 previously recited the anode layers were contiguous with the cathode active material layer and additional cathode active material layer and lacked antecedent basis in the structure of claim 1 reciting a solid electrolyte layer between the cathode and anode layers.
Applicant's arguments (Remarks pp. 10-15) have been fully considered but they are not persuasive for the reasons presented below:
Claim 1 recites the feature of an “anode current collector having an anode uncoated portion composed of an exposed portion of the anode current collector without the anode active material layer disposed thereon” (emphasis by Examiner), assigned the numeral (21N) in Applicant’s FIG. 4 (see inst. spec. ¶[0034]).
Applicant objects to Examiner’s annotation of Taniuchi (US20210273235A1) FIG. 1, stating that the highlighted portion on the left (mapped to the anode uncoated portion of claim 1) is not present in the unmodified FIG. 1 of Taniuchi (Remarks p. 11):
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Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 from Remarks p. 11, emphasis by Applicant
Examiner notes that the anode uncoated portion (12, “negative electrode tab”, Taniuchi [0196]) is further shown in Taniuchi FIG. 6, annotated below, and is present without modification:
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Claim 1, amended to recite limitations of cancelled claim 5, recites inter alia:
“a first gap between one of the pair of first side portions of the flame- retardant inactive member and the cathode active material laver …, and a second gap between one of the pair of second side portions of the flame- retardant inactive member and the cathode active material laver” (claim 1 clause 7, emphasis by Examiner),
the first and second gaps assigned the numerals (g1) and (g2) in Applicant’s FIG. 5A (inst. spec. [0040]).
Applicant appears to relate the “space between the portion on the left (presumably the anode uncoated portion in the above Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1) with a main portion on the right (presumably the first side portion)” as the gap cited in the rejection of record, which is not actually present in Taniuchi FIG. 1 (Remarks pp. 11).
Examiner clarifies that Taniuchi’s respective first and second gaps are the spaces between the inner sides of the first and second side portions (i.e., of inactive member 241, see gray dashed lines) and the outer sides of the cathode active material layer (21, see solid gray area). These are shown in the following annotation of Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Gaps below:
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Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Gaps
Furthermore, while Applicant highlights that Taniuchi does not refer to the first and second gaps as being “gaps” (Remarks pp. 11-12), Taniuchi ¶[0212] discloses the following Formula 5 regarding the inner sizes of the inactive member (241, “positive electrode guide) and outer sizes of the positive electrode (“cathode”) active material layer (21):
[Outer size of positive electrode active material layer]≤[Inner size of positive electrode guide]≤[Outer size of positive electrode active material layer+Δ]
where Δ is additional spacing to compensate for layer displacement during manufacturing and prevent overlapping of the layers ([0212-0213]). In other words, Taniuchi explicitly discloses the use of gaps between the inactive member (i.e., the first and second side portions) from the cathode active material layer to prevent layer overlap with a sufficient length to allow for a margin of error from positional displacement during lamination ([0008]).
Additionally, Applicant’s disclosure does not appear to provide a special definition of “gap” that would exclude the spaces between Taniuchi’s cathode active material layer and first and second side portions of the insulating member (inst. spec. [0040], FIG. 5A).
Applicant asserts that Taniuchi’s positive electrode tab (22) already has a positive electrode tab covering layer (23) which prevents short circuits (Taniuchi [0168], FIG. 6). Thus, there is no reason for Taniuchi’s inactive member (241, “positive electrode guide”) to include a protruding portion of the first side portions to perform the same function (Remarks pp. 12-13, see claim 1 clause 6).
While this argument has been fully considered, it has not been found persuasive. Tomura (US20170207482A1), relied upon to teach forming the protruding portion from the first side portion to prevent short circuits with the electrode tab (see Annotated Tomura FIG. 8 reproduced below), teaches that the electrode tab may be suitably insulated by both providing separate pieces of insulating material (e.g., Taniuchi’s tab covering layer) or by protruding material of an existing inactive member (e.g., the claimed protruding portions; see claim 1 clause 6) (Tomura [0082], [0020], Annotated Tomura FIG. 8 below). It is prima facie obvious to substitute equivalents known in the art for the same purpose; see MPEP 2144.06 II. Moreover, Tomura suggests improvements to manufacturing productivity from performing this substitution through simplifying manufacture (Tomura [0082]).
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Applicant asserts that Taniuchi’s inactive member (241, “positive electrode guide”) has a lateral region cut away to form a concave portion (243) at the cathode uncoated region (22, “positive electrode tab”) as shown in Taniuchi FIGs. 2A and 2C; thus, the discontinuous inactive member (241) cannot form a protrusion at the cut-away concave portion (243) and accordingly cover the cathode uncoated region (22) (Remarks pp. 13-14).
While this argument has been fully considered, it has not been found persuasive. Taniuchi discloses embodiments of the secondary battery where cut-away concave portion (243) is formed only to ½ the thickness of a positive electrode electric collector on a surface of the inactive member (241) (Taniuchi [0152-0154], FIG. 3A), in addition to the embodiment comprising the discontinuous inactive member (241) shown in FIGs. 2A and 2C cited by Applicant. Taniuchi recognizes both structures of inactive member (“positive electrode guide”) as being interchangeable equivalents ([0163]), such that a skilled artisan would not be limited to the discontinuous inactive member (FIGs. 2A, 2C). Taniuchi’s disclosure of more than one alternative does not constitute a teaching away from the suitable embodiment shown in FIG. 3A; see MPEP 2143.01 I.
Thus, although Taniuchi envisions the use of a positive electrode coating layer (23) on the cathode uncoated portion (22, “positive electrode tab”), it is still prima facie obvious to substitute this positive electrode coating layer (23) (see Taniuchi FIG. 6) for a protruding portion of the first side portion of the inactive member as taught by Tomura (see Annotated Tomura FIG. 8) for the same purpose of insulating the cathode uncoated portion, i.e., the electrode tab (see MPEP 2144.06 II) (Remarks pp. 14). Additionally, Taniuchi is not limited to the specific embodiment of the secondary battery which has a concave portion (243) making the inactive member (241, “positive electrode guide”) discontinuous and incompatible with the protruding portion (i.e., Taniuchi FIGs. 2A, 2C) and discloses with sufficient specificity another embodiment which may be suitably provided with the protruding portion (i.e., Taniuchi FIG. 3A) (Remarks pp. 14; see MPEP 2143.01 I). Therefore, when viewed in light of the teachings and disclosure of Tomura, Taniuchi does not teach away from any addition of a protrusion into the first side portion (i.e., the lateral region of the positive electrode guide) (Remarks pp. 14).
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(s) 1-3,7, 9-15 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taniuchi et al. (US20210273235A1) in view of Tomura et al. (US20170207482A1) and Aoki et al. (US20220294018A1).
Regarding claim 1, Taniuchi discloses an all-solid secondary battery, comprising:
a cathode layer (“positive electrode”) including a cathode current collector (25, “positive electrode electric collector”) and a cathode active material layer (21) on at least one surface of the cathode current collector ([0044], FIG. 6), the cathode current collector having a cathode uncoated portion (22, “positive electrode tab”), composed of an exposed portion of the cathode current collector without the cathode active material layer disposed thereon ([0046-0067], FIG. 6);
an anode layer (“negative electrode”) including an anode current collector (“negative electrode electric collector”) and an anode active material layer (11) on the anode current collector ([0195]), the anode current collector having an anode uncoated portion (12, “negative electrode tab”) composed of an exposed portion of the anode current collector without the anode active material layer disposed thereon ([0196], FIG. 6);
a solid electrolyte layer (30) between the cathode layer and the anode layer (FIG. 6, [0193]).
Taniuchi discloses a positive electrode guide (241) on and in contact with the solid electrolyte layer (30) ([0114], FIG. 6) having a rectangular enclosure shape surrounding side surfaces of the cathode active material layer (21) ([0069], FIG. 1). The positive electrode guide may comprise an inorganic oxide to provide heat resistance ([0109]); a plain English definition of flame-retardant is “made or treated so as to resist burning” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary), wherein heat is a product of flame such that Taniuchi’s positive electrode guide (241) is broadly and reasonably interpreted as a flame-retardant inactive member (241).
The flame-retardant inactive member (241) further comprises a pair of first side portions corresponding to the cathode uncoated portion (22) and the anode uncoated portion (12) and a pair of second side portions (see Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1, below).
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Taniuchi FIG. 1
While Taniuchi envisions considerations of providing an electrically insulative tab covering layer (13, 23) on the cathode and anode uncoated portions (12, 22) to prevent short-circuiting between the uncoated portions and the opposing current collectors ([0165-0168], [0196], FIG. 6), and Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member is envisioned to be electrically insulating ([0102-0103]), Taniuchi fails to disclose the use of a protruding portion of the flame-retardant inactive member’s first side portions corresponding to the cathode and anode uncoated portions for this purpose.
Tomura is directed to an all-solid secondary battery incorporating a similar inactive member (3ax, “insulation member”, Tomura [0067], FIGs. 8-10) contacting the solid electrolyte layer (2) and surrounding side surfaces of the cathode active material layer (3b) ([0067], FIGs. 8-10). Similarly, Tomura provides an insulating material at a protruding location (B) corresponding to the cathode uncoated portion (3at) to prevent short-circuits (FIG. 8 [0081-0082]); while Tomura teaches that providing a separate piece of insulating material (e.g., Taniuchi’s tab covering layer) different from the inactive member suitably fills this role, a skilled artisan may improve manufacturing efficiency by instead forming a protruding portion (B) of the electrically insulative inactive member (3ax) at a side portion corresponding to cathode uncoated portion (3at) ([0082], [0020], see Annotated Tomura FIG. 8 below).
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Annotated Tomura FIG. 8
Thus, in seeking to improve manufacturing efficiency and to prevent short-circuits, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to substitute Taniuchi’s tab-covering layer on the cathode uncoated portion with a side portion of the flame-retardant inactive member having a protruding portion corresponding to the cathode uncoated portion as taught by Tomura; such a substitution would be made with a reasonable expectation of success as Tomura teaches both methods of insulating the uncoated portions as substitutable equivalents to each other (MPEP 2144.06 II).
While Taniuchi modified in view of Tomura does not disclose a protruding portion corresponding to the anode uncoated portion as well, Taniuchi nonetheless envisions a need to insulate the anode uncoated portion (12) using tab covering layer (13) to prevent short-circuits (Taniuchi [0196], FIG. 6) such that a skilled artisan seeking the same improvements to manufacturing and safety would be motivated to replace the anode tab coating layer (13) with a protruding portion corresponding to the anode uncoated portion (12) by duplicating the structure of modified Taniuchi’s cathode protruding portion (B) (Annotated Tomura FIG. 8). Such a modification is obvious, known in the art, and would be made with a reasonable expectation of success; Aoki, directed to an all-solid secondary battery comprising an analogous inactive member (7, “insulating spacer”) surrounding the cathode active material layer (2) (Aoki [0049-0050]), FIG. 2) exemplifies a pair of first side portions having protruding portions corresponding to both cathode (1) and anode (5) uncoated portions (FIG. 2) for the same purpose of preventing short circuiting between layers ([0050-0051]).
Modified Taniuchi further discloses a pair of second side portions connected to the first side portions (Taniuchi [0045], Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1), a width of each of the protruding portions (width A+B) being greater than a width of a remaining portion (width A) of each of the pair of the first side portions (Annotated Tomura FIG. 8, Tomura [0081-0082]).
While Taniuchi does not explicitly quantify the distance of a first or second gap between the first and second side portions and the cathode active material layer respectively as claimed in claim 1, Taniuchi discloses that the inner size of the first and second side portions (i.e., of inactive member 241) is equal to or greater than the outer size of the positive electrode active material (21) while accounting for the layer displacement of the battery to prevent overlap of the components (Taniuchi [0212-0216, FIG. 1); in other words, the first and second side portions are spaced from the positive electrode active material at the first and second gaps (see Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Gaps, below) by at least 0 mm in order to prevent overlap.
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Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Gaps
Simultaneously, an ordinary skilled artisan would recognize that this gap, being a positive electrode active material layer unformed portion (26) ([0045] FIG. 1) which does not comprise any positive electrode active material, detracts from the volumetric energy density of the battery. A skilled artisan would thus reasonably avoid an excessively large first and second gap.
As such, in seeking to balance considerations of preventing overlap between components without excessively decreasing the volumetric energy density, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to optimize a range of modified Taniuchi’s first and second gaps. While Taniuchi fails to explicitly specify a range of the first and second gap widths, given that Taniuchi’s minimum range is at least 0mm to prevent overlap, an ordinary skilled artisan would reasonably have utilized the claimed ranges of about 0 mm to 1 mm for the first gap and about 0 to 0.5mm for the second gap as claimed in claim 1 through routine optimization under Taniuchi’s considerations with a reasonable expectation of success (MPEP 2144.05 II).
Regarding claim 2, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 1, wherein a length of each of the pair of second side portions is greater than a length of each of the pair of first side portions (Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1)
Regarding claim 3, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 1. Taniuchi notes the occurrence of some amount of layer displacement during lamination such that the inner size of the flame-retardant inactive member (“positive electrode guide”) must be spaced apart from the side surfaces of the cathode active material layer by distance Δ to prevent layer overlap during lamination (Taniuchi [0008], [0212]), resulting in some amount of the cathode uncoated portion (26, “positive electrode active material layer unformed portion”) existing around the cathode active material layer ([0063-0069], FIG. 1).
As such, the process of lamination would inherently result in a protruded portion of the cathode active material layer being displaced (i.e., extending) onto the cathode uncoated portion by at least some amount of displacement distance Δ.
Regarding claim 7, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 1 wherein a width of each of the pair of second side portions is equal to the width of the remaining portion of each of the pair of first side portions (see Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Widths, below). Furthermore, as a width of the protruding portion is equivalent to a width of the remaining portion (A) combined with a width of portion (B) corresponding to the uncoated portions (Tomura FIG. 8, [0081]), a width of each of the pair of second side portions of the flame-retardant inactive member is necessarily smaller than the width of the protruding portion of the flame-retardant inactive member.
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Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Widths
Regarding claim 9, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pair of first side portions and the pair of second side portions of the flame-retardant inactive member (241) are coupled to each other on four sides of a rectangular shape (Taniuchi [0069], FIG. 1), this shape being recognized as a rectangular enclosure shape including a rectangular gasket shape.
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Regarding claims 10, 11, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 9, wherein each of the pair of first side portions includes two corner portions of the rectangular enclosure shape of the flame-retardant inactive member at opposite ends thereof, respectively (claim 10), wherein a width of each of the opposite ends is greater than a width of the remaining portion of each of the pair of first side portions excluding the protruding portion (claim 11) (see Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Corners, above)
Regarding claim 12, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 10.
While Taniuchi does not explicitly quantify the distance of a first or second gap between the first and second side portions and the cathode active material layer, Taniuchi’s first and second side portions are spaced from the positive electrode active material at the first and second gaps (see Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Gaps, below) by at least 0 mm in order to prevent overlap (Taniuchi [0212-0216]).
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Simultaneously, an ordinary skilled artisan would recognize that this gap, detracts from the volumetric energy density of the battery and would thus reasonably avoid an excessively large first and second gap.
As such, in seeking to balance considerations of preventing overlap between components without excessively decreasing the volumetric energy density, it would be obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art to optimize a range of modified Taniuchi’s first and second gaps. While Taniuchi fails to explicitly specify a range of the first and second gap widths, given that Taniuchi’s minimum range is at least 0mm to prevent overlap, an ordinary skilled artisan would reasonably have utilized the claimed ranges of about 0mm and 0.3mm for the first and second gaps as claimed in claim 12 through routine optimization under Taniuchi’s considerations with a reasonable expectation of success (MPEP 2144.05 II).
Regarding claim 13, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 1. As the outer size of the rectangular enclosure shape of the flame-retardant inactive member (241, 242) protrudes at (B) corresponding to the cathode and anode uncoated portion (22) (Tomura FIG. 8) which protrude beyond the size of the solid electrolyte layer (30) (Taniuchi [0167], FIG. 1), a size of the solid electrolyte layer is thus smaller than an outer size of the rectangular enclosure shape of the flame-retardant inactive member (see Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 3 below).
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Furthermore, as the flame-retardant inactive member (241) must maintain close contact with the adjoining solid electrolyte layer (30) ([0114]), the solid electrolyte layer would need to be at least as large as the inner size of the rectangular enclosure shape of the flame-retardant inactive member in order to be able to make any contact with the flame-retardant inactive member (see Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Sizes, below; different electrolyte layer sizes annotated with solid line rectangles).
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Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 1 Showing Sizes
Regarding claim 14, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 13. Taniuchi discloses a desirability that the flame-retardant inactive member maintains firm, close contact with the adjoining solid electrolyte layer to maintain adhesion and anchor the layers during lamination (Taniuchi [0114], [0122-0124]). While Taniuchi does not explicitly specify a size of the solid electrolyte layer occupying the width of each of the pair of first and second side portions of the flame-retardant inactive member, an ordinary skilled artisan would recognize that increasing the percentage of width of the pair of first and second side portions occupied by the solid electrolyte layer (thus increasing the area, limited to a range of 0% to 100% of the surface area) would advantageously increase the layer adhesion.
Thus, in seeking to improve the adhesion of modified Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member to the solid electrolyte layer, it would be obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art to optimize a size of the solid electrolyte layer within a range of 0-100% of a width of each of the pair of first and second side portions of the flame-retardant inactive member according to Taniuchi’s considerations, and in doing so, utilize a range of at least 50% or more of a width of the first and second side portions of the flame-retardant inactive member (MPEP 2144.05 II).
Regarding claim 15, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flame- retardant inactive member includes a matrix (“non-woven fabric”) and a filler (“inorganic oxide”) (Taniuchi [0107], [0118])
Regarding claim 18, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cathode layer and the anode layer are disposed such that the cathode uncoated portion (22) and the anode uncoated portion (12) are facing an opposite direction from each other (Taniuchi FIG. 6)
Regarding claim 19, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 1, wherein:
the cathode layer further includes an additional cathode active material layer (21), the cathode active material layer (21) and the additional cathode active material layer (21) being on opposite sides of the cathode current collector (25) (Taniuchi [0023-0024], see Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 6 below),
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the solid electrolyte layer includes a first solid electrolyte layer (30) and a second solid electrolyte layer (30), which are contiguous with the cathode active material layer (21) and the additional cathode active material layer (21), respectively ([0065], Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 6),
the anode layer includes an additional anode active material layer (11, [0227], Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 6), the anode active material layer (11) and the additional anode active material layer (11) being contiguous with the first solid electrolyte layer (30) and the second solid electrolyte layer (30), respectively ([0192-0193], Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 6).
Modified Taniuchi further discloses a first anode current collector and a second anode current collector, which are contiguous with the anode active material layer and the additional anode active material layer, respectively ([0227], Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 6);
the flame-retardant inactive member includes a first flame-retardant inactive member (241) and a second flame-retardant inactive member (242), which are disposed to surround side surfaces of the cathode active material layer and the additional cathode active material layer (21), respectively, between the first solid electrolyte layer and the second solid electrolyte layer (30) ([0051], Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 6), and
the cathode layer and the anode layer are disposed, such that the cathode uncoated portion of the cathode current collector (22), and anode uncoated portions of the first anode current collector and the second anode current collector (12) are facing opposite directions from each other (Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 6).
Regarding claim 20, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 19. Taniuchi further discloses an additional anode guide (“negative electrode guide”) provided around the anode active material layer (Taniuchi [0235-0240]), which may have a similar configuration to the flame-retardant inactive member (“positive electrode guide”) ([0240]) formed contiguous on a corresponding current collector ([0208]) as a laminated sheet ([0121]). The anode guide is formed from a finite list of insulative materials, where non-limiting examples of the insulative material (butyl rubber, silicone rubber, [0107]) are recognized as elastic materials in the instant specification (Instant specification, [00110]) such that an anode guide formed as a laminated sheet from these elastic materials is broadly and reasonably interpreted as an elastic sheet.
The skilled artisan would recognize the selection of a component material as necessary to produce Taniuchi’s anode guide, with Taniuchi’s finite set of suitable materials within the technical grasp of a skilled artisan such that it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to routinely explore selecting butyl rubber and silicone rubber with a reasonable expectation of successfully producing the anode guide, and in doing so, produce an elastic sheet (MPEP 2143 I. E).
Modified Taniuchi’s battery comprises a first and second anode active material layer (Annotated Taniuchi FIG. 6); the elastic sheets provided as anode guides with each anode active material layer are recognized as a first and second elastic sheet contiguous with the first and second anode current collector, respectively.
Claim(s) 6, 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taniuchi et al. (US20210273235A1), Tomura et al. (US20170207482A1) and Aoki et al. (US20220294018A1) as applied to claim 1, further in view of Fujita et al. (US20180198170A1 cited in IDS filed 09/05/2023)
Regarding claims 6, 8, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery of claims 1 and 7. While Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member has the function of contacting and adhering the adjacent solid electrolyte layers to anchor the layers (Taniuchi [0122-0124]), which would necessitate at least some measure of width to provide sufficient surface area to contact the solid electrolyte, modified Taniuchi fails to explicitly specify a width of the flame-retardant inactive member such that a width of each of the protruding portions is about 1 mm to about 4.5 mm (claim 6), the width of the remaining portion of each of the pair of first side portions is about 0.5 mm to about 4 mm, and the width of each of the pair of second side portions 40B is about 0.5 mm to about 3 mm.
Fujita is directed to an all-solid secondary battery wherein an end seal (26) is provided surrounding side surfaces of the cathode active material layer (12) (Fujita [0049], FIG. 1). While Fujita’s end seal (26) is primarily used to seal between the current collectors (20, 24) to protect the electrodes and solid electrolyte from moisture ([0049]) and is not identical in structure to Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member, Fujita’s end seal is similarly both adhesive and insulative ([0052]), recognized as requiring adhesion to be maintained between surfaces in contact with the layer in order to maintain the seal such that an ordinary skilled artisan would consider application of some of Fujita’s teachings of the end seal to Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member having adhesive properties.
Fujita further teaches optimizing a length of the end seal (26) within a range of 0.5 to 3 mm in order to suitably maintain the seal from moisture without excessively impacting the energy density of the battery ([0051]). As a skilled artisan would necessarily have to select at least some measure of flame-retardant inactive member width to provide sufficient surface area to contact and adhere to the solid electrolyte, where Fujita teaches a width of 0.5 to 3mm as a suitable balance to maintain adhesion and sealing between surfaces of a similar end seal without excessively impacting the energy density, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to optimize a width of Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member within a range of 0.5 to 3mm as taught by Fujita (MPEP 2144.05 II).
In doing so, an ordinary skilled artisan would provide a width of each of the pair of first and second side portions in a range of 0.5 to 3 mm, which falls within or matches the claimed ranges of 0.5 to 4mm for the first side portion and 0.5 to 3mm for the second side portion (claim 8)
While modified Taniuchi fails to explicitly indicate a length of the protruding portions, Tomura teaches that a length of portion B corresponding to the uncoated portions (Tomura FIG. 8) is preferably maintained within a range of 0.5b < B < 1.3b to balance short circuit prevention and ease of manufacture ([0081]), where b is a thickness of the battery element (8) excepting the cathode current collector ([0081], FIG. 10). Given the component layers of battery element (8) are typically from 1 μm to 100 μm thick ([0096-0097], [0101]), b for purposes of estimation is 0-0.5 mm and a corresponding length B is 0-0.7mm (FIG. 10). Since a width of each protruding portion is equal to width (B) + width (A) (Tomura FIG. 8), where A (flame-retardant inactive member thickness) is optimized between 0.5 to 3mm according to Fujita (see discussion above) and B is optimized between 0-0.7mm to balance short circuit prevention and ease of manufacture according to Tomura ([0081]), it would be obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art to optimize a width of each of Taniuchi’s protruding portion within a range of 0.5 to 3.7mm, and thus utilize a portion overlapping with the claimed range of width (1-4.5 mm, claim 6) between about 1 to 3.7mm (MPEP 2144.05 II).
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taniuchi et al. (US20210273235A1), Tomura et al. (US20170207482A1) and Aoki et al. (US20220294018A1) as applied to claim 15, further in view of Jang et al. (US20220190346A1).
Regarding claim 16, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 15, wherein the matrix includes a substrate, the substrate includes a first fibrous material, the first fibrous material being an insulating material including pulp fibers (“cellulose”, [0107]).
While Taniuchi further discloses the inclusion of glass and ceramic which are recognized as reinforcing materials being flame retardant-materials ([0107-0109]), Taniuchi does not explicitly specify the use of fibrous variants of these materials in the inactive member.
Jang is directed to an anode-protecting layer for an all-solid secondary battery (Jang [0052], [0058], FIG. 2). While Jang’s anode-protecting layer is provided for a different purpose (lithium metal dendrite prevention, [0062-0064]) from Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member, Jang’s anode-protecting layer is capable of maintaining good contact with the neighboring anode current collector/active material layer and solid electrolyte layer ([0069-0070]), this being similar in function to Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member which anchors the cathode current collector and solid electrolyte layer (Taniuchi [0122-0124]). Jang further teaches a suitability of including glass fiber and ceramic fiber as reinforcement materials in the anode-protecting layer (Jang [0028-0029]). Thus, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to select glass fiber and ceramic fiber as a specific form of the glass and ceramic materials as a reinforcing material for modified Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member; such a selection would be made with a reasonable expectation of success as Taniuchi envisions a material compatibility of glass and ceramic and Jang teaches a suitability of using glass fiber and ceramic fiber in an anode-protecting layer being similarly able to maintain contact between a solid electrolyte layer and a current collector (MPEP 2144.07).
Claim(s) 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taniuchi et al. (US20210273235A1), Tomura et al. (US20170207482A1) and Aoki et al. (US20220294018A1) as applied to claim 15, further in view of Kengo et al. (WO2019103008A1; machine translation in 02/09/2026 Office action)
Regarding claim 17, modified Taniuchi discloses the all-solid secondary battery as claimed in claim 15. Taniuchi discloses the inclusion of an electrically insulating inorganic oxide as a filler in the flame- retardant inactive member ([0107-0109]), but fails to further disclose the use of a filler being a moisture getter including a metal hydroxide selected from among Mg(OH)2, Fe(OH)3, Sb(OH)3, Sn(OH)4, TI(OH)3, Zr(OH)4, Al(OH)3.
Kengo is directed to an analogous all-solid secondary battery wherein a flame-retardant inactive member (32, “insulating layer”) is provided on sides of cathode active material layer (30, “second active material layer”) on and solid electrolyte layer (10) (Kengo [0045-0047], FIG. 3), and further teaches Mg(OH)2 and Al(OH)3 as suitable insulating materials (i.e., fillers) in the flame-retardant inactive member ([0048]), these materials being recognized as moisture getters as recited in the instant claim.
Thus, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to select Mg(OH)2 and Al(OH)3 for use as an insulating material (i.e., a filler) in modified Taniuchi’s flame-retardant inactive member, wherein the filler is a moisture getter including a metal hydroxide being either of these species as taught by Kengo. Such a selection would be made with a reasonable expectation of success as Kengo discloses a suitability of selecting Mg(OH)2 and Al(OH)3 as insulating materials in a flame-retardant inactive member (MPEP 2144.07).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 7/6/2026
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