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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 6-12 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to the nonelected Groups II and III, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 5 June 2026.
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.
Claims 1-3 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamamoto (JP 2011216228 A), hereinafter Yamamoto.
Regarding claims 1 and 2, Yamamoto teaches a method for manufacturing an electrode for a secondary battery (Figs. 1A and 1B) comprising a pressing, in this case a press treatment, by applying a load to an electrode active material slurry, in this case an electrode kneaded product, during drying of the electrode active material slurry coated as one or more layers on a current collector [0023].
Yamamoto is silent as to a solid content of the electrode active material slurry being specifically 70 wt% to 98 wt%, as required by claim 1, or 80 wt% to 90 wt%, as required by claim 2. However, Yamamoto teaches the wt% of the solvent in the electrode kneaded product being 10 wt% to 30 wt% [0051]. This is equivalent to a solid content of 70 wt% to 90 wt%, which lies within the claimed range of claim 1 and overlaps with the claimed range of claim 2. Therefore, it would have been obvious for someone of ordinary skill in the art to select a solid content in the claimed ranges. In the case where the claimed ranges "overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art" a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976); In re Woodruff, 919 F.2d 1575, 16 USPQ2d 1934 (Fed. Cir. 1990).
Regarding claim 3, Yamamoto teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the pressing is performed by a press roll [0038]. Yamamoto is silent as to the press roll specifically applying linear pressure to the electrode active material slurry. However, considering the stationary nature of a press roll and the alignment shown in Fig. 2, one of ordinary skill in the art would expect the press roll to inherently apply linear pressure to the electrode active material slurry.
Regarding claim 5, Yamamoto teaches the method of claim 1, further performing drying after the pressing until the solid content of the electrode active material slurry reaches 100 wt% [0063]. This lies within the claimed range of 99 wt% to 100 wt%. Therefore, it would have been obvious for someone of ordinary skill in the art to select a solid content after drying in the claimed range. In the case where the claimed ranges "overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art" a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976); In re Woodruff, 919 F.2d 1575, 16 USPQ2d 1934 (Fed. Cir. 1990).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamamoto in view of Gong et al. (CN 111564639 A), hereinafter Gong.
Yamamoto teaches the method of claim 3. Yamamoto is silent as to how much pressure is applied in the press treatment. However, Gong teaches a method for preparing an electrode for a secondary battery (pg. 2, ¶ 9) comprising applying a slurry with solid content of 50 to 80 wt% to a current collector (pg. 5, ¶ 8) followed by rolling at a pressure of 1 to 3 MPa (pg. 5, ¶ 13). This is equivalent to about 10.20 to 50.99 kgf/cm, which lies within the claimed range of 0.5 kgf/cm to 0.1 ton/cm. In the case where the claimed ranges "overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art" a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976); In re Woodruff, 919 F.2d 1575, 16 USPQ2d 1934 (Fed. Cir. 1990).
Yamamoto and Gong are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of electrode manufacturing methods comprising press rolling high solid content electrode active material slurries. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yamamoto with the rolling pressure taught by Gong. Doing so would have helped to produce a secondary battery electrode with good flexibility, thermodynamic stability, and processing performance ((pg. 6, ¶ 11).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUSTIN KENWOOD VAN KIRK whose telephone number is (703)756-4717. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm EST.
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/DUSTIN VAN KIRK/Examiner, Art Unit 1722
/NIKI BAKHTIARI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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