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 .
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 11-14 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ju et al. (US 2019/0260099) in view of Yoon (US 2012/0009455).
Regarding claims 11-12, FIG. 2 of Ju et al. teaches a battery module comprising a battery cell stack 100.
Ju et al. is silent to the claimed elastic member. However, Yoon teaches battery cells 110 stacked side by side with a band 127 made of elastic material surrounding the stacked battery [0052] to fix the battery cells as one body. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the tire of Ju et al. with an elastic member that covers a front surface, a rear surface and side surfaces of the battery cell stack, wherein the elastic member is opened in a lower part so that a lower surface of the battery cell stack is exposed to the outside (claim 11) wherein the elastic member is continuously connected along the front surface, the rear surface and the side surfaces of the battery cell stack (claim 12) to obtain the known and expected results of securing the battery cells as disclosed by Yoon.
Regarding claims 13-14, the resulting battery module of Ju et al. in view of Yoon would satisfy the claimed limitations.
Regarding claim 17, see [0068] of Ju et al. and FIG. 2: reference character 310.
Regarding claim 18, while Ju et al. does not recite “low voltage LV” sensing assembly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the battery module of Ju et al. with a low voltage LV sensing assembly located in at least one of the first sensing block and the second sensing block since Ju et al. teaches the first and second sensing block comprise a voltage sensing assembly for transmitting battery cell voltage information (BMS); in this case the voltage sensing bus bar ([0068], [0112], FIG. 4, FIG. 5: reference character 310); such a voltage sensing bus bar is capable of detecting “low voltage LV”.
Regarding claim 19, Ju et al. teaches a corresponding LV sensing assembly including a connection member wherein the electrode lead and bus bar are coupled ([0126], FIG. 6: reference characters 111, 310), and a joining plate located at one end of the connecting member and joined to the electrode lead, which are portions of the bus bar adjacent to the electrode leads.
Claims 15-16 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ju et al. (US 2019/0260099) in view of Yoon (US 2012/0009455), as applied to claim 11, and further in view of Jo (US 2020/0076025).
Regarding claims 15-16 and 21, Ju et al. is silent to the claimed cooling fins and side surface pads. However, Jo teaches a battery module comprising heat dissipation plates 130 between battery cells for cooling and side plates 240 for structural stability (FIG. 2, [0073], [0093], [0094]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the battery module of Ju et al. with the claimed cooling fins and side surface pads to obtain the known, expected results of cooling and structural stability disclosed by Jo.
Claims 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ju et al. (US 2019/0260099) in view of Yoon (US 2012/0009455), as applied to claims 13 and 17, and further in view of KR’896 (KR 2017-0066896).
Regarding claims 18-20, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the battery module Ju et al. with the claimed LV sensing assembly of claims 18-19 and the electrode leads being directly joined to each other and a part thereof can be connected to a terminal busbar to form a high voltage HV connection (claim 20) because KR’896 teaches a voltage sensing assembly including LV connector: 140, a connection member: 115 configured to connect the LV connector and the electrode leads (i.e. bus bars 110 are connected to the PCB 160 via connecting portion 115), and a joining plane (i.e. bar cars 110) position at one end of the connection member 115 and joining to the electrode leads 213, 214 (FIG. 2, 4-5, and 7) and at least two electrode leads 213, 214 among the electrode leads are connected to each other at the front side and the rear side of the battery cell stack 200 for stable and reliable voltage sensing and minimizing space, giving ample motivation to provide the voltage sensing assembly of KR’896 to the battery module of Ju et al.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered and are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection presented in this office action.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENDRA LY whose telephone number is (571)270-7060. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:00-5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Katelyn B Smith can be reached at 571-270-5545. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENDRA LY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1749
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