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Claims 11-16 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 03/03/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et. al. (KR20190093453A, as cited in IDS dated 3/10/23, reference made to attached English translation) in view of Baek et. al. (WO2019088806 as previously cited, reference made to US20200083524 as English translation).
Regarding claim 1, 3, and 6-10, Lee discloses a positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery of the formula Li(Ni0.8Co0.1Mn0.1)O2, comprising:
secondary particles, wherein each secondary particle comprises an agglomerate of primary macro particles, wherein an average particle size (D50) of the primary macro particles is 2 μm and the crystallite size is 260 nm and an average particle size (D50) of the secondary particles is 6 μm (¶[0121])
but does not disclose wherein a part of a surface of each secondary particle is coated with a cobalt compound and an aluminum compound.
Baek, related to positive electrode materials, teaches a lithium nickel cobalt manganese based oxide(¶[0071]) with a surface coating containing Co and Al(¶[0072]).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized adding the Co and Al coating layer to the positive electrode material of Lee would achieve suppression of the occurrence of a side reactions, thereby improving life characteristics when used in a battery (¶[0072]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to have added the coating layer of Baek to the positive electrode material of Lee to provide a system where the coating on the surface of the active material suppresses the occurrence of side reactions thereby improving life characteristics when used in a battery.
Regarding claim 2, modified Lee teaches the positive electrode active material of claim 1 and Baek further teaches the Co and Al coating may be partially formed on the surface covering 5% up to <100% of the surface which one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize these sections of coverage as dots(¶[0074]).
Regarding claim 4, modified Lee teaches the positive electrode active material of claim 1 and Baek further teaches the cobalt coating may be a oxide, hydroxide, oxyhydroxide(¶[0123]).
Regarding claim 5, modified Lee teaches the positive electrode active material of claim 1 and Baek further teaches the aluminum coating component may be Al2O3, Al(OH)3(¶[0123]).
Regarding claim 9, modified Lee teaches the positive electrode active material of claim 1 and Lee further teaches a positive electrode comprising the positive electrode active material of claim 1(¶[0145]).
Regarding claim 10, modified Lee teaches the positive electrode active material of claim 1 and Lee further teaches a lithium secondary battery comprising the positive electrode active material of claim 1(¶[0147]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAREN J. ARMSTRONG whose telephone number is (703)756-1243. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10 am-6 pm EST.
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/K.J.A./Examiner, Art Unit 1726
/JEFFREY T BARTON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1726 14 April 2026
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