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 .
Examiner’s Comments
Applicants’ response filed on 12/16/2025 has been fully considered. Claims 1-7 are pending.
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-4 and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al (US 2015/0340692 A1) in view of Fujimoto et al (JP 2019-040675 A).
A machine translation is being used as the English translation for Fujimoto et al (JP 2019-040675 A).
Regarding claim 1, Park disclose a positive electrode active material for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery (a cathode active material for a lithium secondary battery; paragraphs [0018] and [0022]), comprising a first lithium transition metal composite oxide (a lithium-containing transition metal oxide comprising Al-doped LiNiCoO2; paragraph [0040]) and a second lithium transition metal composite oxide (Li2NO2; paragraph [0022]),
wherein the mass ratio of the second lithium transition metal composite oxide is greater than or equal to 0.1% and less than 15% relative to the total mass of the first lithium transition metal composite oxide and the second lithium transition metal composite oxide (a weight ratio of Al-doped LiNiCoO2 to Li2NO2 is 95:5; paragraph [0040]),
wherein the first lithium transition metal composite oxide comprises: a core represented by a general formula LixNi1-y-zCoyM1z where 0.97 ≤ x ≤ 1.2, 0 ≤ y ≤ 0.2, 0 < z ≤ 0.5 and M1 is selected from Al (Al-doped LiNiCoO2 where x is 0.5 < x < 1.3 and y is 0 < y < 1; paragraph [0040]); and a surface modification layer present at least on a surface of the core (lithium-containing transition metal oxide is coated with a metal or a metal oxide; paragraph [0024]), and
wherein the second lithium transition composite oxide second lithium transition metal composite oxide represented by general formula LiaNibM31-bO2 where a is 2 and b is 1 (Li2NO2; paragraph [0022]).
Park does not disclose the positive electrode active material comprising the surface modification layer containing M2 where M2 is selected from W.
However, Fujimoto discloses a positive electrode active material (paragraph [0010]) comprising surface modification layer containing M2 where M2 is selected from W (a surface of a transition metal oxide coated with a compound comprising lithium and tungsten; paragraph [0013]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the positive electrode active material of Park to substitute the coating layer comprising metal of Park for the coating comprising lithium and tungsten of Fujimoto because having a transition metal oxide coated with a compound comprising lithium and tungsten provides a positive electrode active material with low internal resistance and high capacity (paragraph [0013] of Fujimoto).
Regarding claim 2, Park and Fujimoto disclose the positive electrode active material of claim 1 as noted above.
Park does not disclose the positive electrode active material comprising the content of M2 in the surface modification layer being 0.05 mol% to 0.5 mol% relative to the total number of moles of metal elements excluding Li in the core.
However, Fujimoto discloses a positive electrode active material comprising a content of M2 in the surface modification layer being 0.05 mol% to 0.15 mol% relative to the total number of moles of metal elements excluding Li in the core (molar percentage of tungsten in the lithium and tungsten-containing compound is 0.05 to 0.15 mol%; paragraph [0044]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the positive electrode active material of Park to substitute the coating of Park for the coating comprising lithium and tungsten-containing compound having a molar percentage of tungsten in the lithium and tungsten-containing compound from 0.05 to 0.15 mol% of Fujimoto because having the required lithium and tungsten-containing compound having a molar percentage of tungsten in the lithium and tungsten-containing compound from 0.05 to 0.15 mol% provides increases in capacity and decrease in resistance (paragraphs [0045]-[0046] of Fujimoto).
Regarding claim 3, Park and Fujimoto disclose the positive electrode active material of claim 1 as noted above and Park discloses the positive electrode active material comprising the core identified as space group R-3m (the Al-doped LiNiCoO2 being LiNi80Co15Al5O2; paragraph [0040]).
Regarding claim 4, Park and Fujimoto disclose the positive electrode active material of claim 1 as noted above and Park discloses the positive electrode active material comprising the core identified as space group Immm (Li2NiO2; paragraph [0040]).
Regarding claim 6, Park and Fujimoto disclose the positive electrode active material of claim 1 as noted above.
Since the structure of Li2NiO2 is the same as the second lithium transition metal composite oxide, the Li2NiO2 would inherently have the amount of Li extracted by N-methyl pyrrolidone be less than or equal to 100 µmol/g after mixing and stirring of the second lithium transition metal composite oxide and N-methyl pyrrolidone at a mass ratio of 0.1:20 followed by room temperature storage for 24 hours.
Regarding claim 7, Park discloses a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery (lithium secondary battery; paragraph [0030]) comprising a positive electrode comprising a positive electrode active material (a cathode comprising the cathode active material; paragraphs [0024] and [0030]), a negative electrode (an anode; paragraph [0030]) and a non-aqueous electrolyte (paragraph [0030]) and wherein the positive electrode active material is the positive electrode active material of claim 1 disclosed by Park and Fujimoto as noted above.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al (US 2015/0340692 A1) in view of Fujimoto et al (JP 2019-040675 A) in view of Cho et al (KR 20100036896 A).
Machine translations are being used as the English translations for Fujimoto et al (JP 2019-040675 A) and Cho et al (KR 20100036896 A).
Regarding claim 5, Park and Fujimoto disclose the positive electrode active material as noted above.
Park and Fujimoto do not disclose the positive electrode active material comprising the second lithium transition metal oxide further comprising Li2O and NiO.
However, Cho discloses a positive electrode active further comprising Li2O and NiO (Li2.05NiO2 formed by reaction of NiO and Li2O; pg. 6 of Cho translation).
The reaction to produce Li2.05NiO2 would result in high capacity of Li2.05NiO2 leading to unreacted NiO and Li2O.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the positive electrode active material of Park and Fujimoto to substitute the Li2NiO2 -of Park for the Li2.05NiO2 -of Cho for the because having the required composite oxide of the required formula provides high capacity of the positive electrode active material (pg .3 of Cho translation).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Applicants argue that Park does not anticipated amended claim 1.
This argument is moot as Park does not disclose the surface modification layer containing M2 where M2 is selected from Sr, Ca, W, Mg and Nb. Therefore, the previous rejections have been withdrawn. However, new grounds of rejection have been noted above
Applicants argue that a synergistic effect of an increase in resistance of the battery is retarded by using the claimed positive electrode active material.
This argument is not persuasive as the claims are not commensurate in scope with the data in Table 1 of Applicant’s Specification. Table 1 requires 2% to 12% for the mass ratio of second lithium transition metal composite oxide, Sr or Ca for the surface modification layer in an amount from 0.15 mol% to 0.5 mol% and specific materials for the first and second lithium transition metal composite oxides; while the claims requires broader ranges for the mass ratio and the content of M2 as well as generic materials for the first and second lithium transition metal composite oxides.
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.
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/SATHAVARAM I REDDY/Examiner, Art Unit 1785