DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The foreign priority application No.10-2021-0034218 filed on March 16, 2021 in the Republic of Korea has been received and it is acknowledged.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II in the reply filed on May 05, 2026 is acknowledged.
Therefore, claims 1-10 are pending, with claims 1-4 withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a non-elected invention.
Claim Objections
Claims 5-10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
The limitation “wherein at least one of the cell support unit” in the last line of claim 5 should be amended to recite “wherein the cell support unit”.
Claims 6-10 are objected to as being dependent on the objected claim 5.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 10 depends on claim 9, which depends on claim 5.
Claim 10 recites the limitation “brining each cell support unit into contact with each other”. However, claim 5 recites only “a cell support unit”.
Claim 10 recites the limitation “each cell support of the cell alignment device” in lines 4-5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim, because claim 5 recites “a cell support unit” and claim 9 recites “the cell support unit”.
The limitation of “cell support” is not recited in claims 5 and 9.
Therefore, it is not clear what is the joint inventor claiming as the invention in claim 10 of the instant application.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-9 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the objections set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Ye et al. (CN 204342845 U, with machine translation provided by the applicant on November 24, 2025) teach the clamping plate in fig.1:
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.This clamping plate comprises a base, a first support vertically extended from a side of the base, a second support vertically extended from an opposite side of the base and spaced a predetermined distance apart from the first support, the first support and the second support facing each other, and the second support is extended higher than the first support.
Wydom et al. (US Patent 1, 540,155) teach the battery box in fig.1:
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, wherein each clip 4 comprises a base, a first support vertically extended from a side of the base, a second support vertically extended from an opposite side of the base and spaced a predetermined distance apart from the first support, the first support and the second support facing each other, and the second support is extended higher than the first support (see fig.4).
Rieder (EP 0 996 183 A1) teach the coin cell holder of fig.3:
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.
However, the references above fail to teach the cell alignment device in claim 5.
There are no prior art teachings that would motivate one of ordinary skill to modify any of the references above and obtain the cell alignment device in claim 5 of the instant application.
Conclusion
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/ANCA EOFF/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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