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
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-5 in the reply filed on 01/30/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 6 and 7 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected method there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 01/30/2026.
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.
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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (PGPub 2022/0359869) and further in view of Hara et al. (PGPub 2015/0280241).
Considering Claim 1, Kim discloses an electrode (electrode [Abstract]), including:
a core (an electrode current collector [Abstract]);
an electrode mixture stacked on a surface of the core (active material electrode composition layer formed on surface of electrode current collector [Abstract, 0016, 0062]), wherein
the electrode mixture includes an active material and a fibrous binder (active material [Abstract] and a fibrilized binder [0051]).
Kim discloses that the binder improves adhesion between positive electrode active material particles and an adhesion force between the positive electrode active material and the current collector [0050]. The composition seeks to maintain conductivity [0056]. However, Kim is silent to a conductive adhesive layer formed between the core and the electrode mixture.
Hara discloses an analogous current collector having a conductive layer which is excellent in adhesion strength and can exhibit a PTC function for stably contributing to safety for an electrode structure of a battery [Abstract]. The conductive layer is formed on the surface of the metal foil [Abstract] and an active material layer is also provided on the conductive layer [0032]. Drying of the conductive layer can be performed after deposition onto the metal foil [0043]. The conductive layer achieves a PTC function while having sufficiently low resistance at normal conditions [0041, 0050] to maintain capacity [0042].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the electrode of Kim with the adhesive conductive layer of Hara in order to achieve a safety PTC function while having sufficiently low resistance at normal conditions [0041, 0050] to maintain capacity [0042].
Kim discloses that the active material, binder, and conductive material is dry-mixed [Abstract] without a separate solvent or additive so that it is possible to prevent damage to the active material that occurs during heat treatment process while being very effective for bridging between active material particles and a current collector [0052]. A roll mill is used to produce the free-standing film [0086], and then the free-standing film is roll-pressed on to the current collector aluminum foil [0094]. The claimed invention also uses a dry process [0026] with roll compression [0034]. Because Kim discloses the same dry mixing method with a fibrilized binder, wherein a roll mill is used, the film is roll pressed, and is combined with Hara to teach the conductive adhesive layer, in order to prevent damage to the active material, effectively bridge between active material particles and a current collector [0052], and provide excellent tensile strength [0057], it appears that the combined teachings of Kim and Hara inherently disclose an active material embedded in the core at a maximum depth less than or equal to 20% of a thickness of the core, and a proportion of a density of the active material in the electrode mixture to a true density of the active material is greater than or equal to 70%.
Considering Claim 2, the combined teachings of Kim and Hara are as applied in claim 1. Kim discloses an effective bridge between active material particles and a current collector [0052]. The composition seeks to maintain conductivity [0056]. The conductive layer of Hara achieves a PTC function while having sufficiently low resistance at normal conditions [0041, 0050] to maintain capacity [0042]. Because Kim discloses the same dry mixing method with a fibrilized binder, wherein a roll mill is used, the film is roll pressed, and is combined with Hara to teach the conductive adhesive layer, in order to prevent damage to the active material, effectively bridge between active material particles and a current collector [0052], and provide excellent tensile strength [0057], it appears that the combined teachings of Kim and Hara inherently disclose an interface resistance less than or equal to 0.12 Ωcm2.
Considering Claims 3 and 4, the combined teachings of Kim and Hara are as applied in claim 1. Hara discloses an analogous current collector having a conductive layer which is excellent in adhesion strength and can exhibit a PTC function for stably contributing to safety for an electrode structure of a battery [Abstract]. The conductive layer is formed on the surface of the metal foil [Abstract] and an active material layer is also provided on the conductive layer [0032]. The conductive filler can be a carbon material [0061, 0062], and the binder may be polyvinylidene difluoride PVDF [0078, 0092]. The amount of conductive filler is limited so as to maintain both adhesive property and the PTC function [0050] and sufficiently low resistance at normal condition [0041], so routinely experimenting with and coming up with a conductive filler amount of 40 mass% to 85 mass% would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art.
Considering Claim 5, Kim discloses that the active material, binder, and conductive material is dry-mixed [Abstract] without a separate solvent or additive so that it is possible to prevent damage to the active material that occurs during heat treatment process while being very effective for bridging between active material particles and a current collector [0052]. A fibrilized binder is used [0051]. The claimed invention uses dry mixing with a fibrous binder to provide a substantially uniform binder that is present on an entirety of the electrode mixture [0026]. Because Kim discloses a fibrilized binder that is mixed with dry-mixing, it appears that Kim inherently discloses substantially evenly distributed binder to satisfy the condition of (c-a) / (a+b+c) ≤ ± 10%.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER P DOMONE whose telephone number is (571)270-7582. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30 PM.
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/CHRISTOPHER P DOMONE/Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 1725