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 .
Status of Claims
Applicant’s amendment and arguments filed 09/17/2025 have been fully considered. Claim(s) 1, 2 is/are amended; claim(s) 3, 8-10, 13-15, 18-20 stand as originally or previously presented; claim(s) 4-7 11-12 16-17 remain withdrawn. Examiner affirms that the original disclosure provides adequate support for the amendment.
Upon considering said amendment and arguments, the previous claim objections and rejections under 35 U.S.C. 102 and 35 U.S.C. 103 set forth in the Office action mailed 06/26/2025 has/have been withdrawn. Applicant’s amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-3 and 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Motokawa WO2020066729A1 (machine translation provided in Office action filed 06/26/2025).
Regarding claim 1, Motokawa discloses a power storage device 2 comprising:
a can 10 ([0013]); and an electrode body 24 (“electrode assembly”) housed in the can 10 ([0028], FIG. 3), the electrode body 24 including electrode sheets (“electrode plates”, [0028]), wherein the electrode body has outer surfaces including a thickness-direction outside surface (see Annotated Motokawa FIG. 4 below) located outside in a thickness direction (X-axis) of the electrode sheets, the power storage device further comprises:
a movement restricting member 38 (“flat plate portion”) placed in the can 10 ([0032], FIG. 6), the movement restricting member 38 including:
an electrode-body bonding portion 38a (“first main surface”) bonded to a fixing surface that is at least a part of the thickness-direction outside surface ([0035], Annotated Motokawa FIG. 4);
an extended portion 57 (“protrusion”) extending from the electrode-body bonding portion and protruding more than the electrode body 24 in a movement restricting direction (Z-axis), and having a clearance 56 (“recess”) between an inner peripheral surface 58 of the can and the extended portion 57 in the movement restricting direction ([0062-0064], FIGs 9A, 9B); and when the electrode body 24 moves in the movement restricting direction, the extended portion of the movement restricting member 38 contacts the inner peripheral surface of the can 10 to restrict movement of the electrode body 24 in the movement restricting direction ([0062-0064], FIGs 9A, 9B).
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Annotated Motokawa FIG. 4
Regarding claim 2, Motokawa discloses the power storage device according to claim 1, wherein the can 10 is a rectangular can having a rectangular parallelepiped box shape (FIG. 2), including:
a pair of parallel rectangular main face parts 18 (“long side surfaces”, [0015]); and
a bottom face part (“bottom surface”, [0015]), a top face part 14 (“sealing plate”, [0015]) opposite the bottom face part, a first lateral face part (“short side surface”, [0015]), and a second lateral face part (“short side surface”) opposite the first lateral face part, these face parts joining the pair of rectangular main face parts 18 ([0015]), the fixing surface of the electrode body 24 is parallel to the pair of the rectangular main face parts 18 of the rectangular can 10 ([0033]), and
the movement restricting member 38 includes, as the extended portion 57, a top-side extended portion 57 protruding more than the electrode body 24 toward the top face part ([0063], FIGs 9A, 9B).
Regarding claim 3, Motokawa discloses the power storage device according to claim 2, wherein the movement restricting member 38 is a flat plate extending in parallel to the pair of rectangular main face parts 18 of the can ([0033], FIG. 6).
Regarding claims 8, 9, and 10, Motokawa discloses the power storage device according to claims 1, 2, and 3 respectively, wherein the movement restricting member 38 is interposed between the electrode body 24 and the exterior can 10 ([0068]). While not explicitly depicted in Motokawa’s disclosure, such a configuration requires the movement restricting member 38 to be bonded, at the electrode-body bonding portion, to the fixing surface facing the can (see Annotated Motokawa FIG. 4, movement restricting member 38 depicted with dotted line).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 13-15 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Motokawa as applied to claims 1-3 and 8 above, further in view of Kudo JP2020102418A (cited in IDS filed 02/13/2024; machine translation provided in Office action filed 06/26/2025).
Regarding claims 13-15, and 18, Motokawa discloses the power storage device according to claims 1, 2, 3, and 8 respectively, wherein the electrode body comprises a stack of electrode sheets and separators interposed between the electrode sheets ([0028]). While Motokawa desires to mitigate movement and displacement of the electrode body ([0032]) and envisions a suitability of adhering the electrode body to the electrode-body bonding portion ([0035]), Motokawa fails to explicitly disclose further constructional details of the electrode body such as electrode sheets and separators being integrally bonded to each other.
Kudo, directed to an electrode body (“electrode plate group”) comprising a stack of electrode sheets with separators interposed between the electrode sheets (“electrode plates”, Kudo [0008]), teaches integrally bonding the electrodes and separators through adhering the separator to the positive and negative electrode plates to prevent displacement of the electrode sheets ([0023]).
As such, in seeking to further prevent displacement of the electrode sheets, it would be obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application for one having ordinary skill in the art to integrally bond Motokawa’s electrode sheets and separators to each other through adhesion as taught by Kudo, with a reasonable expectation of success as Motokawa desires to prevent displacement of the electrode plates, and because Motokawa envisions similar considerations of adhering the electrode body to the electrode-body bonding portion.
Regarding claims 19 and 20, modified Motokawa discloses the power storage device according to claims 13 and 14 respectively, wherein the electrode sheets are positive electrode sheets and negative electrode sheets (Motokawa [0028]), and the integrated electrode body is an integrated laminated electrode body in which a plurality of the positive electrode sheets and a plurality of the negative electrode sheets are alternately laminated with the separators interposed therebetween ([0028]).
Response to Arguments
FIG. 8 has been amended to correct the typographical error objection in the Office action filed 06/26/2025; the objection to the drawings is withdrawn.
Claim 2 has been amended to correct typographical error objections in the Office action filed 06/26/2025; the objection to this claim is withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 102 as anticipated by Motokawa (WO2020066729A1) (remarks pp. 14-15) and rejection of dependent claims 2-20 (remarks pp. 14-15) filed 09/17/2025 have been considered but are moot because the arguments are drawn to the claim amendment which has necessitated new grounds of rejection discussed above.
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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/E.C./Examiner, Art Unit 1751
/JONATHAN G LEONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1751 1/9/2026
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