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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 02/23/2023 and 02/23/2024 are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tono (JP2012086690A) in view of Murata (US20140356666A1).
As to claim 1, Tono teaches unit batteries 2a supported by a vehicles body frame 11 (par. [0019]). Tono discloses a first sheet/front seat 9b (battery cover) comprising:
A battery case 24 (cover member) and encloses a battery 2a, 2 mounted on a vehicle 1 (see fig. 4); an air/wind intake 36 (inlet) formed adjacent to the battery case 24 (cover member) to introduce outside air into the battery case 24 (cover member) and the battery housing 13c (par. [0025]) of the vehicle 1; and an exhaust port 41 (outlet) formed in the battery case 24 (cover member) (par. [0030]) to discharge the outside wind/air introduced into the battery case 24 (cover member) from the air/wind intake 36 (inlet) (par. [0030]), wherein the battery case 24 (cover member) includes an empty space between the battery case 24 and the battery 2 (ventilation portion, arrows in Image 1 below) that connects the air/wind intake 36 (inlet) and the exhaust port 41 (outlet) (see fig. 6), and the empty space (ventilation portion) is defined by a thin portion (arrows in Image 1 below) of the battery case 24 (cover member) and a thick portion/ rubber 24c (arrows in Image 1 below) of the battery case 24 (cover member) formed thicker than the thin portion
Tono fails to disclose wherein the battery case 24 (cover member) has a heat insulating property.
Murata teaches a battery case to protects the cells (par. [0055]) within which a battery is housed includes a first layer that is made of metal, a second layer that is made of heat insulating material, and a third layer that is made of phase-change heat storage material (par. [0009]), Murata discloses a battery case that has a heat insulating layer 10B to prevent heat exchange between outside air and the phase-change heat storage material 10C (par. [0058]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date to add the heat insulating layer/element 10B of Murata’s invention to Tono’s battery case 24 (cover member) to prevent heat exchange between outside air and the phase-change heat storage material 10C (par. [0058]).
As to claim 2, modified Tono discloses the thick portion as the rubber portion 24c which is interposed between the inner surface of the battery case 24 (cover member) and the battery 2 (par. [0030]). The thin portion is considered the empty space (ventilation portion) (arrows in Image 1 below) of the battery case 24 (cover member). The thick/rubber portion 24c has a higher heat insulating property than the thin/empty space portion.
As to claim 3, modified Tono discloses a battery case 24 (cover member) including an upper battery case 24a (front wall portion) located on a front side of the vehicle 1, a lower battery case 24b (rear wall portion) located on a rear side of the vehicle 1, and a left and right side of the case portion 24 (side wall portions) (par. [0018]) located adjacent the upper battery case 24a (front wall portion) and the lower battery case 24b (rear wall portion).
As to claim 4, modified Tono discloses a width (left arrow) of the empty space (ventilation portion) of the vehicle 1 seen along the up-and-down direction at a corner connecting the upper battery case 24a (front wall portion) and the lower battery case 24b (rear wall portion) and the left and right side of the case portion 24 (side wall portions) is made larger than a width (right arrow) of another empty space (ventilation portion) seen along the up-and-down direction of the vehicle 1 as evident by the arrows in Image 1 below.
As to claims 5-6, modified Tono discloses the left and right main frames 13 (extension member) (par. [0013]) that may act as a flow guide for the traveling wind/air and are members extending in the front 21 and rear 22 of the vehicle. The slanted sloped of the exhaust ports 41 (outlet) engraved into the frames 13 as pictured in fig. 8 best depict the ‘extension member’ that the frames 13 add to the exhaust ports 41 (outlet). To claim 6, modified Tono discloses wherein the main frames 13 (extension member) shields the exhaust ports 41 (outlet) from the motor unit 3 (engine) which is arranged in a space surrounded by the main frame 13 (par. [0021]).
The Courts have held that if the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim. See In re Casey, 152 USPQ 235 (CCPA 1967); and In re Otto, 136 USPQ 458, 459 (CCPA 1963). The Courts have held that it is well settled that the recitation of a new intended use, for an old product, does not make a claim to that old product patentable. See In re Schreiber, 128 F.3d 1473, 1477, 44 USPQ2d 1429, 1431 (Fed. Cir. 1997) (see MPEP § 2114).
As to claims 7-8, modified Tono discloses rubber portions 24c (protrusions) at a place facing the battery 2 (par. [0028]) in the battery case 24 (cover member) wherein the rubber portions 24c (protrusions) are arranged at different positions (see fig. 6) in the up-and-down direction of the vehicle 1. To claim 7, the rubber portions 24c (protrusions) are provided on opposing case portions 24 (side wall portions) in the battery case 24 (cover member).
As to claim 9, modified Tono teaches a first sheet/front seat 9b (battery cover) of claim 1 as taught previously. Tono discloses a battery housing space 13c (battery arrangement) (par. [0030]), wherein the battery housing space 13c (battery arrangement) includes a rear extension portion 13b (bottom portion) (par. [0032]) on which the battery 2 is placed (see fig. 7) and main frames 13 and cross member 13d (wall portion) surrounding a portion of the battery case 24 (cover member) (see fig. 6) and extending from the rear extension portion 13b (bottom portion).
Tono fails to disclose wherein the portion of the battery case 24 (cover member) surrounded by the main frames 13 and cross member 13d (wall portion) is made thin so as to be equivalent to the thin portion.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date to alter the width of the main frames 13 and cross member 13d (wall portion) to be made as thin as the thin portions (arrows in Image 1 below).
The size of an article is not a matter of invention. See In re Rose, 105 USPQ 237 (CCPA 1955) (see MPEP § 2144.04).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tono (JP2012086690A) and Murata (US20140356666A1) as applied to claim 9 above, and further in view of Ogawa (US20110151314A1).
As to claim 10, modified Tono discloses vehicle body frame 11(fixing member) that that fixes the battery to the vehicle (par. [0019]). Tono fails to disclose a support portion within the battery housing space 13c (battery arrangement).
Ogawa teaches a battery pack structure having a structure to cool batteries and being capable of preventing cooling wind from hitting electrodes of the batteries (par. [0009]). Ogawa discloses on the bottom surface 3A of the case 1, there are placed a rubber sheet 8 (electrically insulating sheet) (bottom portion/ heat insulation arrangement portion) formed in a rectangular shape and another rubber sheet 9 (electrically insulating sheet) (bottom portion/ heat insulation arrangement portion) laid thereon (par. [0058]). The sheets are placed on a rack 43 (battery arrangement) where the batteries are stacked (par. [0083]). The sheets 8, 9 contain wall portions (sides of the rectangular sheets) (see fig. 17). Ogawa further discloses protruding portions 42 (support portion) formed on the fixing plate 40 which helps position the sheets 8, 9 (bottom portion/ heat insulation arrangement portion) (par. [0081]), and
Ogawa teaches additional protruding portions 42 as labeled in Image 2 (see fig. 19) below wherein the upper portion of the protruding portions 42 (support portion) is closer to the bottom portion of the battery 33.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date to add the protruding portions 42 (support portion) of Ogawa’s invention to Tono’s battery housing space 13c (battery arrangement) to ultimately allow cooling wind to flow through the batteries (par. [0081]).
The mere rearrangement of parts, without any new or unexpected results, is within the ambit of one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Japikse, 86 USPQ 70 (CCPA 1950) (see MPEP § 2144.04).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tono (JP2012086690A) and Murata (US20140356666A1) as applied to claim 9 above, and further in view of Takedomi (US20030193313A1).
As to claim 11, modified Tono fails to disclose wherein the battery housing space 13c (battery arrangement) includes a fitting portion, and a notch portion.
Takedomi teaches a battery box 10 comprising a container (cover member) formed by connecting an upper portion 11, a lower portion 12 (battery arrangement), a front portion 13, a rear portion 14, and two side portions (par. [0012]). Takedomi discloses the container (battery arrangement) including flow control members 32, 33 (fitting portion) (par. [0015]) and the portion of the container (cover member) surrounded by the wall portions 13, 14 has a notch/open space portion (arrow in Image 3) corresponding to the flow control members 32, 33 (fitting portion) (see fig. 3).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date to add the flow control members 32, 33 (fitting portion) and notch/open space portion (arrow in Image 3) of Takedomi’s invention to Tono’s battery housing space 13c (battery arrangement) to change the flow direction of the coolant (par. [0015]).
Image 1. Annotated version of Fig. 6 from Tono (JP2012086690A) reference.
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Image 2. Annotated version of Fig. 19 from Ogawa (US20110151314A1) reference.
Image 3. Annotated version of Fig. 3 from Takedomi (US20030193313A1) reference.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JADE S SIMMONS whose telephone number is (571)270-7254. The examiner can normally be reached M - F 9:00am - 5:00pm EST.
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JADE SIMMONS
Examiner
Art Unit 1727
/Robert S Carrico/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1727
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