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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 6 and 11 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 6, 1st line, the status identifier “(Original)” should have been “(Currently Amended)” since claim 6 has been amended.
In claim 11, replace “0.4 b 1.0” with “0.4 ≤ b ≤ 1.0”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nishimura et al. (US 2022/0037659).
Regarding claims 4-6, Nishimura et al. disclose a sulfide solid electrolyte of a solid-state battery (see abstract; paragraphs [0003], [0026], and [0032]-[0035]; and Figure 1), in which the sulfide solid electrolyte comprises the following features:
an argyrodite crystal phase (see paragraph [0035]); and
containing Li, Ge, Sb, S, I, and A, wherein A includes a polyatomic anion with a plurality of O and having an ionic radius larger than that of a sulfide ion, with the polyatomic anion including C or S as a cation, and A including a carbonate ion CO32- as Li2CO3 (see paragraph [0026]).
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.
Claims 1 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nishimura et al. (US 2022/0037659).
Regarding independent claim 1 and claim 7, Nishimura et al. disclose a sulfide solid electrolyte of a solid-state battery (see abstract; paragraphs [0003], [0026], and [0032]-[0035]; and Figure 1), in which the sulfide solid electrolyte comprises the following features:
an argyrodite crystal phase (see paragraph [0035]); and
containing Li, Ge, Sb, S, I, and A, wherein A is an anion of a halogen element that includes a bromide ion Br- (see paragraphs [0033] and [0034]), such that since Nishimura et al. disclose polyatomic anion structures, including PS43- and GeS44- (see paragraph [0034]), the ionic radius would be larger than that of a sulfide ion,
wherein the solid-state battery (10) comprises a cathode layer (1), an anode layer (2), and a solid electrolyte layer (3) formed between the cathode layer (1) and the anode layer (2), in which at least the cathode layer (1) contains the sulfide solid electrolyte according to claim 1 (see paragraphs [0032] and [0033]; and Figure 1).
Nishimura et al. do not explicitly disclose that the sulfide solid electrolyte does not contain P in a portion of the embodiments where element X is at least one of P, As, Sb, Si, Ge, Sn, B, Al, Ga, and In (see paragraph [0033]). In other words, Nishimura et al. fail to disclose that the sulfide solid electrolyte does not contain P, and further fail to teach that if P exists in at least one embodiment, then P would be present at 50 mol% or less. However, since paragraph [0033] of Nishimura et al. disclose one embodiment of using P with respect to a total of Ge, Sb, and P, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide a composition having a little or no amount of P that would produce higher quality for manufacture of a solid-state battery based on experimentation of the percentages among element X to be one or more of P, As, Sb, Si, Ge, Sn, B, Al, Ga, and In (see paragraph [0033]). Moreover, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to choose the instantly claimed ranges through process optimization, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. See In re Boesch, 205 USPQ 215 (1980).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-17 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art fails to teach or suggest a sulfide solid electrolyte that includes all features of independent claim 8, in particular the portion of claim 8 having the following composition:
Claim 8
a composition represented by the following:
(2-a-b)Li2S-aLiI-bLiαA-Li4(Ge,Sb)S4; and
the “a” satisfies 0 < a < 2,
the “b” satisfies 0 < b < 2,
the “a” and the “b” satisfy 0 < a + b < 2, and
the “α” is a value corresponding to a valence of the A.
(of dependent claim 8, from which claims 9-17 further depend)
Response to Arguments
The examiner acknowledges the applicant’s amendment received by the USPTO on August 5, 2026. Although the amendment overcomes prior objections to the abstract and specification, as well as the prior 35 USC 112(b) rejection, new minor claim objections are raised for claims 6 and 11 (see above section 1). The applicant has cancelled claims 2 and 3, while adding new claims 13-17. Claims 1 and 4-17 are currently under consideration in the application.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 4-7 have been considered but are moot because the argument pertaining to the limitations of independent claims 1 and 4 has been addressed in the newly underlined portions applied in the above 35 USC 102(a)(1) and 35 USC 103 rejections (as revised in claim interpretation to be a non-final Office Action).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN P KERNS whose telephone number is (571)272-1178. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-430pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Keith Walker can be reached at (571)272-3458. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KEVIN P KERNS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1735 September 19, 2026
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