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 .
Claims 1-8 are presently pending in this application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Applicants’ Priority Document was electronically retrieved on May 10, 2023.
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.
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.
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 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sano et al. (U. S. Patent Publication No. 2021/0194019, Applicants’ submitted art).
Regarding claims 1 and 8, Sano et al. teach the preparation of a fuel cell stack, wherein a membrane electrode assembly is held between first and second metal separators to form a fuel cell, and the fuel cell stack is formed by stacking multiple fuel cells and applying thereto a predetermined compressing load. See Figure 1 and paragraphs [0029], [0047], and [0048] of Sano et al.
In the aforementioned preparation, the first and second metal separators are formed and assembled to create bead seal sections and stopper sections, and also to create reaction regions through which reaction gases (oxidant or fuel gases) flow. See Figure 1 and paragraphs [0031], [0032], [0035]-[0037] of Sano et al., where elements 41 (bead seal section) and 42 (stopper section) in said Figure are considered to respectively correspond to Applicants’ “passage bead portion…” and “outer peripheral bead portion…” and, forming together, both a “double bead portion formed by the passage bead portion and the outer peripheral bead portion” and a “double bead portion formed by the outer peripheral bead portion and the passage bead portion”.
Sano et al. additionally teach press-forming of the first and second metal separators, followed by joining said metal separators, followed by applying a preload (“applying a preliminary load”) both the bead seal sections and the stopper sections, wherein the bead seal sections and the stopper sections are plastically deformed. See Figures 3 and 4, and paragraphs [0046] and [0053]-[0055] of Sano et al.
After the metal separators are formed, assembling and compressing steps are performed to form the fuel cell. Said assembling involves holding the membrane assembly between the first and second metal separator; said compressing involves forming a fuel cell stack by stacking multiple fuel cells assembled, and applying a predetermined compressing load to the fuel cells. See paragraphs [0047]-[0048] of Sano et al.
Sano et al. do not explicitly teach or suggest the limitations of Applicants’ claims 1 and 8 regarding, respectively, (a) the suppression of deformation of a portion between the passage bead portion and the outer peripheral bead portion in a double bead portion formed by the passage bead portion and the outer peripheral bead portion, and (b) the suppression of deformation of a portion between the passage bead portion and the outer peripheral bead portion in a double bead portion formed by the outer peripheral bead portion and the passage bead portion.
However, it is considered that because Sano et al. teach a method comparable to that to that instantly claimed, the skilled artisan would reasonably expect said method to result in both the effective suppression of deformation of a portion between the bead seal section (“passage bead portion”) and the stopper seal section (“outer peripheral bead portion”), and the effective suppression of deformation of a portion between the stopper seal section and the bead seal section, absent the showing of convincing evidence to the contrary.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims 2-7 are objected to, as neither Sano et al. nor the cited references of record teach or suggest the provision of a deformation suppressing member between the outer peripheral bead portion and the passage bead portion, said deformation suppressing member coming into contact with the pressing plates. As shown in Figures 3 and 4 of Sano et al., platens 61 apply a preload to the metal separator plates, but a deformation suppressing member positioned between bead seal section 41 and stopper section 42 and coming into contact with the platens is not present.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See, for example, Wenzel et al. (U. S. Patent Publication No. 2021/0202963), Ishida et al. (U. S. Patent No. 11,189,848), and Hiroyuki et al. (JP 2004 207074).
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/Patricia L. Hailey/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1732 January 5, 2026