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 Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-7, 12, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tomita et al. (US-20220045396-A1 as provided in the IDS dated 09/07/2023).
Regarding Claim 1, Tomita discloses:
A bus bar holder for a battery module, the bus bar holder comprising (support member 120 with a plurality of bus bar mounting portions 123, see [0036]-[0037]):
a body (main body portion 122, see [0037])
having a plurality of bus bar disposal area portions (a plurality of bus bar mounting portions 123, see [0037]);
and a hinge portion between the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions (hinges 126 are shown to be between support cases 121, see [0039] and annotated Fig. 8 below)
and configured to enable stacking of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions (see annotated Fig. 8 below).
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Regarding Claim 2, Tomita discloses:
wherein the body and the hinge portion are integrally formed (Fig. 6 shows that the hinge 126 is integrally formed with at least a portion of the main body portion 122 of the support member 120).
Regarding Claim 3, Tomita discloses:
wherein each of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions has an opening for exposing a bus bar terminal portion ( It is the Examiner’s position that one of ordinary skill would readily acknowledge based on Fig. 2 showing the terminals 112/113 traversing through the plurality of bus bar mounting portions 123 and elongated holes 143 of the bus bars 141/142 that the bus bar mounting portions 123 necessarily includes an opening which aligns with the elongated holes 143 of the bus bars 141/142.).
Regarding Claim 4, Tomita’s annotated Fig. 4B below discloses:
wherein, in a state in which the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions are stacked, the opening in one of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions overlaps the opening in another one of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions.
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Regarding Claim 5, Tomita’s annotated Fig. 8 above discloses:
wherein the hinge portion extends along a length of the body (note, extends along a length is broadly interpreted to meet by any structure that takes up space or negative space (i.e., a hole) because the claimed a length can be any length taken between any two arbitrary points within or without the body).
Regarding Claim 6, Tomita discloses:
further comprising a fastening portion adjacent to the hinge portion, the fastening portion configured to fix the bus bar holder to a housing of the battery module (“The support member 120 has a mounting member for mounting the support member 120 on the battery 110,” (see [0033]) wherein the plurality of cells are individually housed to form a modular housing, see Figs.1-3. While Tomita is silent to exactly the placement of the mounting member, under broadest reasonable interpretation any constituent part of the support member 120 is interpreted to be adjacent to the hinge portion (hinge 126).).
Regarding Claim 7, Tomita is silent toward the structure of the fastening portion
wherein the hinge portion (see Tomita’s annotated Fig. 8 above)
and the fastening portion extend along a length of the body (One of ordinary skill would readily acknowledge that Tomita’s mounting member is a structure which inherently either takes up some amount of space or negative space (i.e., a hole). It is the Examiner’s position any structure which as taught by Tomita is structurally capable of being a mounting the support member 120 and battery 110 meets the limitation of “extend along a length of the body.”
Regarding Claim 12, Tomita’s Fig. 2 discloses:
A bus bar assembly for a battery module,
the bus bar assembly comprising: the bus bar holder of claim 1;
and a bus bar in each of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions.
Regarding Claim 14, Tomita discloses:
A battery module comprising (battery module 100, see Fig. 2 and [0033]):
a bus bar holder comprising a body, the body comprising a plurality of bus bar disposal area portions (support member 120 with a plurality of bus bar mounting portions 123 and main body portion 122, see [0036]-[0037]):
a hinge portion between the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions and configured to enable the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions to be stacked (hinges 126 are shown to be between support cases 121, see [0039] and annotated Fig. 8 above),
and a fastening portion adjacent to the hinge portion (“The support member 120 has a mounting member for mounting the support member 120 on the battery 110,” see [0033].While Tomita is silent to exactly the placement of the mounting member, under broadest reasonable interpretation any constituent part of the support member 120 is interpreted to be adjacent to the hinge portion (hinge 126).);
a bus bar in each of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions (see Fig. 2);
and a housing accommodating a plurality of battery cells (the plurality of cells are shown to be individually housed to form a modular housing, see Figs.1-3),
the bus bar holder being fixed to the housing by the fastening portion of the body (“The support member 120 has a mounting member for mounting the support member 120 on the battery 110,” see [0033]. Note, there is no requirement for the claimed fastening portion to be in direct physical contact with the body.).
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.
Claim(s) 8-11 and 15-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tomita et al. (US-20220045396-A1 as provided in the IDS dated 09/07/2023) as applied to Claim 1 and 14 above and in further view Kim et al. (US-20170125753-A1).
Regarding Claim 8, Tomita teaches:
wherein the hinge portion comprises a first hinge portion connected to one of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions and a second hinge portion connected to another one of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions (see annotated Fig. 4B below),
Tomita is silent toward the structure of the mounting member and, therefore, does not teach:
and wherein the fastening portion comprises: a connection portion connected to the first hinge portion and the second hinge portion; and a support portion that forms an insertion space and connected to both ends of the connection portion.
To solve the same problem of designing a battery module (see Abstract), Kim teaches providing the module with side plates 120 which act to support the side surfaces of the battery cells 10, see [0040] and Fig. 2 .
Kim further teaches the side plates 120 are connected to a cover 130 via a plurality of structures including the bending portion 122 and the extending portion 123 of the side plates 120 that are coupled to the accommodation portion 131 of the cover 130, see [0040]-[0041] and Fig. 4. This coupling structure as shown in Kim-Fig. 4 below corresponds to the fastening portion and the limitations:
and a support portion that forms an insertion space (accommodation portion 131) and connected to both ends of the connection portion.
Absent a showing of persuasive secondary considerations, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have provided side plates as taught by Kim to the design of the battery module of Tomita to support the side surfaces of the battery.
Absent a showing of persuasive secondary considerations, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have used the coupling structure taught by Kim to connect the support member 120 of Tomita to the included side plates.
It is the Examiner’s position that the modification of Tomita in view of Kim given above results in a structure the meets the limitation for the given reasons below:
and wherein the fastening portion comprises: a connection portion connected to the first hinge portion and the second hinge portion;
The indicated first and second hinge portion in annotated Tomita-Fig. 4B below are a part of the support member 120 and the modification of Tomita in view of Kim has a connection portion on the outer edge of the side surfaces of the support member 120. Therefore, the first and section hinge portion and the connection portion are connected. Note, the recitation of connected can broadly be in interpreted to be physically connected with or without intervening structure, electrically connected, or thermally connected.
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Regarding Claim 9, annotated Tomita-Fig. 4 below teaches:
wherein the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions comprises: a first bus bar disposal area portion; a second bus bar disposal area portion on one side of the first bus bar disposal area portion and stacked on the first bus bar disposal area portion by the hinge portion; and a third bus bar disposal area portion on another side of the first bus bar disposal area portion and stacked on the first bus bar disposal area portion by the hinge portion.
Regarding Claim 10, annotated Tomita-Fig. 4 below teaches:
when the second bus bar disposal area portion and the third bus bar disposal area portion are stacked on the first bus bar disposal area portion,
the second bus bar disposal area portion and the third bus bar disposal area portion are spaced apart from each other.
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Regarding Claim 11, Tomita discloses:
wherein the first bus bar disposal area portion, the second bus bar disposal area portion, and the third bus bar disposal area portion each have a rectangular shape (in Figs. 5 and 8-9, bus bar mounting portions 123 are shown to be rectangular in shape).
Regarding Claim 15-16, Tomita teaches:
(per Claim 16) wherein the hinge portion comprises a first hinge portion connected to one of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions and a second hinge portion connected to another one of the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions (see annotated Fig. 4B above),
Tomita is silent toward the structure of the mounting member and, therefore, does not teach:
(per Claim 15) wherein the housing comprises a pair of side plates facing each other, and wherein the fastening portion is fixed to the pair of side plates.
(per Claim 16) and wherein the fastening portion comprises: a connection portion connected to the first hinge portion and the second hinge portion; and a support portion that forms an insertion space and connected to both ends of the connection portion.
To solve the same problem of designing a battery module (see Abstract), Kim teaches providing the module with side plates 120 which act to support the side surfaces of the battery cells 10, see [0040] and Fig. 2 .
Kim further teaches the side plates 120 are connected to a cover 130 via a plurality of structures including the bending portion 122 and the extending portion 123 of the side plates 120 that are coupled to the accommodation portion 131 of the cover 130, see [0040]-[0041] and Fig. 4. This coupling structure as shown in annotated Kim-Fig. 4 above corresponds to the fastening portion and teaches the limitations:
(per Claim 15) wherein the housing comprises a pair of side plates facing each other, and wherein the fastening portion is fixed to the pair of side plates.
(per Claim 16) and a support portion that forms an insertion space (accommodation portion 131) and connected to both ends of the connection portion, the side plates being inserted into the insertion space.
Absent a showing of persuasive secondary considerations, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have provided side plates as taught by Kim to the design of the battery module of Tomita to support the side surfaces of the battery.
Absent a showing of persuasive secondary considerations, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have used the coupling structure taught by Kim to connect the support member 120 of Tomita to the included side plates.
It is the Examiner’s position that the modification of Tomita in view of Kim given above results in a structure the meets the limitation for the given reasons below:
(per Claim 16) and wherein the fastening portion comprises: a connection portion connected to the first hinge portion and the second hinge portion;
The indicated first and second hinge portion in annotated Tomita-Fig. 4B below are a part of the support member 120 and the modification of Tomita in view of Kim has a connection portion on the outer edge of the side surfaces of the support member 120. Therefore, the first and section hinge portion and the connection portion are connected. Note, the recitation of connected can broadly be in interpreted to be physically connected with or without intervening structure, electrically connected, or thermally connected.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tomita et al. (US-20220045396-A1 as provided in the IDS dated 09/07/2023) as applied to Claim 1 above and in further view of DeKeuster et al. (US-20160093862-A1).
Regarding Claim 13, Tomita does not teach:
wherein the bus bars are over-molded into the plurality of bus bar disposal area portions.
To solve the same problem of designing an E-carrier with a bus bar assembly (see [0051]), DeKeuster teaches over-molding bus bars in order to provide a permanent integration method to connect the bus bars and E-carrier.
Absent a showing of persuasive secondary considerations, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have over-molded the bus bars to the support member 120 of Tomita to provide a permanent integration as taught by DeKeuster.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kayla E Clary whose telephone number is (571)272-2854. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00-5:00 (PT).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Allison Bourke can be reached at 303-297-4684. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/K.E.C./
Kayla E. ClaryExaminer, Art Unit 1721
/ALLISON BOURKE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1721