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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chinese Patent Publication No. CN 214625276 to Luo, citing to the enclosed machine translation ("Luo"). Luo discloses a battery pack including batteries arranged in six columns (R1-R6) and 15 rows (a-o), the 90 battery cells being held in a housing (100) to provide support and rigidity to the battery arrangement. See annotated version of Figure 3 of Luo in the previous Office Action. All of the batteries are connected with one another in series, with the order of connection being: (R1a-R1n) - (R2n-R2a) - (R3a-R3n) - (R4n-R4a) - R5a-R6a-R6b-R5b-R5c-R6c-R6d-R5d-R5e-R6e-R6f-R5f-R5g-R6g-R6h-R5h-R5i-R6i-R6j-R5j-R5k-R6k-R6l-R5I-R5m-R6m-R6n-R6o-R5n-R5o-R4o-R3o-R2o-R1o, with the positive electrode of the preceding battery being connected to the negative electrode of the following battery. Luo at Paragraph [0047] and annotated version of Figure 3 of Luo below. This arrangement allows the negative terminal of the battery pack (230) and the positive terminal of the battery pack (220) to be arranged on the same side of the battery pack allowing for easier wiring/connectivity. Indeed, the purpose of Luo is to arrive at a battery pack having both terminals on the same side in order to reduce costs and complications of such connectivity.
Applying this structure to claims 1 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, and 13, a first plurality of battery cells can be considered to be all of the battery cells in the column R5, that is battery cells labeled in the below drawing as 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 5e, 5f, 5g, 5h, 5i, 5j, 5k, 5l, 5m, 5n, and 5o. As noted above, all of the batteries shown in Figure 3 are arranged in series connection in order to arrive at the high voltage equal to the sum of the voltage of each individual cell, with none connected in a parallel arrangement. Thus the battery cells 5a-5o are also all connected in series, with none connected in parallel, a first end corresponding to cell 5a and a second end corresponding to cell 5o.
Next to this first plurality of battery cells in the row/width direction (i.e., a second direction
orthogonal to the columnar direction) is a second plurality of cells, which are considered to include cells
6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6i, 6j, 6k, 6l, 6m, and 6n. Those cells are arranged in the columnar direction
relative to one another, with a first end corresponding to cell 6b and a second end corresponding to cell
6n. Thus, the first end of this second plurality of cells (6b) is separated from the first and second ends of
the first plurality of cells (5a and 50) in the columnar direction and the second end of the second
plurality of cells (6n) is also separated from the first and second ends of the first plurality of cells (5a and
50) in the columnar direction. Moreover, a bus bar connects the positive terminal of cell 6h to the
negative terminal of cell 5h, with each of those cells being the center cell in the columnar direction of
their respective plurality of battery cells.
Regarding claim 14, a terminal extends out from the negative terminal of cell 5a, in the
row/width direction towards the cells of column R4. Similarly, a terminal extends out from the positive
terminal of cell 5o in the same direction. The bus bar extending from the positive terminal of cell 5o is
therefore considered to correspond to the recited first collective terminal bus ban and the negative
terminal of cell 5a is considered to correspond to the recited second collective terminal bus bar.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15 and 16 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. One could consider the batteries of column R1 to correspond to the first battery assembly, those of column R2 to correspond to the second battery assembly, and cells 3a to 3n to the third battery assembly. The series connection is battery cells 1a to 1n of the first battery assembly, then 2n to 2a of the second battery assembly, then battery cells 3a to 3n, finally ending with battery cell 2o of the second battery assembly and 1o of the first battery assembly, with the first collective terminal bus bar corresponding to the terminal extending out of battery cell 1a and the second collective terminal bus bar corresponding to the terminal extending out of battery cell 1o. However, in that arrangement, the ends of the first and second battery assemblies are not offset from one another in the first direction.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed March 11, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues that Luo describes a battery module corresponding to an entire column of batteries and thus a partial column of batteries can’t correspond to the claimed second battery assembly. What Applicant fails to address is how considering a partial column of batteries to correspond to the claimed second battery assembly is in conflict with the claim language, which is the issue at hand. How Luo describes a battery module is irrelevant so long as the structure disclosed in Luo corresponds to the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim language. Applicant has not established why the claims preclude a partial column of batteries from corresponding to the recited second battery assembly. Because the second battery assembly is merely defined as a plurality of battery cells, there is nothing precluding a partial column of battery cells to correspond to that plurality of cells thereby corresponding to the recited second battery assembly.
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/WYATT P MCCONNELL/Examiner, Art Unit 1727