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 1-15 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 filed on April 28, 2023.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
In paragraphs [0008] and [0018] of Applicants’ Specification, “a plurality of a plurality of conductive balls” should be amended to recite “a plurality of conductive balls”.
In paragraph [0054] of Applicants’ Specification, reference is made to “penetration part 222a” (line 2 therein) and to “intaglio part 222a” (line 4 therein). It appears that “intaglio part 222a” should be amended to recite “intaglio part 212”; see line 5 in paragraph [0054].
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In lines 5 and 6 of claim 2, “a plurality of a plurality of conductive balls” should be amended to recite “a plurality of conductive balls”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 § 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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (U. S. Patent Publication No. 2011/0281140).
Regarding claim 1, Lee et al. teach a battery pack including a battery cell including an electrode assembly, and a protection circuit module (PCM), wherein the electrode assembly comprises electrode taps (“electrode tab”) electrically connected to the PCM. See Figures 1 and 2 and paragraphs [0034], [0040], and [0041] of Lee et al.
The PCM includes a substrate and a plurality of protection circuits that are for preventing a battery cell from overheating or exploding due to an excessive charge, discharge or current of the battery cell (“circuit board”), wherein connection blocks (“tab connector”) are disposed on one side surface of the substrate, and are used to electrically connect the electrode taps and the PCM. Lee et al. additionally teach the feasibility in forming a plurality of grooves on one side surface of the substrate in order to expose a metal layer of the protection circuits mounted in the substrate (“intaglio…formed on a plate surface”). A welding material is applied on an upper portion of the substrate on which the metal layer is exposed, the connection blocks are disposed on the welding material, and are sintered thereto. Thus, the connection blocks are fixed to the substrate (“tab connector is electrically connected to the circuit board on the intaglio”). See Figure 3 and paragraphs [0043]-[0045], [0048], and [0049] of Lee et al.
In view of these teachings, Lee et al. anticipate claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8 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.
Claims 9-15 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Neither Lee et al. nor the cited references of record teach or suggest the limitations of these claims. While Lee et al., as discussed above, teach the presence of grooves on one side surface of the substrate, this reference does not teach that said grooves are concavely formed, as recited in Applicants’ claim 9.
Shin et al. (U. S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0120401, Applicants’ submitted art) teaches a battery pack comprising first and second printed circuit boards, having therebetween a conductive connecting member, examples of which include anisotropic conductive films (paragraphs [0068]-[0069]). Shin et al. do not teach or suggest the conductive connecting member positioned between the circuit board and the tab connector, as recited in Applicants’ claim 2, nor does this reference teach or suggest the presence of an insulation plate positioned between the tab connector and the circuit board, as recited in claim 9.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Additional exemplary prior art includes Lee (KR 2007 0068848; English translation provided), which teaches a battery comprising an electrode assembly having two electrodes and a separator, wherein the separator includes a plurality of intaglio parts formed on both surfaces of the separator. See Figures 3 and 4 and pages 12 and 15 of Lee.
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/Patricia L. Hailey/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1732 December 29, 2025