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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This Office action regarding Application No. 18/181,568 to Mita et al. assigned to Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, Inc., Tokyo, Japan, filed 03/10/2023 and published as 2023/0290993 A1 on 09/14/2023 is in response to applicant’s arguments/remarks and claim amendment filed 03/05/2026 that was in response to the non-final Office action dated 12/12/2025.
Status of Claims
In the response filed 03/05/2026 applicant has amended claim 1 with regard to the first adhesive layer being separated from the second adhesive layer and their bottom surfaces being coplanar. New claim 12 has also been added.
Currently amended 1
Original 2-11
3.3 New 12
Claims 1-12 are pending in this application, and all the claims are under full consideration.
Foreign Priority Benefit
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim to foreign priority benefit from Japanese Patent Application JP 2022-039649 filed 03/14/2022. A certified copy of the priority document has been filed on 04/26/2023 and is made of record.
Withdrawal of Claim Objection
The objection to claims 1-11 presented in the previous non-final Office action dated 12/12/2025 for reciting in claim 1 that the first adhesive layer region and second adhesive region oppose the first electrode material, while the disclosure in the drawings in Fig. 8 and 10 show them to be adjacent has been overcome by the amendment of the claims which now recites, “… the first adhesive layer region and the second adhesive layer region are adjacent to the first electrode active material in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.” Therefore, the objection has been withdrawn.
Claims Rejections – 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35 U.S. Code not included in this section can be found in the prior Office Action.
Claim 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shin et al. (U.S.PG Publication 2018/0309108; cited in Information Disclosure Statement, IDS, dated 03/07/20240) in view of Wakimoto et al. (U.S. PG Publication 2022/0376367)
Regarding claim 1 and 12 Shin discloses an electrochemical device, equivalent to a battery, and a method of providing such a device (Shin paragraph 0026, 0083), the battery has an electrode assembly and a separator (Shin paragraph 0027, 0084), the electrodes were stacked and rolled and charged in a case (Shin paragraph 0084), thus, the case accommodates the electrode body. The electrode includes a current collector, and an electrode active material layer formed on at least one surface of the current collector (Shin paragraph 0067), the current collector is equivalent to the electrode core body.
Shin is silent about the electrode has an active material layer non-formation area at which the first electrode body is exposed. Wakimoto discloses a secondary battery and method of manufacture (Wakimoto Title, paragraph 0028), having an electrode assembly that includes a positive electrode and a negative electrode (Wakimoto paragraph 0029) wound with a separator between the electrodes (Wakimoto paragraph 0070), each of the electrode has electrode multiple tabs at one end (Wakimoto paragraph 0033) and consist of exposed portions of the current collector (Wakimoto paragraph 0095, 103), equivalent to the active material layer non-formation area and is exposed. The electrode tab is for electrical connection of the electrodes to the terminal (Wakimoto paragraph 0036).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have formed an area not coated with the active material to form the electrode tabs, equivalent to active material layer non-formation area for facilitating the electrical connection of the electrodes to the terminals (Wakimoto paragraph 0036). This is considered the use of known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way (MPEP 2143 I C).
The method includes the formation of the electrode body wherein the negative electrode, the positive electrode and separator are stacked to produce electrode body (Shin paragraph 0084), the negative electrode and positive electrode are equivalent to the first electrode and the second electrode, and the stacking of the electrodes and separator is equivalent to the laying up the first electrode, the separator and the second electrode. This equivalent to the electrode production step. The stacked electrodes were rolled and charged in a case (Shin paragraph 0084), equivalent to the accommodation step of accommodating the electrode body in the battery case.
In the electrode production step, the separator used include a base material layer (Shin paragraph 0007) and an adhesion layer formed on the substrate (Shin Fig. 1, paragraph 0007, 0025, 0028), the adhesion layer is equivalent to the adhesive layer. The adhesion layer has a first adhesion layer and a second adhesion layer (Shin paragraph 0029), equivalent to the first adhesion region and the second adhesion region. Shin discloses the second adhesive layer is less than the thickness of the first adhesion layer (Shin paragraph 0047), equivalent to the second adhesive region that is thicker than the first adhesive region, wherein the terms "first" and second" are used to distinguish between two layers. Shin discloses the adhesion layer is introduced to ensure bonding of the separator and the electrode (Shin paragraph 0028); thus, the first adhesion layer and the second adhesion layer and disposed between the separator and the electrode, and therefore, face the electrode active material layer, which is equivalent to oppose the first electrode active material layer.
Shin is silent about the first adhesive layer region and the second adhesive layer region are separated and have coplanar bottom surfaces. Shin, however, discloses the second layer 132 c coats at least part of the surface of the first layer 131 c (Shin Fig. 2a, paragraph 0015), disclosing that the adhesive layer may have two different regions with a region having a first adhesive region not coated by the second adhesive layer, and a second region having the second adhesive layers coats the first adhesive layer (Shin paragraph 0015), essentially having a region of the first layer separate from a region of the second layer.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have separated the first adhesive layer and the second adhesive layer into separate regions in the same plane, equivalent to being separated on a first direction, that do not overlap instead of laying them one over the other so as to have adhesive layers with different adhesion properties that may satisfy different adhesion requirements of the separator and the active material and current collector on which it is bonded since Shin disclose they may have polymers having different melting points or dissolution rates (Shin paragraph 0007), and thus can provide an adhesion layer with regions of different adhesive properties. Laying on the same base the two layers may have co-planar bottom surfaces. This is considered the use of known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way (MPEP 2143 I C).
By modifying the position of the two adhesive layers or regions of Shin (Shin Fig. 2a, paragraph 0015), namely the first adhesive layer 131c and the second adhesive layer 132c, and separating the first adhesive layer and the second adhesive layer into separate regions side by side that do not overlap would be next or adjacent to the electrode active material layer that contacts the separator containing the adhesive layers from the top; thus, having an up-down relations.
The active material layer is separated from the adhesive layers in an up-down direction considered equivalent to the second direction perpendicular to the side-by-side direction of adhesive layers equivalent to the first direction. Thus, while the modified adhesive regions are side by side on the surface of the separator and separated from each other in a first direction, they are adjacent to the active material layer that lies over them in an up-down direction; thus, being in a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction of the adhesive regions.
Thus, the modification of the adhesive layers meets the limitation of the amended claim 1, wherein the first electrode and the separator are laid up so that the first adhesive layer region and the second adhesive layer region are adjacent to the first electrode active material layer in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. (See Fig. 2 of Shin below).
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Shin Fig. 2
Regarding claim 2 and 3 in the method of Shin as modified by the electrode formation method of Wakimoto the first electrode and the separator are laid up so that a tab vicinity area the first electrode active material layer in the vicinity of the first active material layer non- formation area and the second adhesive layer region of the adhesive layer oppose each other (Wakimoto Fig. 4, 5, 6).
Regarding Claim 4 Shin discloses the second adhesion layer has a dotted shape (Shin Fig. 2b).
Regarding claim 5 Shin discloses the first adhesion layer and the second adhesion layer has region is formed in a doted shape, such that the dots that make up the second adhesion layer is smaller in size than a size of the dots that make up the first adhesion layer region (Shin Fig. 2b).
Regarding claim 6 Shin discloses the first adhesion layer dots and the second adhesion layer are one in top of the other (Shin Fig. 2b), considered to equivalent being intermixed.
Regarding claim 7 Shin discloses one of the two first adhesion layer and second adhesion layer 131 c is in the forms of a band (Shin Fig. 2a).
Regarding claim 8 the adhesion layer includes polymer particles (Shin paragraph 0048), considered equivalent to the adhesive particles.
Regarding claim 9 since the first adhesion layer is distinguished from the second adhesion layer it is reasonable that they will have different elastic modulus.
Regarding claim 10 Shin discloses the stacked electrodes were rolled and charged in a case (Shin paragraph 0084), equivalent to be produced by winding. The separator disclosed by Shin is in the shape of a band (Shin Fig. 2a, 2b), and is interposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode (Shin paragraph 0066); thus, the electrodes are also in the same shape having a band shape.
Regarding claim 11 Wakimoto discloses the plurality of tabs 40, 50 are formed at two opposite end of the at two ends of the electrode body (Wakimoto Fig. 6, paragraph 0095, 0103).
Response to Argument
In the response filed 03/05/2026 applicant has amended claim 1, which recites the new limitation, “…the first adhesive layer region is separated from the second adhesive layer region in a first direction, and a bottom surface of the first adhesive layer region is coplanar with a bottom surface of the second adhesive layer region”. The claim is also amended where the first adhesive layer region and the second adhesive layer region “are adjacent” to the first electrode active material in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, which previously recited they “oppose” it. New claim 12 that includes limitation of un-amended previous claim 1 has also been added.
As noted above in this Office action examiner notes that the amendment of claim 1, which now recites, “… the first adhesive layer region and the second adhesive layer region are adjacent to the first electrode active material in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction” overcomes the previously presented objection to claim 1 limitation where it was recited that the first and second adhesive layer regions “oppose” the first electrode active material layer. Therefore, the objection is withdrawn.
Applicant traverses the rejection of the claims presented in the previous non-final Office action. Applicant notes that during the interview the Office agreed that the applied reference alone or in combination, fail to teach or suggest the recited claim language, and required reconsideration and withdrawal of the rejection of claim .Examiner notes that during the interview the examiner has agreed that Shin does not disclose such a configuration where the bottom surface of the first region and the bottom surface of the second region are co-planar. The examiner, however, noted that the reference of Shin will be reviewed upon receiving the response, and further consideration and search will be conducted. Thus, as presented in this Office action, further review of the Shin reference was conducted, and the examiner has determined that in view of the disclosure of Shin (Shin Fig. 2a, paragraph 0015) it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill to have modified the adhesive layers of Shin to arrive at the new added limitation to the claim wherein the first adhesive layer region and the second adhesive layer region are separated and coplanar.
New claim 12, which includes limitation of previously unamended claim 1, is also rejected in this Office action under 103 over the same references of Shin et al., and Wakimoto et al. applied to claim 1.
Thus, the combined teaching of Shin et al. and Wakimoto et al. is still proper and valid to meet the limitations of the amended claim 1 and its dependent claims, and also the limitation of new claim 12. The previously presented rejection is maintained with the proper modification to address the newly added limitations. This Office action is made final.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR M KEKIA whose telephone number is (571)270-5918. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00am-5:00 pm,.
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/OMAR M KEKIA/Examiner, Art Unit 1722
/ANCA EOFF/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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