DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-8 are pending as amended on 6 April 2026.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Applicant’s amendments to the claims and the remarks/arguments have been entered and fully considered.
Response to Amendment and Arguments
Applicant’s amendment overcomes the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph of claim 2. The rejection has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s amendment overcomes the rejection of claims 1 and 5-8 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) over US2022/0059909A1(Lee), the rejection of claim 2 under 35 U.S.C. 103 over Lee in view of US2015/0372277A1 (Honda), and the rejection of claims 3 and 4 under 35 U.S.C. 103 over Lee in view of US2020/0168872A1(Fu). The rejections have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments in light of the amendment have been fully considered but are moot as they do not apply to the current rejection.
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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US2015/0056491A1(Zhao).
Regarding claim 1, Zhao teaches a separator for a lithium battery ([0044]) comprises a porous substrate; and an organic/inorganic composite porous coating coated on at least one surface of the porous substrate; the organic/inorganic composite porous coating comprises inorganic particles and organic particles with at least two swelling degrees ([0007]), wherein the organic/inorganic composite porous coating may be an island-planar shape, the island-planar shape comprises island regions and planar regions, taking an average swelling degree as a reference, the organic particles with the swelling degree not less than the average swelling degree are mainly distributed on a surface of the island regions, thus close to 100wt.% of the island, which meets the claimed discrete second regions; and the inorganic particles and the organic particles with the swelling degree less than the average swelling degree are mainly distributed inside the island regions and on the planar regions ([0008] and Fig. 1), which meets the first region; and the coating has one thickness thus anticipates same coating thickness of different region ([0058]).
Regarding claim 2, Zhao teaches the organic particles include polyvinylidene fluoride ([0022]).
Regarding claims 3 and 4, Zhao teaches exemplified the inorganic particles in an amount of 28 g mixed with 2.66 g of organic particles of less swelling and 0.06 parts of adhesive ([0057]), thus about 91% of inorganic particles and 8.6% of particles in the planar region, respectively, estimated by the examiner, which meets the claimed amount of inorganic particles and first polymer, respectively.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 5-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao in view of US Patent 5989743 (Yamashita).
The teachings of Zhao are set forth above.
Zhao further teaches forming a secondary battery by winding the separator, a positive electrode and a negative electrode together ([0055]), which meets battery/module/pack/apparatus.
Zhao teaches that the existence of the island regions provides spaces for expansion of the electrochemical device so as to excellently solve the deformation problem of the battery ([0015] and [0048]).
Zhao does not expressly discloses that the island region is provided at a corner of an innermost circle of the winding assembly.
Yamashita teaches in a wound battery, the innermost portion of separator sustains a largest stress as compared to other portions of the wound battery dues to deformation (col. 8, line 20-25 and col. 16, line 40-45).
At the time the invention was made it would have been obvious for a person of ordinary skill in the art to place the island region of the separator at a corner of the an innermost cycle of the wound assembly to solve the deformation problem since the innermost portion of separator of a wound battery sustains a largest stress as compared to other portions of the wound battery dues to deformation as evidenced by Yamashita (col. 8, line 20-25 and col. 16, line 40-45).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 AIQUN LI whose telephone number is (571)270-7736. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00 am -4:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Randy Gulakowski can be reached at 571-2721302. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AIQUN LI/Ph.D., Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766
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