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 .
Summary
This is the second Office Action based on Application 18/266,992 and is in response to Applicant Arguments/Remarks filed 03/20/2026.
Claims 1-13 are previously pending, of those claims, claims 1, and 5 have been amended, new claims 14-20 have been added. All amendments have been entered. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been fully considered.
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)(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) 1-6, 8-9, 11-12, 14, and 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by LI (WO 2023/039913 A1, citing US 20230086688 A1 as an English language translating).
With respect to claim 1. LI teaches a battery pack 1 which includes a battery case and a plurality of battery cells arranged in the battery case (paragraphs 0065-0066). The battery pack 1 comprises the plurality of cells 5, 6 received in the cavity (paragraph 0067). The interior space of the battery pack cavity can be divided into a first region R1 with a temperature change rate of K1 and a second region R2 with a temperature change rate of K2 (paragraph 0067). The first region R1 has a large temperature change rate and the second region R2 has a small temperature change rate (paragraphs 0069-0070). The first region R1 with a large temperature change rate is usually the outermost region in the interior state of the battery pack, and the second region with a small temperature change rate is usually a region that is located at the inner side of the interior space of the battery pack cavity (paragraph 0071). The first battery cell 4 is arranged in the first region, and the second battery cell 6 is arranged in the second region (paragraph 0067).
The battery pack 1 is taken to be the claimed lithium secondary battery, the stack of cells inside the cavity of the battery case are taken to be the claimed electrode assembly. The region R2 is taken to be the claimed middle part including a first unit including a stack of first unit cells, the second battery cells 6 located in the second region R2 then are taken to be the claimed stack of first unit cells. The region R1 when is located at the outermost region of the battery pack, and is taken to be the upper and lower part including the first battery cells 5 (paragraphs 0067 and 0071) the battery cells 6 are taken to be the second unit cells.
LI teaches the first region R1 has a large temperature change and the second region R2 has a small temperature change (paragraph 0070). The first unit then is in the middle part and is the region R2, which has a small temperature change, the second unit is the outer areas, the upper and lower part has a large temperature change. Therefore the first unit (R2) has a smaller increase in a temperature than the second unit (R1).
With respect to claim 2. LI teaches the E2 < E1 (Table 3). E1 relates to the first battery cells, which are analogous to the claimed second unit cells, E2 relates to the second battery cells, which are the claimed first unit cells. Therefore the energy density of the second unit is greater than the energy density of the first unit.
With respect to claim 3. LI teaches each of the cells include a positive electrode (paragraph 0115) a negative electrode (paragraph 0122) and a separator (paragraph 0137).
With respect to claim 4 and 6. LI teaches the first battery cells, which are taken to be the claimed second unit cells, include a active material containing nickel (Table 1). The second battery cells, taken to be the claimed first unit cells include an active material which does not include nickel (Table 2).
With respect to claim 5 and 8. LI teaches the number of first battery cells 4 in the first region R1 accounts for 10% or more, up to 80%, the second battery cells 6 in the second region accounts for 50% or more of the cells int eh region (paragraph 0092-0094). Therefore each of the regions are taught to include some of the first and second battery cells, 5 and 6 respectively. The first battery cells then include an active material with Ni present in an amount of less than 60 mol% (Table 1).
With respect to claim 9. LI teaches the active material may be LiNi0.55Co0.05Mn0.4O2 (Table 1).
With respect to claims 11-12. LI teaches the positive electrode active material of the second cell is LFP (Table 2) which is LiFePO4 (paragraph 0118).
With respect to claim 14. LI teaches the number of first battery cells 4 in the first region R1 accounts for 10% or more, up to 80%, the second battery cells 6 in the second region accounts for 50% or more of the cells int eh region (paragraph 0092-0094). Therefore each of the regions are taught to include some of the first and second battery cells, 5 and 6 respectively. The second battery cells may include the LiFePO4 (Table 2) and are taken to be analogous to the claimed first unit cells. The first battery cells include an active material including Ni (Table 1) and are taken to be the claimed second unit cells.
With respect to claim 16. LI teaches the separator may be one of polyethylene and polypropylene (paragraph 0136).
With respect to claim 17. LI teaches the positive electrode may include lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide, LiNi0.85Co0.15Al0.05O2 (paragraph 0118).
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) 7, 10, 13, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI (WO 2023/039913 A1, citing US 20230086688 A1 as an English language translating).
Claim 7 is dependent upon claim 6, and claim 10 is dependent upon claim 4, both of which are rejected above under 35 U.S.C. 102 in view of LI. LI teaches in one embodiment the active material may be a lithium nickel oxide LiNiO2 (paragraph 0118). The choice of the active material being LiNiO2 would have been obvious at the time the invention was filed as this is a choice from a finite list of elements in order to achieve predictable results.
Claim 13 is dependent upon claim 1, and claim 15 is dependent upon claim 14, both of which are rejected above under 35 U.S.C. 102 in view of LI. LI teaches the number of first battery cells 5 in the first region R1 is 10% or more of the total number of cells in the first region, more preferably 80% or more (paragraph 0092). Similarly the number of second cells 6 in the second region R2 is 50% or more, and more preferably 80% or more (paragraph 0094). The control of the amount of the first and second cells then may be controlled in order to achieve the effect of the intention, such that the better low temperature performance can be attained (paragraph 0093-0095). LI doesn’t explicitly teach a ratio of the number of first cells is 20-40% based on the total number of cells in the electrode assembly. However, achieving the optimal number of first and second cells of LI would have been obvious at the time the invention as filed in order to achieve the desired low-temperature performance.
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI (WO 2023/039913 A1, citing US 20230086688 A1 as an English language translating) in view of LEE (US 2019/0267621 A1).
Claim 18 is dependent upon claim 6 which is rejected above under 35 U.S.C. 102 in view of LI. LI teaches the active material of the positive electrode includes a lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (paragraph 0118) but does not explicitly teach the claimed compound.
LEE teaches a positive electrode active material (abstract). The active material may be one of formula 2, which is a Li nickel cobalt and metal oxide, where the metal may be one of Al (paragraphs 0049-0050). All of a, b, and c are between 0 and 1 (paragraph 0050). Therefore at the time the invention was filed one having ordinary skill in the art would have been able to choose the desired active material compound, including the LiNi1/3Co1/3Al1/3O2, as these elements and quantities are known ranges for the active material as taught by Li and LEE, and therefore would have been obvious at the time the invention was filed.
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI (WO 2023/039913 A1, citing US 20230086688 A1 as an English language translating) in view of KIM (US 2013/0288107 A1).
Claim 19 is dependent upon claim 6 which is rejected above under 35 U.S.C. 102 in view of LI. LI teaches the positive electrode active materials including various lithium metal oxides (paragraph 0118) but does not explicitly teach a lithium titanium oxide.
KIM teaches the positive active material which includes lithium iron phosphate based oxides, as long as lithium titanium based oxides (paragraph 0009).
At the time the invention was filed one having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to substitute the LFP active material (Table 2) of LI for the lithium titanium oxide active material of KIM, as this is a simple substitution of one known prior art element for another in order to achieve predictable results.
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI (WO 2023/039913 A1, citing US 20230086688 A1 as an English language translating) in view of BUCHKREMER (US 2018/0123121 A1).
Claim 20 is dependent upon claim 6 which is rejected above under 35 U.S.C. 102 in view of LI. LI teaches the positive electrode active materials including various lithium metal oxides (paragraph 0118) but does not explicitly teach one of the claimed lithium nickel compounds.
BUCHKREMER teaches a positive electrode material which includes lithium metal oxides (paragraph 0015). Included are spinel compounds which include Li2FeSiO4 (paragraph 0019).
At the time the invention was filed one having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to substitute the active material of LI with the Li2FeSiO4 active material of BUCHKREMER as this is a simple substitution of one known prior art element for another in order to achieve predictable results.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 8-9 of Applicant Arguments/Remarks, filed 03/20/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-10 and 12-13 under 35 U.S.C. 103 in view of RYU and BUCHKREMER have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of LI (WO 2023/039913 A1, citing US 20230086688 A1 as an English language translating).
Applicant argues that claim 1 has been amended to recite the first unit and the second unit are configured such that an increase in a temperature of the first unit is smaller than an increase in temperature of the second unit during charging and discharging of the lithium secondary battery. In contrast Applicant argues that RYU would teach the opposite relationship. This argument is persuasive. However, new grounds of rejection are made in view of LI.
Specifically LI teaches a battery pack 1 which includes a battery case and a plurality of battery cells arranged in the battery case (paragraphs 0065-0066). The battery pack 1 comprises the plurality of cells 5, 6 received in the cavity (paragraph 0067). The interior space of the battery pack cavity can be divided into a first region R1 with a temperature change rate of K1 and a second region R2 with a temperature change rate of K2 (paragraph 0067). The first region R1 has a large temperature change rate and the second region R2 has a small temperature change rate (paragraphs 0069-0070). The first region R1 with a large temperature change rate is usually the outermost region in the interior state of the battery pack, and the second region with a small temperature change rate is usually a region that is located at the inner side of the interior space of the battery pack cavity (paragraph 0071).
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 JONATHAN G JELSMA whose telephone number is (571)270-5127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM EST.
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/JONATHAN G JELSMA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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