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 .
This is the initial Office action based on application number 18/267447 filed on 6/14/2023. Claims 1-6 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-3, 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muro (JP 2013251241 A), hereinafter Muro 241, in view of Muro et al. (JP 2015159068 A), hereinafter Muro 068. The English translation of JP 2013251241 A and JP 2015159068 A WO 2022237642 A1 are used as reference as attached.
Regarding to claim 1: Muro 241 discloses a secondary battery device (equivalent to an energy storage apparatus) (par. 1) comprising a plurality of batteries (12) (a plurality of batteries is equivalent to an energy storage unit, and two of the batteries are equivalent to a first energy storage device and a second energy storage) (par. 10, fig. 2). The batteries (12) are arranged in a length direction (equivalent to a first direction) of a case (10) (fig. 2). The battery (12) further includes:
an adhesive tape (110) (equivalent to a first adhesive body) (par. 48, fig. 9) that is disposed in a center of a main surface (350β) of the battery (12) (fig. 9) and adheres to the adjacent batteries (par. 48, 49, fig. 10) (equivalent to adhering to first energy storage device and the second energy storage device); and
an engagement groove (38) (equivalent to spacer) that is disposed between the batteries (12) (par. 37, fig. 2, 10), the engagement groove (38) being disposed at a position different from position of the adhesive tape (110) in a height direction (equivalent to a second direction) of the case (10) (fig. 10).
Muro 241 fails to explicitly disclose the first energy storage device includes: a concave part in which a surface of the first energy device, the surface opposite to the second energy storage device is recessed. However, Muro 068 discloses a battery module and a battery cell (par. 1). The battery cell (2) (equivalent to the first energy storage device) includes a recess (40) (equivalent to a concave part) in which a surface (20a) of the battery cell (2), the surface (20a) opposite to the adjacent battery cell (2) (equivalent to the second energy storage device) is recessed (par. 25-27, fig. 2, 4). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the recess (40) of Muro 068 in the center of the main surface (350β) of the battery (12) of Muro 241 because Muro 068 teaches that the recess (40) provides extra space for adhesive (50) while maintaining the battery module (1) miniaturized (par. 28).
Regarding to claim 2: Muro 241 discloses the engagement groove (38) (equivalent to spacer) includes adhesive (100) (equivalent to adhesive layers) that are adhered to each battery (12) on both sides in the length direction (equivalent to the first direction) of a case (10) (par. 37, fig. 10).
Regarding to claim 3: Muro 241 discloses the secondary battery device as described above. Muro 241 fails to explicitly disclose the concave part is formed such that a middle portion in the second direction of the surface of the first energy storage device is recessed. However, Muro 068 discloses a battery module and a battery cell (par. 1). The battery cell (2) includes a recess (40) (equivalent to a concave part), wherein the recess (40) is formed such that a middle portion in the Z-direction (equivalent to the second direction) of the surface of the battery cell (2) is recessed (fig. 4). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the recess (40) of Muro 068 in the center of the main surface (350β) of the battery (12) of Muro 241 because Muro 068 teaches that the recess (40) provides extra space for adhesive (50) while maintaining the battery module (1) miniaturized (par. 28).
Regarding to claim 5: Muro 241 discloses the secondary battery device (equivalent to the energy storage apparatus) (par. 1) further comprising:
a case (10) (equivalent to an outer case) accommodating the plurality of batteries (12) (par. 10, 11, fig. 1); and
an adhesive tape (110), on a terminal surface (320) of the battery (12) (the adhesive tape (110) on the terminal surface (320) is equivalent to a fixing member), bonding the battery (12) and an upper case (18) of the case (10) (par. 19, 25, fig. 10).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muro (JP 2013251241 A), hereinafter Muro 241, in view of Muro et al. (JP 2015159068 A), hereinafter Muro 068, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Cho et al. (US 20160268564 A1).
Regarding to claim 4: Muro 241 et al. disclose a secondary battery device as described in paragraph 2 above. Muro 241 and Muro 068 fail to explicitly disclose an end member disposed at a position where the first energy storage device is sandwiched between the end member and the second energy storage device in the first direction; and a second adhesive body that is disposed between the end member and the first energy storage device and adheres to the end member and the first energy storage device. However, Cho et al. discloses a battery module includes a plurality of battery cells (abstract). The battery module (100) (equivalent to the energy storage apparatus) (par. 32, fig. 2) includes:
an end plate (110a) (equivalent to an end member) disposed at a position where a battery cell (10a) (equivalent to the first energy storage device) is sandwiched between the end plate (110a) and battery cell (10b) (equivalent to the second energy storage device) in a length direction (equivalent to the first direction) of the battery module (100) (par. 45, fig. 4); and
a second adhesive members (240) (equivalent to a second adhesive body) that is disposed between the end plate (110a) and the battery cell (10a) and adheres to the end plate (110a) and the battery cell (10a) (par. 45, fig. 4A). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the end plate (110a) and the second adhesive members (240) of Cho et al. in the secondary battery device of Muro 241 because Cho et al. teach that fixing the first and n-th battery cells (10a and 10n) on the end plates (110a, 110b) via the second adhesive members (240) can improve stability of the battery module (100) (par. 45).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Muro (JP 2013251241 A), hereinafter Muro 241, in view of Muro et al. (JP 2015159068 A), hereinafter Muro 068, as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kogami et al. (US 20220359945 A1).
Regarding to claim 6: Muro 241 et al. disclose a secondary battery device as described in paragraph 2 above. Muro 241 and Muro 068 fail to explicitly disclose the first adhesive body includes a heat insulating material inside. However, Kogami et al. discloses a power supply device including a battery block formed by stacking a plurality of battery cells (abstract). The power supply device (equivalent to the energy storage apparatus) (par. 9, fig. 1) includes separator (2) (equivalent to the first adhesive body) that are disposed between adjacent battery cells (1) (par. 8, fig. 2). The separator (2) includes heat-insulating sheet (5) and elastic layer (6) (par. 8, fig. 4, 5). The heat-insulating sheet (5) composed of the fiber sheet and the silica aerogel (equivalent to heat insulating material) is thin and exhibits excellent heat insulation characteristics (par. 61). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the fiber sheet and the silica aerogel (equivalent to heat insulating material) of Kogami et al. inside the adhesive tape (110) of Muro 241 because Kogami et al. teach that the separator insulates heat conduction between battery cells and suppresses induction of thermal runaway of the battery cell (par. 2).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PIN JAN WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-7057. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm.
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/PIN JAN WANG/Examiner, Art Unit 1717
/Dah-Wei D. Yuan/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1717