DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 18/273,284. Claims 1-3 are pending in the application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC §§ 102 and 103
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.
(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.
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 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.
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Honma et al (JP-2020-077615, included in the applicant’s IDS).
Honma et al teaches a negative electrode active material for a sodium ion battery (par. 1). The material comprises crystallized glass in which metallic Bi is deposited in a matrix comprising SiO2 and Fe2O3 (par. 7, 12). The matrix further comprises Bi2O3 (par. 11). The amount of Bi2O3 is 15-75 mol % (par. 11). The amount of SiO2 is 0-60 mol % (par. 11). The amount of Fe2O3 is 0-25 mol % (par. 12). The matrix further comprises CuO (par. 25).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Honma et al in view of Yamauchi (US 2020/0075950).
Honma et al teaches a negative electrode active material for a sodium ion battery as described above. Honma et al does not teach that metallic Cu is included.
However, Yamauchi teaches a negative electrode active material for a sodium ion battery comprising metallic Bi-Cu alloy (par. 86). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine the metallic Bi-Cu alloy of Yamauchi with the negative electrode active material of Honma et al in order to obtain an active material capable of absorbing and releasing sodium ions (par. 86).
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached at 571-272-2817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000./WILLIAM D YOUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761 March 16, 2026
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