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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on July 24, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ueda (JP2019-121498).
Regarding claims 1-2, Ueda teaches a battery (title) preferably comprising a non-aqueous electrolyte comprising a lithium salt and a non-aqueous solvent for dissolving the lithium salt (machine translation at page 10), a positive electrode having a positive electrode current collector (taken to be the claimed positive electrode core) and a positive electrode active material layer (taken to be the claimed positive electrode mixture layer), and a negative electrode having a negative electrode current collector (taken to be the claimed negative electrode core) and a negative electrode active material layer (taken to be the claimed negative electrode mixture layer) (machine translation at page 9), with specific embodiments having a 0.2% proof stress of the positive core of 250 MPa and of the negative core of 150 MPa (machine translation at page 10, example 1), resulting in a ratio of 1.67 (250/150), a 0.2% proof stress of the positive core of 270 MPa and of the negative core of 182.5 MPa (machine translation at page 11, example 2), resulting in a ratio of 1.48 (270/182.5), and a 0.2% proof stress of the positive core of 255 MPa and of the negative core of 182.5 MPa (machine translation at page 12, examples 5-9), resulting in a ratio of 1.40 (255/182.5), all these examples having a larger 0.2% proof stress of the positive core than the negative core as required by claim 1 and a ratio greater than or equal to 1.05 as required by claim 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHILIP N SCHWARTZ whose telephone number is (571)270-1612. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00-5:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Katelyn Smith can be reached at 571-270-5545. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/P.N.S/ Examiner, Art Unit 1749 February 3, 2026
/KATELYN W SMITH/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1749