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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I claims 1-6 in the reply filed on 4/15/26 is acknowledged.
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.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 5 & 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shirohige JP2012156109 in view of Sawada et al. WO 2019/216216 (see English US 2021/0184219)
With respect to claim 1, Shirohige discloses a conductive undercoating agent, comprising:
a conductive carbon material (flaked graphite);
a binding agent [0058]; and
a solvent (water) [0048-0052],
wherein the conductive carbon material is flaked graphite having an average thickness of from 10 nm to 200 nm (0.08µm, “overlap 3.5 µm or less”). [Abstract; 0012-0013; 0045-0046]
Shirohige does not disclose wherein the flaked graphite has a specific surface area of from 10 m2/g to 40 m2/g
Sawada et al. disclose a conductive undercoating agent, comprising:
a conductive carbon material [0011-0016]; a binding agent [0037- 0060]
wherein the conductive carbon material is graphite [0037- 0060] having a specific surface area of from 10 m2/g to 40 m2/g [0060]
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the conductive undercoating agent of Shirohige to include wherein the graphite has a specific surface area of from 10 m2/g to 40 m2/g, as disclosed in Sawada et al., in order to allow for further enhanced conductivity and handleability during production.
With respect to claim 5, Shirohige discloses wherein the binding agent contains a styrene-butadiene elastomer [0058-0069]
With respect to claim 6, Shirohige discloses wherein a mass ratio between the flaked graphite and the binding agent is from 99:1 to 50:50. [0058-0069]
Claim(s) 3 & 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shirohige JP2012156109 in view of Sawada et al. WO 2019/216216 (see English US 2021/0184219) as applied to claim 1 above in further view of Takeuchi et al. (US 2014/0205532)
With respect to claim 3, Shirohige does not disclose wherein the flaked graphite has a content of iron of less than 30 ppm by mass.
Takeuchi et al. discloses a conductive agent comprising graphite wherein the flaked graphite has a content of iron of less than 30 ppm by mass. [0060-0061]
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the conductive undercoating agent of Shirohige to include wherein the flaked graphite has a content of iron of less than 30 ppm by mass, as disclosed in Takeuchi et al., in order to allow for increase safety.
With respect to claim 4, Shirohige does not disclose wherein the flaked graphite has a carbon/oxygen element molar ratio (C/O ratio) of from 100/0 to 95/5.
Takeuchi et al. discloses disclose wherein the flaked graphite has a carbon/oxygen element molar ratio (C/O ratio) of from 100/0 to 95/5. [0106-0117; Table 1]
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the conductive undercoating agent of Shirohige to include wherein the flaked graphite has a carbon/oxygen element molar ratio (C/O ratio) of from 100/0 to 95/5, as disclosed in Takeuchi et al., in order to allow for increase safety.
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shirohige JP2012156109 in view of Sawada et al. WO 2019/216216 (see English US 2021/0184219) as applied to claim 1 above in further view of Aoki et al. (US 20180254486)
With respect to claim 2, Shirohige does not disclose wherein the flaked graphite has a bulk density of from 0.05 g/cm3 to 0.03 g/cm3
Aoki et al. discloses a conductive agent comprising graphite wherein the graphite has a bulk density of from 0.05 g/cm3 to 0.30 g/cm3 [Abstract]
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art as of the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the conductive undercoating agent of Shirohige to include wherein the flaked graphite has a bulk density of from 0.05 g/cm3 to 0.03 g/cm3, as disclosed in Aoki et al., in order to allow for a larger contact area.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIRAN QURAISHI AKHTAR whose telephone number is (571)270-7589. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 9AM-7PM.
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/KIRAN QURAISHI AKHTAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1751
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