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 .
Claims 1-23 are pending and under consideration for this Office Actions.
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)(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) 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Park et al (WO 2021080064 A1, SEARCH translation used for citations).
Claim 23: Park discloses n electrolysis cell (see e.g. page 5, paragraph starting with “From”) comprising:
a membrane (see e.g. page 8, paragraph starting with “Here”), an anode electrode (see e.g. page 8, paragraph starting with “Here”), a cathode electrode (see e.g. page 8, paragraph starting with “Here”), an anode flow field and a cathode flow field (“upstream lines”, see e.g. connecting paragraph of pages 6 and 7); and
a bipolar plate assembly (see e.g. #110 on Fig 2b), wherein the bipolar plate assembly comprises a plurality of repeating water delivery windows positioned adjacent to a leading edge of the anode flow field aligned with a y-axis, wherein each water delivery window is associated with a window length along a y-axis of an anode flow field (see e.g. #101 on Fig 2b), and wherein the electrolysis cell is configured such that a number, an effective diameter, or the window length of the water delivery windows is selected to maintain a water flow resistance below a target threshold for the electrolyzer cell (“uniform flow”, see e.g. connecting paragraph of pages 6 and 7).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-22 contain allowable subject matter.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim 1: The prior art does not disclose nor render obvious all of the cumulative
limitations of claim(s) 1 with special attention given to the limitation claiming “A method of manufacturing a bipolar plate assembly for an electrolysis cell, the method comprising: providing a bipolar plate, a cathode flow field, a fluid distribution frame, and a hydrogen seal; embedding a hydrogen seal in the cathode flow field…wherein the hydrogen seal is embedded in the cathode flow field and bonds to the cathode flow field, the bipolar plate, and the fluid distribution frame such that these components are bonded together as a physical unit, and the cathode flow field is sealed against the environment”.
The closest prior art is Stahl et al (US 2020/0161673 A1). Stahl discloses a seal embedded into a part of the cell (see e.g. [0138] and #104 on Fig 1 and Fig 2 of Stahl). However, the seal of Stahl is not embedded into the cathode flow field and is instead a part of a gas diffusion layer. Furthermore, the seal of Stahl has a different thickness from the layer it is embedded in and protrudes above it (see e.g. Fig 2 of Stahl). There is no teaching or motivation that would having the seal thickness because equal to the thickness of the cathode flow field obvious.
Claim 13: This claim incorporates all of the steps of claim 1 and is allowable for the same reasons.
Claim 22: This claim incorporates all of the product-by-process steps of claim 1 and is allowable for the same reasons.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER W KEELING whose telephone number is (571)272-9961. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30 AM - 4:00 PM. 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, Luan Van can be reached at 571-272-8521. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALEXANDER W KEELING/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1795
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