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
Claims 12-16 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on January 20, 2026.
Claim Interpretation
As an initial matter, it is noted that Applicant’s use of anode/cathode differs somewhat from standard industry practice. It is understood that in a rechargeable battery, two electrodes separated one from another by an electrolyte are provided where during discharge a first of the electrodes may act as the anode and a second of the electrodes thus acts as the cathode, where during recharging the polarity is reversed and the first electrode now acts as the cathode and the second electrode as the anode. Typically, the first electrode includes an active material such as lithium metal or carbon that can store neutral lithium atoms, and the second electrode includes a material such as a metal oxide or metal phosphate that can store lithium ions that migrate through the electrolyte during discharge. Typically, the first electrode is called “the anode” of the battery, even though it acts as the cathode during recharge; and the second electrode is called “the cathode” of the battery, even though it acts as the anode during recharge. Applicant’s disclosure describes lithium ion batteries, but uses the term “anode” to describe the second electrode having metal oxide as an active material. There is nothing wrong with this since it is clear and unambiguous from the disclosure. However, it does mean that what Applicant calls “anode” will frequently be called “cathode” in prior art references, including the prior art applied below. See Wikipedia entry for “lithium-ion battery”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 from which claims 2-11 all depend recites “an active material particle that is applied to a anode”. It is unclear if the claim merely requires an active material particle for application to an anode, or instead the claim requires a particle that has been already been applied to an anode and thus requires not just an active material particle, but an anode comprising an active material particle. For examination purposes the Office will apply the broadest reasonable interpretation, which is that the claim merely requires an active material particle capable of being applied to an anode.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 4, and 8-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Japanese Patent Publication No. 2007-128714 to Honjo (citing to the enclosed machine translation “Honjo”). Honjo discloses active material particles, electrodes including active material layers comprised of those particles, and lithium-ion batteries including those electrodes. Honjo at Abstract. In particular, Honjo discloses lithium cobalt oxide active materials having two X-Ray diffraction peaks, one at 18.9 degrees corresponding to layered crystal structure and the other at 19.2 degrees corresponding to a spinel structure. Id. at paragraph [0140]. The crystal size of this cobalt oxide material is less than 450 angstroms (45nm). Id. at paragraph [0038]. The cobalt oxide material is formed into an electrode by applying the particles along with other materials onto a current collector. The so-formed electrode is then stacked with a second electrode having a lithium or carbon-based active material applied to a current collector, with a porous separator in between the cobalt oxide-containing electrode and the graphite-containing electrode the laminate structure stored inside a housing with non-aqueous electrolyte that fills the pores of the separator such that the cobalt-oxide containing electrode is in contact with a first side of the electrolyte-filled separator and the graphite-containing electrode is in contact with the opposed side of the electrolyte-filled separator. Id. at e.g. paragraphs [0020], [0099] and [0115]. Although Honjo describes the cobalt oxide as a positive electrode active material particle, and the electrode comprising it the cathode, the Office finds that this corresponds to the recited anode for the reasons described above.
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/WYATT P MCCONNELL/Examiner, Art Unit 1727
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