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 .
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 6-11 and 14-18 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.
Regarding claim 6, it is unclear what is meant by “a cumulative surface area defined by each of the plurality of vents in the first wall, the second wall, the second wall, the interface, and the plurality of terminal apertures is greater than two percent of a total surface area of the housing. In particular, it is unclear whether this is meant to be a sum of the surface area of the plurality of vents in the first wall, the plurality of vents in the second wall, all vents contained in the interface, and the vents opposite the terminal apertures, or instead it is meant to cover the total of the plurality of vents in the first wall, the surface area of the second wall itself, the total surface area of the interface, and the surface area of the terminal apertures.
Regarding claims 7, 14, and 17, the claims each define an additional first wall such that there is a first wall of a cell holder and a first wall of a first portion of the housing. Yet each of claims 7, 14, and 17 goes on to simply recite “the first wall” without making it clear which first wall is being referred to.
Regarding claim 11, the claim defines the terminal block as being part of the interface. Claim 11 then defines a “plurality of terminal apertures”. This is unclear, because the terminal block is part of the interface and claim 1 already defines a plurality of terminal apertures in the interface.
Claim 18 recites “the battery pack circuitry” without antecedent basis.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 5-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0176834 to Murakami (“Murakami”). Regarding claims 1, 2, 12, 19, and 20, Murakami discloses a battery pack comprising a case (12) including an upper case (14) and a lower case (16) coupled to each other via screws. Murakami at paragraph [0071]. The upper case includes an upper surface in which are provided vents (78 and 79). Id. at paragraph [0102]. The lower case includes a lower suface that has supply holes/vents for air passage. Id. at paragraph [0105]. The upper surface of the upper case and lower surface of the lower case are parallel and opposed to one another. Thus, the upper surface of the upper case is considered to correspond to the recited first wall and the lower surface of the lower case to the second wall.
Extending upward from the upper surface of the upper case is a terminal receiver section considered to correspond to the recited interface. Id. at paragraph [0100]. The terminal receiver includes power terminal openings and signal terminal openings which provide access to power and signal terminals located on the substrate (44) held in the case. Id.
Murakami is silent regarding the percentage of the case surface area taken up by the vents (78, 79 and 84). However, Murakami discloses that larger vent surface area is preferred to allow for greater air flow to cool the battery pack. Id. at paragraph [0057]. Thus, the Office finds the recited total surface area to be nothing more than the result of routine design choices to arrive at a battery pack having adequate protection/support for the batteries while also maximizing air flow. MPEP 2144.04(IV).
Further regarding claims 3 and 13, Murakami discloses providing vents as a plurality of smaller vents, rather than a single larger vent, because doing so will prevent unwanted contaminants from entering into the case while maintaining high air flow directed in/out of the case. Thus, either the connecting wall portions amongst this group of plurality of vents can be considered to correspond to the recited louvres since their purpose is to block entry of contamiants, or alternatively, provision of louvres would have been nothing more than use of a commonly known structure for its intended purpose to achieve the taught goals of Murakami (i.e, block entry of unwanted contaminants while directing large flows of air into/out of the case.
Further regarding claims 5 and 6, Murakami discloses side rails 20, which partially define the two end grooves (76) between an upper most surface of the rail and the upper most surface of the upper case. Murakami at paragraph [0111]. A vertical wall connects the upper most surface of the rail with the upper most surface of the upper case. Id. at Figure 3. Moreover, considering one of the recessed grooves (76) located between two terminal openings, a plurality of vents (78) are provided in the floor of that recessed groove, with the recessed groove being interleaved opposite the pair of adjacent terminal openings.
Further regarding claims 7, 9, 14, 15 Murakami includes a cell holder (42) inside the case to hold the battery cells, the cell holder having a similar cuboid structure as the outer case, and an upper surface having openings/vents (82) in correspondence to vents (78 and 79) in the upper surface of the upper case. Id. at paragraph [0106]. Although Murakami does not expressly show providing openings/vents in correspondence to the vents (84) on the lower surface of the lower case, the Office finds that because the air is intended to escape out of vents (84), the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention would either find that the cell holder of Murakami similarly includes its openings/vents, or alternatively find providing them obvious in order to allow cooling air to have an exit path from inside the cell holder.
Further regarding claim 8, the cell holder includes a left part and a right part which are connected together via screws and thereby providing a compressive axial pressure on the cells inside the holder to hold them in position. Id. at paragraph [0076].
Further regarding claims 10, 11, 16, and 18, Murakami discloses a control substrate (44) that is fixed to the cell holder (42). Id. at paragraph [0075]. More specifically, the substrate is connected to the cell holder via screws, where the screws act as a pin over which the screw hole/aperture of the substrate is fit. Id. at paragraph [0077]. A pair of power terminals and pair of signal terminals are mounted on the substrate, with signals provided from the battery cells and control circuitry of the charger/tool flowing through circuitry of the control substrate. Id. The power terminals include slits corresponding to the apertures in the interface region of the case such that the terminal of the charger or tool may be able to come into surface contact with a conductive face of the power terminal. Id. at paragraphs [0080] and [0081 and [0100]. The control substrate includes processor and control circuitry. Although Murakami does not expressly disclose that such structure is provided as a PCB on the substrate, the Office finds that because printed circuit technology is the ubiquitous manner for supplying such control structure and circuitry to a substrate that use of that method at a minimum would have been an obvious use of a commonly known method of implementing the circuit taught by Murakami.
Further regarding claim 17, the control substrate and associated circuitry is located on the upper side of the cell holder, near the upper side of the upper case. Additionally, the battery includes a thermistor having one end connected to the control substrate circuitry, and the other end is connected to one or more battery surface inside the cell holder. Although Murakami doesn’t expressly state that the thermistor passes through a vent hold in the upper surface of the upper cell holder, the Office notes that this is the only disclosed opening into the cell holder where the thermistor must go to measure the temperature of the batteries. Accordingly, it is found that it either must pass through this vent opening inherently, or otherwise use of that opening would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art as the only nearby access point to the interior of the cell holder.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding claim 4, although Murakami discloses side rails (20), which partially define the two end grooves (76) between an upper most surface of the rail and the upper most surface of the upper case. Murakami at paragraph [0111]. A vertical wall connects the upper most surface of the rail with the upper most surface of the upper case. Id. at Figure 3. However, the vents (83a) of this groove are provided in the upper most surface of the upper case, not in the vertical wall that would correspond to the recited groove wall. Id. at Figure 41. Moreover, Murakami is clear that the purpose of the vents is to pass air over the battery cells, and nothing in the vertical wall connecting the rail to the upper case would allow for an aperture/vent to be formed therein that would lead to air passing over a battery cell or any other functioning element of the battery pack.
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/WYATT P MCCONNELL/Examiner, Art Unit 1727
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