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 § 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 of this title, 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.
1. Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sakamoto et al. (US20180342754).
2. Regarding claims 1-5, Sakamoto teaches a composite solid electrolyte (a first electrolyte, and a second electrolyte different from the first electrolyte [0025]) comprising: a sulfide solid electrolyte (The first electrolyte may be, for example, a molded or sintered piece of an inorganic solid electrolyte. The inorganic solid electrolyte can be a sulfide solid electrolyte [0052]); and a polymer electrolyte containing a lithium imide salt and a polymer having an alkyl side chain that has 4 or more carbon atoms (A gel electrolyte was prepared as follows: Polyethylene oxide, for use as a matrix polymer having gelling activity, and LiTFSI [0088-0089])
3. Sakamoto teaches a wherein the number of carbon atoms in the alkyl side chain of the polymer is 6 or more and 8 or less (An example of a polymer electrolyte is a mixture or compound of a polymer and a lithium salt. The polymer may have an alkylene oxide structure, such as the ethylene oxide structure [0064]; polyether resins containing polyalkylene oxide units [0066])
4. Sakamoto teaches a mol ratio (polymer/lithium imide salt) of the polymer with respect to the lithium imide salt is 4 or more and 7 or less (a molar ratio of the lithium salt to the organic solvent is 1/4 or more [0073]; the soft electrolyte is a polymer electrolyte or a gel electrolyte…wherein the soft electrolyte is a non-aqueous electrolyte solution containing an organic solvent and a lithium salt dissolved in the organic solvent, see claims 10 and 11). In the case where the claimed ranges "overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art" a prima facie case of obviousness exists (MPEP 2144.05).
5. Sakamoto teaches a solid-state battery comprising the composite solid electrolyte (an all-solid-state lithium secondary battery [0003]) for the benefit of enhancing electrical properties [0004].
6. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Sakamoto’s ranges for the benefit of enhancing electrical properties.
Conclusion
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/OLATUNJI A GODO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1752
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