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 .
Claim Objections
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2 recites “a lithium secondary battery” in line 1. The underlined limitation in the claim lacks antecedent bases. It should be written as “the lithium secondary battery”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 3 recites “a lithium secondary battery” in line 1. The underlined limitation in the claim lacks antecedent bases. It should be written as “the lithium secondary battery”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 4 recites “a lithium secondary battery” in line 1. The underlined limitation in the claim lacks antecedent bases. It should be written as “the lithium secondary battery”. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1 and 3-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP2009199934A, hereinafter 934; in view of Otaki et al. (US 2019/0148765), hereinafter Otaki.
As to claim 1, 934’ discloses in figure 1, a method for controlling a lithium secondary battery [battery 10; see ¶0015], the method comprising: detecting presence or absence of dendrite deposition on a negative electrode of the lithium secondary battery [see figure 5]; performing high-rate discharge by a discharge controller for controlling a discharge amount of the lithium secondary battery when the dendrite deposition is detected [the dendrite dissolved by applying discharge to dissolve and remove the dendrites and see ¶0016; and ¶0037].
934’ does not disclose explicitly, increasing a restraint pressure of the lithium secondary battery by a restraint pressure controller for controlling the restraint pressure of the lithium secondary battery after performing the high-rate discharge.
Otaki discloses in figure 1, increasing a restraint pressure of the lithium secondary battery by a restraint pressure controller for controlling the restraint pressure of the lithium secondary battery after performing the high-rate discharge [discharging battery and applying restraint pressure is applying after discharging the battery; see ¶0011, ¶0017, ¶0137, ¶0141].
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to apply restraint pressure to the battery as taught by Otaki in 934’s apparatus in order to suppress degradation in performance of the lithium battery during usage.
As to claim 3, Otaki discloses in figure 1, wherein the restraint pressure of the lithium secondary battery after being increased by the restraint pressure controller is 1.3 MPa or more [see ¶00110; restraining pressure .1M9a to 10MPA is disclosed].
As to claim 4, 934’ discloses in figure 1, wherein the negative electrode of the lithium secondary battery includes a lithium metal layer.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP2009199934A, hereinafter 934’, in view of Otaki et al. (US 2019/0148765), hereinafter Otaki, in view of CN11354988, hereinafter 988’.
As to claim 2,, 934’ discloses all of the claim limitations except, wherein a discharge rate of the high-rate discharge performed by the discharge controller when the dendrite deposition is detected is 1.0 C or more
.988’ discloses in figure 1, wherein a discharge rate of the high-rate discharge performed by the discharge controller when the dendrite deposition is detected is 1.0 C or more [see page 2, discharge rate of .6C-1C disclosed].
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to use discharge rate of 1.0C in 934’ as taught by 988’ in order to enhance the performance of the battery.
Further, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to choose appropriate charging rate in order to enhance battery pefromance, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or working ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAMUEL BERHANU whose telephone number is (571)272-8430. The examiner can normally be reached M_F.
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/SAMUEL BERHANU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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