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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-11 in the reply filed on May 18, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claim 12 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 May 18, 2026.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on August 29, 2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(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.
Claims 1, 5-7, 9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Okazaki (US Pub. No. 2021/0384496).
Regarding claim 1, Okazaki teaches an active material composite particle 10, comprising a center portion 13 and a surface layer portion 14, wherein the center portion has a silicate phase 11 which preferably comprises Li2SiO3 or Li2Si2O5 (taken to be the claimed solid electrolyte), and the center portion comprises silicon particles 12, the surface layer comprises a fluorine resin, where the fluorine resin can be PVdF (taken to be a polymer which has carrier ion-conductivity) (paragraphs [0036]-[0043]), with a specific embodiment using PVdF (paragraph [0085]), and there is no polymer in the center portion, therefore a ratio of polymer in the surface layer portion is higher than a ratio of polymer in the center portion.
Regarding claim 5, the configuration set forth above does not have Si particles in the surface layer portion, therefore the ratio of Si particles in the center portion is higher than a ratio of Si particles in the surface layer portion.
Regarding claim 6, the configuration set forth above does not have solid electrolyte in the surface layer portion, therefore the ratio of solid electrolyte in the center portion is higher than a ratio of solid electrolyte in the surface layer portion.
Regarding claim 7, Okazaki teaches a negative electrode comprising the active material composite particle above (paragraphs [0032]-[0034]).
Regarding claim 9, Okazaki teaches a secondary battery comprising a positive electrode, an electrolyte layer, and a negative electrode, where the negative electrode comprises the active material composite particle set forth above (paragraph [0097]).
Regarding claim 11, Okazaki teaches that the electrolyte layer can be a solid electrolyte (paragraph [0068]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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 2-3, 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okazaki as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Xu (CN114976222; machine translation relied upon).
Regarding claims 2-3, Okazaki does not specifically disclose that the solid electrolyte comprises a sulfide solid electrolyte. In a similar solid electrolyte for a negative electrode active material, Xu teaches using sulfide solid electrolyte for the core of a negative electrode layer (machine translation at pages 2-3). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use a sulfide solid electrolyte as the core of the negative electrode active material as taught by Xu in the active material of Okazaki in order to have very high energy density and high safety performance (see Xu machine translation at page 2). Regarding claim 2, a sulfide solid electrolyte has carrier ion conductivity higher than that of a fluorine resin.
Regarding claims 8 and 10, Xu teaches using an oxide solid electrolyte in the shell layer (machine translation at page 2).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okazaki as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lin (US Pub. No. 2021/0013490).
Regarding claim 4, Okazaki does not specifically disclose that the surface layer portion comprises a salt comprising a carrier ion. Lin teaches that a polymer shell layer for an anode active material, where the polymer can be PVdF, can particularly desirably comprise a lithium salt, such as LiTFSI (the same salt used in Applicant’s embodiments) (paragraphs [0027]-[0039]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use LiTFSI in the shell layer as taught by Lin in the active material composite particle of Okazaki as a particularly desirable ingredient in a shell layer (see Lin at paragraph [0039]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHILIP N SCHWARTZ whose telephone number is (571)270-1612. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9:00-5:30.
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/P.N.S/ Examiner, Art Unit 1749 June 23, 2026
/KATELYN W SMITH/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1749
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