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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 5/14/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. While the new grounds for rejection relies on the previously cited Ojima reference, the new claim mapping renders the arguments against it moot. As the applicant admits on lines 3-6 of page 10 of their arguments, the wiring board 51 applies as prior art to the newly claimed monitoring board, which is the new mapping of the claim elements.
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 1-5, 7-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20190157729-A1 (Y) in view of US-20130295420-A1 (MG) and in further view of US-20220294073-A1, (O).
Regarding claim 1, Y teaches a battery module (20) comprising:
a battery group (20) including a plurality of batteries (21);
an electric path (“a bus bar”, [0045]) through which a current passes during each of charging and discharging the plurality of batteries. While it is not explicitly stated that a current passes through the bus bar during charging and discharging of the batteries, this is the standard use of a bus bar and will be capable of this function.
Y teaches a case (10) in which the battery group is accommodated and including a metal body (11) having electric conductive properties [0045]. Y teaches the metal body forms a case bottom wall [0044-45];
Y teaches an insulating layer (31) stacked on a surface of the metal body on a side where the battery group is located (see Fig. 3), the insulating layer having electric insulating properties ([0047], 31 is made of insulating resin, 33 is a part of 31).
Y does not teach a conductive layer stacked on a surface of the insulating layer on a side where the battery group is located, where the conductive layer is electrically connected to the electric path.
MG teaches a rechargeable battery (100) which is designed to avoid damage from a short circuit when a conductive foreign matter (90) penetrates the battery. MG teaches a case (26) for the battery assembly and first and second terminal portions (30, 40). MG teaches that an auxiliary plate (45) is electrically connected to an electric path used for charging and discharging [0059]. MG teaches the auxiliary plate prevents damage to the terminal (40) because the auxiliary plate is connected to the current path and reduces the current flowing through a circuit containing the auxiliary plate, the cap (20) and the foreign matter, reducing the damage from arcing or heat [0069-70].
It would’ve been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the instant to add the auxiliary plate of MG to the battery module of Y in order to achieve the benefit of puncture protection. It would have been obvious to do so because doing so would amount to no more than the combination of prior art elements which will function the same together as they do separately with a reasonable chance of improving the puncture safety of the battery module.
In the process of combining these prior art elements, the auxiliary plate would serve as conductive layer which would be stacked on the insulating layer. The terminals 25 and 26 of Y are a part of the battery group, so the conductive layer is stacked on a surface of the insulating layer on a side where the battery group is located. This teaches the positively recited requirements “a conductive layer stacked on a surface of the insulating layer on a side where the battery group is located, the conductive layer being electrically connected to any of the electric path and a portion having electric conductive properties in the battery group”.
This combination of Y and MG does not teach a monitoring circuit.
O teaches a battery module (30) capable of suppressing failures in accurate detection of the state of battery cells [0008]. O teaches the detection method is a wiring member (50) comprising a wiring layer (53) including a plurality of detection lines (53a). O teaches the detection lines are connected to a bus bar (32) [0039-40] which meets the requirements of the detection circuit of claim 1 of the instant. O teaches the monitoring board is located on the terminal side of the batteries ([0031], the bus bar holder and bus bar are above the battery terminals as shown in Fig. 2). This meets the requirements for the location of the monitoring board of the instant claim 1. This all together means that the wiring member of O meets the structural and positional requirements of the monitoring board of the instant. O teaches the benefit of the wiring board is that it allows accurate monitoring of the state of the cells [0039] which enables the suppression of cell failures [0008].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the instant invention to add the detection circuit of O to the battery module of Y in order to achieve the benefit of accurate monitoring of cell state and to enable the suppression of cell failures. It would have been obvious to do so because doing so would amount to no more than combining prior art elements that would function together as they do separately with a reasonable chance of success to achieve the aforementioned benefits.
In doing so, the monitoring board of O would be placed in the battery module of Y on the terminal side where the bus bar is located [0045], which is opposite of the bottom case (see Fig. 3). This means that the combination of Y, MG, and O would teach all of the positively recited structures which are together capable of the recited functions of the instant claim 1, rendering claim 1 unpatentable.
Regarding claim 2, MG shows the cap plate extends beyond the auxiliary conductive plate in a direction perpendicular to the stacking direction of the cap plate and the auxiliary plate (see annotated Fig. 2 below).
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In the implementation of adding the auxiliary plate to the battery module of Y, the same would be true for the insulating layer and the conductive layer because the insulating layer fills the role of encompassing the equivalent of the cap plate of Y (Y, 23a), so if the cap plate of Y must extend beyond the auxiliary plate, the insulating layer must also do so. Claim 2 is therefore unpatentable over the combination of Y, MG and O.
Regarding claim 3, as stated above, Y teaches a bus bar connects the batteries and forms a part of the electric path [0045]. O teaches the conductive layer is connected to the bus bar [0040].
Regarding claim 4, Y teaches a battery group (20) and a metal-made outer container (23) in which each battery group is accommodated. MG teaches the auxiliary plate is electrically connected to the cap plate [0059], so there must be a relay conductive portion connecting the two. This means that the combination of Y, MG, and O teach all of the recited requirements of claim 4.
Regarding claim 5, Y is silent to the specifics of the positive/negative terminal members (25, 26).
MG teaches an insulating layer (80) which is placed between the auxiliary plate (45) and the battery group (10, “electrode assembly”). The auxiliary plate and insulating layer of MG form the terminal (40) of MG.
In the process of implementing the auxiliary plate of MG in the battery module of Y, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the instant to include this structure because doing so would amount to no more than selecting a known structure for a terminal in a case where the specifics of the terminals are not provided.
In doing so, an insulating body would therefore be placed between the auxiliary plate of O (serving as the conductive layer) and the battery group of Y, which teaches all of the recited structure of claim 5 of the instant.
Regarding claim 7, Y teaches an electrode body [0045] inside a case (23) which is made of metal [0045].
MG teaches a hole in the insulating body formed in a stacking direction of the insulating layer and the conductive layer (see Fig. 4). MG teaches the auxiliary plate (45) is located in the hole in the insulating body (see Fig. 3). MG teaches a metal outer case (20) which is electrically connected to the auxiliary plate (45), meaning there must be a relay conductive portion connecting the two. The point of contact of the auxiliary plate and the metal outer case is located in the hole in the insulating body, so this conductive member must also be in this hole.
As explained in the rejection of claim 5, the combination of Y and MG involves selecting the structure of the terminal members of MG for use in the battery module of Y. This implementation includes all of the features of MG explained in the previous paragraph, meaning that the combination teaches all of the requirements of claim 7 of the instant, since the metal case of Y would contact the auxiliary plate in the hole in the insulating member.
Regarding claim 8, Y is silent to the specifics of the positive/negative terminal members (25, 26).
MG teaches an insulating layer (80) which is placed between the auxiliary plate (45) and the battery group (10, “electrode assembly”). The auxiliary plate and insulating layer of MG form the terminal (40) of MG.
In the process of implementing the auxiliary plate of MG in the battery module of Y, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the instant to include this structure because doing so would amount to no more than selecting a known structure for a terminal in a case where the specifics of the terminals are not provided.
MG further teaches the terminal of MG comprises a gasket (44) which insulates the rivet (41) from the cap plate [0057]. As seen in the zoomed in Fig. 2 of MG, the auxiliary plate is contacted by the gasket on a bottom side which faces the battery group of MG. The surface of the rivet touching the auxiliary plate can be called an insulating film coating a surface of the conductive layer because the two make contact and the surface of the gasket that contacts the auxiliary plate covers that surface of the auxiliary plate. This teaches the recited requirements of claim 8 of the instant.
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Regarding claim 9, Y teaches the insulating layer (31) is formed by intervening portions (33) which are formed in between the metal cell cases (23) of the individual battery cells [0049]. Y teaches the metal cell cases house an electrode group [0045]. The intervening portion is formed from the same material as the insulating layer which is an insulating resin [0047]. The intervening portion coats a side of the battery case (23c) meaning it coats the battery case.
This means Y teaches “each of the plurality of batteries includes an electrode group and a metal-made outer container in which the electrode group is accommodated, and the battery module further comprises a second insulating film that coats an outer surface of the outer container in each of the plurality of batteries, and the second insulating film has electric insulating properties”, which are all of the structural requirements of claim 9 of the instant.
Regarding claim 10, MG teaches the auxiliary plate is formed in a mesh shape when viewed from a stacking direction of the insulating layer and the conductive layer [0014].
Regarding claim 11, MG teaches the auxiliary body is connected to the electric path and must be at the same potential as the electric path. The metal body of Y is not taught to be connected to the electric path, and therefore must be at a different potential than that of the auxiliary plate.
Claims 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US-20190157729-A1 (Y) in view of US-20130295420-A1 (MG) and in further view of US-20220294073-A1, (O), and in further view of US-20070259261-A1 (R), with reference to Viscosity and Thermal Conductivity Equations for Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, and Air, (Lemmon) and Aluminum Alloys, (Mondolfo).
Regarding claim 6, MG is silent to the material of the insulating body, as well as to if it has a higher thermal conductivity than a part of the case other than the metal body and has a higher thermal conductivity than air.
R teaches an electrically insulating material for use in a battery pack that has a thermal conductivity of 0.40-0.42 W/mK [0016]. R teaches the benefit of this material is that prevents short circuiting in the battery cells because it is electrically insulating, and that it prevents thermal bottlenecking because it has a thermal conductivity that is approximately the same as that of the cell elements [0016].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the instant invention to form the insulating body of MG out of the material of R because doing so would prevent thermal bottlenecking in the battery cell. It would have been obvious to do so because it would amount to no more than choosing a known material for insulating bodies with a known benefit in an invention where no material was specified.
The thermal conductivity of aluminum (which is the material for the case of Y [0044]) is 237 W/mK (Mondolfo). The thermal conductivity of air is 26.35 mW/mK (Lemmon). Therefore, such a selection of material would teach all of the recited structure and properties of claim 6 of the instant.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LOUISE JAMES IANNUCCI whose telephone number is (571)272-6917. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Allison Bourke can be reached at (303) 297-4684. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LOUISE JAMES IANNUCCI/ Examiner, Art Unit 1721
/ALLISON BOURKE/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1721
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