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 .
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.
Specification
The specification and drawings have been reviewed and no clear informalities or objections have been noted.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang (CN 113764832A with references made to the machine translation attached) in view of Wang (CN 214625320 U with references made to the machine translation attached).
Regarding claim 1, Yang discloses a bus bar, applied to a cylindrical power battery module to connect a plurality of rows of cells (20) arranged in a width direction (see Annotated Fig. 5 below which illustrates the width and length of the battery) of the battery module in parallel (see Rows in Fig. 5 which are parallel to each other), wherein the bus bar comprises a plurality of working portions arranged and connected in the width direction of the battery module (see Annotated Fig. 5 below where the working portions are arranged across the width of the battery module), and the plurality of working portions is arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of rows of cells arranged in the width direction of the battery module (see Fig. 5 where each busbar 10 has working portions tied to a single row (vertical row/column) that are arranged in the width direction);
wherein each of the plurality of working portions comprises a positive electrode portion (111) and a negative electrode portion (112) connected to each other (as depicted in Fig. 5 where these portions are connected); the positive electrode portion is connected to a positive terminal of one of two adjacent cells in a length direction of the battery module (as described in lines 172-183 and illustrated in Fig. 5 where positive electrode portion is connected to the positive electrode of one cell); and the negative electrode portion is connected to a negative terminal of another of the two adjacent cells in the length direction of the battery module (as described in lines 172-183 and illustrated in Fig. 5 where negative electrode portion 112 is connected to the negative electrode of one cell that is adjacent in the length direction to the cell in which the positive electrode portion is connected).
Yang teaches glue injection holes positioned in the busbar (lines 243-246) but is silent regarding precisely where these holes are. More specifically, Yang does not teach:
wherein the positive electrode portion and the negative electrode portion are provided with at least one of glue injection ports communicating with a gap between the two adjacent cells connected by the working portion in series in the length direction of the battery module.
Wang also discloses a battery module (see abstract).
Wang, like Yang, teaches the inclusion of glue between the cells in order to fix the cells within the module (lines 197-208). Wang teaches that an injection hole (4) is placed in the busbar (both upper 11, lower, 12 along with insulating layer 12) in order to fill the gap between the cylinders with glue (lines 197-208).
As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to add the injection hole of Wang to the busbar/positive/negative electrode portion of Yang in order to fill the gap between the cylindrical cells with glue for thermal insulation as well as structural integrity.
Furthermore, modified Yang does not explicitly teach that the positive/negative electrode portion includes the glue injection hole. However, changing the location of the injection hole would have been an obvious modification to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention. Such a modification is nothing more than a duplication and/or rearrangement of parts (see MPEP §2144.04(VI)(B) and (C)) which would produce entirely predictable results. Modifying the location and/or number of ports to achieve more favorable locations for filling with glue would have been a recognized benefit to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
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Annotated Fig. 5
Regarding claim 3, Yang further discloses the positive electrode portion and the negative electrode portion are connected by a bending portion; wherein a plane in which the positive electrode portion is located is higher than a plane in which the negative electrode portion is located, and the plane in which the positive electrode portion is located is parallel to the plane in which the negative electrode portion is located (the positive portion and the negative portion are bent relative to each other due to the high difference in the positive electrode “cap” and the negative electrode which is present at the base of the cap, as illustrated in Fig. 2 (21 is the cap of the positive electrode and the negative electrode 22 is at the base of the cap).
Regarding claim 4, Yang further discloses two adjacent working portions on a same bus bar are connected by a connecting portion (such as connecting portion 12 which connects working portions); wherein the connecting portion is connected to the positive electrode portion (the connecting portion 12 is connected to the positive electrode portion 111).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 5-20 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The closest prior art, Yang, teaches a battery module that comprises working portions and glue injection ports as claimed. However, Yang does not teach the presence of a glue spill hole along with a weakened hole in the positive electrode portion and the glue injection port located near the negative electrode portion and has a weakened hole on both ends of the glue injection port in the width direction. The prior art neither teaches nor suggests such features and does not provide any motivation to modify Yang to arrive at the claimed composition. Furthermore, regarding claim 5, Yang does not teach the claimed configuration comprising a series bar on top of the connection bar assembly in addition to a positive electrode bar and a negative electrode bar both placed on top of the battery pack. The prior art neither teaches nor suggests these claimed features in addition to the other claimed limitations and the prior art neither teaches nor suggests a motivation to modify Yang to arrive at such configuration.
Relevant Prior Art
CN114566764A - Discloses a cell connection system that teaches a limiting/weakened hole (411) in a portion of a working portion located between a positive and negative electrode portion (see Fig. 3) to limit current, similar to that of the claimed invention.
US 2023/0307804 – Discloses a cylindrical battery cell module that includes injecting a filling material in between the cells, similar to that of the instant claims.
Conclusion
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/MATTHEW J MERKLING/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1725
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