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 .
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 12-08-2023 and 10-18-2024 are 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 § 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2017-097969 A hereinafter Watanabe [cited in IDS filed 10-18-2024] in view of U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2014/0227622 hereinafter Nishiyama.
Regarding Claims 1-6, Watanabe teaches a method of manufacturing a fuel cell (paragraph 16), the method comprising: joining two adjacent separators in a fuel cell stack that includes unit cells stacked together (paragraphs 3, 36), each of the unit cells comprising a membrane electrode assembly and a pair of separators sandwiching the membrane electrode assembly, wherein the two adjacent separators are a first separator covering a cathode of a first membrane electrode assembly and a second separator covering an anode of a second membrane electrode assembly (paragraphs 37-42), the method further comprising: bringing the first separator and the second separator into contact with each other; bringing a first welding electrode into contact with the separator; bringing a second welding electrode into contact with the separator; and welding the assembly together by causing a current to flow between the first welding electrode and the second welding electrode (paragraphs 150-166).
Watanabe teaches a welding process including bringing the first separator and the second separator together such that the cathode of the first membrane electrode assembly and the anode of the second membrane electrode assembly are welded together but does not specifically describe the outward ridges formed on the surface of the separators as claimed.
However, Nishiyama teaches a fuel cell and a method for forming the fuel cell, wherein the fuel cell comprises a power generation unit [12] that includes a first metal separator [14], a first membrane electrode assembly [16a], a second metal separator [18], a second membrane electrode assembly [16b], and a third metal separator [20]. Nishiyama further teaches that the metal separators are formed by corrugating metal thin plates by press forming to have a corrugated shape in cross section and a wavy or serpentine shape on the surface, and the separator comprises a plurality of corrugated and wavy flow grooves (outward ridges) (paragraphs 29, 35-42). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form such corrugated and wavy flow grooves on the surface of the separators before the effective filing date of the claimed invention because Nishiyama discloses that such configuration can form a separator with anti-corrosive surface and gas flow fields (paragraph 29).
The combination teaches that the plurality of portions where the first outward ridges and the second outward ridges are in contact with each other are welded by causing the current to flow between the first welding electrode and the second welding electrode, and after the first outward ridges of the first separator and the second outward ridges of the second separator are joined, laser welding is performed in a marginal portion of the first separator and a marginal portion of the second separator (paragraphs 166-169 of Watanabe).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OSEI K AMPONSAH whose telephone number is (571)270-3446. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm EST.
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/OSEI K AMPONSAH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1752
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