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 .
Claims 1-4 are pending.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-2 in the reply filed on 06/22/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 3-4 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Claims 1-2 are under consideration in this Office action.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Oda et al. (U.S. Patent No. 4,297,182).
Regarding claim 1, Oda discloses a porous electrode-supported electrolyte membrane (see e.g. Col. 1, lines 47-50, porous cathode bonded to cation exchange membrane), the porous electrode-supported electrolyte membrane comprising:
an electrolyte membrane (see e.g. Col. 1, line 50, cation exchange membrane); and
a porous reduction electrode directly bonded onto the electrolyte membrane (see e.g. Col. 1, lines 47-50, and Col. 2, lines 62-66, porous cathode, i.e. reducing electrode, bonded to cation exchange membrane in direct contact),
in which the porous reduction electrode has an average pore diameter of 3, 4, 5 or 6 µm (see e.g. Col. 5, lines 59-62, Col. 6, lines 41 and 66, and Col. 7, line 20).
The limitation of being “used in a gas phase reduction device fore reducing carbon dioxide” is a statement of intended use. MPEP § 2114 states “"[A]pparatus claims cover what a device is, not what a device does."…A claim containing a "recitation with respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus is intended to be employed does not differentiate the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus" if the prior art apparatus teaches all the structural limitations of the claim.”. Oda discloses all structural limitations of the claimed porous electrode-supported electrolyte membrane as stated above.
Regarding claim 2, Oda discloses the electrolyte membrane being thermocompression-bonded with the porous reduction electrode laid on the electrolyte membrane in such a way as to prevent swelling (see e.g. Col. 2, lines 62-66, and Col. 6, lines 1-7, heat press-bonding of cathode with membrane at 150°C; such pressure and heating above 100°C in the bonding process resulting in prevention of swelling, as described in paragraphs 0092 and 0094 of the instant specification).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Huff (WO 2015139129 A1) discloses a gas-contacting electrode with pores diameters of 1 to 1000 micrometers for use as a cathode in electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide, wherein the electrode may be attached to an ion exchange membrane by compression and/or heat.
Zhang (U.S. 2021/0404075) discloses an electrode system comprising an anode and cathode which may be bonded by heat pressing at 135°C on respective sides of a PEM membrane, wherein the membrane may be pretreated by a process comprising boiling in HNO3 and boiling in deionized water.
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/MOFOLUWASO S JEBUTU/Examiner, Art Unit 1795
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