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 2/27/24 was filed on 2/27/24. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 2/27/24 are accepted by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Goto et al (US 2018/0241050).
Regarding claims 1-3, Goto et al discloses a fuel cell stack comprising:
a fuel cell stack body “18” (cell stacked body) configured to stack alternately a unitized electrode assembly having an electrolyte membrane “24” and an electrode “26a”, “26b”, and a separator “30a”, “30b”;
a casing “14” (case) surrounding the fuel cell stack body; and
a separator-side engaging portion “52” (guide member) attached to an inner wall of the casing to extend in a stacked direction of the fuel cell stack body and including a second insulating portion “66” (engaged portion) protruding toward an edge portion of the separator, wherein
the separator includes an engagement portion (Fig. 5B below) engaging with the engaged portion “66” of the separator-side engaging portion (guide member),
the inner wall includes a casing-side engaging portion “50” (guide support portion) supporting the separator-side engaging portion (guide member),
the stacked direction is a first direction “A”, a thickness direction of the inner wall perpendicular to the stacked direction is a second direction “B”, and a direction perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction is a third direction “C”, and
the casing-side engaging portion (guide support portion) includes a first protrusion “56b” (first restriction portion) restricting a movement of the guide member in the second direction and a second protrusion “56b” (second restriction portion) restricting a movement of the separator-side engaging portion (guide member) in the third direction;
wherein the casing-side engaging portion (guide support portion) includes a recess portion forming a recess “54” (engagement groove) having a predetermined depth and extending along the stacked direction up to an end surface of the casing in the stacked direction, and a protrusion portion “56b” protruding toward an inside in a width direction of the recess (engagement groove) at an groove inlet portion on an inlet side of the recess (engagement groove) so that a width of the groove inlet portion is narrower than a width of a groove bottom portion on a bottom side of the recess (engagement groove), and the separator-side engaging portion (guide member) includes a base portion disposed in the groove inlet portion, and a wide portion “64b” disposed in the groove bottom portion and enlarged from the base portion in the width direction (Fig. 5B);
wherein the protrusion portion “56b” is provided at a bulged portion bulged from the inner wall of the case toward the edge portion of the separator;
wherein the second direction “B” is a depth direction of the recess, and the third direction is the width direction of the recess “C”,
wherein the separator-side engaging portion (guide member) includes a first end portion and a second end portion in a longitudinal direction “A”, the fuel cell stack further comprises an end plate including an end support portion supporting the first end portion of the guide member, the separator-side engaging portion (guide member) includes the base portion and the wide portion over an entire length of the separator-side engaging portion (guide member) in the longitudinal direction, the end support portion is configured by a bottomed recess “54” into which the first end portion of the separator-side engaging portion (guide member) is fitted, wherein the bottomed recess “54” has an arc shaped portion facing a corner of the engaged portion (see Figs. 1 below and 4A);
wherein the end plate is a first end plate including a first end support portion served as the end support portion, and the fuel cell stack further comprises a second end plate including a second end support portion supporting the second end portion of the separator-side engaging portion (guide member) in the longitudinal direction;
wherein the second end support portion is configured by a through-hole “72”, and the fuel cell stack further comprises a side panel “22b” (cover) coving the through-hole (see Fig. 1 below and 3);
wherein the first end plate is provided with supply and discharge through-holes “36a”, “36b”, “34a”, “34b” to supply a reaction gas and a cooling medium to the fuel cell stack body and discharge the reaction gas and the cooling medium from the fuel cell stack body, while the second end plate is not provided with the supply and discharge through-holes because the supply and discharge through-holes are both on the same end of the fuel cell stack ([0034],[0036],[0040]-[0045],[0051],[0052],[0066] and Fig. 1, 3, 5B).
[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (engagement portion)][AltContent: textbox (bulged portion)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (groove bottom portion / wide portion)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: rect][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: rect][AltContent: textbox (groove inlet portion / base portion)]
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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.
Claims 4-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goto et al (US 2018/0241050). The Goto reference is applied to claim 2 for reasons stated above.
Regarding claims 4-9, Goto et al does not expressly teach a length of a gap from an end surface of the wide portion to an end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the second direction, and a length of a gap from an end surface of the base portion to an end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the second direction that are shorter than a length of a gap from an end surface of the groove bottom portion to an end surface of the wide portion facing each other in the third direction (claim 4); a length of a gap from the end surface of the base portion to an end surface of the bottomed recess facing each other in the third direction that is shorter than the length of the gap from the end surface of the base portion to the end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the third direction (claim 5).
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the Goto separator-side engaging portion/casing-side engaging portion to include a length of a gap from an end surface of the wide portion to an end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the second direction, and a length of a gap from an end surface of the base portion to an end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the second direction that are shorter than a length of a gap from an end surface of the groove bottom portion to an end surface of the wide portion facing each other in the third direction; or a length of a gap from the end surface of the base portion to an end surface of the bottomed recess facing each other in the third direction that is shorter than the length of the gap from the end surface of the base portion to the end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the third direction because changes in size/proportion was held to have been obvious (In re Rose, 220 F.2d 459, 105 USPQ 237 (CCPA 1955)). There is no evidence of criticality of the claimed length of a gap from an end surface of the wide portion to an end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the second direction, length of a gap from an end surface of the base portion to an end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the second direction, length of a gap from an end surface of the groove bottom portion to an end surface of the wide portion facing each other in the third direction, length of a gap from the end surface of the base portion to an end surface of the bottomed recess facing each other in the third direction, and the length of the gap from the end surface of the base portion to the end surface of the protrusion portion facing each other in the third direction.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TONY S CHUO whose telephone number is (571)272-0717. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 5:30pm.
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/T.S.C/Examiner, Art Unit 1751
/JONATHAN G LEONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1751 8/4/2026
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