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 .
Summary
This is the response to the Response to Election/Restriction filed on 09/15/2026.
Claims 1-11 remain pending in the application.
Election/Restrictions
The Applicants’ argument regarding the restriction requirement is persuasive. The previous restriction requirement has been withdrawn.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
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) 1-2, 5 and 10-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cui (CN108493492 with provided machine English translation) in view of Roeser et al. (US 2021/0143478).
Addressing claims 1-2 and 5, Cui discloses an electrolyte additive for lithium-ion batteries, comprising a mixture of a corrosion inhibitor (potassium iodide, [0009]), a corrosion inhibition aid (polyaspartic acid, [0009]), a film-forming agent (ethylene carbonate [0008]), wherein the molar ratio of the corrosion inhibitor, the corrosion inhibition aid and the film-forming agent is 1:(0.1-1):(20-50) (paragraph [0007] discloses 10-20 parts by weight of ethylene carbonate, i.e. the claimed film forming agent which amount to 0.1136 to 0.2271 mole; paragraph [0007] discloses 2-6 parts by weight of corrosion inhibitor and paragraph [0008] discloses of the corrosion inhibitor, potassium iodide, i.e. the claimed corrosion inhibitor, is 30% which amounts to 0.0031 to 0.0108 mole and 10% of polyaspartic acid, i.e. the claimed corrosion inhibition aid, is 10% which amounts to 0.0015 and 0.0045 mole that results in the mole ratio of 1:0.4:31 of corrosion inhibitor : corrosion inhibition aid : film-forming agent).
Cui is silent regarding the additive comprises a co-solvent in the claimed amount.
Roeser discloses an electrolyte for lithium ion batteries; wherein, the electrolyte comprises tetramethoxyethane or tetraethoxyethane as a co-solvent between 0.1% and 10% by weight of a propylene carbonate based electrolyte [0019], which amounts to 0.0007 to 0.0666 mol of tetramethoxyethane or 0.0005 to 0.0484 mol of tetraethoxyethane.
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the electrolyte of Cui with the co-solvent disclosed by Roeser in order to serve as additional dissolution medium for the electrolyte salt and suppress the cointercalation of propylene carbonate in graphite (Roeser, [0020]). In the modified electrolyte of Cui in view of Roeser, the mole value of tetraethoxyethane in the electrolyte as cosolvent amount to 0.03 in molar ratio, which meets the limitation of current claims.
Addressing claims 10-11, Cui in view of Roeser discloses a lithium-ion battery comprising the electrolyte additive of claim 1 (Roeser, [0001-0002]). Regarding the limitation of “obtained by preparation method of claim 7”, the limitation is drawn to the process of forming the electrolyte that does not structurally differentiate the claimed electrolyte from tat of the prior art (MPEP 2113).
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cui (CN108493492 with provided machine English translation) in view of Roeser et al. (US 2021/0143478) as applied to claims 1-2, 5 and 10-11 above, and further in view of Zhang et al. (CN109904521 with provided machine English translation).
Addressing claim 3, Cui and Roeser are silent regarding the claimed additives.
Zhang discloses lithium metaphosphate as an electrolyte additive for lithium battery [0072].
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the electrolyte of Cui in view of Roeser with the lithium metaphosphate additive disclosed by Zhang in order to improve the anode and cathode interface films and enhancing the battery’s cycle performance and storage performance under high voltage (Zhang, [0008]).
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cui (CN108493492 with provided machine English translation) in view of Roeser et al. (US 2021/0143478) as applied to claims 1-2, 5 and 10-11 above, and further in view of Lee (KR20080035824 with provided machine English translation).
Addressing claim 4, Cui and Roeser are silent regarding the claimed additives.
Lee discloses terephthalaldehyde as additive for batter electrolyte (page 5 of the translation document).
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the electrolyte of Cui in view of Roeser with terephthalaldehyde additive disclosed by Lee in order to improve the high temperature storage characteristics and lifetime characteristics of a battery (Lee, Abstract).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cui (CN108493492 with provided machine English translation) in view of Roeser et al. (US 2021/0143478) as applied to claims 1-2, 5 and 10-11 above, and further in view of Kaufman et al. (US 2024/0243281).
Addressing claim 6, Cui and Roeser are silent regarding the claimed additives.
Kaufman discloses perfluorotripropylamine as an additive for an electrolyte [0256].
At the time of the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the electrolyte of Cui in view of Roeser with the perfluorotripropylamine additive disclosed by Kaufman in order to impart flame retarding property for the electrolyte.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The prior art does not disclose or make obvious the limitation of claim 7, particularly the order and environment in which the ingredients are added in the claimed process.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
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/BACH T DINH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1726 10/08/2026
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