DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Keates (US 2016/0372718).
Regarding claim 1, Keates discloses a fabric battery comprising:
a plurality of battery cells 722;
a first electrically conductive fabric 718 (first inter-cell connecting film) and a second electrically conductive fabric 720 (second inter-cell connecting film);
Li-ion batteries that use a liquid electrolyte and is packaged in a rigid, hermetically sealed metal “can” housing and includes an electrode assembly (para 0020);
the exterior body has a positive electrode terminal portion electrically connected to the positive electrode of the electrode body, and a negative electrode terminal portion electrically connected to the negative electrode of the electrode body;
the first inter-cell connecting film has a first conductive pattern;
the second inter-cell connecting film has a second conductive pattern; and
one of the positive electrode terminal portion and the negative electrode terminal portion of the exterior body of each of the plurality of battery cells is in contact with the first conductive pattern, so that the other is in contact with the second conductive pattern, each of the plurality of battery cells is sandwiched by the first inter-cell connecting film and the second inter-cell connecting film, whereby via the first conductive pattern and the second conductive pattern, each of the plurality of battery cells is electrically connected in parallel with one another (para 0035; Fig. 7C).
Figure 7B to Keates is provided below.
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Claims 1-3, 5, 6, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Boufnichel (US 11,387,517).
Regarding claim 1, Boufnichel discloses a microbattery assembly comprising:
a plurality of microbatteries 101;
a first flexible encapsulation film 103 (first inter-cell connecting film) and a second flexible encapsulation film 105 (second inter-cell connecting film);
each microbattery 101 comprises a stack (not detailed in FIGS. 1A and 1B) of active layers, having as an upper layer a conductive layer forming a contact terminal of a first polarity of the microbattery, and having as a lower layer a conductive layer forming a contact terminal of opposite polarity of the microbattery; in the shown example, the upper contact terminal of each microbattery 101 is of positive polarity, and the lower contact terminal of each microbattery 101 is of negative polarity (col. 3, lines 46-54);
the first inter-cell connecting film has a first conductive pattern; the second inter-cell connecting film has a second conductive pattern (Fig. 1A-1B); and
and one of the positive electrode terminal portion and the negative electrode terminal portion of the exterior body of each of the plurality of battery cells is in contact with the first conductive pattern, so that the other is in contact with the second conductive pattern, each of the plurality of battery cells is sandwiched by the first inter-cell connecting film and the second inter-cell connecting film, whereby via the first conductive pattern and the second conductive pattern, each of the plurality of battery cells is electrically connected in parallel and/or in series with one another (Fig. 1A-1B; col. 1, lines 65-67).
Figure 1A and 1B to Boufnichel are provided below. For comparison, Applicant’s Fig. 5A and 5B are also provided.
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Regarding claim 2, Boufnichel discloses the elementary microbatteries 101 of the assembly are connected in parallel by conductive layer 103a on the one hand (for the positive contact terminals) and by conductive layer 105a on the other hand (for the negative contact terminals). As an example, conductive layers 103a and 105a are respectively connected to a positive contact terminal V+ and to a negative contact terminal V− of the assembly (col. 4, lines 31-41).
Regarding claim 3, Boufnichel discloses the assembly of FIG. 3 differs from the assembly of FIGS. 1A and 1B in that, in the example of FIG. 3, elementary microbatteries 101 are connected in series instead of being connected in parallel (col. 4, lines 61-64).
Regarding claim 5, Boufnichel further discloses insulating layers 103b and 105b (Fig. 1A).
Regarding claim 6, Boufnichel further discloses conductive layer 103a, for example, made of aluminum (col. 3, line 57-58) and electrically-insulating layer 103b, for example, made of poly(ethylene) terephthalate or PET (col. 3, lines 60-62). Similarly for the second substrate (col. 4, lines 5-12).
Regarding claim 8, Boufnichel discloses cells 101 are spaced equally apart necessitating some kind of positioning (Fig. 1A/1B). Alternatively, drop 413 also function as a positioning portion (Fig. 4F/4G).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 7 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: novel over the prior art cited above. The closest prior art to claim 4 is Kim (2017/0040582) who teaches “L” shaped conductive patterns 131/134 (Fig. 1A). No prior art was found teaching the combined limitations of claims 1 and 7 as claimed for a cooling layer.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CARLOS BARCENA whose telephone number is (571)270-5780. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8-5 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tong Guo can be reached at (571)272-3066. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CARLOS BARCENA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1723
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