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
Acknowledgement has been made of applicant’s claim for priority under 35 USC 119 (a-d). The certified copy has been filed on 2/27/2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed 2/27/2024, 3/31/2025 has been placed in the application file and the information referred to therein has been considered.
Drawings
The drawings received 2/27/2024 are acceptable for examination purposes.
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, 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Kim (KR 2017-0098583).
Refer to figures 2, 3. Regarding claim 1, Kim discloses a battery pack 10, comprising:
at least one battery module 100;
a pack case 200 including a case cover 250 for covering the at least one battery module
and a case tray 210 coupled with an edge of the case cover; and
a gasket 500 arranged between the case cover and the case tray,
wherein the gasket 500 comprises:
a gasket flat part extending in a straight line; and
a gasket corner part having a curvature and bent to correspond to a shape of the pack case. See figure 3.
Regarding claim 2, the pack case comprises:
a first area in which the case cover 250 and the case tray 210 are parallel to each other, and
a second area in which the case cover 250 and the case tray 210 are bent and have a curvature, and
the gasket 500 is disposed in a gasket space between the case cover and the case tray. See figure 2.
Regarding claim 3, the gasket flat part is located in the gasket space in the first area, and
the gasket corner part is located in the gasket space in the second area. See figure 2.
Regarding claim 9, the gasket comprises:
a gasket band that forms an overall shape of the gasket, and
a fastening part including a plurality of holes 550 spaced apart from the gasket band.
Regarding claim 10, with the pack case and the gasket coupled to each other, the fastening part of the gasket is disposed in areas corresponding to a plurality of cover fastening holes penetrating through the case cover 250 and to a plurality of tray fastening holes penetrating through the case tray. Page 4 of translation and Figure 2.
Regarding claim 11, the gasket further comprises an elastic bead 572 in having a shape protruding in a height direction on an outer peripheral surface of the gasket. Figure 5.
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 12, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (KR 2017-0098583) as applied to claim 1, in view of Chen (CN 205810891).
Kim does not disclose the elements of claims 12, 13. Chen teaches a sealing gasket having a limiting pole (Applicant’s position guider) that ensures the sealing gasket will not be in any position in the extending direction from moving transversely (page 3 of translation). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to add a limiting pole of Chen in between the holes on the gasket of Kim for the benefit of preventing gasket from moving transversely.
Regarding claim 13, the gasket comprises a guide bead provided in the gasket band and provided at a position close to the position guider, Kim discloses an elastic bead portion throughout the entire gasket, see figure 5. The elastic bead portions guide the contact of the sealing gasket between the rim of the case tray and the rim of the case cover. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was made to add a band bead to the limiting pole of Kim modified by Chen for the benefit of guiding the limiting pole to the case cover and the case tray.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-8, 14-15 are 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:
The closest prior art is Yamaguchi (WO 2012-124187). Yamaguchi discloses:
Regarding claim 4, a distance between the case cover and the case tray in the first area has a first length,
a distance between the case cover and the case tray in the second area has a second length, and the first length is longer than the second length. However, Yamaguchi discloses that the battery is a cylindrical battery (page 5 of translation), and hence does not disclose nor suggest “a gasket flat part extending in a straight line,” as recited in claim 1.
Claim 5 depends from claim 4.
Yamaguchi discloses:
Regarding claim 6, in the second area, the curvature of the case cover is smaller than the curvature of the case tray. However, Yamaguchi discloses that the battery is a cylindrical battery (page 5 of translation), and hence does not disclose nor suggest “a gasket flat part extending in a straight line,” as recited in claim 1.
Claim 7 depends from claim 6.
Regarding claim 8, Yamaguchi does not disclose nor suggest “a compression volume of the gasket in the first area is smaller than a compression volume of the gasket in the second area.” Yamaguchi is silent as to the compression volume of the gasket.
Regarding claim 14, the closest prior art is Kim (KR 2017-0098583). Kim discloses all the elements of claim 1. Kim does not disclose nor suggest:
further comprising:
a stepped part at an edge of the pack case where a distance between the case cover and the case tray is wider than at other portions of the pack case,
wherein an area of the gasket corresponding to the stepped part comprises a reinforcement part having a larger surface area than other areas of the gasket. Kim does not disclose any reason to form a stepped part with a wider distance between the case cover and the case tray.
Claim 15 is dependent on claim 14.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CYNTHIA KYUNG SOO WALLS whose telephone number is (571)272-8699. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F until 5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jonathan Leong can be reached at 571-270-1292. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CYNTHIA K WALLS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1751
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