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 .
This action is responsive to applicant’s amendment/remarks filed 07/15/26.
Claims 16, 18, 20-30 are pending.
The Replacement Figure and concurrent amendment to the instant specification are entered.
Withdrawn Rejection(s)
The prior art rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN 104934572 (PTO-892) or Taniguchi et al (Powder Tech 2008) is withdrawn in view of applicant’s amendment and remarks.
The prior art rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over either CN 104934572 (PTO-892) or Taniguchi et al (Powder Tech 2008) is withdrawn in view of applicant’s amendment and remarks.
New Grounds of Rejection
Claim(s) 16, 18, 20-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over or Taniguchi et al (Powder Tech 2008) in view of CN 104934572 (PTO-892).
Taniguchi (Powder Technology 2008) discloses (Abstract):
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The disclosed process meets the claimed “spray pyrolysis” and “spray dries” (dependent claim 2) (Section 2: Experimental). As above, the examiner notes that elected species I utilizes open claim terminology “comprising” which does not exclude the lithium salt disclosed in the reference. Also, as the reference teaches a heating step after spray-drying, the material meets the instant claim terminology “precursor material” (see discussion above).
While the reference teaches the use of nitrate salt precursors, Taniguchi differs from the instant amended claims in failing to specify that the precursor materials (during spray pyrolysis) are chloride salts. However, the examiner respectfully submits that the skilled artisan would have found the substitution of one well-known precursor component for another and obvious modification, and the results of such would have been predictable. CN ‘572 is cited as evidence of the art-known equivalence of nitrate and chloride salts as precursor materials utilized for spray pyrolysis (see page 2 of English language translation).
With respect to dependent claims 21-25, the examiner respectfully submits that additional steps such as rinsing/washing of the particles and size control/reduction are each well known in the art, and well within the purview of the skilled artisan to determine the workable parameters of such in order to tailor the resultant properties of the cathode materials. Likewise, with respect to dependent claims 26-30, control of both particle size (e.g. D50), bulk density and Mn:Co ratio are result effective variables which are obvious optimizations to the skilled artisan. In re "[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation." In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 (CCPA 1955).
In view of the foregoing, the above claims have failed to patentably distinguish over the applied art.
Applicant is invited to contact the undersigned examiner in order to discuss possible ways of overcoming the above rejection(s).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARK T KOPEC whose telephone number is (571)272-1319. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00a-5:00p EST.
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/MARK KOPEC/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
MK
September 28, 2026
