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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 and 35 USC § 103
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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 1-3, 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Liu (CN 212871158).
Regarding claim 1, Liu discloses: a deformation testing apparatus (FIG 1) comprising: a die unit 1 configured to allow a pouch cell to be seated (in seat 4) thereon in an erected state; and a measurement member 11 located above the die unit, the measurement member being configured to measure a flatness of the pouch cell.
Regarding claims 2 and 3, the deformation testing apparatus includes measurement members on the side of the object being measured, and includes a plurality of measurement members provided in an overall length direction of the object being measured.
Regarding claim 10, the measurement members 11 of Liu include a hollow receiving portion and a second sensing portion in the arrangement as claimed.
Regarding claim 11, the method as claimed will be performed when the Liu device is used for the purpose of measuring a pouch cell as described in the Liu disclosure.
Conclusion
Claims 4-9 and 12-16 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 prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/GEORGE B BENNETT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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16 JUL 2026