DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 18/853,624. Claims 1-15 are pending in the application.
Claims 9-13 are withdrawn from consideration as being drawn to non-elected inventions or species.
Election/Restrictions
A restriction requirement was sent to the Applicant on May 15, 2026. The Applicant was required to elect among several groups of inventions. The Applicant responded to the restriction requirement on July 8, 2026 and elected Group I, claims 1-10, 14, 15. The applicant also elected a species of compound having nickel content of 85-95 mol %. Since the election was not made with traverse, it is treated as being made without traverse. Accordingly, claims 9-13 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to non-elected inventions or species.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. § 112 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
(b) CONCLUSION.-The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-8, 14, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) because the term “ppm” is indefinite. The conventional meaning of “ppm” is parts per million. However, parts per million does not make sense in the instant claims. As a result, the scope and meaning of the claims is indefinite.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC §§ 102 and 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 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 1-8, 14, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by, or, alternatively, under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being obvious over Chae et al (KR 2020-0090661, m.t., included in the IDS).
Chae et al teaches a positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery, wherein the active material is a lithium composite metal oxide comprising nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum (p. 2). The atomic amount of nickel is 0.8 to 0.95, which equates to 80-95 mol % of the total metals other than lithium (p. 1). The atomic amount of cobalt is 0.01-0.2, which equates to 1-20 mol % of the total metals other than lithium (p. 1). The active material is used in a positive electrode of a secondary battery (p. 7).
Chae et al is silent with respect to the ratio I550/I700. However, the teaching of Chae et al has anticipated or rendered obvious the instantly claimed lithium composite metal oxide. Therefore, it is reasonable that a person of ordinary skill in the art would expect the claimed value of I550/I700 to naturally arise.
Chae et al is silent with respect to the 1D NMR center band spectrum. However, the teaching of Chae et al has anticipated or rendered obvious the instantly claimed lithium composite metal oxide. Therefore, it is reasonable that a person of ordinary skill in the art would expect the claimed physical property to naturally arise.
Chae et al is silent with respect to the FWHM at 600-800 ppm and 450-650 ppm and -10 to 10 ppm. However, the teaching of Chae et al has anticipated or rendered obvious the instantly claimed lithium composite metal oxide. Therefore, it is reasonable that a person of ordinary skill in the art would expect the claimed physical property to naturally arise.
In the event that the above disclosure is not sufficiently specific to anticipate the above listed claims, the examiner submits that the selection of the instantly metal components and resultant properties would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art since Chae et al teaches a positive electrode active material comprising each of the claimed components within the claimed ranges.
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Brown-Pettigrew, can be reached at 571-272-2817. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000./WILLIAM D YOUNG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761 July 22, 2026
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