DETAILED ACTION
This is the first Office action on the merits of Application No. 18/978,489. Claims 1-11 are pending.
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
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/12/2024 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities:
in claim 7 is dependent on claim 5 only based on the amendment, the issue is said second gasket and interposition are in claim 6 and it appears the limitations of claim 6 are essential. One solution is to cancel claim 7 and make claim 8 dependent on claim 11; and
in claim 10, the term “IPE” appears to be an abbreviation and should have the long form name followed by the abbreviation.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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
Claims 1-8 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Schurz (German document DE102020133961, cited on IDS, machine translation on PTO-892).
Regarding claim 1, Schurz discloses a car (Fig. 4) comprising a passenger compartment (Fig. 4); two access doors (Fig. 4) allowing access to the passenger compartment; a support frame (Fig. 4), which defines at least part of a lower floor (page 6, “the cross member 2 of the body and which forms the vehicle floor”) of the car and comprises, in turn, two under-door side members (3), each mounted under a relative access door and comprising a section bar with an elongated shape (e.g. Fig. 1); and a battery pack (electrical energy storage device 5) comprising a box-shaped containing body and a plurality of battery modules (Figs. 3-5, 10) accommodated inside the box-shaped containing body; and characterized in that the box-shaped containing body of the battery pack is mounted between and is fixed to the two under-door side members (Figs. 3-5).
Regarding claim 2, Schurz discloses the car according to claim 1, wherein each under-door side member is provided with a fixing flange projecting (page 4, “a flange connection or the like between the housing upper part 6 and the housing lower part 7”) from the relative section bar towards the other under-door side member; the box-shaped containing body being fixed to the section bar and to the fixing flange of each under-door side member (e.g. Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 3, Schurz discloses the car according to claim 2 and further comprising first fixing means (e.g. 15) to connect the box-shaped containing body and the section bar of each under-door side member to one another and second fixing means (e.g. 13) to connect the box-shaped containing body and the fixing flange of each under-door side member to one another.
Regarding claim 4, Schurz discloses the car according to claim 2, wherein the section bar of each under-door side member is delimited by a lower face and by a side face facing the other under-door side member and provided with the relative fixing flange; the box-shaped containing body being fixed to the lower face of each section bar and to a lower face of each fixing flange (e.g. Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 5, Schurz discloses the car according to claim 2, wherein the box-shaped containing body is fixed to the section bar of each under-door side member with the interposition of a relative first gasket (8).
Regarding claim 6, Schurz discloses the car according to claim 2, wherein the box-shaped containing body is fixed to the fixing flange of each under-door side member with the interposition of a relative second gasket (sealant 16 and page 6 “the upper housing part 6 is inextricably connected to the floor assembly 1 or the cross members 2 and the side sills 3 by this sealing means 16 in particular”).
Regarding claim 7, Schurz discloses the car according to claim 5, wherein the box-shaped containing body comprises a lower plate (7) fixed to the section bars of the two under-door side members through the interposition of said first gaskets and an upper lid (6), which is fixed to the lower plate and is further fixed to the fixing flanges of the two under-door side members through the interposition of said second gaskets (Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 8, Schurz discloses the car according to claim 7, wherein each section bar defines, together with the lower plate, the upper lid and the relative first and second gaskets, a relative housing chamber (passage-through openings 12) for cables and/or electric and/or electronic components and/or operating fluid supplying ducts (the openings are gas-tight and can be used for cables and electric components)
Regarding claim 11, Schurz discloses the car according to claim 6, wherein the box-shaped containing body comprises a lower plate (7) fixed to the section bars of the two under-door side members through the interposition of said first gaskets and an upper lid (6), which is fixed to the lower plate and is further fixed to the fixing flanges of the two under-door side members through the interposition of said second gaskets (Fig. 3)
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 1-2 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Karlsson (US Patent Publication 20230026490) in view of Yamanaka (US Patent 10486516).
Regarding claim 1, Karlsson discloses a car (Fig. 1) comprising a passenger compartment (location depicted in Fig. 1); two access doors t (location depicted in Fig. 1) allowing access to the passenger compartment; a support frame (e.g. frame structure 2,3), which defines at least part of a lower floor (e.g. 5) of the car and comprises, in turn, two under-door side members (e.g. 6, 7), each mounted under a relative access door (Fig. 1) and comprising a section bar (e.g. Fig. 5) with an elongated shape; and a battery pack (9) comprising a box-shaped containing body (e.g. Figs. 1 and 5) and a plurality of battery modules (Fig. 5, 55-58) accommodated inside the box-shaped containing body; and characterized in that the box-shaped containing body of the battery pack is mounted between and is fixed to the two under-door side members (shown in Fig. 5).
Karlsson does not explicitly state there is a door, but clearly shows the intended location of the door and passenger compartment.
Yamanaka discloses a battery mounting structure for a car and door (e.g. Figs. 2 and 8)
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Karlsson to incorporate the door of Yamanaka with a reasonable expectation of success as the frame has the intended space for the door and it is a common feature of cars.
Regarding claim 2, Karlsson, as modified by Yamanaka, discloses the car according to claim 1, wherein each under-door side member is provided with a fixing flange projecting from the relative section bar towards the other under-door side member; the box-shaped containing body being fixed to the section bar and to the fixing flange of each under-door side member (e.g. Karlsson, Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 9, Karlsson, as modified by Yamanaka, discloses the car according to claim 1, wherein each under-door side member has a curved shape with a concavity facing the other under-door side member (e.g. Karlsson, Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 10, Karlsson, as modified by Yamanaka, discloses the car according to claim 1, wherein the section bar of each under-door side member has the shape of a beam (Figs. 1 and 5).
Karlsson, as modified by Yamanaka, does not explicitly state the section bar of each under-door side member has the shape of an IPE beam.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Karlsson, as modified by Yamanaka, to incorporate the shape of an IPE beam with a reasonable expectation of success to have the recognized advantage of high strength to weight ratio. Furthermore, it has been held that a change of shape is a matter of design choice (MPEP 2144.04(IV)(B)).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Nicholls (US Patent Publication 20220297522) discloses a battery mounting arrangement (e.g. Fig. 7).
Kawabe (US Patent Publication 20180237075) discloses a substructure of a vehicle body.
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/LORI WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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