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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on April 18, 2025. These drawings are acceptable.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Publication 2018/0040430 to Komatsu et al. (hereinafter Komatsu) in view of JP Publication 2022-40698 to Nozawa (see also provided machine translation).
Claim 1
Komatsu (FIG. 1-7) discloses an electrolytic capacitor having;
an anode foil (21) with an oxide film (22) formed on the surface thereof,
a cathode foil (23) and
a separator (25) disposed between the anode foil (21) and the cathode foil (23),
wherein the electrolytic capacitor comprises, in a gap between the anode foil (21) and the cathode foil (23):
a solid electrolyte phase (26) comprising an electrically-conductive polymer compound, and
a liquid material phase (27) comprising a liquid material (paragraph 67),
characterized in that:
the liquid material phase (27) comprises an aromatic nitro compound (paragraph 67, 71) in an amount of 1.0% by mass or more (paragraph 73; see also paragraph 110),
the liquid material is polyethylene glycol (paragraph 70), as recited in claim 1.
Komatsu does not provide in a single example wherein in the polyethylene glycol, the proportion of polyethylene glycol which is pentaethylene glycol or larger is 30% by mass or less. See paragraph 70: molecular weight of two compounds set between 100 to 1000, may be a mixture of a polyethylene glycol with a molecular weight of 300 and one with a molecular weight of 200; pentaethylene glycol has a molecular weight of 238.28. While the weight of the two compounds together is disclosed as having a proportion of molecular weight lower than 238.28 of 30% (paragraph 70: molecular weight of 100 to 1000), the disclosed range does not appear to anticipate the claimed range with sufficient specificity (see MPEP 2131.03.II). Also note the examples and comparative examples of FIG. 10 are all of 31% PEG300 or more which are all greater than 30% pentaethylene glycol or more by mass.
Nowaza (Preparation Examples A1-5: PEG-2; B1-B4: PEG average molecular weight of 200; C1-C4: mixture of PEG-2 and PEG200; D-K: PEG-2: PEG200) teaches wherein in the polyethylene glycol, the proportion of polyethylene glycol which is pentaethylene glycol or larger is 30% by mass or less.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Nowaza with Komatsu to incorporate a solvent as taught by Nowaza in the structure taught by Komatsu, as one having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this with a reasonable expectation of success because such a combination and/or modification allows for retention of the solution over long periods of time as taught by Komatsu (paragraph 37) while avoiding solidification stress at low temperature and lowered equivalent series resistance (Komatsu paragraph 37) while adequately infiltrating the gap between the anode and cathode.
Claim 2
Komatsu with Nowaza teaches the electrolytic capacitor according to claim 1, wherein the liquid material phase (Komatsu 27) comprises water in an amount of 0.1% by mass to 10% by mass (Komatsu paragraph 73).
Claim 3
Komatsu with Nowaza teaches the electrolytic capacitor of claim 1, wherein the aromatic nitro compound is selected from the group consisting of nitrophenol, nitroacetophenone, nitrobenzyl alcohol, nitrobenzoic acid, and nitrobenzaldehyde (Komatsu paragraph 71).
Claim 4
Komatsu with Nowaza teaches the electrolytic capacitor according to claim 1, wherein the solid electrolyte phase comprises polyethylene dioxythiophene as the electrically-conductive polymer compound and polystyrene sulfonic acid as a dopant (Komatsu paragraph 68-69, 110).
Claim 5
Komatsu (FIG. 1-7) discloses the method for manufacturing an electrolytic capacitor, comprising:
forming a capacitor element by superposing and winding an anode foil (21) and a cathode foil (23) via a separator (25), wherein the anode foil (21) has an oxide film (22) formed on the surface thereof and the cathode foil (23) is optionally treated with an etching process (paragraph 65);
impregnating (paragraph 82) the capacitor element with an aqueous solution or dispersion of an electrically-conductive polymer compound, in order to form a solid electrolyte phase (26) in a gap between the anode foil (21) and the cathode foil (23); and
after the formation of the solid electrolyte phase (26), impregnating the capacitor element with a liquid material phase (27) comprising a liquid material, characterized in that:
the liquid material phase (27) comprises an aromatic nitro compound (paragraph 67, 71) in an amount of 1.0% by mass or more (paragraph 73; see also paragraph 110),
the liquid material is polyethylene glycol (paragraph 70), as recited in claim 5.
Komatsu does not provide in a single example wherein in the polyethylene glycol, the proportion of polyethylene glycol which is pentaethylene glycol or larger is 30% by mass or less. See paragraph 70: molecular weight of two compounds set between 100 to 1000, may be a mixture of a polyethylene glycol with a molecular weight of 300 and one with a molecular weight of 200; pentaethylene glycol has a molecular weight of 238.28. While the weight of the two compounds together is disclosed as having a proportion of molecular weight lower than 238.28 of 30% (paragraph 70: molecular weight of 100 to 1000), the disclosed range does not appear to anticipate the claimed range with sufficient specificity (see MPEP 2131.03.II). Also note the examples and comparative examples of FIG. 10 are all of 31% PEG300 or more which are all greater than 30% pentaethylene glycol or more by mass.
Nowaza (Preparation Examples A1-5: PEG-2; B1-B4: PEG average molecular weight of 200; C1-C4: mixture of PEG-2 and PEG200; D-K: PEG-2: PEG200) teaches wherein in the polyethylene glycol, the proportion of polyethylene glycol which is pentaethylene glycol or larger is 30% by mass or less.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teachings of Nowaza with Komatsu to incorporate a solvent as taught by Nowaza in the method taught by Komatsu, as one having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this with a reasonable expectation of success because such a combination and/or modification allows for retention of the solution over long periods of time as taught by Komatsu (paragraph 37) while avoiding solidification stress at low temperature and lowered equivalent series resistance (Komatsu paragraph 37) while adequately infiltrating the gap between the anode and cathode.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHAN MILAKOVICH whose telephone number is (571)270-3087. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, TIMOTHY DOLE can be reached at (571)272-2229. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NATHAN MILAKOVICH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2847
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