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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 9-14 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 11 FEB 2026.
Applicant's election with traverse of Group I and Species A in the reply filed on 11 FEB 2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is not a significant search burden sufficient to justify the restriction and species election. This is not found persuasive because it is settled that where it is necessary to search for one of the inventions in a manner that is not likely to result in finding art pertinent to the other invention(s), a different field of search is shown, even though the two are classified together. The method of Claim 1 does not require the mechanical features of Claim 9 outside of the transfer substrate with a conductive paste transfer layer formed thereon; therefore, the search for the features of Claim 9 is a search not necessarily pertinent to the method of Claim 1.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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.
Claim(s) 1-7 and 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CN ‘327 (CN 116031327, citations from machine translation attached herewith) in view of CN ‘791 (CN 29016791, citations from machine translation attached herewith).
Claim 1 – CN ‘327 teaches a cell grid line preparation method, comprising following steps:
preparing conductive paste transfer layers corresponding to a front grid line transfer substrate (“1. The EVA film with the electrode structure is prepared by the hot pressing method. The hot pressing method belongs to the common nano-imprint means, the specific steps of the hot pressing method for preparing the EVA film with groove are as follows (refer to FIG. 2):
1. An EVA film with a thickness of 0.4mm is coated on a glass substrate.
2, the imprinting template with electrode structure is placed above the EVA film, 70 ° C heating, 1MPa pressurizing, so that the EVA glue softening joint coating template structure. the width of the secondary grid of the electrode template is 15 microns, the depth is 10 microns, and the distance is 1.5mm; The main grid width of the electrode template is 25 microns, the depth is 10 microns, and the distance is 30 mm. to obtain the comb-shaped EVA film.
3, after cooling and solidifying the EVA film, demoulding to obtain the EVA film with concave structure.”), respectively, wherein the conductive paste transfer layers comprise a grid line pattern trench (as above);
filling conductive paste into the grid line pattern trench (“2. filling the low temperature conductive silver paste DD-1760Q (Japanese KE) into the groove of the EVA film with the concave structure obtained in the step (1)”);
aligning and bonding the conductive paste transfer layer corresponding to the front grid line onto a front surface of a cell (“3, adhering the EVA film with silver paste on the surface of the battery sheet, and putting the EVA film with other packaging materials in the laminating machine to heat and press in vacuum so as to make the silver paste and the surface contact the battery sheet adhere to each other.”);
simultaneously applying pressure to the front surface of the cell, and transferring the conductive paste in the grid line pattern trenches onto the front surface of the cell (as above); and
converting the transferred conductive paste into the front grid lines (“finally obtaining the packaging battery sheet with fine silver electrode”; the fine silver electrode corresponds to the grid lines).
CN ‘327 does not disclose rear grid lines or simultaneous formation of both front and rear grid lines on a substrate. CN ‘791 discloses a double back-pressure imprinting method. “1, In the utility model, the device is provided with a first air pressure cylinder and a second air pressure cylinder, when the stamping work, the first negative pressure absorbing plate and the second negative pressure absorbing plate can be pushed by starting the first air pressure cylinder and the second air pressure cylinder, the first negative pressure absorbing plate and the second negative pressure absorbing plate can absorb the template on the upper surface after extracting the internal air, then pushing the two templates to close to the clamping frame part, the upper and lower two templates are jointed on the upper and lower two sides of the substrate, the device can imprint the two sides of the substrate at the same time, it accelerates the efficiency of the imprint, it solves the problem that the traditional device only can imprint the one surface of the substrate.” Clearly, CN ‘791 provides technical guidance on simultaneously applying pressure to the upper and lower surfaces to improve imprinting efficiency. On this basis, to further increase transfer efficiency, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made or filed to have modified the invention of CN ‘327 to utilize the method and apparatus of CN ‘791 to process both sides of the substrate at once.
Claim 2 – CN ‘327 / CN ‘791 renders obvious the cell grid line preparation method according to claim 1, wherein the step of preparing the conductive paste transfer layers comprises:
coating a water-soluble polymer material on the transfer substrate, drying, and controlling a thickness to fall within 10-50 microns (CN ‘327, “1. An EVA film with a thickness of 0.4mm is coated on a glass substrate.
2, the imprinting template with electrode structure is placed above the EVA film, 70 ° C heating, 1MPa pressurizing, so that the EVA glue softening joint coating template structure. the width of the secondary grid of the electrode template is 15 microns, the depth is 10 microns, and the distance is 1.5mm; The main grid width of the electrode template is 25 microns, the depth is 10 microns, and the distance is 30 mm. to obtain the comb-shaped EVA film.”; the thickness of the ridges in the imprint layer is 10 microns above the bottom of the imprint trenches.).
Claim 3 – CN ‘327 / CN ‘791 renders obvious the cell grid line preparation method according to claim 2, wherein the transfer substrate is a flexible material (all materials by definition have an inherent amount of flexibility).
Claim 4 – CN ‘327 / CN ‘791 renders obvious the cell grid line preparation method according to claim 2, wherein the grid line pattern trench is formed in the conductive paste transfer layer by imprinting with a mold (CN ‘327, “Description of figures of the description: …4. an imprinting template with a structure;…”).
Claim 5 – CN ‘327 / CN ‘791 renders obvious the cell grid line preparation method according to claim 4, wherein a grid line pattern comprises a first grid line pattern with a trench depth of 10-50 microns and a trench width of 20-200 microns and a second grid line pattern with a trench depth 6-25 microns and a trench width 3-50 microns (CN ‘327, “the width of the secondary grid of the electrode template is 15 microns, the depth is 10 microns, and the distance is 1.5mm; The main grid width of the electrode template is 25 microns, the depth is 10 microns, and the distance is 30 mm. to obtain the comb-shaped EVA film”).
Claim 6 – CN ‘327 / CN ‘791 renders obvious the cell grid line preparation method according to claim 4, wherein the step of filling the conductive paste into the grid line pattern trench comprises: filling the conductive paste into the imprinted grid line pattern trench, and scraping off excess conductive paste (CN ‘327, “(2), scraping the silver paste into the groove of the EVA film obtained in the step (1), continuously scraping for more than 2 times, ensuring the higher filling rate”; “2. filling the low temperature conductive silver paste DD-1760Q (Japanese KE) into the groove of the EVA film with the concave structure obtained in the step (1), because the EVA film is not resistant to high temperature, standing for 1 hour to dry the silver paste surface without baking and drying, then ethanol wiping the surface.”; ethanol wiping held as analogous to scraping off excess conductive paste).
Claim 7 – CN ‘327 / CN ‘791 renders obvious the cell grid line preparation method according to claim 1, wherein the step of transferring is performed at 80-1800C and 1-20 MPa for 0.5-10 min (CN ‘327, “3, adhering the EVA film with silver paste on the surface of the battery sheet, and putting the EVA film with other packaging materials in the laminating machine to heat and press in vacuum so as to make the silver paste and the surface contact the battery sheet adhere to each other. the laminating temperature is 140 degrees centigrade, the laminating time is 9 min”; selection of an appropriate pressure to ensure lamination of the material is held as prima facie obvious as result-effective with regards to the desired degree of adhesion and the physical tolerances of the substrate).
Claim 15 – The production method of Claim 1 as discussed above produces a cell with front and back grid lines commensurate with Claim 15.
Claim 16 – Claim 16 is rejected mutatis mutandis on the same basis as Claim 2.
Claim 17 – Claim 17 is rejected mutatis mutandis on the same basis as Claim 3.
Claim 18 – Claim 18 is rejected mutatis mutandis on the same basis as Claim 4.
Claim 19 – Claim 19 is rejected mutatis mutandis on the same basis as Claim 5.
Claim 20 – Claim 20 is rejected mutatis mutandis on the same basis as Claim 6.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 is 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The combined references consider the EVA layers an integral part of the final product; therefore, liquid dissolution of the layers would not have been fairly taught or suggested by the references.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL G MILLER whose telephone number is (571)270-1861. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:30 EST.
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/MICHAEL G MILLER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1712
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