Ex Parte AHNDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardJun 26, 201713463890 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 26, 2017) Copy Citation United States Patent and Trademark Office UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O.Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 13/463,890 05/04/2012 Chang-Bum AHN 304/260 1031 27849 7590 06/28/2017 LEE & MORSE, P.C. 3141 FAIR VIEW PARK DRIVE SUITE 500 FALLS CHURCH, VA 22042 EXAMINER VAN OUDENAREN, MATTHEW W ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 1729 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 06/28/2017 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): eoa@lee-iplaw.com swerbow@lee-iplaw.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte CHANG-BUM AHN1 Appeal 2016-003778 Application 13/463,890 Technology Center 1700 Before JEFFREY T. SMITH, JAMES C. HOUSEL, and JANE E. INGLESE, Administrative Patent Judges. SMITH, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the Examiner’s Final Rejection of claims 1—7, 9-11 and 13—21. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. §6. STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellant’s invention relates to a secondary battery including an electrode assembly, and at least one safety member coupled with the electrode assembly, the safety member having a safety layer including a 1 According to Appellant, the real party in interest is Samsung SDI Co., Ltd., See Appeal Br. 1. Appeal 2016-003778 Application 13/463,890 short-circuit heat absorbing material. (Spec. 1 5). Independent claim 1 is reproduced below: 1. A secondary battery, comprising: an electrode assembly, a case that accommodates the electrode assembly; and at least one safety member between the electrode assembly and the case and coupled with the electrode assembly, the safety member including: a base layer, a safety layer including a short-circuit heat absorbing material, and a first adhesive layer that attaches the safety member to the electrode assembly, the safety layer being between the base layer and the first adhesive layer. Appellant appeals the Examiner’s rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) of independent claims 1 and 19 as unpatentable over the combination of Shimoyamada (US 2005/0196664 Al, Pub. Sept. 8, 2005) and Kumar et al. (US 2009/0169983Al Pub. July 2, 2009) and of dependent claims 2—7, 9-11 and 13—18, 20 and 21 as unpatentable over the previously mentioned reference(s) alone or in combination with additional prior art. (App. Br. 3—12; Final Act. 2—23). 2 Appeal 2016-003778 Application 13/463,890 OPINION2 Upon consideration of the evidence in this appeal record in light of the respective positions advanced by the Examiner and Appellant, we determine that Appellant has identified reversible error in the Examiner’s determination that Shimoyamada describes a secondary battery including a case defined by the outer protective layer 7 alone and a safety member formed from the metal layer 8 and the thermoplastic resin layer 9 as required by independent claims 1 and 19. Accordingly, we reverse the Examiner’s § 103(a) rejections of the above claims for the reasons set forth in the Brief. We add the following. According to the Examiner: Shimoyamada teaches an electrode group (1) (i.e. “electrode assembly”), wherein said electrode group is accommodated within top and bottom protective layers (7) (the combination of said top and bottom protective layers is interpreted as the instantly claimed “case”) ([0109]). As further illustrated in Figure 2, Shimoyamada teaches a metal layer (8) and a thermoplastic resin layer (9) (the combination of said metal/resin layers is interpreted as the instantly claimed “safety member”) ([0109]). As illustrated in Figure 2, said metal/resin layers (i.e. “safety member”) are positioned between the electrode group and the top/bottom protective layers (i.e. “case”), wherein said metal/resin layers are interpreted as being “coupled” with the electrode group insofar as electrode group is shown as being in contact with the metal/resin layers. (Final Act. 5—6). We agree with Appellant that the secondary battery assembly comprising the multilayer case structure described by Shimoyamada is not the same as the secondary battery assembly specified by the claimed 2 We limit our discussion to independent claims 1 and 19. 3 Appeal 2016-003778 Application 13/463,890 invention. Appellant argues the Examiner’s rejection is improper because Shimoyamada describes the case that houses the electrode group is formed from a sheet including an outer protective layer 7, a metal layer 8 and a thermoplastic resin layer 9. (App. Br. 5—6; Shimoyamada H 109, 125 and 126). The Examiner’s interpretation that the outer protective layer 7 of Shimoyamada could alone be interpreted as the recited “case,” and that the metal layer 8 and the thermoplastic resin layer 9 could be interpreted as the recited “safety member” does not meet the structure required by the present invention. The Specification states the secondary battery includes a case for accommodating the electrode assembly with the safety member placed between the electrode assembly and the case. (Spec. 116). The Specification specifically states: In the present embodiment, a battery case is formed in a pouch type, as shown in FIG. 1. The battery case includes a case body 110, and a case cover 120 disposed on the case body 110. The case body 110 includes an accommodating part 111 that accommodates the electrode assembly 10. The accommodating part 111 has an open upper side and is formed with a first sealing part 112 extending outwards on an upper end of the accommodating part 111. (Spec 139). The Specification further discloses the safety member is coupled to the electrode assembly. (Spec. 143). The Specification specifically states: The safety member 200 may be interposed between the electrode assembly 10 and any one side of a plurality of sides of the case body 110. The safety member 200 may have a size that corresponds to the size of the electrode assembly 10 between the electrode assembly 10 and the case. (Spec. 143). 4 Appeal 2016-003778 Application 13/463,890 Thus, the structure required by the claimed invention is not the same as the structure of Shimoyamada resulting from the Examiner’s interpretation. The Examiner relied on Kumar for describing a short-circuit heat absorbing material, i.e., a phase-change material. (Final Act. 6—7). The addition of the phase change in material is not related to Shimoyamada’s failure to describe the case structure required by the claimed invention. Accordingly, on this record, we are constrained to reverse the Examiner’s rejections of claims 1—7, 9-11 and 13—21 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). ORDER The Examiner’s prior art rejections of claims 1—7, 9—11 and 13—21 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) are reversed. REVERSED 5 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation