Ex Parte Partington et alDownload PDFPatent Trials and Appeals BoardFeb 11, 201611597066 - (D) (P.T.A.B. Feb. 11, 2016) Copy Citation UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR 111597,066 02/19/2008 Kenneth Michael Partington 20792 7590 02/12/2016 MYERS BIGEL & SIBLEY, PA PO BOX 37428 RALEIGH, NC 27627 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 ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 9021-17 4379 EXAMINER WILLS, MONIQUE M ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 1721 MAILDATE DELIVERY MODE 02/12/2016 PAPER 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. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte KENNETH MICHAEL PARTINGTON and GERARD CHEV ALIER Appeal2014-003910 Application 11/597 ,066 Technology Center 1700 Before TERRY J. OWENS, N. WHITNEY WILSON, and CHRISTOPHER L. OGDEN, Administrative Patent Judges. OWENS, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE The Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner's rejection of claims 1-12, 15, 16 and 18. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). The Invention The Appellants claim a battery, a manifold assembly for a battery, and a method for making a battery. Claim 1 is illustrative: 1. A battery comprising a casing having one or more gas vents, a manifold arranged to collect gas emerging from the vents, and a double-sided adhesive gasket arranged between the manifold and the casing forming a seal therebetween, Appeal2014-003910 Application 11/597 ,066 wherein the manifold includes a spigot configured to enable gas in the manifold to be expelled therefrom. Gelting Badger Provencher The References us 3,436,272 us 3,904,441 US 6,736,406 Bl The Rejections Apr. 1, 1969 Sep.9, 1975 May 18, 2004 The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as follows: claims 1- 10, 15, 16 and 18 over Badger in view of Gelting and claims 11and12 over Badger in view of Gelting and Provencher. OPINION We reverse the rejections. We need address only the independent claims (1, 11 and 12). Those claims require a spigot configured to enable gas in a manifold to be expelled therefrom. To meet that claim requirement the Examiner relies upon Badger and Gelting (Ans. 2-3). Badger discloses a battery vent "which can be economically formed within the cover for an automotive type storage battery to present a pleasing appearance without external obstructions upon the cover, as is the case with the gang type vents or individual vent plugs" (col. 1, 11. 57-63). "[T]he intercell electrical connections are internal so that the cover of the battery 10 presents a simplified and pleasing appearance and is characterized by the absence of protrusions other that the positive and negative terminals" (col. 2, 11. 26-30; Fig. 1 ). The cover (11) has on its upper surface a longitudinal channel (12) along the middle of which an elongate acid proof gasket (14) having openings (15) positioned to coincide with apertures (13) in the 2 Appeal2014-003910 Application 11/597 ,066 cover (11) is adhesively sealed (col. 2, 11. 17-22, 33-38; Figs. 2, 3). A strip of microporous filter material ( 16) having a width less than that of the gasket ( 14) extends across the gasket ( 14)' s upper surface and has its upper surface adhesively secured to the planar lower surface of an elongate guard (17) which extends along the length of the cover (11) within the channel (12) (col. 2, 11. 43--49; Figs. 1, 2). "[T]he guard 17 has a generally planar upper surface with a continuous rim extending around its periphery to provide a continuous downwardly extending lip 18 on both ends and the sides of the guard 17 and a plurality of spaced apart platforms or spacers 19 lying outside of the filter strip 16 but within the peripheral lip 18" (col. 2, 11. 49-55; Fig. 4). "[T]he lower surface of the platforms or spacers 19 is adhesively secured to the adjacent upper surface of the gasket 14 to hold the guard 17 in place upon the cover 11" (col. 2, 11. 56-59). A "gas passage 20 is in communication with a space 21 between the lip 18 on the guard 17 and the opposed side of the channel 12 in the cover 11" (col. 3, 11. 1--4; Fig. 2). The lip (18) "provides a physical barrier against the ingress of dirt, oil, etc., into the position of the filter strip 16 and also forms an egress passage for gas passing through [the apertures ( 13) and openings ( 15) to] the filter 16" (col. 3, 11. 8-11; Fig. 2). Gelting discloses a manifold for providing air flow to and from a fuel cell stack (col. 2, 11. 13-30). The manifold has a cap (9) including two chambers (52, 54) which provide, respectively, communication with all air inlet passages (32) and outlet passages (34) (col. 2, 11. 64--70; Fig. 3). "Each of the chambers 52 and 56 [sic, 54] is connected externally as by an inlet spigot 60 and an outlet spigot 62" (col. 3, 11. 2--4) such that "each inlet 3 Appeal2014-003910 Application 11/597 ,066 port 32 of all of the parallel and series connected U-paths for the flow of air feeds from a common plenum chamber 52 in the cap for the cell stack" (col. 3, 11. 5-8; Fig. 3) and "all of the outlets 34 discharge into a common plenum chamber 54 in the same cap" (col. 3, 11. 8-9). The Examiner argues that "it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to employ the spigot of Gelting, in the aperture/manifold of Badger, in order to effectively guide reactant gases to and from electrochemical cell" (Ans. 3). That argument is not well taken because unlike Gelting' s fuel cell, gases are not guided to Badger's automotive type storage battery. The Examiner asserts that "[t]he skilled artisan recognizes that spigots are used [to] direct fluid flow" (Ans. 3), "[a] spigot may be used to increase the rate at which excessive gas is expelled from the device" (Ans. 10), "providing multiple venting structures is well known in the art to assist discharging gas from batteries" (Ans. 10-11 ), and "[ m ]ultiple scores, apertures and venting structures are commonly used to increase the efficiency of pressure relief' (Ans. 11). The Appellants acknowledge that spigots for evacuating gases from sealed lead acid batteries are conventional (Spec. i-fi-13--4). To establish that including Gelting's spigot in Badger's battery would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, the Examiner must show that the prior art would have provided one of ordinary skill in the art with an apparent reason to do so. See KSR Int'! Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 418 (2007) (establishing a prima facie case of obviousness of an invention comprising a combination of known elements requires "an apparent reason 4 Appeal2014-003910 Application 11/597 ,066 to combine the known elements in the fashion claimed"). The Examiner, however, has not provided evidence or reasoning which shows that one of ordinary skill in the art would have considered Badger's gas evacuation technique to be inadequate such that an additional gas evacuation device such as a spigot is required or that, regardless of Badger's disclosure that a desirable feature of Badger's gas evacuation technique is that it presents a pleasing appearance without external obstructions or protrusions other than the positive and negative terminals (col. 1, 11. 59---63; col. 2, 11. 26-30), one of ordinary skill in the art would have been led to place a spigot on Badger's battery. The Examiner argues that Gelting' s spigot would not be an external obstruction on Badger's battery because the spigot does not obstruct gas flow but, rather, provides a passageway for gas (Ans. 11 ). By "obstructions," Badger means protruding obstructions which detract from the battery's pleasing appearance, not obstructions to gas flow (col. 1, 11. 59---63; col. 2, 11. 26-30). Thus, the Examiner has not established a prima facie of obviousness of the Appellants' claimed invention. DECISION/ORDER The rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103 of claims 1-10, 15, 16 and 18 over Badger in view of Gelting and claims 11 and 12 over Badger in view of Gelting and Provencher are reversed. It is ordered that the Examiner's decision is reversed. REVERSED 5 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation