YAZAKI CORPORATIONDownload PDFPatent Trials and Appeals BoardMay 17, 20212020003157 (P.T.A.B. May. 17, 2021) 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. 14/966,355 12/11/2015 Tomohiro Ikeda 6006-0202 1045 39083 7590 05/17/2021 KENEALY VAIDYA LLP 3050 K Street, N.W. Suite 302 Washington, DC 20007 EXAMINER AKHTAR, KIRAN QURAISHI ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 1723 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 05/17/2021 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): avaidya@kviplaw.com uspto@kviplaw.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte TOMOHIRO IKEDA, YOSHIAKI ICHIKAWA, HIROTAKA MUKASA, and TAISHI SAKAI Appeal 2020-003157 Application 14/966,355 Technology Center 1700 Before LINDA M. GAUDETTE, JEFFREY B. ROBERTSON, and CHRISTOPHER C. KENNEDY, Administrative Patent Judges. GAUDETTE, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL1 The Appellant2 appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), from the Examiner’s decision finally rejecting claims 1 and 3.3 We REVERSE. 1 The following documents are of record in this appeal: Specification filed December 11, 2015 (“Spec.”); Final Office Action dated April 17, 2019 (“Final Act.”); Appeal Brief filed October 17, 2019 (“Appeal Br.”); Examiner’s Answer dated January 27, 2020 (“Ans.”); and Reply Brief filed March 24, 2020 (“Reply Br.”). 2 “Appellant” refers to “applicant” as defined in 37 C.F.R. § 1.42. The Appellant identifies the real party in interest as Yazaki Corporation. Appeal Br. 3. 3 We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). Appeal 2020-003157 Application 14/966,355 2 CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER Claim 1, reproduced below, is illustrative of the claimed subject matter: 1. A cylindrical battery housing case comprising: a plurality of cylindrical battery housing chambers, each of the cylindrical battery housing chambers being configured to house one cylindrical battery, wherein each of the cylindrical battery housing chambers comprises a side wall having a plurality of notches and a plurality of elongated resilient members provided in a cantilevered manner inside the notches, each of the elongated resilient members comprising a protrusion configured to hold a cylindrical portion of the cylindrical battery, the plurality of cylindrical battery housing chambers comprises a first cylindrical battery housing chamber and a second cylindrical battery housing chamber adjacent to the first cylindrical battery housing chamber, the plurality of elongated resilient members of the first cylindrical battery housing chamber comprises a first elongated resilient member and a second elongated resilient member arranged along a circumferential direction of the first cylindrical battery housing chamber, the plurality of notches in the side wall of the first cylindrical battery housing chamber includes a common notch, and the plurality of notches in the side wall of the second cylindrical battery housing chamber includes the common notch, and the plurality of elongated resilient members of the second cylindrical battery housing chamber comprises a third elongated resilient member located in the common notch and arranged, in a front view of the cylindrical battery housing case, at an intermediate position between the first elongated resilient member and the second elongated resilient member in the Appeal 2020-003157 Application 14/966,355 3 circumferential direction of the first cylindrical battery housing chamber. Appeal Br. 22 (Claims App.) REFERENCES The Examiner relies on the following prior art: Name Reference Date Fukuma US 2010/009798 Jan. 14, 2010 Kwag US 2011/0039142 A1 Feb. 17, 2011 Foreman JP 2009/507342 A Feb. 19, 2009 Kimura WO2012/147134 A1 Feb. 13, 2014 REJECTION Claims 1 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as unpatentable over Fukuda (English translation submitted on June 9, 2017) in view of Foreman (English translation submitted on June 9, 2017), Kimura (using US 2014/045038 A1 as an English equivalent) and Kwag. Final Act. 2. OPINION Claim 1 recites a plurality of cylindrical battery housing chambers that includes adjacent first and second cylindrical battery housing chambers. Appeal Br. 22 (Claims App.). First and second elongated resilient members are arranged in notches along the first cylindrical battery housing chamber’s side wall in a circumferential direction. Id. Each elongated resilient member includes a protrusion configured to hold a cylindrical portion of a cylindrical battery. Id. The second cylindrical battery housing chamber likewise includes a plurality of notches and elongated resilient members. Id. The first Appeal 2020-003157 Application 14/966,355 4 and second cylindrical battery housing chambers share a common notch and elongated resilient member. Id. The Examiner found that Fukuda discloses adjacent first and second cylindrical battery housings, each having a plurality of notches and a plurality of elongated resilient members arranged along circumferential directions of the housing chambers. Final Act. 2–3. The Examiner found that although Fukuda does not specify that the elongated resilient members are positioned inside the notches and include a protrusion configured to hold a battery’s cylindrical portion, the ordinary artisan would have modified Fukuda’s housings to include these features based on the respective teachings of Foreman and Kimura. Id. at 4–6. The Examiner further found that the Fukuda-Foreman-Kimura combination does not include a common notch and elongated resilient member between the first and second cylindrical battery housing chambers. Final Act. 6. The Examiner found that Kwag “teaches a cylindrical battery housing (figs.2–5) with a plurality of notches (surfaces of #125 which the battery #150 contacts), the common notch (#125) includes resilient members (#121,#122).” Final Act. 7. The Examiner determined that the ordinary artisan would have included Kwag’s structure in Fukuda’s battery holding structure “to prevent overheating.” Id. (citing Kwag ¶ 6). The Appellant argues that the Examiner reversibly erred in finding that the claim term “notch” reads on Kwag’s surfaces 125. Appeal Br. 15. The Appellant further argues that even if the broadest reasonable construction of the term “notch” encompasses Kwag’s surfaces 125, Kwag’s fins 121, 122—the alleged resilient members—are not located in Kwag’s Appeal 2020-003157 Application 14/966,355 5 surfaces 125 as required by the claims. Id. at 15–16. Responsive to the Appellant’s arguments, the Examiner annotates Kwag’s Figure 3 to clarify the structures corresponding to the claimed resilient members and notches. See Ans. 10–14. In Reply Brief pages 4–6, the Appellant provides a detailed discussion of why the Examiner’s annotations and explanation are insufficient to support a finding that Kwag’s fins 121, 122 (resilient members) are located in a common notch as recited in claim 1. See Reply Br. 4–6. We find the Appellant’s arguments in Reply Brief pages 4–6 persuasive of reversible error in the Examiner’s obviousness conclusion. See, e.g., id. at 5 (“[T]he two annotations of Kwag’s Fig. 3 set forth in the Examiner’s Answer . . . clearly show that the alleged resilient members 121, 122 and/or 125 end where the alleged notches begin. Thus, none of the alleged resilient members 121, 122 and/or 125 is provided inside or located in any of the alleged notches.”); Spec. ¶ 38 (“Inside each notch, the elongated resilient member is provided such that it is supported at the bottom of the notch in a cantilevered manner.”). DECISION SUMMARY Claims Rejected 35 U.S.C. § Reference(s)/Basis Affirmed Reversed 1, 3 103 Fukuda, Foreman, Kimura, Kwag 1, 3 REVERSED Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation