Ex Parte Jung et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Jun 27, 2016

12882076 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 27, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
12/882,076 09/14/2010
23363 7590 06/29/2016
Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP
POBOX29001
Glendale, CA 91209-9001
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Won-II Jung
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.
66444/S744 2233
EXAMINER
DOVE, TRACY MAE
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
1726
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
06/29/2016 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):
pto@lrrc.com
pair_cph@firsttofile.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Exparte WON-II JUNG, YONG-CHUL PARK, GEUN-BAE KIM, and
JUN-WON SUH
Appeal 2014-007311
Application 12/882,076
Technology Center 1700
Before CATHERINE Q. TIMM, WESLEY B DERRICK, and
JULIA HEANEY, Administrative Patent Judges.
HEANEY, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Appellants 1 request review pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) of a
decision of the Examiner to reject claims 1-12 of Application 12/882,076.
We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We affirm.
BACKGROUND
The subject matter on appeal relates to a positive electrode for a
lithium secondary battery. App. Br. 2.
1 Appellants identify the real party in interest as Samsung SDI Co., Ltd.
App. Br. 1.
Appeal 2014-007311
Application 12/882,076
Claim 1, reproduced below from the Claims Appendix of the Appeal
Brief, is illustrative of the claims on appeal:
1. A positive electrode for a lithium secondary battery,
compnsmg:
a first positive active material selected from the group
consisting of nickel-based positive active materials and
manganese-based positive active materials, and a second
positive active material comprising a cobalt-based positive
active material; and
a conductive agent comprising a plurality of plate-
structured carbon particles;
wherein the plurality of plate-structured carbon particles
each include a long axis and a thickness and the ratio of the
long axis to the thickness is between 1 and 10: 1.
REFERENCES
The Examiner relied upon the following prior art in rejecting the
claims on appeal:
Iijima et al US 6,300,008 Bl Oct 9, 2001
(hereinafter "Iijima")
Suhara et al. US 6,929,883 B2 July 15, 2004
(hereinafter "Suhara")
THE REJECTION
Claims 1-12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable
over Iijima in view of Suhara.
DISCUSSION
Appellants present arguments directed generally to a limitation recited
in all of the independent claims and do not present arguments for any of the
2
Appeal 2014-007311
Application 12/882,076
dependent claims. App. Br. at 3-8. We select claim 1 as representative; all
other claims stand or fall with claim 1.
The Examiner finds that Iijima teaches a method for producing an
electrode for a non-aqueous electrolyte battery including an active material
composed of lithium composite oxide and an electrically conductive agent
composed of graphite having a flaky shape. Ans. 2, citing Iijima 1 :7-15.
The Examiner recognizes that Iijima does not explicitly teach the ratio of the
long axis to the short axis (thickness) of its graphite flake, but determines
that without a showing of criticality, the claimed ratio limitation would have
been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art in view of Iijima's flaky-
shaped graphite. Ans. 3. The Examiner further determines that because
Iijima teaches mixing lithium composite oxide as the active material with
flaky graphite as the electrically conductive agent in order to obtain
sufficient electrode conductivity, the claimed invention would have been
obvious to a person of ordinary skill as a way to increase the amount of
active material per unit electrode volume while using only a small amount of
electrically conductive agent, thereby increasing the active mass density of
the positive electrode and providing large charge/discharge capacities per
unit electrode volume. Ans. 3, citing Iijima 3:43-53. As to the "first
positive active material" and "second positive active material" recited in
claim 1, the Examiner finds Iijima teaches the lithium composite oxide may
be LixNi02 wherein O