Appeal 2007-1524
Application 09/770,725
1 presence of moisture in lithium secondary batteries. The desirability of
2 solving these general problems would have led the person of ordinary skill
3 in the art to make the electrodes as free of moisture as possible.
4 While Applicants would have us believe that slight differences in
5 terms of composition are critical to whether the battery is susceptible to
6 moisture, the prior art suggests otherwise. Both Kurose and Watanabe
7 undercut Applicants’ argument because these references teach the
8 importance of eliminating water for a wide variety of electrode
9 compositions. Indeed, Applicants do not rely on any evidence to
10 demonstrate that variations in the composition of the lithium oxide positive
11 electrode material significantly affect absorption and release of water (i.e.,
12 that the variations in the composition of the lithium oxide positive electrode
13 material are critical to whether water detrimentally affects the characteristics
14 of the battery). Here, we find it significant that Applicants do not
15 unequivocally assert, much less prove, that one of ordinary skill in the art
16 would not have expected that moisture would cause problems in the type of
17 battery described in Takami.
18 We have considered the Yoshida Declaration but find that it is
19 insufficient to overcome the Examiner’s rejection. That Declaration merely
20 establishes a difference in dissolution rates of transition metal into the
21 electrolyte solution depending on the composition of the positive electrode.
22 Specifically, the data are said to show that the rate of dissolution of Mn from
23 LiMn2O4 into the electrolyte is much higher than the rate of dissolution of Ni
24 from LiNiO2. But Applicants have not established the relevance or
25 significance of the difference in the dissolution rates to the question of
26 whether one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected moisture to
16
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