Appeal 2007-2550
Application 10/321,182
battery, which Fujita clearly discloses the PTC as so being (Fujita, col. 14, ll.
30-48).
We add that the Examiner’s combination of Fujita’s PTC safety
device with Kucherovsky’s flexible flat battery involves merely the
predictable use of prior art elements according to their established functions.
KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385,
1396 (2007). In the present case, combining Fujita’s PTC, a known battery
safety device, with Kucherovsky’s flexible battery would have provided an
added safety feature to the battery according to the established function of
the PTC by Fujita. Accordingly, the combination of Kucherovsky’s flexible
battery in view of Fujita’s PTC safety device would have been obvious
because it is merely the predictable use of prior art elements according to
their established functions. Id.
For the above reasons, we affirm the Examiner’s § 103(a) rejection of
claim 91 over Kucherovsky in view of Fujita.1
1 The Examiner rejected claim 91 under § 103(a). However, it appears to us
that claim 91, when given its broadest reasonable construction, is actually
anticipated by Kucherovsky under § 102(e). Specifically, Appellants define
“discontinuous” current carrying system as including “a current carrying
system . . . where two distinct structures are employed for the purpose of
carrying current between an electrode and the external cell terminal”
(Specification 31:14-16). Appellants further provide an example of a
“discontinuous” current carrying structure as including one where the
external terminal end and the internal current collector end are in “direct
contact” (Specification 31). Therefore, according to Appellants’ definition,
the recitation in claim 91 to “a discontinuous current carrying structure in
the seal area” may be inclusive of, for example, Kucherovsky’s electrical
contact 52 (i.e., external terminal) and anode current collector 28 (i.e.,
internal current collector) being in direct physical contact and partially
contained in the seal junction as Kucherovsky discloses (See our discussion
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