文/北京集佳知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)代理有限公司西安分部 秦曉君
一、歐洲口審意見(jiàn)簡(jiǎn)介
口審(Oral proceedings)是歐洲專利審查程序的末端，在歐專局下發(fā)的口審?fù)ㄖ型ǔ?huì)規(guī)定口審的具體日期、地點(diǎn)以及形式（現(xiàn)場(chǎng)會(huì)晤或視頻會(huì)議），還會(huì)規(guī)定遞交書面答復(fù)意見(jiàn)(written submissions)的期限?？趯?fù)ㄖ陌l(fā)文日距口審舉行日期的時(shí)間跨度通常為至少四個(gè)月。
口審意見(jiàn)答復(fù)通常分為兩個(gè)階段：第一階段，遞交書面答復(fù)意見(jiàn)（可以包括申請(qǐng)文件修改以及爭(zhēng)辯）；第二階段，在書面答復(fù)意見(jiàn)仍然不被審查員接受、申請(qǐng)不能獲得授權(quán)的情況下，在口審?fù)ㄖ?guī)定的時(shí)間以現(xiàn)場(chǎng)會(huì)晤或視頻會(huì)議的形式與審查員舉行口審（如果遞交書面答復(fù)意見(jiàn)之后獲得了授權(quán)，就不再舉行第二階段的口審）。
在提供針對(duì)口審的書面答復(fù)意見(jiàn)時(shí)，允許提供兩種答復(fù)方案，其中一個(gè)方案作為主請(qǐng)求(main request)，另一個(gè)方案作為輔請(qǐng)求(auxiliary request)。
去口審舉辦地參加現(xiàn)場(chǎng)口審，需要支付外所律師的代理費(fèi)、交通費(fèi)、食宿費(fèi)等，因此口審的費(fèi)用比較高，通常為普通OA費(fèi)用的3-4倍。如果本申請(qǐng)的授權(quán)前景黯淡，代理人在向客戶提供答復(fù)建議時(shí)，需要提醒客戶是否有必要參加口審，以避免產(chǎn)生不必要的高額費(fèi)用。
二、口審案例分享
1.審查意見(jiàn)
筆者曾處理過(guò)關(guān)于歐洲申請(qǐng)EP16869830.6的口審意見(jiàn)，該口審的發(fā)文日為2020年9月11日，遞交書面答復(fù)意見(jiàn)的期限為2020年12月23日，口審的舉辦日期為2021年1月26日，形式為視頻會(huì)議。
在審查意見(jiàn)中，審查員認(rèn)為上一通答復(fù)稿中修改后的權(quán)1仍然存在不清楚和缺乏創(chuàng)造性的問(wèn)題。
關(guān)于不清楚，審查員認(rèn)為，根據(jù)權(quán)1，多個(gè)正極耳和多個(gè)負(fù)極耳形成極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)或極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)；根據(jù)權(quán)2（權(quán)1的從權(quán)），鋰離子電池電芯包括形成極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)的多個(gè)正極耳，權(quán)2對(duì)負(fù)極耳的設(shè)置沒(méi)有進(jìn)行限定，因此多個(gè)負(fù)極耳可以為疊合的或錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列的，即權(quán)2對(duì)應(yīng)于如下實(shí)施例：正極耳形成極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)，負(fù)極耳可以為疊合的或錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列的；根據(jù)權(quán)3（權(quán)2的從權(quán)），進(jìn)一步限定鋰離子電池電芯包括形成極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)的多個(gè)負(fù)極耳，因此，權(quán)1+權(quán)2+權(quán)3限定了包括多個(gè)正極耳和多個(gè)負(fù)極耳的鋰離子電池電芯，其中，正極耳和負(fù)極耳均形成極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)；根據(jù)權(quán)4（權(quán)3的從權(quán)），限定了多個(gè)正極耳或多個(gè)負(fù)極耳形成極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)。權(quán)4+權(quán)3限定了多個(gè)正極耳同時(shí)形成了極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)和極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)，且多個(gè)負(fù)極耳同時(shí)形成了極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)和極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)。說(shuō)明書沒(méi)有與權(quán)4的技術(shù)方案對(duì)應(yīng)的實(shí)施例。此外，本申請(qǐng)說(shuō)明書第54段有以下記載：通過(guò)以上公式計(jì)算出極耳的位置后，極耳向前向后移動(dòng)一定的距離以形成極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)。這意味著，根據(jù)說(shuō)明書，極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)和極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)是選擇關(guān)系，不是同時(shí)形成的。因此，權(quán)4不應(yīng)是權(quán)1至權(quán)3的從權(quán)。
關(guān)于創(chuàng)造性，審查員認(rèn)為權(quán)1中關(guān)于極耳間距離的限定公式未被對(duì)比文件公開(kāi)，權(quán)1具有新穎性。但是，具有特定距離的極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)或極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)是現(xiàn)有技術(shù)中的電池結(jié)構(gòu)的顯而易見(jiàn)的替代方案，沒(méi)有產(chǎn)生相關(guān)的有益效果，因此，權(quán)1不具有創(chuàng)造性。
2.答復(fù)思路
關(guān)于權(quán)1同時(shí)記載關(guān)于極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)和極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)導(dǎo)致的不清楚的問(wèn)題，經(jīng)與發(fā)明人溝通，極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)和極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)是選擇關(guān)系，不可能同時(shí)形成。為了克服不清楚的問(wèn)題，筆者建議對(duì)權(quán)項(xiàng)重新進(jìn)行撰寫，將權(quán)1中的并列方案進(jìn)行拆分，撰寫一套關(guān)于極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu)的權(quán)項(xiàng)，正極耳間的距離通過(guò)d1=n1w-x1+(0.5πt∑n1-0.5πt)或d1=n3w+x1+[0.5πt∑(n3+1)-0.5πt]進(jìn)行限定；此外，撰寫一套關(guān)于極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)的權(quán)項(xiàng)，正極耳間的距離通過(guò)d1=n1w-x1+(0.5πt∑n1-0.5πt)或d1=n3w+x1+[0.5πt∑(n3+1)?0.5πt]進(jìn)行限定。
拆分后的獨(dú)權(quán)1(極耳疊合結(jié)構(gòu))和獨(dú)權(quán)6（極耳錯(cuò)開(kāi)排列結(jié)構(gòu)）如下：
1. A lithium-ion battery cell, comprising:
a positive plate;
a membrane; and
a negative plate, wherein
a plurality of positive lugs is arranged along a winding direction on the positive plate in a unfolded state, a plurality of negative lugs is arranged along the winding direction on the negative plate in a unfolded state, and
the positive plate and the negative plate are separated by the membrane and are wound to form the lithium-ion battery cell, the plurality of positive lugs forms a lug laminated structure, and the plurality of negative lugs forms a lug laminated structure,
and wherein the plurality of positive lugs is arranged in parallel in a direction along a length of the positive plate;
a first lug margin x1 indicates a distance between a first positive lug and a head of the positive plate relative to the winding direction, a distance between each of the positive lugs other than the first positive lug and the head of the positive plate is indicated by d1, with d1=n1w-x1+(0.5πt∑n1-0.5πt) or d1=n3w+x1+[0.5πt∑(n3+1)-0.5πt];
the lithium-ion battery cell is square, and the plurality of positive lugs forms the lug laminated structure;
where t indicates a sum of thicknesses of the positive plate, the membrane and the negative plate, w indicates a width of the cell, the first positive lug is the one of the positive lugs which is located closest to the head of the positive plate, n1 indicates that a positive lug is located at the n1-th w on the positive plate along a direction from the head to a tail of the positive plate, and n3 indicates that a positive lug is located at the (n3+1)-th w on the positive plate along the direction from the head to the tail of the positive plate.
6. A lithium-ion battery cell, comprising:
a positive plate;
a membrane; and
a negative plate, wherein
a plurality of positive lugs is arranged along a winding direction on the positive plate in a unfolded state, a plurality of negative lugs is arranged along the winding direction on the negative plate in unfolded state, and
the positive plate and the negative plate are separated by the membrane and are wound to form the lithium-ion battery cell, the plurality of positive lugs forms a lug staggered structure, and the plurality of negative lugs forms a lug staggered structure;
wherein
wherein intervals between adjacent staggered positive lugs in m1 positive lugs are the same; starting from the first one in the m1 positive lugs, d1 of the m1 positive lugs is decreased by a first interval value mq; wherein d1=n1w-x1+(0.5πt∑n1-0.5πt), q indicates an interval between two adjacent staggered positive lugs, m indicates a sequence number of a positive lug in the m1 positive lugs along a direction from the head to the tail of the positive plate, 1≤m≤m1; or
starting from the first one in the m1 positive lugs, d1 of each of the m1 positive lugs is increased by a first interval value mq; wherein d1=n3w+x1+[0.5πt∑(n3+1)?0.5πt], q indicates an interval between two adjacent staggered positive lugs, m indicates a sequence number of a positive lug in the m1 positive lugs along a direction from the head to tail of the positive plate 1≤m≤m1.
關(guān)于獨(dú)權(quán)缺乏創(chuàng)造性的問(wèn)題，與口審之前的OA答復(fù)中的策略相似。爭(zhēng)辯權(quán)1和（權(quán)6）中記載的極耳間的距離公式d1未被現(xiàn)有技術(shù)公開(kāi)，說(shuō)明權(quán)1中限定的極耳設(shè)置方式不是本領(lǐng)域的慣用技術(shù)手段或公知常識(shí)；該區(qū)別技術(shù)特征所解決的技術(shù)問(wèn)題為如何通過(guò)設(shè)置電池電芯中的極耳之間的間距以提高電池的倍率性能（即電池功率密度）。相較于之前的答復(fù)，對(duì)技術(shù)問(wèn)題進(jìn)行了特別的具體化，使技術(shù)問(wèn)題與區(qū)別技術(shù)特征之間建立了緊密的對(duì)應(yīng)關(guān)系。
3.答復(fù)結(jié)果
筆者根據(jù)上述答復(fù)思路進(jìn)行答復(fù)之后，審查員下發(fā)了授權(quán)通知，沒(méi)有進(jìn)行視頻會(huì)議形式的口審。
4.案例總結(jié)
針對(duì)題述口審意見(jiàn)在遞交書面答復(fù)意見(jiàn)之后直接獲得了授權(quán)，避免了以視頻會(huì)議形式進(jìn)行的口審，為申請(qǐng)人節(jié)省了費(fèi)用。針對(duì)審查員指出的不清楚的審查意見(jiàn)，筆者經(jīng)與發(fā)明人溝通后將原權(quán)1的并列技術(shù)方案拆分為兩個(gè)獨(dú)權(quán)，較為徹底地解決了不清楚的問(wèn)題；不清楚的問(wèn)題解決之后，審查員對(duì)技術(shù)方案的理解更深入，也接受了關(guān)于創(chuàng)造性的爭(zhēng)辯（其實(shí)創(chuàng)造性的爭(zhēng)辯理由與之前的OA答復(fù)比較相似）。