Invalidity Analysis — US8241791 (public record)
Full Analysis

Invalidity Analysis — US8241791 (public record)

August 3, 2026·Sparlo Report

§ 1

Overview & Grounds

About This Analysis

Prior-art invalidity analysis of a published / issued patent, prepared as attorney work product for your review and action. For attorney review — not a legal opinion, and not a validity determination; verify every reference, date, and quotation. This analysis charts the strongest prior-art references element-by-element against the target's independent claims and presents ranked candidate §102 anticipation and §103 obviousness grounds — each with a strength assessment, its weakest link, and the patentee's likely counterarguments. It applies a deterministic priority-date filter: a reference dated on or after the target's priority date is NOT prior art and is excluded from the grounds. Nothing confidential was analyzed — the input is a published patent, and the prior-art searches used the target patent's own public language.

Target patent: US8241791
Title: Cathode compositions for lithium-ion batteries
Priority date (as extracted): April 27, 2001

Ranked Invalidity Grounds

No candidate invalidity grounds were produced. This does not mean the patent is valid — it means the dated prior art retrieved in this run did not support a chartable §102 or §103 ground. Broaden the search or supply additional references. For attorney review — not a validity determination.

Priority-date filter: 1 reference(s) qualified as prior art, 10 excluded on date, 8 undated (ineligible for grounds).

Unverified leads (no established date — not usable as grounds)

These references had no establishable date, so they were withheld from the grounds analysis — an undated reference cannot anchor a §102/§103 ground. Undated web results are often post-priority commentary describing the target’s own commercialized feature; treat these strictly as leads to date manually.

  • Facile Redox Synthesis of Layered LiNi 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 O 2 for Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries (non-patent literature)
  • Lattice Oxygen Instability in Oxide-Based Intercalation Cathodes: A Case Study of Layered LiNi 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 O 2 (non-patent literature)
  • Relationships between the crystal/interfacial properties and electrochemical performance of LiNi 0.33 Co 0.33 Mn 0.33 O 2 in the voltage window of 2.5–4.6   V (non-patent literature)
  • Rapid synthetic routes to prepare LiNi 1/3 Mn 1/3 Co 1/3 O 2 as a high voltage, high-capacity Li-ion battery cathode material (non-patent literature)
  • Hydrothermal synthesis of layered Li[Ni 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 ]O 2 as positive electrode material for lithium secondary battery (non-patent literature)
  • Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 nanosheets with porous structure as a high-performance cathode material for lithium-ion batteries - PMC (non-patent literature)
  • Structural and electrochemical performance of layered high-Mn cathode materials Li 1+ n [Ni m Co m Mn 1−2 m ]O 2 for lithium rechargeable batteries (non-patent literature)
  • Li x Co 0.4 Ni 0.3 Mn 0.3 O 2 electrode materials: Electrochemical and structural studies (non-patent literature)
§ 2

Claim Charts

Element-by-element mapping of the strongest prior-art references against the target’s independent claims. A single absent element defeats §102 anticipation for that reference (it may still contribute to a §103 combination). Quoted reference passages are verified verbatim against the fetched reference text; any unverified quote is flagged in the Priority-Date Discipline section. For attorney review.

US6203944 — Electrode for a lithium battery vs. claim 1

Verdict: missing element(s) — no §102.

The available text of US6203944 describes an electrode (an anode-type composition) made from an electrochemically active metal element that, prior to cycling, is 'in the form of an intermetallic compound or an elemental metal' (e.g., tin) combined with a non-electrochemically active metal element (e.g., molybdenum, niobium, tungsten, tantalum, iron, copper), characterized by a nanoscale crystalline microstructure. Nothing in the provided text discloses a lithium metal-oxide cathode composition, the layered oxide formula Li[M4yM51-2yMny]O2, any value of the stoichiometric parameter y, a chromium-exclusion proviso, cobalt as M4, or a Li/Ni combination as M5. Every element of target claim 1 is therefore absent from this reference. Because no single limitation of the claim maps to the reference — indeed all six are absent — this reference does not anticipate claim 1 under §102 (MPEP § 2131), which requires a single reference to disclose every element arranged as in the claim. This is a candidate assessment for attorney review, not a validity determination.

Claim elementDisclosureLocationReference text
A cathode composition for a lithium-ion batteryabsent——
the cathode composition has the formula Li[M4yM51-2yMny]O2absent——
wherein 0.083<y<0.5absent——
with the proviso that M4 and M5 do not include chromiumabsent——
M4 is Coabsent——
M5 includes the combination of Li and Niabsent——
§ 3

Priority-Date Discipline

Note

A reference is §102 prior art only if its effective date is BEFORE the target’s priority date (April 27, 2001). This filter is deterministic: references dated on or after that date are excluded from every ground; references with no establishable date are flagged for manual dating and are never silently treated as prior art. For attorney review — confirm each date against the reference itself.

Qualified prior art (1)

  • US6203944 — 2001-03-20 — dated 2001-03-20 (publication), before the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — qualifies as prior art

Excluded — not prior art (10)

  • US6964828 — 2003-02-06 — dated 2003-02-06 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • US10290869B2 — 2015-09-24 — dated 2015-09-24 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • JP7195275B2 — 2022-12-23 — dated 2022-12-23 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • JP7122309B2 — 2022-08-19 — dated 2022-08-19 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • JP7353983B2 — 2023-10-02 — dated 2023-10-02 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • JP7825662B2 — 2026-03-06 — dated 2026-03-06 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • CN108292759B — 2020-10-30 — dated 2020-10-30 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • CN108123114B — 2019-11-29 — dated 2019-11-29 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • AU2020202401B2 — 2022-08-18 — dated 2022-08-18 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

  • EP3248233B1 — 2021-06-23 — dated 2021-06-23 (publication), on or after the target's priority date April 27, 2001 — NOT prior art; excluded from grounds

Undated — verify manually (8)

  • Facile Redox Synthesis of Layered LiNi 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 O 2 for Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries — no date could be established for this reference — confirm it predates the target's priority date before relying on it

  • Lattice Oxygen Instability in Oxide-Based Intercalation Cathodes: A Case Study of Layered LiNi 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 O 2 — no date could be established for this reference — confirm it predates the target's priority date before relying on it

  • Relationships between the crystal/interfacial properties and electrochemical performance of LiNi 0.33 Co 0.33 Mn 0.33 O 2 in the voltage window of 2.5–4.6   V — no date could be established for this reference — confirm it predates the target's priority date before relying on it

  • Rapid synthetic routes to prepare LiNi 1/3 Mn 1/3 Co 1/3 O 2 as a high voltage, high-capacity Li-ion battery cathode material — no date could be established for this reference — confirm it predates the target's priority date before relying on it

  • Hydrothermal synthesis of layered Li[Ni 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 ]O 2 as positive electrode material for lithium secondary battery — no date could be established for this reference — confirm it predates the target's priority date before relying on it

  • Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 nanosheets with porous structure as a high-performance cathode material for lithium-ion batteries - PMC — no date could be established for this reference — confirm it predates the target's priority date before relying on it

  • Structural and electrochemical performance of layered high-Mn cathode materials Li 1+ n [Ni m Co m Mn 1−2 m ]O 2 for lithium rechargeable batteries — no date could be established for this reference — confirm it predates the target's priority date before relying on it

  • Li x Co 0.4 Ni 0.3 Mn 0.3 O 2 electrode materials: Electrochemical and structural studies — no date could be established for this reference — confirm it predates the target's priority date before relying on it

§ 4

Search & Data Egress

Data Egress Log

Note

Unlike the other attorney modes, this analysis did make external requests — and that is by design. The target is a published patent **, so its language is already public: the prior-art searches used the target patent’s own published claim language, and every fetch was a public patent-number lookup. Nothing confidential was ingested or transmitted.

Prior-art queries sent: 15 (built from the target patent’s own published language) Search providers queried: uspto, google_patents, exa

Public patents fetched by number:

  • US8241791
  • US6203944
  • US6964828
  • US10290869B2
  • JP7195275B2
  • JP7122309B2
  • JP7353983B2
  • JP7825662B2
  • CN108292759B
  • CN108123114B
  • AU2020202401B2
  • EP3248233B1

Search diagnostics (counts only):

  • Google Patents search results returned: 84
  • Exa (non-patent literature) results returned: 13
  • Candidate patent numbers extracted: 82
  • Cited-on-face references extracted: 3
  • Reference deep-fetches attempted: 12
  • Reference deep-fetches succeeded: 11

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