DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/29/2026 has been entered.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Drawings
The drawings filed 2/1/7/2021 are accepted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 6, and 11-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2019/031679 (published 1/8/2019; herein referred to as LG CHEM; for citation purpose the English language equivalent US 2019/03720 is relied upon) in view of JP2016149473 (herein referred to as Sugino. US 2018/0037546 is relied upon as an English equivalent thereof).
LG Chem teaches an organic light emitting device comprising at least on light emitting layer which comprises a first host compound and a second host compound (abstract). The layer may further comprise a dopant (0073). The first host compound (herein understood to be similar to chemical formula 1) wherein :
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Each X may comprise N (013; 0054) and Ar1 and Ar2 are preferably phenyl or biphenyl (0055).
The second host compound is represented by the following compound, which is herein understood to read on claimed formula 2 of claim 1.
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Wherein the equivalents of claimed Ar3 and Ar4 are each independently a substituted or unsubstituted Ce-60 aryl; or a substituted or unsubstituted C260 heteroaryl containing at least one of O, N, Si and S (See 0019 and 0020); the equivalent of claimed L1 and L2 are each independently a single bond (0021); or a substituted or unsubstituted C2-60 arylene(0021); the equivalent of claimed, R11 to R14 are each independently hydrogen; deuterium; halogen; hydroxy; nitrile; nitro; amino; a substituted or unsubstituted C2-60 alkyl; a substituted or unsubstituted C2. go alkoxy; a substituted or unsubstituted C2-¢0 alkenyl; a substituted or unsubstituted aryl; a substituted or unsubstituted C260 heteroaryl containing at least one of O, N, Si and S (0023) and each of the equivalents of claimed, b and e are each independently an integer of 1 to 4, and c and d are each independently an integer of 1 to 3 (0023). LG Chem further teaches the claimed compound wherein AR3 and Ar4 are each independently a phenyl (see broad teaching cited above, and examples of 0059). Furthermore, LG Chem teaches the organic light emitting composition of claim 1 wherein L1 and L2 are each a single bond (0017+).
LG Chem teaches the organic light emitting composition of claim 1 wherein the equivalents of R11 and R14 are hydrogen (0023 wherein R2 and R3 are hydrogen).
With regards to claim 11, LG Chem teaches the organic light emitting composition of claim 1 wherein (0068+).
While LG Chem teaches the first host material is similar to chemical equation 1, said reference fails to teach a host compound meeting the claimed chemical formula. However, Sugino teaches a light emitting compound which may comprise the compound of formula (2) (0014-herein understood to read on compound 1-A of claim 1):
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Sugino further teaches R1 and R2 may be condensed rings (0099; 1027); herein understood to be sufficiently specific to read on the compound of formula 1-1. Alternatively, Sugino teaches that R1 and R2 may further have a substituent as long as it does not inhibit the function of the compound of the present invention (0101). Each Y may comprise N ( 0057) and Ar1 and Ar2 may comprise phenyl or biphenylyl (0099).Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to utilize a compound of formula 1-1 in the light emitting compound of formula 2 as the skilled artisan would have a reasonable expectation that said condensed ring substituent of formula 1-1 would not inhibit the function of the invention. It would have been obvious to utilize the light emitting compound of Sugino in place of the first host material disclosed in LG Chem. The motivation for doing so would have been that the compounds of Sugino are taught to have high emission efficiency, long emission lifetimes, and small deteriorations with time when used even under high temperature conditions.
With regards to claim 6, Sugino is understood to teach, or alternatively, render obvious at least the first/top row of claimed compounds for the reasons noted above.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 1/29/2026 have been fully considered but are not persuasive.
35 U.S.C. § 103
With regards to the rejection of claims 1-2, 5-7 and 10-14 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2019/031679 (“Cho”) in view of JP 2016149473 ( "Sugino"), Applicant respectfully traverses the rejection. Applicant has filed a declaration by Minjun Kim in support of patentability. Specifically, Kim (a named inventor in the application) argues the amended claims in the application exhibit superior results than the prior art cited by the US Patent Examiner. Specifically, claim 1 of the application is amended to further limit the compounds to those of Chemical Formula 1-A, 1-B or 1-C; and that of Chemical Formula 2-1. Compounds 1-2, 6-7, 9-10, 13-17, 19, and 22 are those of Chemical Formula 1-A; Compounds 3, 8, 11, and 20-21 are those of Chemical Formula 1-B; Compounds 4, 5, 12, and 18 are those of Chemical Formula 1-C; and Compounds 2-1 to 2-23 are those of Chemical Formula 2-1.
Declarant contends the combination of the compound of Chemical Formulas 1-A, 1-B, or 1-C with the compound of Chemical Formula 2-1 yields results that are superior to those by
the compounds of Cho and Sugino. Said argument is noted but is not persuasive as the argument is not commensurate in scope with the pending claims. For example, the specification does not contain data for many examples wherein neither Ar1 nor Ae2 are phenyl. Furthermore, it is unclear the results of the specification can be extrapolated to species which are not tested. While Declarant states that the compounds of Chemical Formulas 1-A through 1-C exhibit substantially similar performance to one another, and that the compounds of Chemical Formula 2-1 likewise provide substantially similar performance among themselves, there is insufficient evidence supporting said conclusion. For example the results for compounds 13-15 are not clearly significantly different from the comparative examples (e.g. comparative examples C-8 and C-10). Declarant argues the compounds of Chemical Formulas 1-A, 1-B, and 1-C share (i) a dibenzofuran or naphthobenzofuran core, and (ii) structurally similar triazine-based and carbazole-based substituents positioned in a comparable manner and that based on these shared structural features, these compounds would be expected to yield substantially similar results. However, said argument fails to sufficiently distinguish the results of the inventive examples from the closest prior art or sufficiently explain why one of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably expect all the species within the scope of claim 1 to have similar results. Furthermore, said argument of unexpected results is not persuasive as the skilled artisan would expect the driving voltage, efficiency, and lifetime to be dependent upon other (unclaimed) variables such as dopant and dopant concentration.
For at least the foregoing reasons, applicant’s arguments are not persuasive and the claims remain rejected for reasons set forth herein.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 2020/00317650 teaches a novel compound and light emitting device comprising said compound.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN R KRUER whose telephone number is (571)272-1510. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Callie Shosho can be reached on (571) 272-1123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KEVIN R KRUER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787