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 .
Response to Amendment
The following office action is in response to the amendment and remarks filed on 1/7/26
Applicant’s amendment to claims 1 and 9 is acknowledged.
Applicant’s addition of new claims 21 and 22 is acknowledged.
Claims 3 and 4 are cancelled.
Claims 1, 2 and 5-22 are pending and claims 15-20 are withdrawn.
Claims 1, 2, 5-14, 21 and 22 are subject to examination at this time.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/7/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Lee teaches the amended limitation in claim 1 as set forth below. See fig. 9 annotated below.
In response to Applicant’s remarks on the status of the drawings and foreign priority claim, this information was previously provided on the Form PTO-326 in the Office Action dated 10/4/24
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 22 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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, 2, 5-8, 13-14 and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al., Korean Publication No. KR 20180067051 A (of record, see attached English machine translation) in view of Moriyama, et al., Japanese Publication No. JP 2014137458 A (of record, see attached English machine translation).
Lee teaches:
1. A display apparatus comprising (see figs. 1-9):
a substrate (11 in fig. 3);
a cover window (500 in figs .1 and 4) on an upper surface of the substrate;
a first circuit board (19, FPCB in fig. 3) that at least partially overlaps the substrate and is at least partially bendable;
a cover layer (300) at least partially overlapping the first circuit board; and
a first protruding member (630+620+610 in figs. 4, 7 and 8) on a lower surface of the cover window (500) and extending along a first edge (e.g. left/right vertical edge in fig. 4) of the cover window in a first direction (e.g. vertical y-axis direction in fig. 4), the first protruding member (630+620+610) spaced apart from the first edge (e.g. left/right vertical edge in fig. 4) of the cover window in a second direction (e.g. horizontal x-axis direction in fig. 4) and spaced apart from the substrate (11) in the second direction (e.g. horizontal x-axis direction in fig. 4) in a plan view (e.g. See fig. 9 annotated below, an edge of first protruding member 930 is spaced apart from an edge of the substrate 11.), and the first protruding member (630+620+610) having an end (e.g. see bottom end of 630 in figs. 6 and 9) spaced apart from an end of the cover layer by a first distance in a third direction perpendicular (e.g. along height, z-axis direction) to the substrate (11), wherein
the first protruding member (630+620+610) … has a downwardly pointed shape (e.g. see figs. 6 and 9 annotated below for downwardly pointed shape) toward the substrate (11) in the third direction. See Lee at English machine translation pages 1-17.
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Regarding claim 1:
Lee does not expressly teach the first protruding member includes an insulating material.
However, Lee teaches the first protruding member (630+620+610) is provided to achieve grounding in the display device. See Lee at English machine translation page 12.
In an analogous art, Moriyama teaches:
(see fig. 3) first protruding member (630) is provided to achieve grounding in the display device. See Abstract disclosure of “…a pillar-like conductive elastic body 630 that electrically connects the bottom face…of the metal frame 42 to the ground land…”
The first protruding member (630) includes an insulating material in the disclosure “The conductive rubber (conductive elastic body) 630 is a silicone rubber or the like that is provided with conductivity by blending a conductive material…” See Moriyama at English machine translation at page 6.
Lee further teaches:
2. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first protruding member (630+620+610) at least partially overlaps the cover layer (500), fig. 4.
5. The display apparatus of claim 1,wherein the first protruding member (630+620+610) is spaced apart from the first edge of the cover window in the second direction (e.g. horizontal x-axis direction in fig. 4) intersecting the first direction (e.g. vertical y-axis direction in fig. 4).
6. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first protruding member (630+620+610) is integral with the cover window (500), fig. 4.
7. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first protruding member (630+620+610) comprises a conductive material, pages 10-11.
8. The display apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first circuit board comprises a flexible film, a wire, and a display driver (e.g. 19 is a flexible printed circuit board, FPCB at page 9)
13. The display apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display panel (110) between the substrate (11) and the cover window (500), fig. 2.
14. The display apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first protruding member (630+620+610) is spaced apart from the display panel (110 in fig. 2) in the second direction (e.g. horizontal x-axis direction in fig. 4).
21. The display apparatus of claim 1, (see fig. 9 annotated above) wherein the first protruding member (630+620+610) does not overlap the substrate (11) in the first direction (e.g. vertical y-axis direction) or the second direction (e.g. horizontal x-axis direction)
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee with the teachings of Moriyama because’ one of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to look for alternative materials for the first protruding member and Moriyama teaches a conductive rubber is a known material suitable to provide a connection to ground in a first protruding member. Also see MPEP § 2144.07, Art Recognized Suitability for an Intended Purpose.
Claim(s) 9-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee in view of Moriyama, as applied to claim 1 above, in view of Fu, US Publication No. 2020/0310180 A1 (of record).
Regarding claim 9:
Lee and Moriyama teach all the limitations of claim 1 above, but does not expressly teach: a second circuit board on a lower surface of the substrate.
In an analogous art, Fu teaches (see fig. 3) a first flexible circuit board (240) and a second flexible circuit board (240) on a substrate (210), para. [0050] - [0052].
Regarding claim 10:
Fu further teaches:
10. The display apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first circuit board (240) at least partially overlaps the second circuit board (250), fig. 3.
Regarding claim 11:
One of ordinary skill in the art modifying Lee with Fu to form a second circuit board adjacent the first circuit board would find it obvious to form “wherein the cover layer at least partially overlaps the second circuit board” because in Lee’s figs. 1-2, the cover layer (300) entirely cover the display device.
Lee further teaches:
12. The display apparatus of claim 11, wherein the cover layer (300) comprises a conductive material, page 7.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Lee with the teachings of Fu because “…the structure provided in the present disclosure may reduce the ratio of the non-display region in the display panel, and thereby the screen-to-body ratio is improved and the narrow frame design of the display panel is achieved.” See Fu at para. [0022], also see para. [0005].
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michele Fan whose telephone number is 571-270-7401. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 7:30 am to 4 pm.
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/Michele Fan/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2818 16 March 2026