DETAILED ACTION
Applicant’s amendment dated 28 January 2026 is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1-4, 10, and 12-18 as amended are pending. All outstanding objections and rejections made in the previous Office Action, and not repeated below, are hereby withdrawn.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior office action.
New grounds of rejection set forth below are necessitated by applicant’s amendment filed on 28 January 2026. For this reason, the present action is properly made final.
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 28 January 2026 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of US Patent Nos. 10,573,822 and 11,588,109 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Double Patenting
Claims 1-4 and 12-18 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1-4, 13-16, 18, and 19 of U.S. Patent No. 9,543,538 in view of WO 2014/185589 A1 (“Lee”).
The citations below refer to US 2015/0364694, which is a national stage publication of WO 2014/185589 A1 and presumed to be a faithful translation.
As to claim 1, patented claim 1 recites an OLED having a positive electrode (anode), negative electrode (cathode), organic layers therebetween, including the recited layers, a lifetime enhancement layer between the emission (light emitting) layer and electron transport layer, the lifetime enhancement layer comprising a bipolar compound having the recited characteristics a-d required by claim 1.
Patented claim 1 recites an EWG, and recites heteroaryl groups of 5-60 atoms, but does not recite the recited EWG moieties. Lee teaches similar bipolar compounds having an ET (electron withdrawing group) (para. 0039), and teaches that such ET groups may include listed groups (para. 0064). As such, it would be an obvious modification to use ET groups as taught by Lee in the bipolar compound of patented claim 1, given Lee’s teaching of the ET (EWG) character of these groups.
Patented claim 2 recites the blue fluorescence, green fluorescence, or red phosphorescence required by claim 2. Patented claim 3 also recites the triplet energy in green phosphorescence and ionization energy as required by claim 3. Patented claim 4 recites the triplet energy and ionization energy required for blue phosphorescence.
As to claims 15-18, patented claim 13 recites the organic membrane (film) to block electrons and excitons between the hole transporting and emission layer as required by claim 15. Patented claim 14 recites the amount of dopant in the emission (light emitting) layer in the range recited by claim 16. Patented claim 15 recites the plurality of layers required by claim 17. Patented claim 16 recites the plurality of layers required by claim 18.
As to claim 14, patented claim 1 does not recited the cathode. However, Lee teaches OLED, and Lee teaches forming a cathode by codepositing LiF and Al, thereby codepositing an alkali metal complex (para. 0131), and as such, the use of such a cathode is an obvious modification suggested by Lee.
As to claim 12, patented claim 18 recites an OLED having a positive electrode (anode), negative electrode (cathode), organic layers therebetween, including the recited layers, a lifetime enhancement layer between the emission (light emitting) layer and electron transport layer, the lifetime enhancement layer comprising a bipolar compound having the recited characteristics a-d required by claim 12. Patented claim 12 also recites that the electron transport layer and lifetime enhancement layer comprise the same compound.
Patented claim 18 recites an EWG, but does not recite the recited EWG moieties. Lee teaches similar bipolar compounds having an ET (electron withdrawing group) (para. 0039), and teaches that such ET groups may include listed groups (para. 0064). As such, it would be an obvious modification to use ET groups as taught by Lee in the bipolar compound of patented claim 18, given Lee’s teaching of the ET (EWG) character of these groups, to arrive at invention of claim 12.
As to claim 13, patented claim 19 recites an OLED having a positive electrode (anode), negative electrode (cathode), organic layers therebetween, including the recited layers, a lifetime enhancement layer between the emission (light emitting) layer and electron transport layer, the lifetime enhancement layer comprising a bipolar compound having the recited characteristics a-d required by claim 12. Patented claim 19 also recites that the electron injecting layer and lifetime enhancement layer comprise the same compound.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Neither the patented claims of US 9,543,538, nor Lee disclose the recited structure.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 28 January 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The nonstatutory double patenting rejections over patented claims of US 9,543,538 in view of WO 2014/185589 A1 (essentially unchanged from the office action mailed on 13 December 2023) are maintained. Applicant’s assertion that Lee does not suggest electron withdrawing groups of the recited formulae is not persuasive, because Lee clearly teaches, at para. 0064, at least two of these structures.
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 KREGG T BROOKS whose telephone number is (313)446-4888. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 9 am to 5:30 pm.
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/KREGG T BROOKS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1764