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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Applicant's amendments filed on 07/29/2025 have been entered. Claims 13 and 16-20 are currently under examination on the merits.
Any rejections and/or objections made in the previous Office action and not repeated below are hereby withdrawn.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 13 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Li et al (CN 111073283, of record, ‘283 hereafter, citation see original document) in view of Ma et al (Polymer 2019, V19, P555-562).
Regarding claims 13 and 16-19, ‘283 discloses a display panel (Claim 10, [0026]) comprising a crosslinked polyimide substrate, wherein the polyimide substrate comprises a crosslinked polyimide formed from a phenyl-benzimidazole-based diamine having following chemical structures (Claim 5, [0012]-[0013], all Examples );
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one or more diamines having following chemical structures (Claim 5, [0014]-[0015], Examples 5, 6);
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one or more dianhydride having following chemical structures (Claim 5, [0010]-[0011], Examples 5, 6, 9-10);
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and crosslinking agents reading upon connectors having following chemical structures (Claim 5, [0016], [0017], all Examples).
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The diamines, dianhydrides and connectors formed into a network polyimide, wherein the polymer chains are chemically linked by the connectors and naturally formed into a three-dimensional structure; and the chains and connectors satisfy all the limitations of present claims 13 and 16-19. ‘283 discloses that the network polyimide formed from diamine monomers comprising phenyl-benzimidazole-based diamine, but does not specifically set forth that the diamine monomer comprise a diamine monomer having -CF3 as represented by the chemical formula as claimed. However, in the same field of endeavor, Ma et al discloses a polyimide which can be used to firm a flexible polyimide film (Abstract), wherein a phenyl-benzimidazole-based monomer represented by following chemical formula is used to improve thermal stability, thermal expansion, moisture absorption and mechanical properties (see Abstract, Experimental section, and scheme 1, conclusion section):
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In light of these teachings, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to use the diamine as taught by Ma et al, to modify the network polyimide of ‘283, in order to render a network polyimide substrate having better thermal stability, thermal expansion, moisture absorption and mechanical properties.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al (CN 111073283, of record, ‘283 hereafter, citation see original document) in view of Ma et al (Polymer 2019, V19, P555-562) as applied to claim 13, further in view of Luo et al (CN 110105570, of record, ‘570 hereafter, citation see original document).
Regarding claim 20, modified ‘283 teaches all the limitations of claim 13, but does not disclose that the network polyimide having a glass transition temperature higher than 420°C. However, in the same field of endeavor, ‘570 discloses a network polyimide formed from an benzimidazole-based diamine, an dianhydride and a crosslinking agent monomer, wherein a catalyst is used to form a network polyimide having glass transition temperature higher than 450 °C in order to render the network polyimide film having better thermal resistance, dimensional stability and mechanic properties, which can be used as a flexible substrate in a display panel (Abstract, [0002]-[0005], [0007]-[0036], Examples, Table 1). In light of these teachings, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated by using a catalyst as taught by ‘570, to modified the network polyimide of ‘283, in order to render a network polyimide having glass transition temperature higher than 450°C, which forms a flexible substrate for display having has better thermal resistance, dimensional stability and mechanical properties.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 07/29/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the prior art ‘283 does not teach three-dimensional network structure as presently claimed. The patent examiner’s position is the prior art ‘283 expressly teaches the polyimide being formed from a monomer mixture having 20 mole% phenyl-benzimidazole-based diamine (see Examples of ‘283) which naturally formed into polymer chains contain more than two structure units with following chemical formula:
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; these structure units react with crosslinking agents having methane groups ([0016], [0017] and 1,4-benzyl chloride as in Examples of ‘283,) and form into a crosslinked structure naturally having three dimensional network with connectors (structure unit derived from crosslinking agent) being connected between two polymer chains and each of the polymer chains being connected to more than two polymer chains with more than two connectors, based on the basic knowledge of polymer chemistry (crosslinking reaction please see US 6,946,015, crosslinking agent molecules randomly reacted with polymer chains having more than two benzimidazole-based structure units forms a crosslinked three dimensional network). Regarding reference Ma, the rejection as set forth above does not require the teachings of three-dimensional structure from Ma. In the related technical field of polyimide material, Ma teaches a phenyl-benzimidazole-based monomer represented by following chemical formula
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can be used to improve polyimide’s thermal stability, thermal expansion, moisture absorption and mechanical properties; thus one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to use this diamine, to modify the crosslinked polyimide of ‘283, to render a polyimide network having structure unit as argued and a substrate having better thermal stability, thermal expansion, moisture absorption and mechanical properties.
For the reasons set forth above and of record, the claims stand properly rejected.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 RUIYUN ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-7934. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00-5:00 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Arron Austin can be reached on 571-272-8935. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RUIYUN ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1782
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