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
Continued Examination
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 09/03/2025 has been entered. Claims 1 and 3-6 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Any rejections and/or objections made in the previous office action and not repeated below are hereby withdrawn.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 Objections
Claims 4 and 6 are objected to because of the following informalities: “claim 2” should read “claim 1”. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1 and 3-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Thothadri et al (US2020/0410208, ‘208 hereafter) in view of Takeshi et al (CN 108437586, of record, ‘586 hereafter).
Regarding claims 1 and 3-6, ‘208 discloses a display cover plate comprising a substrate being ultra-thin glass (UTG) ( Fig. 1, layer 110, [0060], [0063]); a thermoplastic layer including polyurethane, polyamide, or a copolymer thereof with a thickness in a range of 35 to 150 microns, which completely covers a surface of the UTG layer and naturally covers microcracks on this surface, satisfying the first thermoplastic layer as in present claims 1, 3 and 5 (Fig. 1, Layer 120, [0060], [0064]-[0066]); a flexible polymer layer disposed on the thermoplastic layer (Fig. 1, layer 140, [0060], [0073]-0074]); and a hardened layer provided on one side of the flexible polymer layer away from the thermoplastic material layer, which formed from a coating process and completely coincide with the polymer layer (Fig. 1, layer 150, [0060], [0075]-[0077]). ‘208 also discloses that the plastic layer can be disposed on the other side of the UTG (Fig. 6, layer 120, [0117]) but does not specifically set forth an embodiment having plastic layers (the first and the second thermoplastic material layer as presently claimed) on both surfaces of the UTG. However, it is known in the art that thermoplastic material layers on both sides of a UTG can be used to prevent cracking progress of an ultra-thin glass layer as evidenced by ‘586 ([Fig. 1(a), [0033], [0043]-[0045], [0050]-[0058]); in light of these teachings, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to use the thermoplastic layer on both sides of a UTG as known in the art, to modify the display cover plate of ‘208 to render the display cover having a second thermoplastic material layer satisfying present claims 4 and 6, in order to prevent progress of microcrack of the UTG layer and render the cover plate having better life time.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 09/03/2025 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Conclusion
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.
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/RUIYUN ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1782