DETAILED ACTION
STATUS OF THE APPLICATION
Receipt is acknowledged of Applicants’ Amendments and Remarks, filed 26 September 2025, in the matter of Application No. 17/772,597. Said documents have been entered on the record. The Examiner further acknowledges the following:
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-4, 6, 8-12, 14-15, and 17-20 are pending.
Claims 1, 4, 6, 12, and 14 have been amended.
Claims 13 and 16 have been cancelled.
Thus, claims 1-4, 6, 8-12, 14-15, and 17-20 represent all claims currently under consideration.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 14 October 2025 has been entered.
REJECTIONS WITHDRAWN
The status for each rejection and/or objection in the previous Office Action is set out below.
Claim Objections
Applicant’s amendments to claim 14 has fully overcome this claim objection.
35 U.S.C.§ 112
Applicant’s amendments to the claims have fully overcome the rejections over instant claims 4 and 12-20. The withdrawal of the rejections over claims 13 and 16 are rendered moot in view of Applicant’s cancellation of these claims.
35 U.S.C.§ 102
Applicant’s amendments to claim 1 have fully overcome the rejections over instant claims 1-4, 6, and 8-11.
35 U.S.C.§ 103
Applicant’s amendments to claim 12 have fully overcome the rejections over instant claims 12, 15, and 17-20.
Double Patenting
Applicant’s terminal disclaimer filed on 26 September 2025 has fully overcome the provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejections of claims 1 and 6 as being unpatentable over claim 7 of copending Application No. 17/912,298.
NEW Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the response filed 26 September 2025, Applicant’s amendments to claim 1 incorporated limitations from claim 6 (now amended) and further narrowed the scope of the instantly claimed genus of Formula B. As a result of these claim amendments, the 102 prior art rejections from the previous Office Action mailed 28 July 2025 were withdrawn. A new search necessitated by amendment resulted in new 102 claim rejections as detailed herein, wherein Lee et al. (IDS of 04-28-2022; English language machine translation, PTO-892 of 03-21-2025) was found to disclose a species that anticipates the instantly claimed genus of amended claim 1 and meets the limitations of dependent claims 2-4, 6, and 8-11, respectively. The previously issued claim rejections can be found on pages 7-10 of the previous Office Action mailed 28 July 2025.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 6, and 8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (KR 2018 0127918 A; IDS reference; English language machine translation; PTO-892 of 03-21-2025; hereinafter “Lee”).
Regarding claims 1 and 6, Lee teaches organic compounds and an organic electroluminescent device comprising the same (Lee; Abstract; claim 1; paragraph [0001]; English language machine translation). Of particular note, Lee discloses compound 597 that anticipates Formula B-1 of instant claim 1 when X is B; Y1 and Y2 are Y-2 in which R4 is a substituted C19 aryl or an unsubstituted C6 aryl group (i.e., a phenyl group), respectively; Y3 is Y-2 in which R4 is an unsubstituted C6 aryl group (i.e., a phenyl group); Z is CR, and R is H or an unsubstituted C6 cycloalkyl group (i.e., a cyclohexyl group), respectively. This structure is shown below (Lee; claim 9, English language machine translation):
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Lee et al., Compound 597
Chemical Structure anticipates
Formula B-1 of instant claim 1
Regarding claims 2-3 depending from claim 1, Lee teaches compound 597 as detailed above, wherein Q1 in Formula B contains the structure represented by Formula W, and is connected to it through a fused phenyl ring (Lee; claim 9, English language machine translation). Specifically, Q1 comprises a substituted 6-membered monocyclic aromatic ring (i.e., a phenyl ring) that is fused to an indole moiety that corresponds to structural Formula W bound through L1 and its substituents to form a substituted ring with the adjacent phenyl ring substituent corresponding to ring j in Formula B; in structural formula W, R12 to R15 are hydrogen, R16 is C1 alkyl (i.e., a methyl group), L1 and L2 are a substituted aliphatic linker comprising a hydrocarbon and the substituents of L1 and L2 bind to an adjacent substituent so as to form a substituted (as in L1) or an unsubstituted C6 aryl ring (as in L2), respectively. Further regarding claim 3, Y1 of compound 597 comprises a substituted 6-membered monocyclic aromatic ring (i.e., a phenyl ring) that is fused to an indole moiety that corresponds to structural Formula W bound through L1 and its substituents to form a substituted ring with the adjacent phenyl ring substituent; in structural formula W, R12 to R15 are hydrogen, R16 is C1 alkyl (i.e., a methyl group), L1 and L2 are a substituted aliphatic linker comprising a hydrocarbon and the substituents of L1 and L2 bind to an adjacent substituent so as to form a substituted (as in L1) or an unsubstituted C6 aryl ring (as in L2), respectively (Lee; claim 9, English language machine translation).
Regarding claim 4 depending from claim 1, Lee teaches compound 597 as detailed above, wherein R4 is a substituted C19 aryl or an unsubstituted C6 aryl group, i.e., a phenyl group (Lee; claim 9, English language machine translation).
Regarding claim 8 depending from claim 1, Lee teaches a compound according to claim 1 as detailed above, that further comprises an organic electroluminescent device comprising a first electrode, a second electrode opposite to the first electrode, and at least one light-emitting layer interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode that comprises a compound according to claim 1 (i.e., compound 597 taught by Lee) (Lee; claims 1 and 9, English language machine translation).
Regarding claim 9 depending from claim 8, Lee teaches an organic electroluminescent device comprising at least one organic layer selected from the group consisting of a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, a hole barrier layer (i.e., a hole blocking layer), an electron transport layer, and an electron injection layer (Lee; claims 1 and 10; English language machine translation).
Regarding claim 10 depending from claim 8, Lee teaches that the light-emitting layer can comprise of compound 597, as detailed above, a structure that is represented by Formula B (Lee; claims 1 and 9; English language machine translation).
Regarding claim 11 depending from claim 9, Lee teaches that the hole transport layer and electron injection layer are formed by vacuum thermal deposition (Lee; paragraphs [0249], [0253], [0256], [0451], and [0461]; English language machine translation).
Response to Arguments
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
Applicant's arguments and amendments filed 26 September 2025 regarding the rejections over instant claims 1-4, 6, and 8-11 under 35 U.S.C.§ 102 of the previous Office Action mailed 28 July 2025 were fully considered and found to be persuasive. Therefore, these rejections were withdrawn. However, a new search necessitated by amendment identified a species disclosed by Lee et al. (i.e. compound 597) that anticipates Formula B and Formula B-1 of amended claim 1, and further meets the limitations of dependent claims 2-4, 6, and 8-11, respectively. Therefore, the new claim rejections are maintained for the reasons of record and the reasons set forth above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12, 14-15, and 17-20 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The closest prior art to the claimed invention is Lee (of record).
Lee teaches organic compounds and an organic electroluminescent device comprising the same (Lee; Abstract; claim 1; paragraph [0001]; English language machine translation). Of particular note, Lee discloses compound 606 whose structure largely overlaps with Formula A-1 of instant claim 12 when X is B; Y1 and Y2 are Y-2 in which R4 is an unsubstituted C6 heteroaryl group; and Z is N or CR, wherein R is hydrogen or C6 cycloalkyl. This structure is shown below (Lee; claim 9, English language machine translation).
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Lee et al., Compound 606
Compound 606 of Lee fails to explicitly teach a compound of Formula A-1 that contains at least one structure represented by Formula W, as recited in instant claim 12.
Lee also discloses compound 599 whose structure largely overlaps with Formula A-1 of instant claim 12 when X is B; Z is CR, wherein R is hydrogen or C6 cycloalkyl, or substituted C6 heteroaryl (i.e., part of a fused indole ring system); furthermore, the fused indole ring system in the lower left quadrant corresponds to Formula W of the instant claim, bound through L1 and its substituents to form a substituted ring with the adjacent phenyl ring substituent; in structural formula W, R12 to R15 are hydrogen, R16 is a C6 unsubstituted aryl (i.e., a phenyl group), L1 and L2 are a substituted aliphatic linker comprising a hydrocarbon and the substituents of L1 and L2 bind to an adjacent substituent so as to form a substituted or an unsubstituted C6 aryl ring, respectively; this structure is shown below (Lee; claim 9, English language machine translation).
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However, compound 599 of Lee fails to teach a compound of Formula A-1 wherein at least one Z is a N atom. Furthermore, compound 599 of Lee teaches wherein Y1 and Y2 are Y-2 in which R4 is an unsubstituted C6 aryl group (i.e., a phenyl rings), and this is not represented in the genus of amended claim 12.
Although Lee teaches compounds that structurally overlap with the instantly claimed genus, one of ordinary skill in the art would not be sufficiently motivated to arrive at the compounds described by Formula A-1 of amended claim 12 with a reasonable expectation of success based on the teachings of Lee, because the cited prior art does not reasonably motivate the skilled artisan to combine different features of the compounds of Lee into a new compound that reads upon the instantly claimed genus. Therefore, the claims are free from the prior art for the reasons of record and the reasons set forth above.
Conclusion
Claims 1-4, 6, and 8-11 are rejected.
Claims 12, 14-15, and 17-20 are allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to Derek Rhoades whose telephone number is (703)-756-5321. The Examiner can normally be reached Monday–Thursday, 7:30 am–5:00 pm EST; Friday, 7:30 am–4:00 pm EST.
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/D.R./Examiner, Art Unit 1692
/AMY C BONAPARTE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1692