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
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 and 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Huang et al. (US 2023/0200219). Huang et al. has PCT filing date of 3/19/21, which is 6 months earlier than Applicants unperfected foreign priority date, and has three foreign application priority documents, all of which were filed more than one year prior to Applicants unperfected foreign priority date and therefore qualifies as prior art under 102(a)(2).
Claim 1: Compound P322, which has the structure
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(page 287) is an organic electroluminescent compound which anticipates formula 1 of claim 1. As applied to formula 1, compound P322 has R3 equal to formula 1’ with R’1 and R’2 equal to methyl and Ar’ equal to unsubstituted phenyl, R2 equal to an aryl group comprising 15 carbon atoms (9,9-dimethylfluorenyl), variable n is equal to zero, and variable R1 is equal to a substituted C10 aryl group (a 9,9-dimethylfluorenyl-substituted naphthyl group). In compound P322, Ar’ does not comprise an amine group and the compound does not comprise an acridine structure in a spiro form which satisfies the two provisos recited in claim 1.
Claim 2: Compound P322 also anticipates formula 1-1 of claim 2 with L1 and L2 equal to a single bond, R11 and R12 being described as R1 and R2 in claim 1 above, L and L’ are equal to a single bond, r is equal to unsubstituted phenyl, R’1 and R’2 are equal to methyl, and Ar’ is equal to unsubstituted phenyl.
Claim 3: Compound P322 also anticipates formula (1-1-1) of claim 3 with all variable assignments being described in claims 1 and 2 above.
Claim 4: The substituent in compound P322 in variable R1 is a 9,9-dimethylfluorenyl group which falls within the Markush groups of substituents recited in claim 4, thereby anticipating claim 4.
Claims 6, 8, and 9: Device example 13 as taught in Table 1 is drawn to an organic electroluminescent device comprising an anode, a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, an electron blocking layer (which is a hole auxiliary layer), an emission layer comprising a host and a dopant, an electron transport layer, an electron injection layer, and a cathode (paragraphs 0292-0300 and Table 1), thereby anticipating claims 6, 8, and 9.
Claim 7: Device example 41 of Huang et al. is drawn to an organic electroluminescent device comprising an anode, a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, an electron blocking layer, an emission layer comprising compound P142 as a first host material, PH-34 as a second host material, and a dopant, a hole blocking layer, an electron transport layer, an electron injection layer, and a cathode (paragraphs 0313-017 and Table 3). Compound P142 has the structure
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(page 30) and compound PH-34 has the structure
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(page 270). Compound P142 anticipates formula 1 of claim 1. As applied to formula 1, compound P142 has R3 equal to formula 1’ with R’1 and R’2 equal to methyl and Ar’ equal to unsubstituted phenyl, R2 equal to an aryl group comprising 15 carbon atoms (9,9-dimethylfluorenyl), variable n is equal to zero, and variable R1 is equal to a substituted C10 aryl group (a dibenzofuranyl-substituted naphthyl group). In compound P142, Ar’ does not comprise an amine group and the compound does not comprise an acridine structure in a spiro form which satisfies the two provisos recited in claim 1. Compound PH-34 anticipates either formula (11) or formula (13) of claim 13. As applied to formula (11), compound PH-34 has La equal to a single bond, Ma equal to an unsubstituted phenyl group, w equal to 4, all four Ra equal to hydrogen atoms, x equal to 4, three Rb groups equal to hydrogen atoms, and one Rb equal to a substitute C12 heteroaryl group. As applied to formula (13), compound PH-34 has variable A equal to N(Re) with Re equal to an unsubstituted phenyl, y equal to 4, all Rc equal to hydrogen, z equal to 4, three Rd groups equal to hydrogen atoms, La equal to an unsubstituted C12 heteroarylene, and Ma equal to a substituted C8 heteroaryl group. The emission layer in device example 41 is prepared from a mixture of compound P142, compound PH-34, and a dopant. As such, in preparing the emission layer in device example 41, a mixture of P142, PH-34 and a dopant would inherently be present which means that there would be an organic electroluminescent material comprising a compound of formula 1 and a compound of formula (11).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 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 compounds which satisfy formula 1 of claim 1 as taught by Huang et al. are mutually exclusive from the specific compound C-1 through C-219 as recited in claim 5. An expanded search of the prior art for compounds which teach or otherwise suggest one or more of compounds C-1 through C-219 did not reveal any prior art references which teach or fairly suggest such compounds. Some relevant prior art references which could not be relied upon in any prior art rejections can be found on the attached PTO-892 form.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT S LOEWE whose telephone number is (571)270-3298. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Randy Gulakowski, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-1302. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Robert S Loewe/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766