DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 06/15/2026 has been entered.
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.
Claim 1-8, 10, 12, 14, 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee (US 2019/0207118 A1) in view of Song (US 2021/0296589 A1).
Regarding Claims 1-8, 10, 12, Lee teaches an organic light-emitting device according to an embodiment includes: a first electrode; a second electrode facing the first electrode; and an organic layer between the first electrode and the second electrode and including an emission layer, wherein the emission layer comprising at least one doping layer including a first host, a second host, and a dopant (paragraph 42). Lee teaches a number of options for the host material.
Lee teaches that host materials can be selected from examples H1 to H55 (paragraph 285).
The office views the finite set of host options as functionally equivalent and readily exchangeable, absent unexpected results.
Two such materials are H13 and H20:
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384
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374
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H13 reads on applicants’ Formula A wherein R1-R8 = H; Ar1= naphthyl; L1 = single bond; A2 = dibenzothiophene; mol. wt. 504.
H20 reads on applicants’ Formula B wherein Ar3 = naphthyl; R21-R23, R25-R28 = H; R24 bonded to anthracene; X = S, mol. wt. 460.
H13 and H20 differ by 44 mol. wt.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of invention to have selected from the hosts taught by Lee which would have included H13 and H20 which reads on the instant limitations, absent unexpected results.
Song teaches an OLED wherein the light emitting layer contains 1st and 2nd hosts materials and dopant (abstract). The hosts are anthracene derivatives. One of the host is a deuterated anthracene derivative resulting in emitting efficiency and a lifespan of the OLED and an organic light emitting device including the OLED are improved (paragraph 194). The deuterated anthracene derivative can be represented by Host 55 (page 15):
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Host 55 reads on applicants’ Formula B wherein L2 is a single bond; There is a deuterium range is 18-20 which includes 1 to 5 deuterium atoms which meets the deuterium requirement of applicants’ Ar3. Host 55 (5 deuterium atoms on Ar3 as phenyl) MW ~412 and Kim pg 17 MW~400 differ by ~ 54.
Song teaches an OLED comprising anthracene derivative very similar to Lee’s
The office views this as a generic teaching showing the advantages of have deuterium present in anthracene derivatives.
The office also takes the position the dibenzofuran and dibenzothiophene behave in a similar fashion given the O and S are both Group 16 (the chalcogens) on the periodic table, absent unexpected results. Compounds which are used in the same capacity in an OLED which differ only by S and O which belong to the same Group 16 are viewed as functionally equivalent and exchangeable, absent unexpected result.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of invention to have deuterated dibenzothiophene H20 of Lee since Song teaches said deuterium derivative results in improved emitting efficiency and a lifespan which reads on the instant limitations, absent unexpected results (per claims 1-8, 10, 12).
Regarding Claim 14, Lee in view of Song teach the device of claim 1. Lee teaches H13 which is identical to Compound 51 (per claim 14).
Regarding Claims 18-19, Lee in view of Song teach the device of claim 1. Lee teaches an organic light-emitting device also containing an organic layer 150 is disposed on the first electrode 110. The organic layer 150 may include an emission layer.
The organic layer 150 may further include a hole transport region between the first electrode 110 and the emission layer, and an electron transport region between the emission layer and the second electrode 190. The hole transport region may have a single-layered structure including a single layer including a plurality of different materials, or a multi-layered structure having a hole injection layer/hole transport layer structure, a hole injection layer/hole transport layer/emission auxiliary layer structure, a hole injection layer/emission auxiliary layer structure, a hole transport layer/emission auxiliary layer structure, or a hole injection layer/hole transport layer/electron blocking layer structure, wherein for each structure, constituting layers are sequentially stacked from the first electrode 110 (paragraphs 188-192) (per claim 18).
Layers constituting the hole transport region, an emission layer, and layers constituting the electron transport region may be formed in a certain region by using one or more suitable methods selected from vacuum deposition, spin coating, casting, Langmuir-Blodgett deposition, ink-jet printing, laser-printing, and laser-induced thermal imaging (paragraph 395) (per claim 19).
Regarding Claim 20, Lee in view of Song teach the device of claim 1. Lee also teaches an electronic apparatus includes the organic light-emitting device and a thin film transistor, wherein the first electrode of the organic light-emitting device is electrically coupled to (e.g., electrically connected to) one of a source electrode and a drain electrode of the thin film transistor (paragraph 33). The office views an electronic apparatus as inclusive of a display panel (per claim 20).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-16 are 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.
A comprehensive search of the prior art did not show the claimed compounds.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY D CLARK whose telephone number is (571)270-7087. The examiner can normally be reached on 8AM-4PM M-F.
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/GREGORY D CLARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1786
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