DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-4, 6-10, and 14-21 in the reply filed on 10/28/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 11-13 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 10/28/2025.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 11/15/2022 has been fully considered. Initialed copies of said IDS is enclosed herein.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Figure 1 contains a frame. 37 CFR1.84(g) states “The sheets must not contain frames around the sight (i.e., the usable surface).” Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The amendments to the specification filed 11/15/2022 are acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 3, 4, 20, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. The claims are held to be indefinite because it is unclear if the parenthetical phrases are intended to further limit the claimed invention.
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(s) 1-4, 6-10, and 17-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP2020-43058 (herein referred to as “LG”) in view of WO2015/151224 (herein referred to as “Lintec”).
With regards to claims 1 and 6, LG teaches (fig. 8) a display device (0058)comprising:
an active area AA (corresponding to "display area") having a plurality of pixels (0025);
a non-active area NA (corresponding to "frame area") surrounding the active area AA (0024);
a drive transistor TD (corresponding to "thin-film transistor layer") (0026);
a light emitting-element layer (0009) which comprises a plurality of light emitting elements (0002) formed on the drive transistor TD in the active area AA (0009). The light emitting element includes a first electrode, a light-emitting layer, and a second electrode (0037) and emit light of a different color (0040);
and an encapsulation unit 150 (corresponding to "sealing layer") sealing the light emitting element layer and disposed on the light emitting layer. The sealing unit 150 comprises a first inorganic sealing layer 152 (corresponding to "first inorganic sealing film") disposed on the light emitting layer and an organic sealing layer 154 (corresponding to "organic sealing film") disposed on the first inorganic sealing layer 152 (0059).
With regards to claim 2, LG teaches the encapsulation unit may further include a second inorganic sealing layer 156 (corresponding to "second inorganic sealing film") disposed on the organic sealing layer 154 (0060)
With regards to claims 3 and 4, LG teaches the first inorganic sealing layer 152 and the second inorganic sealing layer 156 each including at least one of silicon oxide (SiOx), silicon nitride (SiNx), silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy; x>y), and silicon nitride-oxide (SiNxOy; x>y).
With regards to claim 7, LG teaches the polymer compounds may be an acrylic-based polymer (0061).
With regards to claim 18, LG teaches the invention comprises an OLED (002); the light emitting elements are therefore understood to be organic light emitting diodes.
With regards to claim 19, LG teaches the encapsulation unit may further include a second inorganic sealing layer 156 (corresponding to "second inorganic sealing film") disposed on the organic sealing layer 154 (0060)
With regards to claims 20 and 21, LG teaches the first inorganic sealing layer 152 and the second inorganic sealing layer 156 each including at least one of silicon oxide (SiOx), silicon nitride (SiNx), silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy; x>y), and silicon nitride-oxide (SiNxOy; x>y).
LG is relied upon as above, but fails to teach the acryl polymer used in the sealing layer should comprise an acryl polymer and a cyclic compound. However, Lintec teaches a (meth)acrylic composition useful for making tables and touchscreens wherein the (meth)acryl composition comprises cyclodextrin (abstract, 0009) such compositions have good balance between dielectric constants and improved resistance to moisture and whitening (abstract, 0008). Lintec teaches the claimed (meth)acrylate ester (for present claims 8-10) wherein m is 1-20 (0030). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to utilize the composition of Lintec as the acyl composition disclosed in LG. The motivation for doing so would have been Lintec’s composition comprising (meth)acryl resin and a cyclodextrin has improved dielectric constants, and resistance to moisture and whitening.
With regards to claim 17, Lintec teaches the amount of cyclodextrin is a result effective variable (0049) controlling the dielectric constant, moisture resistance, whitening resistance, and adhesion (0049). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to optimize the relative amount of cyclodextrin added to the composition in order to optimize the dielectric constant, moisture resistance, whitening resistance, and adhesion of the composition.
Claim(s) 14-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP2020-43058 (herein referred to as “LG”) in view of WO2015/151224 (herein referred to as “Lintec”), as applied to claims above, and further in view of WO 2018/179213 (herein US 2019/0363290 is relied upon as an English Equivalent of said document and is referred to as “Watanabe”)
LG is relied upon as above, but does not teach the claimed thicknesses of the inorganic and organic encapsulation layers. However, Watanabe teaches a display device comprises a stack of in organic and organic encapsulation layers (107). Watanabe teaches the inorganic layers have a moisture proof function to inhibit the infiltration of moisture (0108) and the organic layer is used as a buffer layer to relieve stress int eh inorganic layers (109). The organic layer has a thickness greater than the inorganic layers (0111), which has a thickness of 500-1500nm (0145). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to optimize the thickness of the inorganic and organic encapsulation films disclosed n LG. The motivation for doing so would have been to optimize the moisture barrier properties and stress relief properties of the encapsulation film
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN R KRUER whose telephone number is (571)272-1510. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/KEVIN R KRUER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787