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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Applicant recites ArT1:
ArT1 represents an aryl group, a monovalent hetero ring group or a substituted amino group, and these groups optionally have a substituent, when a plurality of the substituents are present, they may be the same or different and may be combined together to form a ring together with atoms to which they are attached, when a plurality of ArT1 are present, they may be the same or different and they may be combined together directly or combined via a divalent group to form a ring
The office notes that ArT1 is defined by the following generic materials:
an aryl group
a monovalent hetero ring group
a substituted amino group
While claim 7 list a number of specific materials supported by the specification, the scope of claim 1 far exceed the written description provided in the specification to show that applicant was in full possession of the whole scope of an aryl group and a hetero ring group as presented in claim 1.
Moreover, ArT1 as a substituted amino group is not well defined in the specification. The specification defines the substituted amino more as a substituent group in the ArT1 moiety rather than an example of ArT1. Again, the specification fails to provide a written description which shows applicant was in full possession of the whole scope of a substituted amino group as presented in claim 1.
Per MPEP 2163(II)(A)(3)(a)(ii), the written description requirement for a claimed genus may be satisfied through sufficient description of a representative number of species by (A) actual reduction to practice, (B) reduction to drawings, or (C) by disclosure of relevant, identifying characteristics, i.e., structure or other physical and/or chemical properties, by functional characteristics coupled with a known or disclosed correlation between function and structure, or by a combination of such identifying characteristics, sufficient to show the applicant was in possession of the claimed genus. A "representative number of species" means that the species which are adequately described are representative of the entire genus. Thus, when there is substantial variation within the genus, one must describe a sufficient variety of species to reflect the variation within the genus.
The office concludes that the written description in the specification in fails to show:
an actual reduction to practice with a representative number of species encompassed in ArT1 with respect to the scope of claim 1.
reduction to drawings or (C) by disclosure of relevant, identifying characteristics, i.e., structure. With the exception of the limited examples presented in claim 7 for aryl and monovalent hetero ring groups, the specification fails to show specific examples which indicate the that applicant was in full possession of the scope of claim 1 before the filing date. This is even more demonstrated by a substituted amino group whereas there appears to be no specific species presented.
The written description in the specification does not support the full scope of the claim 1. In other words, by having a claim written as such the scope extends beyond the material requirements supported in the Specification. As such claim 1 and all the other claims requiring the limitations of claim 1.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-12, 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sasada (US 2020/0216480 A1).
Regarding Claims 1-9, 19-20, Sasada teaches a light emitting device having excellent luminance life contains an anode, a cathode, and two organic layers disposed between them. The first layer contains a phosphorescent compound having formula (1) and a compound having formula (H), and the second layer contains a crosslinked body of a crosslinkable material (abstract).
The first organic layer and the second organic layer are adjacent to each other (paragraph 64)(per claim 19).
The light emitting device comprising an anode, a cathode, a first organic layer disposed between the anode and the cathode, and a second organic layer disposed between the anode and the cathode (paragraph 7) (per claim 20).
Formula H reads on applicants’ T-1 and can be represented as
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92
332
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(page 2).
A specific example of Formula H is represented by
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296
246
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H-pg44 (page 44).
H-pg44 reads on applicants’ T-1 wherein nT1 and nT2= 1; ArT1 = phenyl; LT1 = indolcarbazole; ArT2 = triazine (per claims 1, 5-7).
ArT2 = triazine, 6-membered ring, mono-cyclic (per claims 2-4).
The crosslinkable group can be a polymer (paragraph 26) (26) represented by Formula 2 (paragraph 29):
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582
488
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The crosslinkable group can be a polymer (paragraph 26) (26) represented by Formula 2’ (page 4):
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982
490
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(per claims 8 and 9).
Regarding Claim 10, Sasada teaches the second organic layer further comprises a constitutional unit represented by formula (X) and a constitutional unit represented by formula (Y):
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556
500
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(page 61) and
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256
480
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(PAGE 66) (per claim 10)
Regarding Claim 11, Sasada teaches the polymer of the second organic layer can be represented by Formula 3 (page 74):
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1010
506
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(per claim 11)
Regarding Claim 12, Sasada teaches crosslinkable groups some of which can be represented by the following (page 2-3):
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738
966
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(per claim 12).
Regarding Claims 14-17, Sasada teaches the phosphorescent compound (mentioned above in the treatment of claim 1) can be represented by CF2 (page 1):
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734
966
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(per claims 14 and 15)
A specific example is represented by 1-B1 (page 5):
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338
454
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Ring L1 = pyridine; PL2 = phenyl (per claims 16-17).
Regarding Claim 18, Sasada teaches the first organic layer may also be a layer comprising at least one material selected from the group consisting of a hole transporting material, a hole injection material, an electron transporting material, an electron injection material, a light emitting material and an antioxidant (hereinafter also referred to as “first composition” (paragraph 282) (per claim 18).
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.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jennifer Chriss can be reached on 571-272-7783. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GREGORY D CLARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1786
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