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 16-30 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 in claim 16 containing:
An organic electroluminescent device comprising a light-emitting layer B comprising four components (i) - (iv):
(i)one or more excitation energy transfer components EET-1, each having a lowermost excited singlet state S1EET-1 with an energy level E(S1EET-1) and a lowermost excited triplet state T1EET-1 with an energy level E(T1EET-1);
and
(ii) one or more excitation energy transfer components EET-2, each having a lowermost excited singlet state S1EET-2 with an energy level E(S1EET-2) and a lowermost excited triplet state T1EET-2 with an energy level E(T1EET-2); and
(iii) one or more small full width at half maximum (FWHM) emitters SB, each having a lowermost excited singlet state S1ˢ with an energy level E(S1ˢ) and a lowermost excited triplet state T1ˢ with an energy level E(T1ˢ);
(iv) optionally one or more host materials HB, each having a lowermost excited singlet state S1H with an energy level E(S1H) and a lowermost excited triplet state T1H with an energy level E(T1H). wherein EET-1 and EET-2 are structurally not identical.
wherein EET-1 and EET-2 are TADF materials EB; wherein E(T1EET-1) > E(S1ˢ) and E(T1EET-2) > E(S1ˢ); and wherein |E(S1 - E(T1EET-²)| ≤ 0.3 eV and |E(S1 EET⁻²) - E(T1EET-1)| ≤ 0.3 eV
The broad range claiming of:
one or more excitation energy transfer components EET-1
one or more excitation energy transfer components EET-2
one or more small full width at half maximum (FWHM) emitters SB
optionally one or more host materials HB in claim 16 only distinguished by electronic requirements with no specific number of components or structures of the compounds raises an issue with written description for all claims 16-30.
Written description requires a description of the claimed invention in sufficient detail so that one of ordinary skill in the art can reasonably conclude the inventor had possession of the claimed invention. This is not the case for claim 16. Claim 25 while showing some chemical structures is of far lesser scope than presented in claim 16 which encompasses materials for which there is no written description in the specification.
There are limited examples in the Specification; however, this does not support the full scope of claim 16. By having a claim written as such, coverage is being sought for a scope consisting of a combination of generic materials that extend beyond the material requirements supported in the Specification.
Claims 16-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, because the specification, while being enabling for first chemical moieties (pages 92-94) and second chemical moieties (page 94-95) wherein no specific combination or number is claimed; emitters (pages 96-98), does not reasonably provide enablement for the scope claimed in claim 16. The specification does not enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to practice the invention commensurate in scope with these claims.
The breadth of the claims only set the limit to the following:
one or more excitation energy transfer components EET-1
one or more excitation energy transfer components EET-2
one or more small full width at half maximum (FWHM) emitters SB
optionally one or more host materials HB
One or more components is open ended with respect to number of components and chemical structural included which renders the breadth of the claims massive.
Excitation energy transfer (EET) materials facilitate the movement of absorbed light energy from donor molecules to acceptor molecules, crucial for optoelectronics and photosynthesis. Common materials include conjugated polymers, dye-loaded solid particles, triplet-emitter-doped OLEDs, and biological chlorophyll-carotenoid complexes (Laquai et. Al., Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2009, 30, 1203–1231).
The range of donor molecules to acceptor molecules is unlimited in the claims.
(B) The nature of the invention as provided by the specification limits the EET-1 and EET-2 materials to mostly fragment component(s) with the exception of the emitters where practicing the full scope of the invention would be very difficult.
The state of the prior art to select energy transfer compounds is based on Forster and Dexter models for energy transfer. This type OF fluorescence is mediated via a long-range dipole–dipole interaction between donor and acceptor molecules. The Forster energy transfer requires spectral overlap of the emission spectrum of the donor with the absorption spectrum of the acceptor, for energy conservation (Laquai et. Al., Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2009, 30, 1203–1231)..
Applicant fails to provide any means to identify what types of materials are suitable to practice the invention or how said materials can be determined.
The level of one of ordinary skill without specific guidance would not be deemed to have the know-how to select the EET-1 and EET-2 materials.
(E) The level of predictability in the art is indeterminate due to the lack of a means to narrow the pool of acceptor and donor materials required to meet specific electronic properties.
(F) The amount of direction provided by the inventor is limited since no specific number is given for the components in a given molecule nor is the material type given.
(G) Working examples are largely limited to those including a few examples of TADF materials but no guidance on how to select the combination of EET-1 and EET-2 materials to meet the electronic requirements.
(H) The quantity of experimentation needed to make or use the invention based on the content of the disclosure is excessive based on the identification of materials and the correlation of said materials to achieve the required electronic requirements.
The specification does not enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to carry out the invention commensurate in scope with the claims.
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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