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 .
Response to Amendment
Receipt of the Amendment, filed on August 12, 2025, is acknowledged.
Cancellation of claims 2-9 and 11 has been entered.
Claims 1, 10 and 12-25 are pending in the instant application.
Claims 13-18 stand withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Maeda (US 2014/0204281 A1, of record) in view of Shimizu (US 2013/0148036 A1, of record).
Regarding claim 1, Maeda discloses a planar illumination device (Fig. 2) comprising: a substrate (18) provided with a plurality of light sources (17) at one surface side; a reflector (62, ¶[0061]) provided at the one surface side of the substrate; and an optical sheet (15) provided at an emission surface side of the reflector, wherein the reflector (62) covers a periphery of the optical sheet (15, Fig. 2), and the reflector (62) includes an inclined side wall at a periphery, the inclined side wall decreasing in width from the substrate side toward the optical sheet side (Fig. 2), wherein the substrate (18), the reflector (62), and the optical sheet (15) are housed in a housing (14), wherein at least a part of along side direction end part of the optical sheet (15) is supported by a step part (63) provided at the emission surface side of the inclined side wall (Fig. 2), and the inclined side wall is located adjacent to a short side direction end part of the optical sheet (reflector 62 inclined side wall is frame-like, thus provided along and adjacent to both long and short direction end parts of the housing, see Fig. 2 and ¶s[0050, 0057]). Maeda fails to disclose the reflector includes a plurality of reflecting parts surrounding each light source of the plurality of light sources.
Shimizu discloses a planar illumination device (Fig. 4) comprising: a substrate (30) provided with a plurality of light sources (28) at one surface side; a reflector (26) provided at the one surface side of the substrate; and an optical sheet (18) provided at an emission surface side of the reflector, wherein the reflector (26) covers a periphery of the optical sheet (Fig. 4), and the reflector (26) includes an inclined side wall at a periphery, the inclined side wall decreasing in width from the substrate side toward the optical sheet side (Fig. 4), wherein the substrate (30), the reflector (26), and the optical sheet (18) are housed in a housing (Fig. 1), and wherein the reflector includes a plurality of reflecting parts (26a, 26b) surrounding each light source of the plurality of light sources to allow the light that is emitted from each light source and reaching each inclined surface of the plurality of reflecting parts to be directed toward the front side by the inclined surface. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filling of the claimed invention to incorporate plurality of reflecting parts surrounding each light source as disclosed by Shimizu in the illumination device of Maeda in order to allow the light that is emitted from each light source and reaching each inclined surface of the plurality of reflecting parts to be directed toward the front side by the inclined surface.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10 and 19-25 are allowed over the prior art of record.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim(s) 10, the references of the Prior Art of record fails to teach or suggest the combination of the limitations as set forth in claim(s) 10, and specifically comprising the limitation of at least a part of along side direction end part of the optical sheet is supported by a step part provided at the emission surface side of the inclined side wall, a step part is not provided at an inclined side wall located at short side direction end parts, and the inclined side wall is located adjacent to a short side direction end part of the optical sheet.
Regarding claim(s) 19-25, claims(s) 19-25 is/are allowable for the reasons given in claim(s) 10 because of its/their dependency status from claim(s) 10.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Conclusion
The rejections above rely on the references for all the teachings expressed in the text of the references and/or one of ordinary skill in the art would have reasonably understood or implied from the texts of the references. To emphasize certain aspects of the prior art, only specific portions of the texts have been pointed out. Each reference as a whole should be reviewed in responding to the rejection, since other sections of the same reference and/or various combinations of the cited references may be relied on in future rejections in view of amendments.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mariceli Santiago whose telephone number is (571) 272-2464. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jessica Han, can be reached on (571) 272-2078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Mariceli Santiago/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2879