Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-5, 7-9 and 11-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 2021/0101921 A1 to Boudreault et al.
Regarding claim 1, Boudreault et al. discloses a consumer product (pp. 86-87) comprising an OLED (p. 81) wherein the EML comprises a host material and a dopant comprising an organometallic compound having the ligand
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, such as the complex
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on page 75. This compound is representative of the claimed compound wherein X2 = N. Claim 1 is therefore unpatentable. So are claims 2, 7-9 and 11-13. The features of claims 3 and 4 can be found on pages 6 and 76, and those of claim 14 in table 1. The features of claim 5 are disclosed in paragraphs [0126] on page 73 and [0204] on page 89. Claims 15-24 are disclosed in paragraphs [0005] & [0237] and on pages 87-90.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0101921 A1 to Boudreault et al.
Regarding claim 6, Boudreault et al. discloses the iridium complex Ir(LA)(LB)2 wherein LA is the ligand cited above and the ligand LB is a bidentate ligand such as derivatives of acac, and wherein the two instants of LB may be different from one another (see the rejection of claim 5 above and pages 17-51). As the ligand LA has a more extensive π-electron conjugation than the ligand LB, it would have been obvious to a POSITA to expect ligand LA to have a much lower triplet excitation energy than ligands LB.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments 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.
Conclusion
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.
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/VU A NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
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