DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant’s submission filed on December 16, 2025 has been entered.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1 through 5 and 14 through 20 continue to stand as being withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on June 9, 2025.
Specification
The objections to the specification in the previous office action have been withdrawn in light of the amendment to the Abstract.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to Claims 6 through 13 have been fully considered, but are now moot because the following new grounds of rejections do not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 6, 8, 10 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication 2003/0112298 to Sato et al (hereinafter “Sato”) in view of U.S. Publication 2010/0237992 to Liautaud (hereinafter “Liautaud”).
NOTE: The limitations not taught by Sato below have been cross-out.
Claim 6: Sato discloses an electronic device comprising:
a flexible film (e.g. 31, 30, Fig. 7);
a first electrode (e.g. 32, 41, 42, 43) formed directly on a bottom surface of the flexible film,
a second electrode (e.g. 12) located beneath the first electrode,
a piezoelectric actuator (e.g. 10) beneath the second electrode, a top surface of the piezoelectric actuator coupled to the second electrode, the second electrode formed directly on a the top surface of piezoelectric actuator (e.g. Fig. 7); and
a base plane (e.g. 23) beneath the piezoelectric actuator, the base plane coupled to a bottom surface of the piezoelectric actuator (e.g. at 22, 11)
Claim 8: Sato discloses the electronic device of claim 6, wherein the piezoelectric actuator is configured to deform in response to the first electrode (e.g. at 43) contacting the second electrode (e.g. ¶ [0076]).
Claim 10: Sato discloses the electronic device of claim 6, wherein a substrate (e.g. 22, Fig. 7) is between the flexible film and the base plane.
Claim 12: Sato discloses the electronic device of claim 6, further comprising two additional electrodes (e.g. 11) underneath the flexible film, each of the two additional electrodes, wherein the two additional electrodes are insulated [via layer 10] from the first electrode and the second electrode (e.g. Fig. 7).
While Sato does not appear to mention a voltage signal source, input detector, and signal ground coupled to the first electrode, second electrode and base, respectively, these elements are considered to be necessary to operate an electronic device. Moreover, the term “coupled’ can be broadly interpreted as: to bring (two electric circuits) into such close proximity as to permit mutual influence1. Which means that these elements can be connected anywhere to the electronic device, and yet be coupled to the first electrode, second electrode and/or base plane, in the context of operating the electronic device.
The electronic device of Sato further discloses that the piezoelectric actuator is formed in a matrix array (e.g. ¶ [0067]) so that the electronic device can perform in a wide variety of applications (e.g. ¶ [0010] to [0012]).
Liautaud teaches a piezoelectric actuator (e.g. 700, Fig. 7A or 1220, Fig. 13A) in the form of a matrix array (e.g. Fig. 13A) that includes a second electrode (e.g. 706, Fig. 7A) on a top surface of the piezoelectric actuator and a base plane (e.g. 704, Fig. 7A, ¶¶ [0095] to [0097]). The electronic device (in Fig. 13A) of Liautaud is coupled to a voltage signal source (e.g. 1206 of 1202, Figs. 12, 13A), an input detector (e.g. 1204 of 1202, Figs. 12, 13A) and a signal ground (e.g. ground lines not labeled in Fig. 13A, see ¶ [0101]) . Such a connection by these elements, albeit diagrammatically in Figure 13A, allows the electronic device to operate in a wide variety of applications (e.g. biometric information, etc., ¶ [0003]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the electronic device of Sato by adding the voltage signal source, input detector, and signal ground, as taught by Liautaud, to allow the electronic device having an equivalent piezoelectric actuator to operate in a wide variety of applications.
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter. Saito and Liautaud do not teach anything related to a threshold amount of touch pressure. Moreover, it would not be obvious to modify Saito or Liautaud to include any such touch pressure because to do so would destroy the structure of their electronic devices.
Therefore, Claims 7, 9, 11 and 13 have been objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to A. DEXTER TUGBANG whose telephone number is (571)272-4570. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
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/A. DEXTER TUGBANG/ Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2896
1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coupled
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