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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 07/11/2025 and 02/19/2024 have been considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
Receipt is acknowledged of applicant’s amendment filed 08/25/2023.
Drawings amended
Claims 3-4, 6,11,13,16,20,23-24,28,31-35 have been cancelled by the applicant.
Claims 1-2,5,7,9-10,12,14-15,17-19,21-22,25-27,29-30 and 36 are pending and an action
on the merits is as follows.
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.
Claims 1, 12, 14 and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a1) as being anticipated by Wang et al., CN111799320,machine translation, 09-2020) (Wang, hereafter).
Regarding claim 1, Wang discloses a display device, comprising a display substrate, which comprises a base substrate and a plurality of sub-pixels (101), (201), (301) arranged at intervals in an array on the base substrate, wherein there is a spacing region between adjacent sub-pixels; in figure 15A, spacers (700) are provided between some of the sub-pixels (201) (comprising first spacing regions having functional positions), and there is no functional position between the sub-pixels (101) and the sub-pixels (301) (equivalent to second spacing regions); the width of a spacing region between two adjacent sub-pixels (201) arranged in a first direction is greater than the width of a spacing region between two adjacent sub-pixels (101) and (301) arranged in the same direction, wherein the width of the spacing region is equal to the shortest distance between the boundaries of the two second direction, the third pixel groups and the fourth pixel groups are alternately arranged in the first direction, there are spacers (700) between adjacent sub-pixels (101) and (301) in the third pixel groups, there is no spacer (700) between adjacent sub-pixels (101) and (301) in the first pixel groups, and the sub-pixels (101)
and (301) are in the shape of a square having diagonal lines respectively parallel to the first direction and the second direction; and the sub-pixels (101) are red, the sub-pixels (201) are green and the sub-pixels (301) are blue.
Regarding claim 12, Wang discloses a pixel definition layer; wherein the pixel definition layer (400) comprises pixel definition layer openings, and pixel definition parts between the pixel definition layer openings; the pixel definition layer openings (401) define light emitting regions (210) of the plurality of sub-pixels; and the functional parts are on a side of the pixel definition parts away from the base substrate; and wherein the functional parts and the pixel definition parts have a one-piece structure(π157).
Regarding claim 14 Wang discloses wherein in the sub-pixels adjacent to at least some functional parts, at least one sub-pixel has a geometric center offset from a straight line extending along the first direction, and at least two sub-pixels in the same row as the at least one sub-pixel in the first direction have geometric centers on the straight line; and/or in the sub-pixels adjacent to the at least some functional parts, at least one sub-pixel has a geometric center offset from a straight line extending along the second direction, and at least two sub-pixels in the same row as the at least one sub-pixel in the second direction have geometric centers on the straight line; the second direction intersects the first direction (π152-π154).
Regarding claim 36 Wang discloses a display apparatus (π113), comprising the display substrate of claim 1 (see rejection claim 1).
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) 2,5,7, 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al., CN111799320,machine translation, 09-2020) (Wang, hereafter).
Regarding claims 2, 5 and 10 wherein the width of the first spacer region is greater than or equal to 20 μm; wherein a distance between a boundary of each functional part and a boundary of a corresponding sub-pixel closest to the functional part is greater than or equal to 3 μm; and wherein the width of the second spacer region is less than or equal to 19 μm (claim 2);. wherein a shortest connecting line between boundaries of two sub-pixels corresponding to each of at least one first spacer region passes through the functional part in the first spacer region; and wherein in a cross-section passing through the shortest connecting line and perpendicular to the base substrate, a distance between the boundaries of the two sub-pixels corresponding to the first spacer region is greater than or equal to 20 μm, and a distance between the functional part in the first spacer region and each of the two sub-pixels is greater than or equal to 3 μm (claim 5); wherein a distance between two adjacent functional parts is between 100 μm and 300 μm; and the number of the functional positions provided with the functional parts is at least 15% of the number of all the functional parts(Claim(10).
Wang discloses , wherein a shortest connecting line between boundaries of two sub-pixels corresponding to each of at least one first spacer region passes through the functional part in the first spacer region; and wherein in a cross-section passing through the shortest connecting line and perpendicular to the base substrate; in the direction of the line connecting the centers of the openings of two adjacent pixel-defining layers, the width of the overlapping portion of the boundary of adjacent light-emitting layers can be less than 6 to 8 micrometers. For example, as shown in Figure 15A, along the second direction, four second color sub-pixels 200 are provided between adjacent spacers 700, and along the first direction, two first color sub-pixels 100 and two third color sub-pixels 300 are provided between adjacent spacers 700 (π350-π363);
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify the display substrate of Wang as disclosed by along with ordinary skill on derive wherein the width of the first spacer region is greater than or equal to 20 μm; wherein a distance between a boundary of each functional part and a boundary of a corresponding sub-pixel closest to the functional part is greater than or equal to 3 μm; and wherein the width of the second spacer region is less than or equal to 19 μm. wherein a shortest connecting line between boundaries of two sub-pixels corresponding to each of at least one first spacer region passes through the functional part in the first spacer region; and wherein in a cross-section passing through the shortest connecting line and perpendicular to the base substrate, a distance between the boundaries of the two sub-pixels corresponding to the first spacer region is greater than or equal to 20 μm, and a distance between the functional part in the first spacer region and each of the two sub-pixels is greater than or equal to 3 μm; wherein a distance between two adjacent functional parts is between 100 μm and 300 μm; and the number of the functional positions provided with the functional parts is at least 15% of the number of all the functional parts the motivation being to develop a display having being thin, flexible, having low power
consumption, wide color gamut, and high contrast.
Regarding claims 7 and 9, the limitations wherein a connecting line between geometric centers of two sub-pixels corresponding to each of at least one first spacer region passes through the functional part in the first spacer region; and the connecting line between the geometric centers of the two sub-pixels corresponding to the first spacer region passes through a geometric center of the functional part in the first spacer region (claim 7); wherein at least one first spacer region extends in a third direction; at least one first spacer region extends in a fourth direction, which intersects the third direction; and the at least one first spacer region extending in the third direction and the at least one first spacer region extending in the fourth direction have an overlapping region therebetween, and at least one functional part at least partially overlaps the overlapping region (claim 9) do not appear to
contain any additional features which define more than slight constructional changes which come within the scope of the customary (design) practice followed by persons skilled in the art, especially as the
advantages thus achieved can be readily contemplated in advance. Alternatively, these limitations are not deemed patentable since the applicant’s disclosure fails to show such limitations to solve any problems or to yield any unobvious advantage that is not within the scope of the teachings applied. Therefore, such limitations would be a matter of design alternative.
Therefore it would have been obvious before the effective filing date to modify the display substrate of Wang as noted above since matters of design change requires only routine skill.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15,26, 30 are 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. Claims 15,17-19,22-25,27 and 29 are rejected due to their dependency.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure can be found in the 892 and below
US 20240179968 A1-same assignee- display substrate and a display device
CN 113053973 A- display substrate, color film substrate display panel and a display device
US 20210005686 A1- display substrate motherboard
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/TRACIE Y GREEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2875