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 statement (IDS) submitted on 4/10/24 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-4, 18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jia. et al., CN 111682126 in view of Ahmed et al., US 2020/0135703.
Regarding claim 1, Jia teaches a display module (Abstract and Figure 2), comprising: a display substrate (1) including a plurality of light-emitting portions (6); a color film layer (10) located on a light-exit side of the display substrate; wherein the color film layer includes a plurality of color film portions (10), and the plurality of color film portions cover the plurality of light-emitting portions (see Figure 2), respectively; and a light modulation layer (71 and 72) located between the color film layer and the display substrate; wherein the light modulation layer includes a plurality of modulation portions (71 and 72), a modulation portion is correspondingly disposed between a light-emitting portion and a color film portion (see Figure 2); the modulation portion includes a modulation structure and a transmission structure (see Figure 5, center part of the modulation portion is transmission structure and outer part 72/73 is modulation structure); the color film portion includes a first region (10) and a second region (part of region 10 that overlaps with black matrix 9); an orthogonal projection of the transmission structure on the corresponding color film portion is located within the first region (first region is center region orthogonal projection from substrate toward color filter); the second region is adjacent to another color film portion (second region is part overlapping with black matrix, and is also adjacent to another color film portion), and an orthogonal projection of the modulation structure on the corresponding color film portion is located in the second region (72/73 are located in second region, orthogonal projection from substrate); the modulation structure is used to converge exit light from the corresponding light-emitting portion (see Figure 5, light converging in modulation region to avoid light leakage). Jia is silent as to the color filters being different colors.
However, in the same field of endeavor of display devices, Ahmed teaches the light emitting devices are a plurality of colors, blue, green and red ([0026]). Further, it would have been well known to those of ordinary skill in the art that providing a color filter of the same color as the light emitting unit would serve to improve color quality of a full color display device. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to provide color filters of different colors in the Jia device to ensure excellent display quality.
Regarding claim 2, Jia teaches the invention as explained above regarding claim 1 and further teaches an orthogonal projection of the transmission structure (71) on the display substrate completely covers the corresponding light emitting portion (see Figure 2, light emitting layer 6 covered by transmission portion 71).
Regarding claim 3, Jia and Ahmed teach the invention as explained above regarding claim 2, but are silent as to the transmission structure being a vacuum layer. However, it is the position of the examiner that lacking criticality and unexpected results, the light modulating layer in Jia would serve the same purpose of a vacuum layer by sealing the light emitting elements from damage due to moisture or air, and therefore it would have been obvious to substitute a vacuum layer for the transmissive layer due to the likelihood of similar resulting functionality.
Regarding claim 4, Jia teaches the invention as explained above regarding claim 1 and further teaches an orthogonal projection of the modulation portion on the display substrate coincides with an orthogonal projection of the corresponding color film portion on the display substrate (orthogonal projection of 72/73 corresponds to outer edges of color films 10).
Regarding claim 18, Jia teaches the invention as explained above regarding claim 1 and further teaches the modulation structure is disposed around the transmission structure (see Figure 3, 72 and 73 surround 71).
Regarding claim 20, Jia teaches the invention as explained above regarding claim 1 and further teaches a display device comprising the display module (Abstract).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-17 and 19 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art fails to teach or suggest the light modulating structure includes a metasurface structure, including a plurality of unit structures arranged in an array, and center lines of any two adjacent unit structures have an equal distance therebetween, and each unit structure has an equal height in a direction perpendicular to the display substrate.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Ma et al., WO 2023/123113 teaches a display comprising light emitting elements and further comprising color filter layer and light modulating layer. However, Ma fails to teach the light modulating layer is between the light emitting elements and the color filter layer.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARY-ELLEN BOWMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5383. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday; 7:00 am-5:00 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, James Greece can be reached at (571) 272-3711. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
MARY ELLEN BOWMAN
Examiner
Art Unit 2875
/MARY ELLEN BOWMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2875