DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/19/2025 has been entered.
Applicant’s amendment dated 05/19/2025 has been received and entered. By the amendment, claims 1, 2, 5-14 and 16 are now pending in the application.
Applicant’s arguments filed 05/19/2025 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made as following:
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 2 and 5--16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerets et al., US 7,938,543, in view of Yanagisawa et al., US 2007/0291238 A1.
Regarding claims 1 and 16, Gerets et al. disclose a temperature adjustment apparatus adjusting a temperature of a liquid crystal panel module 100 (figs 1-3) comprising:
. a thermoelectric conversion device 122/222
. a control unit 140
. wherein the liquid crystal panel module 100 includes a liquid crystal panel 111, a thermal diffuser 120/220 having a contact portion in contact with the liquid crystal panel and an extending portion extending from the contact portion and diffusing received heat (figs 1, 3)
. the thermoelectric conversion device 122/222 has a first surface in contact with the extending portion, and a second surface at an opposite side to the first surface (figs 1-3)
. the control unit is configured cooling processing of absorbing the heat of the liquid crystal panel transferred to the thermal diffuser by the thermoelectric conversion device via the contact portion and diffused in the thermal diffuser (col. 10, ln 8-13).
. a cooler 125 in contact with the second surface 124 of the thermoelectric conversion device 122
. a drive unit cooling the cooler , wherein the warming processing includes warming control of the liquid crystal panel by the thermoelectric conversion device, and output decrease control of the drive unit (col. 11, ln 55-59).
Gerets et al., however, do not explicitly disclose a warming processing of supplying heat to the thermal diffuser using the thermoelectric conversion device and warming the liquid crystal panel by the heat diffused in the thermal diffuser and transferred to the liquid crystal panel via the contact portion, the thermoelectric conversion device is a Peltier element, and the control unit sets polarity of the Peltier element to be opposite in the warming processing and the cooling processing.. Yamagisawa et al. do disclose a Peltier thermoelectric conversion device 7113 configured to cool and warm controlling and setting a polarity for warming processing (heat absorbing) and cooling processing (heat releasing) (fig. 18, [0134]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ a control board with a Peltier thermoelectric conversion device for monitoring and controlling a temperature through the Gerets et al. device, as shown by Yamagisawa et al. as a heat sink function ([0135]).
Re claim 2, Gerets et al. further disclose a memory storing a threshold, wherein the liquid crystal panel module includes a temperature sensor detecting the temperature, and the control unit executes one processing of the warming processing and the cooling processing based on a comparison result between a detection value by the temperature sensor and the threshold (col. 4, ln 7-29).
Re claims 5-8, Gerets et al. also disclose the control unit executes the warming control (e.g., output decrease controlling) including warming control of the liquid crystal panel by the thermoelectric conversion device, and output decrease control of the drive unit/output decrease control of the drive unit in the warming processing and/or the control unit increases warming output to the liquid crystal panel by the thermoelectric conversion device in a stepwise manner in the warming processing (col. 11, ln 55-59).
Re claims 9-12, wherein the control unit includes cooling control of the liquid crystal panel by the thermoelectric conversion device and output increase control of the drive unit in the cooling processing and/or wherein the control unit increases output of the thermoelectric conversion device/drive unit in a stepwise manner in the cooling processing (col. 12, ln 49-58).
Re claim 13, wherein the cooler is a heat sink coupled to the second surface, and the drive unit is a fan circulating cooling wind in the heat sink (paragraph bridging cols. 10-11, col. 11, ln 37-67).
Re claim 14, wherein the cooler transfers heat transferred from the second surface to a liquid refrigerant circulating inside, and the drive unit is a pump circulating the liquid refrigerant in the cooler (col. 7, ln 54-63).
Conclusion
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/DUNG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871