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 .
Detailed Action
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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 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.
Claims1-6 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over “Haddick”; John D. et al, US 20130127980 A1. .
Regarding claim 1, Haddick teaches a panel light guide module (see figs. 1-4, 15, 83-84 summary) for a solid-state drive (see at least parag. 0031 and 1213), guiding a light emitted from a plurality of light sources positioned on a plurality of installation surfaces (see at least figs. 84, 191-194), the panel light guide module (Figs. 1-209) comprising:
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a panel shell (see figs. 1-4, 83-84; item i.e., 102, 8504) comprising
a housing (i.e. 300), and a panel (see figs. 2, 84) combined to the housing (see at least fig. 1-3, 83-84), the panel comprising at least one light source hole (see at least fig 84, item 8412, or item 210 inserted/position there as item “light source hole” for light/image output); and a light guide structure (shown in at least figs. 1-3, and 84), comprising a light guide cover (i. e., external cover of the projector 108/200 shown combined with the housing 202 and at least one light guide column 220 positioned on the light guide cover, the light guide column 220 comprising a light-receiving surface facing the light sources RGB-LED and a light-emitting surface facing the light source hole (shown in at least fig. 2); wherein, the light sources comprise a plurality of luminous surfaces (i.e., see at least the pbs/beam slitters of fig. 2 with fig. 98b also fig. 4), and the light-receiving surface (i.e., surface of display 210 faces the luminous surfaces of the light sources and receives the light emitted from the light sources RGB_LEDs (see at least figs. 1-2, para. 0285).
However, Haddick does not teach all limitations of the claim such as luminous surfaces in embodiment of figs. 1-2, rather in other embodiments such as figs. 98 or 4. Nonetheless, all embodiments of Haddick are closely interrelated and thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention made to embodiment of figs. 1-2 using another related embodiment so as to produce a light guide module for solid state hard drive (parag. 0931).
The arguments presented in in rejection of claim 1, including the obviousness and motivation are incorporated in rejection of the following claims as follows:
2. The panel light guide module according to claim 1, wherein the light guide cover comprises a plurality of positioning structures, and the light guide column is fixed on the positioning structures (shown in at least fig. 1 and 21-22).
3. The panel light guide module according to claim 2, wherein the positioning structures comprises a plurality of positioning holes defined thereon, the light guide column comprises a plurality of positioning posts, and the positioning posts are inserted in the positioning holes (shown in at least figs. 21-22). .
4. The panel light guide module according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of positioning structures comprises a plurality of positioning ribs (i.,e, 2126) surrounding two sides of each of the positioning holes, and the light guide column is inserted between two of the positioning ribs (see fat least ig. 21).
5. The panel light guide module according to claim 1, wherein the light guide structure further comprises at least one light-transmitting piece 210/216 , one side of the light-transmitting piece is exposed from the light source hole, and another side of the light-transmitting piece is located adjacent to the light-emitting surface of the light guide column (shown in at least fig. 1 and 21-22). .
6. The panel light guide module according to claim 5, wherein an amount of the light source hole, an amount of the light guide column and an amount of the light-transmitting piece respectively are multiple (see figs. 21-22 with at least two projectors).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-12 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.
Citation of Relevant Prior Art
Prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. In accordance with MPEP 707.05 the following references are pertinent in rejection of this application since they provide substantially the same information disclosure as this patent does. These references are:
US 20130278631 A1
US 20130328785 A1
US 9465000 B1
US 20200090884 A1
US 20130329450 A1
US 20130328741 A1
US 20200328050 A1
US 20130127980 A1
US 20190150749 A1
US 20230066741 A1
US 20130328780 A1
US 20170060176 A1
JP 2020108695 A
US 11592862 B1
US 20110128718 A1
US 20110176289 A1
US 20250004296 A1
JP 2025081151 A
US 20140091209 A1
US 20260027736 A1
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAVEH C KIANNI whose telephone number is (571)272-2417. The examiner can normally be reached on 9-19.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hollweg can be reached on571-270-1739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KAVEH C KIANNI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874