DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 18/391,684. Claims 1-10 are pending in the application.
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 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, 3-6, 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Kajimoto et al (US 2019/0123279).
Kajimoto et al teaches a display device comprising an anode, a cathode and organic elements between the electrodes (par. 1, 78). The organic elements include organic layers (par. 78). The organic layers include hole injection, hole transport, electron blocking, light-emitting (luminescent), hole blocking, electron transport and electron injection layers (par. 27, 82). The luminescent (light-emitting) layers are configured to emit red, green or blue light (par. 45).
Kajimoto et al is silent regarding the resistance of the electron blocking and hole blocking layers in the thickness direction. However, the resistance of each layer depends on its thickness. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have determined the optimum thickness (and optimum resistance) by routine experimentation. Furthermore, Kajimoto et al teaches the same device structure and same use as the claimed device. Therefore the claimed layer resistance would have been obvious in view of the reference.
Regarding claims 6 and 8-10, Kajimoto et al further teaches a process for producing the light-emitting device (par. 106-110).
Claims 2 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Kajimoto et al (US 2019/0123279) in view of MA et al (US 2023/0403872).
Kajimoto et al teaches a display device as described above. Kajimoto et al does not teach the potential barrier between the organic layers.
However, MA et al teaches a display device wherein the potential barrier between the electron blocking layer and the light emitting layer is 0.2 eV (par. 8), and the potential barrier between the electron transport layer and the hole blocking layer is 0.2 eV (par. 14). The energy levels provide better efficiency and life of the device (par. 2). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the energy levels of MA et al with the display device of Kajimoto et al in order to obtain improved efficiency and life of the device.
Examiner’s Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to William Young whose telephone number is (571) 270-5078. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM.
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