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 .
Applicant’s amendment dated 04/22/2026 has been received and entered. By the amendment, claims 1-17 and newly added claims 18-20 are now pending in the application.
Applicant’s arguments dated 04/22/2026 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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.
Claim(s) 1 and 3-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Swartz et al., US 2024/0045167 A1, in view of Gudsoe, US 2021/0157360A1.
Regarding claim 1, Swartz et al. figures 1A-1C, 2, 3A-3B and accompanying text disclose a hanging rack type screen protector 2000, configured to protect a display screen of an electronic device 400 and prevent others from peeking at images, pictures, or content presented on the display screen ([0016]), the screen protector comprising:
. a functional film body 300 having a plurality of optical gratings configured to define a viewing area, so as to limit passing light to a range of allowable visual angles (i.e., privacy filter, [0017])
. first left/right combining portions (portion corresponding to area of 118) formed in an upper left/right regions (fig. 3B)
. left/right hanging rack components 101 having an appearance structure which is approximately L-shaped from the side and formed by the left/right hanging rack portions (portions corresponding to area of 200/218) and second left/right combining portions (portions of 101 corresponding to area of 118)(fig. 3B)
. wherein the functional film body is freely hung on or freely detached or removed from the electronic device by the left hanging rack component and the right hanging rack component ([0034]).
Swartz et al., however, do not disclose both the left/right hanging rack components being assembled on the functional film body to form a single plane or a coplanar surface with the functional film body. Gudsoe does disclose a pair of hanging rack 5/6 assembled on a functional film body 2/3 to form a single plane or a coplanar surface (figs 7a-7c). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ a pair of hanging rack assembled over the Swartz et al. functional screen body as a single plane or coplanar surface, as shown by Gudsoe, since it is a known practice in the art to secure and make a whole portable unit of a screen protection.
Re claim 3, wherein the second left combining portion of the left hanging rack component is correspondingly assembled on the first left combining portion of the functional film body in a freely detachable manner, and the second right combining portion of the right hanging rack component is correspondingly assembled on the first right combining portion of the functional film body in a freely detachable manner (fig 3A-3B)
Re claims 4-5, wherein the left/right hanging rack component 110 is further provided with left/right attaching bodies 120 at the left/right hanging rack portion, the left/right attaching bodies being formed from a wave-absorbing material, a magnetic material, or a repeatably attaching material (magnetic poles, [0023]).
Re claim 6, wherein the magnetic material for forming the left attaching body and the right attaching body comprises at least a natural magnet (e.g., rare-earth magnet).
Re claim 7, Swartz et al. further comprising left/right adsorption components and a right adsorption component, wherein the left adsorption component and the right adsorption component are formed from a wave-absorbing material, a magnetic material, or a repeatably attaching material and are arranged on a peripheral side of the electronic device in a freely detachable manner ([0023]).
Re claim 8, wherein the second left/right combining portions of the left/right hanging rack components correspondingly assembled on the first/second left combining portions of the functional film body in a fixing manner (e.g., adhering)(fig. 3B)
Re claim 9, wherein the first left/right combining portions of the left/right hanging rack components would have first/second slit areas (applicant’s notch) corresponding to 118 (figs 1A-1B, 3B).
Re claim 10, wherein the left/right hanging rack portion and the second left/right combining portion would be formed from a homogeneous or heterogeneous material (e.g., steel, [0020]).
Re claim 11, wherein the electronic device is a desktop display/computer 400.
Re claims 12-13, wherein the functional film body 300 is further provided with an avoidance portion, a position where the avoidance portion is provided corresponds to a position where a functional component of the electronic device is formed, so as to avoid shielding or covering part or whole of the functional component, and the functional component comprises at least one of an image capture component, an audio transceiver component, an optical photography component, and a digital transmission component (light control film [0017]).
Claims 14-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Swartz et al., US 2024/0045167 A1, and Gudsoe, US 2021/0157360A1i, further in view of Lee et al., US 2020/0241181 A1.
Re claim 14, the modification to Swartz et al. disclose the claimed invention as described above except for the functional film body 300 comprises at least a functional layer, a top surface and a bottom surface. Lee et al. do disclose a screen protector including a grating sheet 10 (light transmitting), a top surface layer 30 and a bottom surface layer 40 (fig. 1). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the Swartz et al. functional film body including a functional layer, a top surface layer and a bottom surface layer, as shown by Lee et al. to an adsorption screen protector [0002]).
Re claims 15-16, the modification to Swartz et al. would also be comprised an auxiliary fixing piece attached to the functional film body and configured to improve the fixation strength between the functional film body and the electronic device, wherein the auxiliary fixing piece is a magnetic component or a non-magnetic component (Swartz et al., [0022]-[0023]).
Re claim 17, the modification to Swartz et al. would also result of a first bonding layer is further comprised between the functional layer and the top surface layer and a second bonding layer is further comprised between the functional layer and the bottom surface layer (Lee et al., [0088]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 18-20 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:
None of the prior art of record discloses or suggests alone or in combination that a hanging rack type screen protector comprising a combination of various elements as claimed more specifically the functional film body comprising at least a functional layer, which is a light-transmitting film or a light-transmitting laminated body, a top surface layer, formed on an upper side of the functional layer, a bottom surface layer, formed on a lower side of the functional layer, a first bonding layer, comprised between the functional layer and the top surface layer, and a second bonding layer, comprised between the functional layer and the bottom surface layer, wherein each of the first bonding layer and the second bonding layer has an optical transmittance of 90% or more and a haze of 1% or less as set forth in claims 2 and 18.
Claims 19-20 are allowed by virtue of their dependency
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUNG T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2297. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 - 5:00.
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/DUNG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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