Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 21 depends on claim 19 and recites “the providing of the interlayer”, which lacks an antecedent basis. Further, claim 19 recites a method of using a device whereas claim 21 appears to recite a feature that belongs to a method of making a device. Perhaps claim 21 should be amended to depend on claim 18.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3-5, 7-10, 12-13 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 7,393,598 B2 to Caballero.
Regarding claim 1, Caballero discloses a light-emitting device prepared by (1) forming a self-assembled monolayer of a molecule of the form A-B-C on the surface of a conductive substrate wherein A is the anchoring group that chemically bonds to the conductive surface, B is a linker and C is a light-emitting group, (2) treating the resulting substrate-anchored SAM with an inorganic salt, and (3) laminating the resulting substrate-anchored SAM with a second conductive substrate (col. 51-52. See also the drawings). When the first conductive substrate is gold, the anchoring group is preferably a thiol group (col. 16). An example of the A-B-C molecule is
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(col. 47), and an example of the inorganic salt is europium acetate (col. 51). All the features of claim 1 are therefore disclosed. Claims 3, 5, 7-8, 12 and 18 are also anticipated as mentioned. So is claim 4 because the length of the A-B-C molecule, such as the one cited above, is within the range of 0.1-5 nm. Since the lanthanide ion-coordinate crown emits fluorescent light (col. 13), claims 9-10 are anticipated. The features of claim 13 are met because the luminescing crown is separated from the second conductive layer by, for example, the 4-cyanophenylene group from the aforementioned molecule.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 6, 11, 14-17 and 19-21 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: These claims are not disclosed, suggested or made obvious by Caballero, which represents the closest prior art of record.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VU ANH NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-5454. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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/VU A NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
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