DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Applicants' communication filed on January 6, 2026. Claims 1-2, 5, 9-10, 13, 17-18 are amended, Claims 17 are cancelled, and presents arguments, is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been examined.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on January 6, 2026 have been fully considered.
Regarding limitations of Claims of the instant case in view of the amended Claims and upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection, necessitated by the amendments is made in view of different interpretation of the previously applied references and new prior art as presented in this Office action. Therefore, Applicant’s arguments are moot. 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).
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 of this title, 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220286550 A1 (Jia), in view of US 20240118853 A1 (Kwon) in further view of CN 110837318 B (Li), US 20230266876 A1 (Seo) and US 20160274722 A1 (Putzolu).
Regarding Claims 1, 9 and 17:
An electronic device comprising: a housing assembly comprising first and second housings coupled at a hinge to pivot between a fully folded position and fully unfolded position, the housing assembly being configured to remain at an intermediate pivot position between the fully folded position and the fully unfolded position for positioning the electronic device in a stand orientation or a tent orientation; a sensor configured to detect a change in a pivot position of the housing assembly; at least one display coupled to the housing assembly and comprising a visual output layer and a touch input layer; and a controller communicatively coupled to the pivot sensor and the at least one display, and which: presents, while the housing assembly is in one of the fully unfolded position or the intermediate pivot position, user interface content via the at least one display; and in response to determining, based on input received from the sensor, that the pivot position of the housing assembly is changing, ignores, during the change of the pivot position, touch inputs to one or more user interface controls assigned to the touch input layer and corresponding to the user interface content (Jia: Figs. 1-2, a method of detecting a folding process of a foldable process, and disabling a response to the touch events during the folding process, where the detecting may be through angle sensor(s), e.g., par. 94-95; Fig. 1 illustrates a foldable device with touching screens on both houses, and Kwon: Figs. 4A-F illustrate a foldable phone with touch screens on front of both houses and back of one of the house).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Jia with a foldable phone assembly as further taught by Kwon. The advantage of doing so is to prevent a mechanism of preventing unintended input during folding/unfolding process (Kwon: Background).
Jia does not teach explicitly on disabling touch events in both folding and unfolding processes. However, Li teaches (Li: Figs. 1-7, detecting folding and unfolding processes, and enabling disabling process in corresponding to folding and unfolding respectively, and return to normal touch operations when folding process is completed).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Jia with disabling touch events in both folding and unfolding processes as further taught by Li. The advantage of doing so is to prevent a mechanism of preventing unintended input during folding/unfolding process (Li: Background).
Jia does not teach explicitly on delayed touch screen activation vs. a threshold angle. However, Seo teaches (Seo: e.g., 27F-G and par. 562-564 for a folding process, and 27H-I and par. 566-567 for an unfolding process).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Jia with delayed touch screen activation vs. a threshold angle as further taught by Seo. The advantage of doing so is to provide a mobile device that can detect a touch gesture, a motion or a pose of the portable device, and a motion or a shape of the user as an input, as well as an input of a hard or soft key for allowing the user to more conveniently use the portable device (Seo: Background).
Jia does not illustrate various intermediate modes. However, Putzolu teaches (Putzolu: e.g., Fig. 1, stand mode, tent mode, clamshell mode, and tablet mode; par. 24, a sensor logic monitors the relative angle of the lid and the base unit. When the angle between the lid and the base unit begins to change, the sensor logic raises a signal to indicate that a conversion; Fig. 2 and par.26-30, Based on the change of angle between lid 250 and base 260, sensor logic 201 can determine whether lid 250 is moving…..if so……..sensor logic can temporarily disable other controllers that control other input devices or circuits, such as a touch screen………. or cause such input devices or circuit to ignore any user interaction….; When a conversion event is occurring, sensor logic 201 asserts a signa…. This signal is also received by the touch panel controller 305………… All of these devices, when they receive the signal, temporarily mask all inputs; Figs. 3-7 further illustrate detection processing).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was made to modify Jia with various intermediate modes as further taught by Putzolu. The advantage of doing so is to provide a mechanism of preventing unintentional user interaction with a mobile device during a transition of operating modes of the mobile device (Putzolu: Background).
Regarding Claims 2, 10 and 18, Jia as modified further teaches:
The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the controller: in response to determining, based on input received from the sensor, that the pivot position of the housing assembly is not changing from the intermediate pivot position, which is a first intermediate pivot position among more than one intermediate pivot positions between the fully folded position and the fully unfolded position: identifies the pivot position as the intermediate pivot position, which supports detection of touch inputs; detects the touch inputs; and enables a response by the electronic device to the touch inputs corresponding to the user interface content (Putzolu: e.g., par. 30-31, sensor logic 201 will stop asserting the signal after a short amount of time….passes with no further changes detected to the angle between the lid and the base; Based on the magnetic data collected from magnetometers 203 and the movement data collected from accelerometers 202, sensor logic 201 can determine which of the operating modes (e.g., clamshell, tablet, tent, and stand modes) in which the mobile device is operating).
Regarding Claims 3, 11 and 19, Jia as modified further teaches:
The electronic device of claim 2, further comprising: a memory communicatively coupled to the controller and that stores at least one application; executes the at least one application to generate the user interface content and the corresponding one more user interface controls; and enables the response by the electronic device to the touch inputs to the one or more user interface controls by relaying the touch inputs to application functions executing in the controller (Jia: e.g., Fig. 6A).
Regarding Claims 4, 12 and 20, Jia as modified further teaches:
The electronic device of claim 1, wherein: the at least one display comprises a front display on an inner side of at least one of one of the first housing and the second housing, the front display hidden by an opposing one of the first housing and the second housing while the electronic device is in the fully folded position and exposed for user interfacing and content presentation while the electronic device is in the fully unfolded position; and in ignoring the touch inputs, the controller: delays activating the front display in response to determining that the pivot position is transitioning from the fully folded position to the fully unfolded position; and deactivates the front display in response to determining that the pivot position is transitioning from the fully unfolded position to the fully folded position (Li: e.g., Fig. 7; Seo: e.g., 27F-G and par. 562-564 for a folding process, and 27H-I and par. 566-567 for an unfolding process).
Regarding Claims 5 and 13, Jia as modified further teaches:
The electronic device of claim 1, wherein: the at least one display comprises a front display on an inner side of at least one of one of the first housing and the second housing, the front display hidden by an opposing one of the first housing and the second housing while the electronic device is in the fully folded position and exposed for user interfacing and content presentation while the electronic device is in the fully unfolded position; and in ignoring the touch inputs, the controller: delays activating the front display in response to determining that the pivot position is transitioning from the fully folded position to the intermediate pivot position; and deactivates the front display in response to determining that the pivot position is transitioning from the intermediate pivot position to the fully folded position (Seo: Figs. 27H-I and par. 565-566, screen 14 is activated only the angle between two screens reaches a predetermined angle).
Regarding Claims 6 and 14, Jia as modified further teaches:
The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the at least one display comprises a back display exposed on an outer side of one of the first housing and the second housing (Kwon: Figs. 4A-F).
Regarding Claims 7 and 15, Jia as modified further teaches:
The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the controller presents an indication on the at least one display that the touch inputs are being ignored in response to determining, based on sensor inputs received from the sensor, that the pivot position of the housing assembly is changing (Jia: e.g., par. 77-79, during unfolding, display switching animation; during folding, user can be prompted by the beep as the screen cannot be viewed; Kwon: Figs. 25-27, 34, par. 442-469).
Regarding Claims 8 and 16, Jia as modified further teaches:
The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is one of a position sensor, a proximity sensor, an accelerometer, and a motion sensor (Jia: Li; Fig. 7, hinge sensor, gravity sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor among others).
Conclusion
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 extension fee 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 ZHITONG CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1936. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:30am - 5pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yuwen Pan can be reached on 571-272-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZHITONG CHEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649