DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-13 in the reply filed on 2/25/2026 is acknowledged.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Korea on September 16, 2022. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the Korean application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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, 7, and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Liu et al. (US 2017/0373264).
Regarding independent claim 1, Liu et al. (‘264) teaches in figures 1-3 and the corresponding text a display device comprising: a first substrate (102) including a first region (100A) and a second region (100B) surrounding the first region in a plan view; a first filler (114) disposed on the first substrate and overlapping the first region; a second filler (118) disposed on the first substrate and overlapping the second region, and including a material different from the first filler; and a second substrate (112) disposed on the first filler and the second filler.
Regarding dependent claim 2, Liu et al. (‘264) teaches a refractive index of the first filler and a refractive index of the second filler are different from each other (see paragraph 0050).
Regarding dependent claim 3, Liu et al. (‘264) teaches a refractive index of the first filler is greater than a refractive index of the second filler (see paragraph 0050)..
Regarding dependent claim 7, Liu et al. (‘264) teaches the first filler includes a siloxane backbone, and the siloxane backbone is connected to at least one phenyl group (see paragraph 0050).
Regarding dependent claim 8, Liu et al. (‘264) teaches the second filler includes a siloxane backbone, and the siloxane backbone is connected to at least one methyl group (see paragraph 0050).
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.
Claims 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2017/0373264).
Regarding claims 4-5 Liu et al. (‘264) teach all of the claimed limitations except for the exact claimed refractive indexes.
However, Liu et al. (‘264) does teach that the fillers each have a different refractive indexes for the purpose of reducing glare and thus improve visibility.
Hence, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the filler of Liu for the purpose of reducing glare and thus improve visibility. The exact index is an obvious choice in design.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 is 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:
Regarding claim 6, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggest a camera overlapping the first region and the first filler, along with the rest of the limitations of the claim.
Claims 9-13 are allowed.
Regarding independent claim 9, a display device comprising: a first substrate including a light emitting element, a first region and a second region surrounding the first region; a camera overlapping the first region in a plan view; a filler layer disposed on the first substrate, including a first filler overlapping the first region, and a second filler overlapping the second region and having a refractive index less than a refractive index of the first filler; and a second substrate disposed on the filler layer.
Due to their dependency, claims 10-13 are necessarily allowable.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH L WILLIAMS whose telephone number is (571)272-2465. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 6:30 AM- 5:00 PM.
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, JAMES R. GREECE can be reached at (571) 272-3711. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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JOSEPH L. WILLIAMS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2875
/JOSEPH L WILLIAMS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2875
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