DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, first paragraph, as based on a disclosure which is not enabling. The application is said to provide “an organic light-emitting element with high operation durability” [0006]. It is described in the disclosure that said objective is achieved when the light-emitting layer contains the two compounds recited in claim 1, bounded by the following conditions:
|LUMO2| > |LUMOE| > |LUMO1| , and
The second compound has low oscillator strength and non-emissive.
These conditions are critical or essential to the practice of the invention, i.e., enhanced durability, but not included in the claims. See In re Mayhew, 527 F.2d 1229, 188 USPQ 356 (CCPA 1976).
Allowable Subject Matter
Aside from the aforementioned issues, the present claims contain subject matter that is allowable over the prior art.
KR 10-2014-0021969 A to Lee et al., which was cited by the EPO, discloses numerous organic light-emitting elements wherein the EML comprises a dibenzofluoranthene as a host material. For example, the device in example 193 (see page 94 of the original document) employs compound 287 as a host material, which has the following structure
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350
498
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(p. 15). This compound is representative of the claimed second compound. Lee et al. fails to suggest an OLED wherein the EML comprises two compounds as defined in claim 1.
US 2004/0076853 A1 to Jarikov discloses an OLED wherein the EML comprises two host compounds. The first host compound is selected from an extensive list of possibilities, including dibenzofluoranthenes such as dibenzo[b,j]fluoranthene, which is representative of the claimed second compound (see [0705] on page 14). The second host compound is also selected from an extensive list that includes dinaphthylanthracenes that read on the claimed first compound. However, there is not an obvious reason for a POSITA to pick and choose appropriate combinations of the two host compounds so as to arrive at the claimed invention.
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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