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 Invention II, Group A, Claims 9-17 in the reply filed on March 16, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-8 and 18-30 have been withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention and nonelected groups, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on March 16, 2026.
Priority
There appears to be a typographical error in the Foreign Priority Information of the Application Data Sheet filed September 26, 2023. As shown below, US is specified as the Country. Examiner believes the Country should be KR. Correction of the Application Data Sheet is respectfully requested.
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Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) submitted on September 26, 2023 and April 15, 2024 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, “a first substrate in which a plurality of pixel electrodes is located,” as recited in claim 9, line 2, must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). Applicant’s Fig. 13 shows a first substrate SUB1 on which a plurality of pixel electrodes 111 is located. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Interpretation
Examiner will interpret the term “cover” as used in claims 10 and 16 in accordance with the following disclosure in [0033] of US 2008/0231190 A1: “Herein, in general, when it is mentioned that one layer or material is formed on or disposed on or covers a second layer or a second material, it is to be understood that the terms "formed on," "disposed on" and "covering" are not limited to the one layer being formed directly on the second layer, but may include instances wherein there is an intervening layer or material between the one layer and the second layer.”
Claim Objections
Claims 11, 12 and 17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
“comprises” should read “comprise” (claim 11, line 1);
the comma between “electrodes” and “comprises” should be deleted (claim 12, line 2);
the comma between “elements” and “comprises” should be deleted (claim 17, line 2).
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation 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.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the enablement requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to enable one skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and/or use the invention. On the basis of the attached Wikipedia article (“Roentgenium”), one of ordinary skill in the art would not know how to make the connecting electrodes from roentgenium (Rg) given that “It is extremely radioactive and can only be created in a laboratory” and “Only a few roentgenium atoms have ever been synthesized, and they have no practical application.”
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.
Claims 16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
In claim 16, lines 3-6, it is unclear if the elements “a second insulating layer,” “a top surface and side surfaces of each of the light-emitting elements,” “top surfaces of the connecting electrodes,” “side surfaces of each of the connecting electrodes” and “openings” are the same as or different from “a second insulating layer,” “a top surface and side surfaces of each of the light-emitting elements,” “a top surface and side surfaces of each of the connecting electrodes” and “openings” as recited in claim 10, lines 3-6. Claim 16 depends from claim 13, which depends from claim 12, which depends from claim 10. For examination purposes, the elements recited in claim 16 will be understood to be the same as corresponding elements recited in claim 10. Clarification and correction are respectfully requested.
Claim 17 is rejected because it depends from claim 16 and therefore inherits the indefiniteness of claim 16.
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.
Claim(s) 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2022/0352424 A1 (hereinafter “Choi”).
Regarding claim 9, Choi discloses a method of fabricating a display device ([0325]), comprising:
bonding a first substrate (SUB1; [0124]) on which a plurality of pixel electrodes (111; [0335]) is located, and a second substrate (SUB2; [0328]) on which a light-emitting material layer (LEML; [0329]) is located, with a connecting electrode layer (112L (112L_1, 112L_2); [0328] and [0333]) and removing the second substrate (Figs. 44-45);
forming hard mask patterns (MP (MP1, MP2); [0251]-[0252] and [0329]) having a stepped structure on the light-emitting material layer (Fig. 46);
forming light-emitting elements (LE; [0333]) and connecting electrodes (112; [0333]) by etching the light-emitting material layer along the hard mask patterns (Figs. 47-48); and
depositing a common electrode (CE; [0336]) on the light-emitting elements (Fig. 50), wherein:
the hard mask patterns comprise middle parts (MP1 and MP2 stacked) and edge parts (MP1) located along peripheries of the middle parts (Fig. 46); and
a thickness of the middle parts is greater than a thickness of the edge parts (Fig. 46).
Regarding claim 10, Choi discloses before the depositing the common electrode:
forming a second insulating layer (INS2; [0335]) to cover a top surface and side surfaces of each of the light-emitting elements and a top surface and side surfaces of each of the connecting electrodes (Fig. 49), wherein:
the second insulating layer includes openings at the top surfaces of the light-emitting elements (Fig. 49); and
the common electrode is in contact with the top surfaces of the light-emitting elements through the openings (Fig. 50).
Regarding claim 11, Choi discloses the connecting electrodes comprise a nonvolatile material comprising one or more selected from among gold (Au), copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and roentgenium (Rg) ([0241] and [0244]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-15 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: the prior art of record, individually or in combination, does not teach or suggest “forming the light-emitting elements and the connecting electrodes by performing a tertiary etching process on the light-emitting material layer and the connecting electrode regions” as recited in claim 12. Claims 13-15 depend from claim 12 and therefore would be allowable at least by virtue of their dependency.
Claims 16 and 17 depend from claim 12 and therefore would be allowable if claim 16 were to be amended to overcome the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER M ALBRECHT whose telephone number is (571)272-7813. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM (CT).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lynne Gurley can be reached at (571) 272-1670. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PETER M ALBRECHT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2811
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