DETAILED ACTION
Foreign Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in India on October 13, 2022. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the IN202211058508 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55. As noted in the Priority Document Exchange report of March 13, 2024, the USPTO was unable to electronically retrieve a copy of this priority application.
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 Group II (claims 17-20) in the reply filed on January 05, 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 1-16 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by KR 10-2057204. An English language machine translation of KR ‘204 is attached to this Office action.
Regarding claim 17, Figure 2 of KR ‘204 discloses an electronic component (#40) having a multi-layered protective coating (#1, #2, #3, and #4). The protective coating comprises a soft layer (#1) which comprises an epoxy resin ([0061], [0065]), a hard layer (#2) which comprises a polyimide film [0025], and an adhesive layer (#3) which comprises an epoxy resin [0028]. With respect to the limitation that the multi-layered protective coating is configured to protect the electronic component from adverse effects from varying light intensities, this limitation is being read as a functional limitation and since KR ‘204 discloses the same materials, i.e., a coating having a polyimide sandwiched between two epoxy-containing layers, it is reasonable to conclude that the protective coating of KR ‘204 meets this claim limitation. Likewise, with respect to claims 18 and 19, the protective coating of KR ‘204 would provide protection from both mechanical and thermal shock. Moreover, any material, including the multi-layered protective coating of KR ‘204, would provide at least some protections to light, mechanical shock, and thermal shock.
Regarding claim 20, KR ‘204 discloses that the electronic component is a sensor [0047].
Other Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Carney et al. (US Pub 2015/0166832) suggests an epoxy/polyimide/epoxy protective laminate useful as a coverlay for electronic components ([0002], [0119]).
Qian et al. (US Pub 2021/0146670) discloses multilayer sheets comprising polyimides and epoxy resin layers.
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/BLAINE COPENHEAVER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1781
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