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 Species I (encompassing claims 1-13 and 17-20) in the reply filed on 1/30/26 is acknowledged.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 10/4/23. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2-3, 9, 11, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 2-3, 9, 11, and 13 recite the term “about”. The term "about" is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite; it is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. “About” is defined as "almost or nearly—used to indicate that a number, amount, time, etc., is not exact or certain” (see Merriam Webster online dictionary). The term “about” modifies a target, and implicitly requires boundaries at some maximum value above the target and at some minimum value below the target beyond which one is not “about” the target any more. Neither the claims, nor the specification, defines these boundaries. Thus, it is unclear whether one must be within some small percentage of deviation of the target (such as 0.01 %, 0.1 %, 1 %, 2 %, 5 %, 10 %, or some other percentage) or within a certain number of units of the target and specifically which of these possible values defines the boundaries. If one were to poll 100 people having ordinary skill in the art, there would be many different responses for the boundaries. Thus, determining whether one is infringing the limitation is subjective, rather than objective, and thus the claim is unclear. Therefore, the claims are rejected as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant, regards as the invention.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 4-8, 10, 12, and 17-20 are allowed.
Claims 1 and 17 contain allowable subject matter because of the limitation the second layer [of the window] includes silicon dioxide (SiO2), fused silica, fluorine-doped fused silica, magnesium fluoride (MgF2), calcium fluoride (CaF2), aluminum fluoride (AlF3), yttrium fluoride (YF3), ytterbium fluoride (YbF3), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), and/or magnesium oxide (MgO), and wherein the third layer [of the window] includes iron (Fe), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf), aluminum (Al), silver (Ag), gold (Au), chromium (Cr), tin (Sn), zinc (Zn), indium (In), and/or titanium (Ti) in combination with the other elements of the claim. Claims 4-8, 10, and 12 depend on claim 1. Claims 18-20 depend on claim 17.
The closest prior art is Park et al. (U.S. 2020/0081162 A1; “Park”) which discloses a display module (100, Fig. 1) and a window (200, Fig. 1) on the display module ([0035]); wherein the window comprises: a base layer (210, Fig. 1); a first layer (CP2, Fig. 1) disposed on the base layer; a second layer (220, Fig. 1) disposed on the first layer; a third layer (CP3, Fig. 1) disposed on the second layer; and a fourth layer (233, Fig. 1) disposed on the third layer. Yet, Park does not disclose limitation the second layer includes silicon dioxide (SiO2), fused silica, fluorine-doped fused silica, magnesium fluoride (MgF2), calcium fluoride (CaF2), aluminum fluoride (AlF3), yttrium fluoride (YF3), ytterbium fluoride (YbF3), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), and/or magnesium oxide (MgO), and wherein the third layer includes iron (Fe), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf), aluminum (Al), silver (Ag), gold (Au), chromium (Cr), tin (Sn), zinc (Zn), indium (In), and/or titanium (Ti) and these features in combination with the rest of the claimed invention are not rendered obvious in view of the prior art.
Conclusion
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/REEMA PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812
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