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 .
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) 1-4 and 9-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Shin et al (US 20210202845 A1).
Shin discloses an OLED comprising the claimed first compound, with generic formulae 5-8 and specific formula A11 that anticipate the claimed formula 1 [pp8,9]:
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345
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302
326
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173
344
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As well as the claimed second compound, including BPhen and the following structures [Third compound, Tables 1-2, p25]:
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Shin discloses the compounds used as n-type and p-type charge generation layers 326a and 326b between two light emitting layers 325a and 324a [Fig. 3, 0114, 0144]
Claim(s) 1-4 and 10-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Yoo et al (US 20220173328 A1)
Yoo discloses am OLED comprising the first compound of the claims with generic and specific formula [abstract, pp14,27]:
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134
214
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149
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And also contains the second compound of the claims:
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[p1, 0008]. Yoo discloses the compound mixture used in a dual charge generating layer (CGL) and the same three-light-emitting layer (EML) stack [Fig. 6, 0176-0177].
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.
Claim(s) 6-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1 and a2) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Yoo et al (US 20220173328 A1).
Yoo discloses specific embodiments of compounds of the claimed formula 1 that include N containing 6-membered heteroaromatic rings:
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[p28]
Yoo also discloses that these heteroaromatic groups may be substituted with a cyano or fluorine group [0170, Formula 9-2].
This rejection is made under both 35 USC 102 anticipation and 35 USC 103 obviousness. Examiner holds the opinion that the substitution with cyano and fluorine groups on the N-containing 6-membered ring containing compounds is disclosed with sufficient specificity to merit anticipation.
In the alternative, the claims are certainly obvious over the combination of elements disclosed. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of Applicant’s invention to have prepared the claimed combination of elements from the disclosure in Yoo of both 1) the N-containing 6-membered ring heterocyclic compounds and 2) the teaching to substituted heterocyclic groups with cyano and fluorine groups; because each of the claimed elements is disclosed and used in the same capacity, and the skilled artisan would only need to choose between the disclosed options without any modification to the teachings of Yoo.
Case law confirms that the mere fact that a reference suggests a multitude of possible combinations does not in and of itself make any one of those combinations less obvious. Merck & Co. v. Biocraft Laboratories, 874 F.2d 804, 10 USPQ2d 1843 (Fed. Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 975 (1989).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 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:
Applicant has shown unexpected results in improved Lifetime of an OLED comprising the claimed compounds that follow the provisos of claim 5, wherein the number and positions of the halogen and cyano groups on the 6-membered rings of the first compound are different from the positions in the closest prior art, Shin et al (US 20210202845 A1) and Yoo et al (US 20220173328 A1), discussed above. Applicant compares directly to the prior art, for instance comparative compound PD3 in the specification is the same as compound A19 in Shin [p10]. It is noted that while that claimed Embodiment 1 does not appear to be much longer lived than most comparative examples, the fair comparison is to examples with the same host Bphen, i.e. Comparative Examples 5 and 10.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL M DOLLINGER whose telephone number is (571)270-5464. The examiner can normally be reached 10am-6:30pm M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Randy Gulakowski can be reached at 571-272-1302. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MICHAEL M. DOLLINGER
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1766
/MICHAEL M DOLLINGER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766
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