DETAILED ACTION
Applicant's submission filed on August 3, 2026, has been entered. Claims 1, 2, 4-15, and 17-20, are pending in the current application.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1, 2, 4-10, 14, 15, and 17-20, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu (WO 2020244344 A1) in view of Galda et al. (Eur. Pat. No. EP 4270789 A1, hereinafter “Galda”).
Specifically, regarding Claim 1, Hu discloses a touch sensor (FIG. 1) comprising: a controller (11; FIG. 3), a sensor electrode (13; FIG. 1) connected to the controller (11), the sensor electrode (13) comprising a spring (FIG. 1), and a touch panel (15) overlying the sensor electrode (13), but does not disclose the claimed dielectric covering.
However, Galda discloses (i) a dielectric covering (202, 214; ¶ [0030]), as recited in Claim 1, (ii) that the dielectric covering (202, 214) is configured to protect the controller from electrostatic discharge (e.g., between 206 and 210; ¶ [0030]), as recited in Claim 2, (iii) a dielectric cap (212) comprising: the dielectric covering (212 itself; IFIG. 3A), and a dielectric ring (214; FIG. 3A) surrounding at least a portion of the spring (FIG. 3A), as recited in Claim 4, (iv) the dielectric covering (202, 214) has a first circular cross-section, or the dielectric ring has a second circular cross-section (FIG. 3B), as recited in Claim 5, (v) that the controller (11) comprises a microcontroller unit (MCU; 320, ¶ [0035]), as recited in Claim 10.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Galda with those of Hu and provide a dielectric covering to prevent unwanted movement and to avoid an unwanted electrical connection (e.g., a short-circuit; ¶ [0030]).
Regarding Claim 6, Hu discloses the controller (11) detects a change in capacitance relative to the sensor electrode (13) to sense a touch (p 1, the 4th to the last paragraph of the attached English machine translation).
Regarding Claim 7, Hu discloses a printed circuit board (PCB; 10, FIG. 1) to which the sensor electrode (13) and the controller (11) are mounted (FIG. 1).
Regarding Claim 8, Hu discloses that the PCB (10) comprises at least one of: a trace, or a via, and the sensor electrode (13) is connected to the controller (11) via at least one of the trace or the via (e.g., via a trace within LED chip 12).
Regarding Claim 9, Hu discloses a display mounted to the PCB (10) and connected to the controller (11; inherently disclosed at p. 1, paragraphs 2-4).
Claim 14 discloses language substantially similar to that of Claim 7 and is rejected for reasons at least similar to that of Claim 7.
Claim 15 discloses language substantially similar to that of Claim 2 and is rejected for reasons at least similar to that of Claim 2 (in combination with Claim 14).
Claims 17 and 18 disclose language substantially similar to that of Claims 4 and 5, respectively, and are rejected for reasons at least similar to those discussed above.
Claims 19 and 20 disclose language substantially similar to that of Claims 1 and 2, respectively, and are rejected for reasons at least similar to those discussed above.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Hu and Galda.
The combination of Hu and Galda discloses substantially all of the limitations of the present invention but does not disclose the claimed material. However, It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide durability and increased device lifespan since it has been held to be within the general ordinary skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 U.S.P.Q. 416.
Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of Hu and Galda.
The combination of Hu and Galda discloses substantially all of the limitations of the present invention but does not disclose the claimed material. However, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize such a thickness and breakdown voltage to ensure proper electrostatic discharge since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 U.S.P.Q. 233.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY R. JIMENEZ whose telephone number is 313-446-6518. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Thursday, 1030am - 9pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Renee Luebke, can be reached at (571) 272-2009. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANTHONY R JIMENEZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2831
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