DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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 § 103
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 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.
2. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2022/0145129 A1).
Lee et al. disclose an optical laminate for a flexible display device comprising: a support substrate layer; and a hard coating layer positioned on at least one surface of the support substrate layer wherein the hard coating layer is a polysiloxane and an elastomeric polymer including polycaprolactone polyol. ++ Examples of the reactive monomer may include at least one selected from the group consisting of 3,4-epoxycyclohexylmethyl methacrylate (equivalent to the second monomer of the claimed invention and meeting the limitation that the second monomer comprises one (meth)acryloyl group and one cationic polymerizable group per monomer unit and hence the molecular weight limitations of claim 9; this compound is identical to the second monomer used in the instant invention as shown in the Examples) and 2-ethylhexyl oxetane (equivalent to the third monomer of the claimed invention and meeting the limitation that the third monomer does not comprises a radical polymerizable group but comprises one cationic polymerizable group per monomer unit and hence the molecular weight of claim 3; this compound is identical to the third monomer used in the instant invention as shown in the Examples) amongst others. In addition, the hard coating layer may further include an acrylate-based compound in order to improve surface hardness. The acrylate-based compound may include polyfunctional acrylate-based compounds, such as 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, octadecyl acrylate, isodecyl acrylate, isobornyl acrylate, tetrahydrofurfuryl acrylate (equivalent to the first monomer of the claimed invention and meeting the limitation that that the first monomer does not comprise a cationic polymerizable group but comprises one(meth)acryloyl group per monomer unit and hence the molecular weight limitations of claim 9; these compounds are identical to the first monomer used in the instant invention as shown in the Examples) or a mixture of two or more thereof may be used. In addition, the acrylate-based compound may include acrylate-based oligomers such as polyester acrylate, polyether acrylate, urethane acrylate or epoxy acrylate, and any one thereof or a mixture of two or more thereof may be used. Among the above acrylate-based compounds, urethane acrylate oligomers (equivalent to the urethane acrylate of the claimed invention) may be more preferably used in consideration of the remarkable effect of improving the surface hardness when used in combination with the above-mentioned polysiloxane. The urethane acrylate-based oligomer may have 6 to 9 functional groups (meeting the limitation that the urethane acrylate comprises two or more (meth)acryloyl groups) and hence meeting the molecular weight limitations of claim 7 and 10). The acrylate-based compound may be included in an amount of 0.1 to 20 parts by weight, or 1 to 15 parts by weight, or 5 to 10 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the polysiloxane. When the content of the acrylate-based compound is less than 0.1 parts by weight, the improvement effect due to the inclusion of the acrylate-based compound is insignificant, and when the content of the acrylate-based compound is more than 20 parts by weight, the effect of improving the surface hardness may be rather inhibited due to the excess acrylate-based compound. Together with the components described above, the hard coating layer may include independently one or more additives commonly used in the art, such as antioxidants, surfactants, yellowing inhibitors, inorganic fillers, lubricants, coating aids, and antifouling agents. In addition, the resin composition for forming the hard coating layer may further include an initiator (equivalent to the photoinitiator and the photoacid generator of the claimed invention). The initiator may be a photopolymerization or thermal polymerization initiator well known in the art, and the type thereof is not particularly limited. For example, the photopolymerization initiator may include at least one selected from the group consisting of an aryl sulfonium hexafluoroantimonate salt, an aryl sulfonium hexafluorophosphate salt (meeting the limitations of claims 4 and 5), a diphenyldiodonium hexafluorophosphate salt, a diphenyldiodonium hexaantimonate salt, a ditolyliodonium hexafluorophosphate salt and a 9-(4-hydroxyethoxyphenyl)thianthrenium hexafluorophosphate salt, but may not be limited thereto.
Meanwhile, the support substrate layer in the flexible display device may include a transparent plastic resin. The resin composition for forming a hard coating layer may be coated onto one surface of the support substrate layer and then a resin composition for forming a hard coating layer similar or identical to the resin composition for forming a hard coating layer may be coated onto another surface of the support substrate layer and cured to form a hard coating layer. According to another embodiment, there can be provided a flexible display device including the optical laminate for flexible display device. The flexible display device may include curved, bendable, flexible, rollable, or foldable mobile communication terminal, smartphone, tablet PC touch panel, and wearable devices and various displays. The flexible display device may be, for example, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, a light emitting diode (LED) display device, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device, a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) display device or a rollable display or foldable display. For example, in the organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device, a cover window of the flexible organic light emitting diode display device may be positioned on an outer portion in a direction in which light or an image is emitted, and a cathode providing electrons, an electron transport layer, an emission layer, a hole transport layer, and an anode providing holes may be sequentially formed. Further, the organic light emitting diode (OLED) display may also further include a hole injection layer (HIL) and an electron injection layer (EIL). Another example of the flexible display device may be a rollable display or foldable display and the rollable display device may have a structure including a cover window, a touch panel, a polarizing plate, a barrier film, a light emitting element (OLED element, or the like), a transparent substrate, or the like (meeting the limitations of claims 18 and 20). The resin composition for forming the hard coating layer can be used in a solvent-free manner (meeting the limitations of claim 12) however in order to adjust the viscosity and flowability of the composition during coating, and to increase the coatability of the composition, it may optionally further include an organic solvent. (see Abstract, Examples, Tables, and paragraphs 0003, 0006, 0008, 0017, and 0059-0096).
Lee et al. do not specifically state that their resin composition is an adhesive or specifically disclose that the amount of the urethane (meth)acrylate oligomer is in a range of about 5 wt% to about 20 wt%, based on a total weight of the resin composition, an amount of the second monomer is in a range of about 10 wt% to about 30 wt%, based on a total weight of the resin composition, a total amount of the urethane (meth)acrylate oligomer and the first monomer is in a range of about 50 wt% to about 80 wt%, based on a total weight of the resin composition, an amount of the third monomer is in a range of about 10 wt% to about 20 wt%, based on a total weight of the resin composition, the 180° peel strength of the resin composition, the peel strength time change ratio, and the viscosity of the resin composition.
However, with regards to the limitation that the resin composition is an adhesive, if a prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use as recited in the preamble, then it meets the claim. Given that Lee et al. disclose composition as claimed, it would be capable of functioning as an adhesive. With regards to the concertation limitations for the first, second, and third monomer as well as the urethane (meth)acrylate oligomer, the 180° peel strength of the resin composition, the peel strength time change ratio, and the viscosity of the resin composition, the Examiner takes the position that workable physical properties and concentrations are deemed to be obvious routine optimizations to one of ordinary skill in the art, motivated by the desire to obtain the required properties, particularly given that Lee et al. teach that the acrylic monomers can be used lower the viscosity of the polysiloxane, facilitating processability, and improving coating adhesion.
Conclusion
3. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHEEBA AHMED whose telephone number is (571)272-1504. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7am-6pm.
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/SHEEBA AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1787