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.
Claims 1, 2, 6-10, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ni (CN111446381).
With regard to claim 1,
Ni discloses a display panel, comprising: an array substrate (21); an organic layer (23) arranged on a side of the array substrate; a pixel definition layer (24) arranged on a side of the organic layer away from the array substrate and having a slot (27) breaking therethrough; an encapsulation layer (26) arranged on a side of the pixel definition layer away from the array substrate, wherein the encapsulation layer comprises an organic encapsulation layer (262), and the organic encapsulation layer and the organic layer are communicated with each other through the slot (see, e.g., fig 4).
With regard to claim 2,
Ni discloses the display panel of claim 1, wherein the encapsulation layer comprises a first inorganic encapsulation layer (261), the organic encapsulation layer (262) and a second inorganic encapsulation layer (263) stacked along a thickness direction of the display panel, and the first inorganic encapsulation layer is close to the organic layer relative to the second inorganic encapsulation layer (see fig. 4); an orthographic projection of the first inorganic encapsulation layer on the array substrate are staggered with an orthographic projection of the slot on the array substrate (see fig. 4).
With regard to claim 6,
Ni discloses the display panel of claim 2, wherein the display panel has a display area (A1) and a frame area (A2) adjacent to the display area, and the organic layer, the pixel definition layer and the encapsulation layer extend from the display area to the frame area (see fig. 4); in the frame area, the pixel definition layer is provided with a first slot (27) communicating the organic encapsulation layer (262) with the organic layer (23); the organic encapsulation layer (262) is partially filled into the first slot (See fig. 4).
With regard to claim 7,
Ni discloses the display panel of claim 6, wherein the organic layer comprises a planarization layer; or, the organic layer comprises a planarization layer and a hole layer stacked along the thickness direction of the display panel (see fig. 4).
With regard to claim 8,
Ni discloses the display panel of claim 6, wherein the first slot is arranged around the display area (see paragraph 30).
With regard to claim 9,
Ni discloses the display panel of claim 8, wherein the first slot in the frame area is of a continuous annular structure; or, the pixel definition layer comprises a plurality of first slots spaced apart in the frame area (see paragraph 30).
With regard to claim 10,
Ni discloses the display panel of claim 6, wherein an orthographic projection of the first inorganic encapsulation layer located in the frame area on the array substrate and an orthographic projection of the first slot on the array substrate are staggered (see fig. 4).
With regard to claim 20,
Ni discloses a display device comprising the display panel of claim 1.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ni (as above), in view of Jeong et al. (USPN 2020/0075682).
With regard to claim 3,
Ni discloses the display panel of claim 1. While Ni does not disclose wherein the pixel definition layer comprises at least one inorganic material layer, Jeong et al. does disclose such a configuration in at least paragraphs 85,86 (e.g., SiNx). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to incorporate this concept of Jeong et al. into the panel of Ni in order try to suit material availability.
With regard to claim 4,
Ni discloses the display panel of claim 2. While Ni does not disclose the electrode details of the display panel, Jeong et al. do disclose a first electrode layer (EL1) arranged on a side of the base layer (DP-CL) away from the array substrate, wherein the first electrode layer comprises a plurality of first electrode blocks insulated from each other (by PDL). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to incorporate this concept of Jeong et al. into the panel of Ni in order to provide an addressable display.
With regard to claim 5,
Jeong et al. disclose the display panel of claim 4, wherein the pixel definition layer (PDL) has a pixel opening for exposing at least part of one of the first electrode blocks (see fig. 4). The obviousness of the incorporation of the concept of Jeong et al. into the panel of Ni was addressed in the rejection of claim 4.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-19 are 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: the prior art does not disclose nor render obvious, in combination with the other limitations of the claims, a display panel having second slot in the display area as claimed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USPN 2016/0133874, 2022/0320466, 2016/0064686, 2015/0060806.
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/CHRISTOPHER M RAABE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2875
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