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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application KR 10-2023-0090052 filed in Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) on July 11, 2023 and receipt of a certified copy thereof.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on April 29, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS is considered by the examiner.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election of Invention I (claims 1-15) in the reply filed on July 22, 2026 is acknowledged.
It appears that the election has been made with traverse and the traversal has been on the ground(s) that simultaneous examination will not present an undue burden. This is not found persuasive because for example the elected and non-elected inventions are separately classified, so the examination of the elected and non-elected inventions would be serious search burden on the Examiner.
The restriction/election requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL. Claims 16-20 drawn to non-elected invention have been withdrawn from examination for patentability.
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.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. US 2021/0111323.
Regarding claim 15, Kim teaches a display device (e.g., 1000, Fig. 2, Figs. 5, 6 and 9-11, the description thereof) comprising:
a display area (e.g., DA, Fig. 2) and a non-display area (e.g., NDA, Fig. 2);
a first base layer (e.g., CINS5, Fig. 6), and a second base layer (e.g., CINS3, Fig. 6), the first base layer including an organic material (e.g., [143]);
a barrier layer (e.g., CINS4, Fig.6) having a first surface (e.g., upper surface of CINS4, Fig. 6) contacting the first base layer and a second surface (e.g., lower surface of CINS4, Fig. 6) contacting the second base layer, and including an inorganic material (e.g., [143]);
a light emitting element (e.g., LD, Fig. 6) disposed on the second base layer in the display area (e.g., PXL in DA, [79]); and
a contact structure (e.g., PD, Figs. 9-10) formed in the non-display area (e.g., PA in NDA, [190]) and including a conductive connection portion (e.g., PDE, Fig. 10), wherein an entirety of the first surface of the barrier layer contacts the first base layer (e.g., Fig. 6).
Kim does not explicitly teach that a second base layer CINS3 includes an organic material.
Kim, however, recognizes that the second base layer CINS3 may have an organic insulating material or an inorganic insulating material (e.g., [129]), and an upper step difference of the structure including the layer CINS2 and contacts CT may be similar to that of the structure including the layer CINS4 and contacts CH (e.g., Fig. 6) that need to be planarized by the first base layer CINS5 (e.g., [143]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to modify the device of Kim to include a second base layer CINS3 including an organic material for the purpose of performing a planarization role for compensating for the upper step difference due to the configurations of the structure including the layer CINS2 and contacts CT, for example (e.g., [143]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-14 are llowed at this time, pending updated search before the Examiner's next response, because the prior art of record neither anticipates nor render obvious the limitation of the base claim 1 that recites “a contact structure including a connection portion electrically connecting the (1-1)-th conductive layer and the (1-2)-th conductive layer, wherein the first base layer includes a (1-1)-th base layer and a (1-2)-th base layer spaced apart in a thickness direction of the base layer, and the second base layer includes a (2-1)-th base layer and a (2-2)-th base layer spaced apart from each other in the thickness direction, the barrier layer includes a first barrier layer and a second barrier layer spaced apart from each other in the thickness direction, the first barrier layer is disposed between the (1-1)-th base layer and the (2-1)-th base layer, and the second barrier layer is disposed between the (1-2)-th base layer and the (2-2)-th base layer, the (2-1)-th base layer forms a front surface on which the display layer and the (1-1)-th conductive layer are disposed, and the (2-2)-th base layer forms a rear surface on which the driving chip and the (1-2)-th conductive layer are disposed, and at least a portion of the connection portion is disposed in the first base hole, the first base hole is defined in each of the (1-1)-th base layer and the (1-2)-th base layer, and each of the (1-1)-th base layer and the (1-2)-th base layer includes a tapered surface on which the connection portion is disposed without including an under-cut structure in an area adjacent to the first base hole” in combination with other elements of the base claim 1.
Conclusion
The art made of record and not applied to the rejection is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. It is cited primarily to show inventions relevant to the examination of the instant invention. For example, Kim et al. US 2022/0310895 and Lee et al. US 2023/0292564 relate to a display device with a flexible property, including light emitting element(s) on a stack of organic and inorganic insulating layers and contact structure(s) in a non-display area.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Bo Bin Jang whose telephone number is (571) 270-0271. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Eva Montalvo can be reached at (571) 270-3829. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BO B JANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2818 October 2, 2026
