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 .
This office action is responsive to the Request for Continued Examination and the Information Disclosure Statement filed 23 June 2026, and the Information Disclosure Statement filed 7 August 2026. Claims 1-14 are pending and presently under consideration in this application.
Allowability Withdrawn
The indicated allowability of claims 1-14 is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference to Kim et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0191650). The rejection based on the newly cited reference follows.
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.
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.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0191650).
Kim et al. teaches a device comprising at least two electrodes for generating an electric field, and a liquid crystal dielectric material positioned there between said electrodes, characterized in that said liquid crystal dielectric material comprises at least one liquid crystal compound in a ferroelectric nematic phase. Kim et al. also teaches ferroelectric nematic LC compounds inclusive of the those compounds of the present formula I, as generally represented therein by
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304
414
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278
413
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([0087], p. 6+), and more specifically, as represented therein by
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144
425
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143
413
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152
419
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([0095], p. 8). However, Kim et al. does not expressly illustrate the use thereof said ferroelectric nematic LC compounds in the inventive device.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the requisite art at the time the invention was filed to include the ferroelectric nematic LC compound of the present formula I, as taught in Kim et al., in the liquid crystal dielectric material positioned there between the electrodes of the device taught therein, with reasonable expectations of achieving, absent object evidence to the contrary, the advantages taught therein.
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GERALDINA VISCONTI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1737
/GERALDINA VISCONTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737
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