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 .
This is a Non-Final office action based on application 18/704,476 filed April 25, 2024. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been considered below.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-6, 13-17 & 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Du (WIPO Publication Wo 2023/000134).
Regarding claim 1, Du discloses a display device comprising:
a base substrate (Fig. 18a/18b, BS) comprising a display area comprising a first display region Fig. 3, (R2) and a second display region (R1) not overlapped with each other, wherein the second display region is located on at least one side of the first display region;
a circuit structure layer located on a side of the base substrate, and comprises a plurality of first pixel circuits (20) located in the second display region;
a light emitting structure layer located on a side of the circuit structure layer away from the base substrate, and comprises a plurality of first display units (100b/40) located in the first display region, wherein at least one of the plurality of first display units comprises a plurality of first light emitting elements emitting light in different colors as needed (Paragraph [0059]);
a plurality of conductive layers (L1) located between the circuit structure layer and the light emitting structure layer, and comprise a plurality of conductive lines (L11/L12/L13); wherein at least one of the plurality of first pixel circuits (20) is electrically connected to at least one first light emitting element (40) through at least one conductive line, and the at least one first pixel circuit is configured to drive the at least one first light emitting element to emit light (Paragraph [0063]); and
a plurality of conductive lines in at least one of the plurality of conductive layers comprise a plurality of first conductive lines (L11) and a plurality of second conductive lines (L12); wherein the first conductive lines extend along a first direction, and the second conductive lines at least comprise first portions extending along the first direction and second portions extending along the second direction; in the second direction, the first portions of the plurality of second conductive lines and the plurality of first conductive lines are alternately disposed; and the first direction intersects with the second direction (Fig 12 & 19; Paragraph [0102]).
Regarding claim 2, Du further discloses:
a plurality of first display units arranged along the first direction are one row of first display units; in a direction from a center to an edge of the first display region along the second direction, quantities of the first conductive lines located in a same conductive layer to which a plurality of rows of first display units in the first display region are electrically connected are gradually reduced (Fig. 8); the first portions of the second conductive lines in the conductive layer are disposed at positions left vacant due to the reduced quantities of the first conductive lines (Fig. 12).
Regarding claim 3, Du further discloses:
quantities of first display units in at least two adjacent rows of first display units are different in the second direction (Fig. 8).
Regarding claim 5, 16, & 17, Du further discloses:
a length of a second portion of the second conductive line along the second direction is greater than a length of one first display unit along the second direction (Fig. 12 & 19).
Regarding claim 6, 19, & 20, Du further discloses:
the at least one first display unit comprises a first light emitting element that emits light in a first color, a first light emitting element that emits light in a second color, and two first light emitting elements that emit light in a third color (Paragraph [0059]).
Regarding claim 13, Du further discloses:
the circuit structure layer further comprises a plurality of second pixel circuits (Fig. 3, 10) located in the second display region (R1);
the light emitting structure layer further comprises a plurality of second light emitting elements (30) located in the second display region; and
at least one of the plurality of second pixel circuits is electrically connected to at least one of the plurality of second light emitting elements, and the at least one second pixel circuit is configured to drive the at least one second light emitting element to emit light (Abstract).
Regarding claim 14, Du further discloses:
A display device comprising the display substrate (Paragraph [0025]).
Regarding claim 15, Du further discloses:
a photosensitive sensor (Fig. 26a/b, SS) located on a side of a non-display surface of the display substrate, wherein an orthographic projection of the photosensitive sensor on the display substrate is at least partially overlapped with the first display region of the display substrate.
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.
Claim(s) 7-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Du (WIPO Publication Wo 2023/000134) in view of Xu (Chinese Publication 217903120).
Regarding claim 7-8, Du disclose all of the limitations of claim 1 (addressed above). Du does not explicitly discloses the plurality of conductive layers comprise a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer provided sequentially along a direction away from the base substrate wherein the first conductive layer comprises a plurality of first conductive lines and a plurality of second conductive lines, and the second conductive layer comprises a plurality of first conductive lines. However Xu discloses a display device comprising:
A display device comprising light emitting element formed in a first display region (Fig. 4, A2) adjacent to a second display region (A1) wherein conductive layer (31/32/33) are provided sequentially and include plurality of conductive lines (Paragraph [0184]) wherein the conductive layers connect the light emitting element to driving circuitry (200).
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form the display device having conductive layer provided sequentially in a direction away from the substrate and include a plurality of conductive lines because it will form a display device wherein the pixel circuit can be formed in a transition region away from the first display region thereby occlusion of light by the pixel circuit can be reduced and increase light transmittance (Paragraph [0110]).
Regarding claim 9, Du further discloses:
the first display region comprises N rows of first display units arranged from a center to an edge of the first display region along the second direction, wherein a quantity of first display units comprised in an i-th row of first display units is greater than or equal to a quantity of first display units comprised in an (i+1)-th row of first display units, wherein i is an integer greater than 0 and less than N (Fig. 8; Paragraph [0087]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 10-12, & 18 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: Claim 4 is considered allowable because none of the prior art either alone or in combination discloses in a row of first display units, when adjacent first light emitting elements are electrically connected to different conductive lines located in the same conductive layer, the conductive lines electrically connected to the adjacent first light emitting elements are located on opposite sides of anode connection electrodes electrically connected to the first light emitting elements of the row of first display units in the second direction. Claim 18 is also allowed based on its dependency from claim 4.
Claim 10 is considered allowable because none of the prior art either alone or in combination discloses a quantity of first conductive lines in the second conductive layer to which the i-th row of first display units are electrically connected is the same as a quantity of first conductive lines in the second conductive layer to which the (i+1)-th row of first display units are electrically connected; and a quantity of first conductive lines in the first conductive layer to which the i-th row of first display units are electrically connected is greater than or equal to a quantity of first conductive lines in the first conductive layer to which the (i+1)-th row of first display units are electrically connected. Claims 11-12 are also allowed based on their dependency from claim 10.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRANDON C FOX whose telephone number is (571)270-5016. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-6:00PM.
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/BRANDON C FOX/Examiner, Art Unit 2818
/DAVID VU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2818
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