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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Claims 1-5 and 16-20 in the reply filed on 5/15/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the grounds that inventions and species “are directed to a single general inventive concept and are linked by the same or corresponding special technical features”. This is not found persuasive because there is a general concept linked by a technical feature, though the cited prior art evidences that the feature shared by the inventions and species is not special as it is old and well-known. Applicant argues that the special technical relationship concerns “the use of a detection controller to determine a breakage status and control operation of the display system”. Examiner respectfully disagrees, as the latter portion of that statement is not claimed in the whole set of the identified groups. Were the groups to all require subsequent control operations on the display system then it would need to be shown that this feature is taught by the cited prior art. As this language is not required in all of the claims, it is not part of the shared technical feature shared by the inventions.
It is noted that Applicant improperly identified Claims 1-5 and 16-20 as readable on the elected specie (i.e. a conductive loop) as Claims 17 is drawn to the identified non-elected Specie in Fig. 6, Claim 18 is drawn to the identified non-elected Specie in Fig. 7, and Claim 19 is drawn to the identified non-elected Specie in Fig. 8. Accordingly, Claims 17-19 are considered withdrawn as directed to the non-elected species.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 6-15 and 17-19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to nonelected inventions and species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 5/15/2026.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 5/01/24, 7/16/24, 5/16/25, 9/17/26, 3/10/26, and 5/21/26 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claims 1-3, 5, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG Pub. 2019/0392743 to Lee, et al. (hereinafter Lee) in view of US PG Pub. 2017/0278468 to Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu).
Claim 1, Lee discloses a head mounted display (HMD) device (“wearable device may include at least one of an accessory type (e.g., watches, rings, bracelets, anklets, necklaces, glasses, contact lens, or head-mounted-devices (HMDs))”, Fig. 7; [0096]) comprising: a frame housing (inactive area 120b of Fig. 1, 2, 5 and “wearable device may include at least one of an accessory type (e.g., watches, rings, bracelets, anklets, necklaces, glasses, contact lens, or head-mounted-devices (HMDs))”, Fig. 7; [0096]) an image projector to project display light (“display 760 may include a display, a hologram device or a projector, and a control circuit to control a relevant device”; [0105]); a display (display 760; Fig. 1, 2, 5 & 7; [0042]-[0052],[0071]-[0075],[0096],[0105]) to receive the display light from the image projector; and a detection controller (“cracks in the partial area may be sensed since a sensing line is disposed in the partial area as well”, Fig. 2; [0042]-[0052],[0071]-[0075]) to determine a current breakage status of the display.
Lee discloses the claimed invention as cited above though does not explicitly disclose: a display waveguide. This is a statement relevant to all claimed recitations of a “display waveguide”.
Wu discloses a display waveguide to receive the display light from the image projector ([0036]-[0039]); and a detection controller to determine a current breakage status of the display waveguide ([0036]-[0039]). This is a statement relevant to all claimed recitations of a “display waveguide”.
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to detect waveguide breakage as taught by Wu with the system as disclosed by Lee. The motivation would have been to provide uniform display brightness ([0039]). This is a statement relevant to all claimed recitations of a “display waveguide”.
Claim 2, Lee discloses a conductive loop positioned at a perimeter of at least a portion of the display (Fig. 2-3); and one or more electrical contact pads in contact with the conductive loop and communicatively connected to the detection controller (Figs. 2-3; [0042]-[0052], [0071]-[0075]), wherein the detection controller monitors loop resistance of the conductive loop (“the resistance of the sensing line 220 may increase when the inactive area 120b has cracks”; [0052] , [0071]-[0075]), wherein the detection controller is further to determine the current breakage status of the display waveguide based on the monitored loop resistance of the conductive loop ([0052] , [0071]-[0075]).
Claim 3, Lee discloses the frame houses the detection controller (Figs. 1, 2, 7; [0042]-[0052], [0071]-[0075],[0096],[0105]); and the detection controller is further to detect the current breakage status of the display based on determining that the monitored loop resistance indicates that the conductive loop is currently not a short circuit ([0052], [0071]-[0075]).
Claim 5, Lee discloses the detection controller is further to initiate deactivation of the image projector in response to the current breakage status of the display waveguide indicating that the display waveguide is damaged ([0071]-[0075]).
Claim 16, Lee discloses the detection controller is further to initiate deactivation of the image projector in response to the current breakage status of the display waveguide indicating that the display waveguide is damaged ([0071]-[0076]).
Claims 4 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG Pub. 2019/0392743 to Lee, et al. (hereinafter Lee) in view of US PG Pub. 2017/0278468 to Wu et al. (hereinafter Wu), as applied to claims 2 and 16, and further in view of US Pat. 11,052,640 to Schmalbuch, et al. (hereinafter Schmalbuch).
Regarding claim 4 and 20, Lee discloses the claimed invention as cited above though does not explicitly disclose the conductive loop is configured to operate as a radio frequency antenna.
Schmalbuch discloses a display to receive light from an image projector (Fig. 1-3; col. 4, ll. 52-60); and a detection controller to determine a current breakage status of the display (Fig. 1; col. 4, ll. 52-60), and a conductive loop positioned at a perimeter of at least a portion of the display (“sensor assembly S has, for one thing, a (logical) receiver antenna ANT.sub.1 for obtaining electrical power for supplying the sensor assembly S and a (logical) transmitter antenna ANT.sub.2 for providing information of the sensor assembly S to a receiver unit situated outside the laminated glass pane”, Figs. 1-3; col. 4, ln. 44-col. 5, ln. 53), the conductive loop is configured to operate as a radio frequency antenna (“data obtained can then be made available (“after conversion of the HF signal and suitable processing) to a bus system”, Figs. 1-3; col. 4, ln. 44-col. 5, ln. 53).
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to provide an antenna as taught by Schmalbuch with the system as disclosed by Lee. The motivation would have been to provide a means of relaying sensor data spatially separated from the assembly (col. 3, ll. 8-13).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER J STANFORD whose telephone number is (571)270-3337. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM-4PM PST M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ricky Mack can be reached at (571)272-2333. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHRISTOPHER STANFORD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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