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
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The listing of references in the specification is not a proper information disclosure statement (see page 5 footnote 2).
37 CFR 1.98(b) requires a list of all patents, publications, or other information submitted for consideration by the Office, and MPEP § 609.04(a) states, "the list may not be incorporated into the specification but must be submitted in a separate paper." Therefore, unless the references have been cited by the examiner on form PTO-892, they have not been considered.
Applicant is advised that the date of any re-submission of any item of information contained in this information disclosure statement or the submission of any missing element(s) will be the date of submission for purposes of determining compliance with the requirements based on the time of filing the statement, including all certification requirements for statements under 37 CFR 1.97(e). See MPEP § 609.05(a).
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on May 17, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on May 17, 2024. These drawings are acceptable.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-4 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 line 5: “the end sides” should be, “the fixed two opposing end sides” or similar language (see lines 1-2: end sides in both the longitudinal and the width directions, line 3: “fixed with two of its opposing end sides”).
Claim 2 line 2, “the material” should be, “a material”
Claim 2 line 2, “in particular” should be removed from the claim.
Claim 2 line 2, “the fold” should be, “the at least one fold”
Claim 4 line 30 “is or comprises” should be “is” or should be “comprises”, otherwise the claim is indefinite in scope (see and compare, “consists of or comprises”).
Claim 4, line 3, “bista-ble” is a typographical error.
Claim 3 is objected to by reason of its dependency.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN Publication 105636339 to Ling (see also provided machine translation). Note that the below reference numbers in parenthesis (e.g., 40) are from Ling; reference numbers in the claim listing have been removed.
Claim 1
Ling (FIG. 1-2) discloses bendable electronic component with a flexible circuit board (“flexible circuit board 100”), comprising end sides each at least in a longitudinal and a width direction of the circuit board (100), and a flexible substrate (“flexible supporting plate 40”) to which the circuit board (100) is fixed (at fixing parts 41) with two of its opposing end sides characterized by
that the circuit board (100) has at least one fold (“bend section 22” is “a plurality of folds 22a, a plurality of the pleats 22a”, see also claim 1: “the bending part is serpentine shaped”) or gather parallel to the end sides, which is formed as a raised bend from the substrate (40).
Claim 2
Ling discloses bendable electronic component according to claim 1, characterized by
that the material of the flexible circuit board (100) adjacent to and/or, in particular at the fold (22) or gather, is free from fixations against the substrate (40; the bend section 22 is between the two non-bending parts 21 at fixing parts 41).
Claim 3
Ling discloses bendable electronic component according to claim 1, characterized by
that the flexible circuit board (100) has at least in the fold (22) or gather a simple, bendable topology (Ling claim 1: “the bending part is serpentine shaped, comprises orderly connection of a plurality of pleats”; see also Ling FIG. 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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. See also the objection to claim 4 set forth above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: US Publication 2021/0212201 (see, e.g., FIG. 21: flexible display 400 with rigid-flex circuit board 100 attached); and US Publication 2024/0292542 (see, e.g., FIG. 4A and 5A: flexible printed circuit 50 attached at 86 to flexible video display 26; note also effective filing date).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHAN MILAKOVICH whose telephone number is (571) 270-3087. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Timothy Dole can be reached at (571) 272-2229. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NATHAN MILAKOVICH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2848
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