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 Office Action is in response to the application filed July 7, 2026.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 11-12 and 18 recite the limitation "the second part" in line 1 of both claims 11-12 and line 11 of claim 18;
Claims 11-12 and 18 recite the limitation "the third part" in lines 1-2 of claim 11, line 2 of claim 12 and line 11 of claim 18; and
Claim 14 recites the limitation "the first part" in line 2.
There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 19-22 are rejected as being dependent upon rejected claim 18.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10, 13 and 15-17 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
In regard to claim 1, The prior art of record (Kim et al. (US 2018/0059728 A1)) does not disclose, make obvious, or otherwise suggest the structure of the applicant's claimed invention together with the other limitations of the dependent claims 2-10, 13 and 15-17, such as the configuration of the display panel, non-bending areas, pixel area, non-pixel area, bending area, bending axis, optical sheet, recessed area, portions of the optical sheet and width of the recessed area and width of the bending area.
As best understood, claims 11-12 and 14 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
As best understood, claims 18-22 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
The following patents are cited to further show the state of the art with respect to display devices:
Ahn et al. (KR 20190006152 A) Chung et al. (US 2009/0009682 A1) Kim et al. (US 2018/0059728 A1) Kim et al. (KR 20180029190 A)
Nakamori et al. (US 2017/0285255 A1) Yang et al. (CN108155219 A)
Yang et al. (CN 207624701 U) Zhang et al. (CN 105551377 B).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IDA M SOWARD whose telephone number is (571)272-1845. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Thursday, 7am to 5:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Leonard Chang can be reached at 571-270-3691. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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IMS
July 13, 2026
/IDA M SOWARD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2898
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