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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 8, 10, 11, 14, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US 2014/0274214 A1) in view of Koh et al. (US 2020/0218204 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Kim discloses An electronic device comprising: a housing; (Figure 3B, element 100, electronic device) a display; (Figure 3B, element 195, display screen) at least one processor comprising processing circuitry; (Figure 1, element 111, CPU) and memory storing instructions that, when executed individually and/or collectively by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to (Paragraph 0101, executable instructions on a medium): set at least one content to be displayed in a first area of the display in a closed state of a cover mounted on a portion of the housing, (Paragraph 0088, time information for display in an area of the display screen when a flip cover of the electronic device is closed) and based on identifying that the cover is in the closed state, control the display to display the at least one content in the first area and a portion of a boundary area of the first area, (Paragraphs 0088-0089 and figures 7 and 8, display of the time information in the display area of the display screen when the flip cover is closed where the displayed time information can be bounded in the display) and wherein the first area is a partial area of the display, visible without being covered by the cover in the closed state of the cover (Paragraph 0087, the display of the time information is visible through opening areas of the flip cover). Kim does not clearly disclose generate an image for preventing or reducing burn-in from occurring in the first area, and correct the at least one set content by applying the generated image, and based on identifying that the cover is in the closed state, control the display to display the at least one corrected content in the first area and a portion of a boundary area of the first area.
Koh discloses imposing burn-in constraints on watch face images including color constraints, constraints on luminance, constraints on watch face element style in order to reduce burn-in risk (Paragraphs 0022-0024). Koh’s technique of imposing burn-in constraints on watch face images to reduce burn-in risk would have been recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art to be applicable to the display of time information in a display area visible through an opening of a flip cover when closed of Kim and the results would have been predictable in the imposing of burn-in constraints on time information for display in a display area visible through an opening of a flip cover when closed. Therefore, the claimed subject matter would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 8, Kim in view of Koh discloses wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to: based on a plurality of contents being set to be displayed in the first area, correct each of the plurality of contents by applying the generated image to an upper layer of each of the plurality of contents, (Koh, paragraph 0038, imposing constraints on hands of the watch face that can be above other watch face elements, such as indices) store each of the plurality of corrected contents in the memory, (Kim, paragraph 0063, RAM used as a memory area for processing tasks, such as the imposing of the constraints on the hands for display) and based on the first area being activated in the closed state, display the plurality of corrected contents (Kim, paragraph 0088 and Koh, paragraph 0024, time information including watch face elements with imposed constraints can be displayed in the area of the display screen when a flip cover of the electronic device is closed).
Regarding claims 10 and 15, similar reasoning as discussed in claim 1 is applied.
Regarding claim 11, Koh discloses identifying at least one of size information, arrangement information, or state information about the display; (Paragraph 0047, information on which pixels have been heavily used and on and not off) and obtaining information related to pixels of the first area based on the at least one of the size information, the arrangement information, or the state information about the display, (Paragraph 0047, usage history information of the pixels) wherein the at least one content is corrected based on the information related to the pixels, (Paragraph 0048, constraints are imposed based on the usage history) and wherein the information related to the pixels includes at least one of a use time, position information, or color information about each of the pixels (Paragraph 0048, moving watch face elements to different pixel locations based on usage history).
Regarding claim 14, Kim in view of Koh discloses displaying the at least one content by dynamically adjusting color information about the at least one content displayed in the first area, based on the information related to the pixels, (Koh, paragraph 0051, variation of color to mitigate burn-in) wherein correcting the at least one set content includes: based on a plurality of contents being set to be displayed in the first area, correcting each of the plurality of contents by applying the generated image to an upper layer of each of the plurality of contents; (Koh, paragraph 0051, varying the color of hands) and storing each of the plurality of corrected contents in memory to display the plurality of corrected contents when the first area is activated in the closed state (Kim, paragraph 0063, RAM used as a memory area for processing tasks, such as the imposing of the constraints on the hands for display where time information including the hands can be displayed when the flip cover is closed, paragraph 0088).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7, 9, 12, and 13 are 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.
Regarding claim 2, the prior art does not clearly disclose the electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to: identify at least one of size information, arrangement information, or state information about the display, obtain information related to pixels of the first area based on the at least one of the size information, the arrangement information, or the state information about the display, correct the at least one content based on the information related to the pixels, and generate the image based on the information related to the pixels to represent a visual effect in the boundary area of the first area, wherein the information related to the pixels includes at least one of a use time, position information, or color information about each of the pixels, and wherein the image is generated in a size larger than the first area and applied to an upper layer of the at least one content.
Regarding claim 9, the prior art does not clearly disclose the electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the electronic device to: based on the first area being activated in the closed state, generate the image for preventing or reducing burn-in, and apply the generated image to the at least one content to display the image overlapping an upper layer of the at least one content, and based on the cover being in the closed state and charging of a battery of the electronic device being in progress, configure a screen for preventing or reducing burn-in by adjusting color information about pixels in a portion of a second area of the display except the first area, based on information related to pixels of the second area, and control the display to display the configured screen in the second area.
Regarding claim 12, the prior art does not clearly disclose the method of claim 11, wherein generating the image includes: reducing a size of the at least one content to a size smaller than a size of the first area, based on the information related to the pixels; and based on the reduction of the size of the at least one content, generating the image by adjusting gray levels of pixels in a portion of the first area and a portion of the boundary area to represent visual effect in the portion of the first area and the portion of the boundary area, wherein the generated image is applied to the at least one content of the reduced size, and wherein generating the image further includes: increasing the size of the at least one content to a size larger than the size of the first area, based on the information related to the pixels; and based on the increase of the size of the at least one content, generating the image by adjusting gray levels of pixels in a portion of the first area and a portion of the boundary area to represent the visual effect in the portion of the first area and the portion of the boundary area, wherein the generated image is applied to the at least one content of the increased size.
Regarding claim 13, the prior art does not clearly disclose the method of claim 11, wherein generating the image includes: identifying a movement direction of the at least one content to be displayed in the first area, based on the information related to the pixels; and generating the image by adjusting gray levels of pixels in a portion of the first area and a portion of the boundary area based on the identified movement direction to represent the visual effect in the portion of the first area and the portion of the boundary area, wherein the generated image is applied to the at least one content to correct the at least one content, and wherein the at least one corrected content is displayed in the first area and the boundary area by moving a specified distance in the identified movement direction, and displayed to represent the visual effect in the portion of the first area and the boundary area.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
LaPenna (US 9,625,987 B1) discloses drawing updated graphical information to prevent burn-in for devices that may have an always-on display.
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/PHI HOANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2619