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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 9/6/24 and 10/17/24 were filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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) 1, 6, 10 a and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sayama et al WO 2020071316 A1 (of record).
Sayama et al disclose a power supply line 60a (i.e. a transmission line) comprising: a line portion extending in a first direction on one main surface side of a dielectric layer 40; and one end 32 (i.e. a terminal portion) connected to an end part of the line portion, wherein the line portion includes: a second power supply line 62 (i.e. an opening conductor portion) having a conductor pattern including an opening (the second power supply line 62 has a mesh shape); and a first power supply line 61 (i.e. a planar conductor portion) configured to be electrically connected to the second power supply line 62 (see figure 5A) and to have a conductor extending so as to form a planar surface, the first power supply line is disposed apart from the one end in the first direction, and the first power supply line has a length in the first direction (y direction ) equal to a length of the planar conductor portion in a second direction (x direction) orthogonal to the first direction.
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Thus, Sayama et al is shown to teach all the limitation of the claim with the exception of the first power supply line having conductor extending so as to form a planar surface .
Sayama et al discloses the power supply line 30 in the second embodiment is not limited to the power supply lines 60a to 60d shown in FIGS. 5A to 5D, and can be appropriately adjusted to a conductor density so as to enable impedance matching. The shape can be appropriately adjusted to a combination of the forms.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have the first power supply line have planar surface.
The motivation for this modification would have been to means of controlling the conductor density and therefore the impedance matching.
With regards to claim 6, the first and second power supply lines (61 62) are connected in the first direction (y direction ).
With regard to claim 10, Sayama et al discloses an antenna 10 comprising: a feed line (30 which is composed of power supply lines 61 62) and antenna conductors 10-13 (i.e. a radiating element portion) connected to the feed line.
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With regards to claim 11, the planar antenna is used in a display device. The planar antenna according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is applicable to, for example, a V2X communication system, a fifth-generation mobile communication system (so-called 5G) (display device) , an in-vehicle radar system, and the like, but applicable systems are not limited to these.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 7-9 and 12 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: With regards to claim 2, the prior art does not disclose or fairly teach the planar conductor portion has a rectangular shape whose longitudinal direction is the first direction.
With regards to claims 3-5, the prior art does not disclose or fairly teach the opening conductor portion including a first region disposed between the terminal portion and the planar conductor portion, and a second region sandwiching the planar conductor portion with the first region.
With regards to claim 7, the prior art does not disclose or fairly teach the length of the planar conductor portion in the second direction is equal to a length of the opening conductor portion in the second direction.
With regards to claim 8, the prior art does not disclose or fairly teach the length of the planar conductor portion in the first direction is greater than a separation distance between the planar conductor portion and the terminal portion.
With regards to claim 9, the prior art does not disclose or fairly teach the length of the planar conductor portion in the first direction is less than twice the length of the planar conductor portion in the second direction.
With regards to claim 9, the prior art does not disclose or fairly teach a display unit disposed on another main surface side of the dielectric, wherein a distance between the planar conductor portion and the display unit is less than the length of the planar conductor portion in the first direction.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Lange US Patent 6,933,891 discloses a high efficiency transparent microwave antenna. (figure 2)
Bolin et al US Patent 9,287,612 discloses a high transparent antenna for wireless terminals. (figure 5)
Shoji et al US Patent 8,570,225 discloses an antenna device and mobile device. (figure 1)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIMBERLY E GLENN whose telephone number is (571)272-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrea Lindgren Baltzell can be reached at 571-272-5918. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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February 12, 2026
/K.E.G/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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