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 .
Applicant(s) Response to Official Action
The response filed on 01/05/2026 has been entered and made of record.
Response to Arguments/Amendments
Presented arguments have been fully considered, but are rendered moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection necessitated by amendment(s) initiated by the applicant(s).
Claim Interpretation
Independent claims 1, 11 and 20 have been amended to recite “wherein, in a second mode, the control circuit is configured to short-circuit the first node and the second node, and wherein the first node voltage and the second node voltage are defined with reference to a ground.” Examiner will interpret the “first node” N1 as a grounded node as shown in at least fig. 8 or fig. 11; therefore “to short-circuit the first node and the second node” is equivalent to grounding both nodes.
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Su Xu et al. [Fast-Response Liquid Crystal Microlens: already of record] in view of Park Cheol-Woo et al. [US 20080204387 A1: already of record] and further in view of Shengji Yang et al. [US 20170048516 A1]
Regarding claim 1, Su teaches:
1. A display device (i.e. Polymeric Lenticular Microlens Array for 2D/3D Switchable Displays- section 2.23.4) comprising:
a first electrode (i.e. the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes, the LC directors will be reoriented material is sandwiched between two substrates coated with electrodes (e.g., indium tin oxide, ITO) and surface alignment layers (e.g., polyimide, PI)- section 2.1, figs. 1 & 7);
a liquid crystal layer located on the first electrode (i.e. TNLC- fig. 6 & 7… To overcome these issues, Flack et al. proposed to indirectly actuate the LC lenticular microlens array through a twisted-nematic (TN) LC cell (also called a polarization converter) [1] to achieve 2D/3D switchable displays [73]- section 2.3.4);
a second electrode located on the liquid crystal layer (i.e. the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes, the LC directors will be reoriented material is sandwiched between two substrates coated with electrodes (e.g., indium tin oxide, ITO) and surface alignment layers (e.g., polyimide, PI)- section 2.1, figs. 1 & 7);
a lens array located on the second electrode (i.e. fig. polymeric microlens array film- fig. 6 & 7); and
wherein, in a second mode (i.e. original 2D display- page 309, section 2.3.4), the control circuit is configured to short-circuit the first node and the second node (i.e. In the voltage-off state, the polarization direction of the incident beam is rotated by 90° after passing through the TN cell, becoming orthogonal to the LC directors in the microlens. As a result, this beam will not be focused because np ~ no. The images from the left pixel and the right pixel can be seen by two eyes at the same time, and the display remains the original 2D display (Figure 6a)- page 309, section 2.3.4).
However, Su does not teach explicitly:
a control circuit including a first node electrically connected to the first electrode and a second node electrically connected to the second electrode, wherein, in a first mode, the control circuit is configured to apply a first node voltage to the first node, and is configured to apply a second node voltage to the second node, wherein the second node voltage alternates between a high level voltage higher than a voltage level of the first node voltage and a low level voltage lower than the voltage level of the first node voltage.
In the same field of endeavor, Park teaches:
a control circuit including a first node electrically connected to the first electrode and a second node electrically connected to the second electrode wherein, in a first mode, the control circuit is configured to apply a first node voltage to the first node, and is configured to apply a second node voltage to the second node, wherein the second node voltage alternates between a high level voltage higher than a voltage level of the first node voltage and a low level voltage lower than the voltage level of the first node voltage (i.e. A method of driving a liquid crystal display device, which includes first and second substrates, gate lines on the first substrate, data lines crossing the gate lines to define pixel regions, a thin film transistor connected to each gate line and each data line, a common line between adjacent gate lines, a pixel electrode in each pixel region and overlapping the common line, and a common electrode on the second substrate, includes steps of sequentially applying scanning signals to the gate lines, applying data signals to the data lines to supply the pixel electrode with pixel voltage, applying a common voltage to the common electrode, and applying a storage capacitor voltage to the common line, wherein the pixel voltage and the storage capacitor voltage are alternating current (AC) voltages having positive and negative polarities alternately with respect to the common voltage- Abstract… In FIG. 5, the pixel voltage Vp is applied to the pixel electrode 88, and the common voltage Vcom is applied to a common electrode (not shown), which is formed on a substrate opposite to the array substrate of FIG. 4. A storage capacitor voltage Vstg, which is applied to the common line 76a, 76b, 76c, 76d and 76e of FIG. 4, has the same value as the common voltage Vcom- ¶0038).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the teachings of Su with the teachings of Park to improve image qualities and productivity (Park- ¶0052).
However, Su and Park do not teach explicitly:
wherein, in a second mode, the control circuit is configured to short-circuit the first node (i.e. first grating electrodes 101 - ¶0095) and the second node (i.e. second grating electrodes 103- ¶0095), and wherein the first node voltage and the second node voltage are defined with reference to a ground.
In the same field of endeavor, Shengji teaches:
wherein, in a second mode, the control circuit is configured to short-circuit the first node and the second node, and wherein the first node voltage and the second node voltage are defined with reference to a ground (i.e. As stated above, the electrochromic materials are in transparent state under the equipotential or power-off condition. The electrochromic 3D glasses-free grating will no longer work, and the display device may achieve general 2D display. For instance, if the mode of a 3D grating module must be converted from 3D mode to 2D mode, the first grating electrodes 101 and the second grating electrodes 103 must be all grounded in the 3D display period, but the control method in the touch period may be not changed- ¶0095).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the teachings of Su and Park with the teachings of Shengji so that the glasses-free 3D display state and the 2D display state can be conveniently switched (Shengji- ¶0116).
Regarding claim 2, Su and Park teach all the limitations of claim 1 and Su further teaches:
wherein the first mode is a three-dimensional (3D) mode, and the second mode is a two-dimensional (2D) mode (i.e. In the 2D mode, each LC microlens has no focusing effect and the microlens array functions as an optical flat. In the 3D mode, each LC microlens exhibits a focusing effect. By turning on and off the microlens focusing effect, the display can be electrically switched between 2D and 3D modes. Therefore, LC lenticular microlens array has become a key component in switchable 2D/3D displays- page 309, section 2.3.4).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-20 are allowed.
Claims 3-10 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.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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CLIFFORD HILAIRE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2488
/CLIFFORD HILAIRE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2488