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 § 102
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 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Li et al. (CN 110320687).
With regard to claim 1.
Li et al. disclose a method for state switching of a switchable glass, comprising: a transparency stage, in which no voltage (0V, example 1) is applied to the switchable glass and the switchable glass is in a transparent state; an operation stage, in which an alternating current is applied to the switchable glass, with an amplitude of the alternating current maintained at a first voltage (V1), and the switchable glass is in a scattering state (see fig. 5); and a state switching stage, in which the amplitude of the alternating current is raised to a second voltage (V2) after the operation stage, with the second voltage greater than the first voltage (see fig. 4), and the switchable glass maintains in the scattering state, and wherein an application of the alternating current is stopped after the state switching stage is maintained for a duration to return to the transparency stage, and the switchable glass is restored to the transparent state (see paragraph 24).
With regard to claim 2,
Li et al. disclose the method for state switching of the switchable glass as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first voltage is a lowest voltage value at which the alternating current causes a haze value of the switchable glass to reach 80% or more (see fig. 5).
With regard to claim 3,
Li et al. disclose the method for state switching of the switchable glass as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second voltage is a voltage value at which a shortest response time is required for the switchable glass to be restored to the transparent state when the application of the alternating current to the switchable glass is stopped (see paragraph 6, not greater than 0.1s).
With regard to claim 4,
Li et al. disclose the method for state switching of the switchable glass as claimed in
claim 1, wherein the duration is a shortest time during which the alternating current of the second voltage is required to be applied when a response time required for the switchable glass to be restored to the transparent state is less than 0.5 seconds (see paragraph 6, not greater than 0.1s).
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.
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.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (as above), in view of Li et al. (USPN 2018/0163460).
With regard to claim 5,
Li et al. disclose the method for state switching of the switchable glass as claimed claim 1, wherein the switchable glass comprises two substrates (101/103,102/104) and a liquid crystal material (105) located between the two substrates, wherein the two substrates are transparent (see example 1) and conductive (ITO, see example 1). While Li et al. do not explicitly disclose combining negative liquid crystals and salt ions in the liquid crystal material, Lin et al. do disclose such a combination (see paragraph 25), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to incorporate this concept of Lin et al. into the method of Li et al. in order to try to improve liquid crystal performance.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USPN 2021/0116736, 5631665.
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/CHRISTOPHER M RAABE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2875
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