DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . 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.
Information Disclosure Statement
2. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/15/24 has been considered by the examiner.
Priority
3. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Specification
4. The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: on the second line of paragraph [0003], --a-- should be inserted after the word "as" (or, alternatively, the word "chip" should be changed to --chips--). On the last line of paragraph [0009], "a" should be changed to --the-- (note that a control board 40 has already been recited on lines 5-6 of this paragraph). On line 9 of paragraph [0041], the word "more" should be deleted. On the first line of paragraph [0042], "in the disclosure" should be changed to --herein--, and on line 3 of this paragraph, the word "drawing" should be changed to --drawings--. On the second of paragraph [0047], "works on" should be changed to --uses--, and on line 3 of this paragraph, the word "lined" should be changed to --aligned--. On line 4 of paragraph [0047], "work on" should be changed to --use--.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
5. Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
On line 6 of claim 1, the comma at the end of the line should be changed to a colon.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
6. 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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0248648.
Liu discloses in figure 3
a lighting device comprising:
a first light emitting element (308_1);
a second light emitting element (308_2);
a driving circuit driving the first light emitting element and the second light emitting element,
wherein the driving circuit includes:
a current supply (the combination of DC/DC CONVERTER 302, BUCK SWITCHING REGULATOR 306_1, and BUCK SWITCHING REGULATOR 306_2) supplying currents to the first light emitting element and the second light emitting element,
a first current controller (the combination of CURRENT SENSOR 310_1 and SWITCHING BALANCE CONTROLLER 304_1) controlling a magnitude of a first current supplied from the current supply to the first light emitting element;
a second current controller (the combination of CURRENT SENSOR 310_2 and SWITCHING BALANCE CONTROLLER 304_2) controlling a magnitude of a second current supplied from the current supply to the second light emitting element.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
7. 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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, supra.
Although Liu does not disclose that a color gamut of light emitted from the second light emitting element overlaps at least part of a color gamut of light emitted from the first light emitting element, such would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, the reason being that the color gamut of light emitted from the second light emitting element will inherently overlap at least part of the color gamut of light emitted from the first light emitting element for the situation where the LEDs of the two LED strings are the same. Moreover, even if the LEDs of the two LED strings are different, there will still be overlap of the color gamuts of light emitted from each, note figures 7 and 10 of Sayers et al below.
Evidentiary Prior Art
9. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Figures 7 and 10 of Sayers et al show that the color gamuts of two different LED strings will have overlapping portions even if the LEDs are different, i.e., in figure 7 the LED combination is Cyan and White, whereas in figure 10 the LED combination is Blue, Cyan, Green and Red, and the color gamut shown in figure 7 will clearly overlap the color gamut shown in figure 10.
Conclusion
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNETH B WELLS whose telephone number is (571)272-1757. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8:30am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, LINCOLN DONOVAN can be reached at (571)272-1988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENNETH B WELLS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2842 February 6, 2026