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
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, 4-8, 15-16 and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi US 20210144242 in view of Park US 20200186183 further in view of Jarvis US 10701250.
Regarding claim 1, Choi discloses an electronic device (200 in Fig. 7) comprising at least one waterproof structure, the electronic device (200) comprising:
a first housing (211 in Fig. 6);
a decoration part (410 in Fig. 5 and 6) at least partially spaced apart from the first housing (211 as depicted in Fig. 6);
a waterproof structure (450/462/463 in Fig. 5) at least partially disposed between the first housing (211) and the decoration part (410 as depicted in Fig. 6);
a second housing (218); and
wherein the waterproof structure (450/462/463) comprises:
a plate (450) extending to correspond to at least a part of a periphery of the first housing (211), the plate (450) comprising a protruding area (453 in Fig. 5/ 740 in Fig. 7) and a flat surface area (451 in Fig. 5/ 730 in Fig. 7), the protruding area (453/740) being disposed in a space defined between the first housing (211) and the decoration part (410 as depicted in Fig. 6), the flat surface area (451) extending to a first side and a second side of the protruding area (453/740 as depicted in Fig. 5 and 7), and
a waterproof member (463 in Fig. 5 and 7) disposed (along and adjacent to) the protruding area (453/740 as depicted in Fig. 5 and 7) and configured to seal at least a part of the space defined between the first housing (211) and the decoration part (410 see [0090] and [0106]).
Choi does not explicitly disclose a housing bonding member extending along a periphery of the second housing and having a first surface on which the first housing and the decoration part are disposed and a second surface on which the second housing is disposed;
and the waterproof member is disposed in contact with the protruding area.
However, Park US 20200186183 discloses (in Fig. 4b) a housing bonding member (550 see [0045]) extending along a periphery of a second housing (514) and having a first surface on which the first housing (513) and the decoration part (inherent part that would cover the opening of 513) are disposed and a second surface on which the second housing (513) is disposed.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have a housing bonding member extending along a periphery of Choi’s second housing and having a first surface on which the first housing and the decoration part are disposed and a second surface on which the second housing is disposed, as taught by Park (see [0045]), in order to couple the first housing and decoration part to the second housing.
Further, Jarvis US 10701250 discloses (in Fig. 6b) a waterproof member (614) disposed in contact with a protruding area (230).
It would have been further obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to change the size of the waterproof member of Choi in view of Park such that its edge reaches the protruding area and have it disposed in contact with the protruding area, as taught by Jarvis, in order to provide desired sealing.
Regarding claim 4, Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis discloses the electronic device of claim 1, wherein the waterproof structure (450/462/463 of Choi) further comprises:
a bonding member (462 in Fig. 5 of Choi) disposed in at least a part of the flat surface area (451 of Choi) and configured to bond at least a part of the plate (450 of Choi) to the decoration part (410 of Choi) and the first housing (211 of Choi).
Regarding claim 5, Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis discloses the electronic device of claim 4, wherein the waterproof structure (450/462/463 of Choi) further comprises:
two bonding members (462/463 of Choi),
wherein a first bonding member (462 of Choi) of the two bonding members is disposed along the flat surface area (451 of Choi) extending to the first side of the protruding area (453/740 of Choi), and
a second bonding member (463 of Choi) of the two bonding members is disposed along the flat surface area (451 of Choi) extending to the second side of the protruding area (453/740 of Choi).
Regarding claim 6, Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis discloses the electronic device of claim 4, wherein the bonding member (462 of Choi) has a thickness and the housing bonding member (550 of Park) has a thickness.
Choi in view of Park does not explicitly disclose that the thickness of the bonding member is smaller than the thickness of the housing bonding member
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have a thickness of the bonding member of Choi in view of Park be smaller than a thickness of the housing bonding member, in order to provide desired bonding surface of each member, since it has been held by the courts that, where the only difference between the prior art and the claims was a recitation of relative dimensions of the claimed device, and a device having the claimed relative dimensions would not perform differently than the prior art device, the claimed device was not patentably distinct from the prior art device. In Gardner v. TEC Systems, Inc., 725 F.2d 1338, 220 USPQ 777 (Fed. Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 830, 225 USPQ 232 (1984).
Regarding claim 7, Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis discloses the electronic device of claim 1, wherein at least a part of the first housing (211 of Choi) comprises an installation area (2111 in Fig. 4 of Choi) in which the decoration part (410 of Choi) is disposed, and wherein the plate (450 of Choi) of the waterproof structure (450/462/463 of Choi) extends to correspond to a periphery of the installation area (2111 of Choi) of the first housing (211 as depicted in Fig. 6-7 of Choi).
Regarding claim 8, Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis discloses the electronic device of claim 1.
Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis does not explicitly disclose a thickness of the flat surface area of the plate is 0.05 millimeters (mm) to 0.3 mm.
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the thickness of the flat surface area of the plate be 0.05 millimeters (mm) to 0.3 mm, in order to optimize space, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only ordinary skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.
Regarding claim 15, Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis discloses the electronic device of claim 1, wherein at least a part (463 in Fig. 7 of Choi) of the waterproof member (450/462/463 of Choi) surrounds the protruding area (453/740 of Choi) and covers at least a part of the flat surface area (451/730 as depicted in Fig. 7 of Choi).
Regarding claim 16, Choi discloses a waterproof structure configured to be at least partially disposed between a first housing (211 in Fig. 6) of an electronic device (200) and a decoration part (410 in Fig. 5 and 6) of the electronic device (200),
the decoration part (410) at least partially spaced apart from the first housing (211),
the electronic device (200) including a second housing (218) and the waterproof structure (450/462/463) comprising:
a plate (450) extending to correspond to at least a part of a periphery of the first housing (211), the plate (450) comprising a protruding area (453 in Fig. 5/ 740 in Fig. 7) and a flat surface area (451 in Fig. 5/ 730 in Fig. 7), the protruding area (453/740) configured to be disposed in a space defined between the first housing (211) and the decoration part (410 as depicted in Fig. 6), the flat surface area (451) extending to a first side and a second side of the protruding area (453/740 as depicted in Fig. 5 and 7); and
a waterproof member (463 in Fig. 5 and 7) disposed (along and adjacent to) the protruding area (453/740 as depicted in Fig. 5 and 7) and configured to seal at least a part of the space defined between the first housing (211) and the decoration part (410 see [0090] and [0106]).
Choi does not explicitly disclose a housing bonding member extending along a periphery of the second housing and having a first surface on which the first housing and the decoration part are disposed and a second surface on which the second housing is disposed;
and the waterproof member is disposed in contact with the protruding area.
However, Park US 20200186183 discloses (in Fig. 4b) a housing bonding member (550 see [0045]) extending along a periphery of a second housing (514) and having a first surface on which the first housing (513) and the decoration part (inherent part that would cover the opening of 513) are disposed and a second surface on which the second housing (513) is disposed.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have a housing bonding member extending along a periphery of Choi’s second housing and having a first surface on which the first housing and the decoration part are disposed and a second surface on which the second housing is disposed, as taught by Park (see [0045]), in order to couple the first housing and decoration part to the second housing.
Further, Jarvis US 10701250 discloses (in Fig. 6b) a waterproof member (614) disposed in contact with a protruding area (230).
It would have been further obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to change the size of the waterproof member of Choi in view of Park such that its edge reaches the protruding area and have it disposed in contact with the protruding area, as taught by Jarvis, in order to provide desired sealing.
Regarding claim 19, Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis discloses the waterproof structure of claim 16, further comprising:
a bonding member (462 in Fig. 5 of Choi) disposed in at least a part of the flat surface area (451 of Choi) and configured to bond at least a part of the plate (450 of Choi) to the decoration part (410 of Choi) and the first housing (211 of Choi).
Regarding claim 20, Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis discloses the waterproof structure of claim 19, wherein the bonding member comprises:
wherein a first bonding member (462 of Choi) disposed along the flat surface area (451 of Choi) extending to the first side of the protruding area (453/740 of Choi), and
a second bonding member (463 of Choi) disposed along the flat surface area (451 of Choi) extending to the second side of the protruding area (453/740 of Choi).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 9-14 and 17-18 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:
Regarding claim 2, the prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to teach or fairly suggest, in combining with other limitations recited in claim 1, a combination of limitations that “wherein the plate extends in a longitudinal direction of the electronic device, is bent at least partially, and then extends in a width direction of the electronic device”.
None of the reference art of record discloses or renders obvious such a combination.
Claim 3 depending from claim 2 would therefore also be allowable.
Regarding claim 9, the prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to teach or fairly suggest, in combining with other limitations recited in claim 1, a combination of limitations that “wherein the protruding area of the plate is formed as at least a part of the plate is bent in a height direction of the electronic device”.
None of the reference art of record discloses or renders obvious such a combination.
Regarding claim 10, the prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to teach or fairly suggest, in combining with other limitations recited in claim 1, a combination of limitations that “wherein the decoration part comprises a decoration part extension area formed as at least a part of the decoration part extends in one direction of the decoration part, and
wherein the decoration part extension area is spaced apart from the protruding area of the plate and at least a part of the first housing in a height direction of the electronic device”.
None of the reference art of record discloses or renders obvious such a combination.
Claim 11 depending from claim 10 would therefore also be allowable.
Regarding claim 12, the prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to teach or fairly suggest, in combining with other limitations recited in claim 1, a combination of limitations that “wherein the protruding area of the plate comprises a protruding extension area extending further in a longitudinal direction of the plate than a distal end of the flat surface area of the plate”.
None of the reference art of record discloses or renders obvious such a combination.
Claim 13-14 depending from claim 12 would therefore also be allowable.
Regarding claim 17, the prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to teach or fairly suggest, in combining with other limitations recited in claim 16, a combination of limitations that “wherein the plate is configured to extend in a longitudinal direction of the electronic device, be bent at least partially, and then extend in a width direction of the electronic device”.
None of the reference art of record discloses or renders obvious such a combination.
Regarding claim 18, the prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to teach or fairly suggest, in combining with other limitations recited in claim 1, a combination of limitations that “wherein the flat surface area of the plate comprises a flat surface bent area, wherein the flat surface bent area is configured to extend in the longitudinal direction of the electronic device, be bent at least partially, and extend in the width direction of the electronic device, and wherein at least a part of the flat surface bent area is formed as a curved surface”.
None of the reference art of record discloses or renders obvious such a combination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see the last paragraph of pg. 9, filed 06/12/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Choi in view of Park in view of Jarvis.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER L AUGUSTIN whose telephone number is (571)270-7659. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8 am - 3 pm.
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/CHRISTOPHER L AUGUSTIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2841
/JAMES WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2841
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