DETAILED ACTION
Claim Objections
Claim 24 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 24 is depended on cancelled claim 1, but should be dependent on claim 21 and will be treated as such. Appropriate correction is required.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 21-23, 26-28, 30-32, 35-36 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Song et al (US 2022/0035407).
Regarding claim 21, Song discloses an electronic device (Fig. 1-21), comprising: a first housing (Fig. 5, 101) including a bracket housing (Fig. 5, 1013) and a cover housing (Fig. 5, 1011); a second housing (Fig. 5, 102) configured to slide to be at least partially drawn into and out of the first housing (Fig. 6); a flexible display (Fig. 5, 151) configured to be supported by at least the first housing and/or the second housing (Fig. 8); an extension (Fig. 11-13, 1042) extending from a side portion (Fig. 12, side of 151) of an edge area (Fig. 1,2 edge area of 151) of the flexible display (Fig. 12); a protective cover (Fig. 11-13, 1022) disposed to at least partially surround the extension as viewed in cross section (Fig. 12); wherein the protective cover and the extension are spaced apart from each other so that the protective cover does not contact the extension (Fig. 11-13, spaced apart by 1043).
Regarding claim 22, Song further discloses that a first space (Fig. 12a, space between 151/142) is provided between at least the protective cover and the side portion of the edge area (Fig. 12a).
Regarding claim 23, Song further discloses that a second space (Fig. 10, 1023a) is provided under the edge area of the flexible display (Fig. 10).
Regarding claim 26, Song further discloses that a portion of the flexible display is configured to be fixed to above the bracket housing of the first housing (Fig. 5), and wherein the protective cover is at least partially located under the bracket housing (Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 27, Song further discloses that the protective cover is coupled to the bracket housing by at least one of welding, screwing or bonding (is at least indirectly bonded together (Fig. 5).
Regarding claim 28, Song further discloses: an antenna disposed to contact an outer surface of the protective cover (Fig. 5, would indirectly contact thru 1013 and 1022 [0164]).
Regarding claim 30, Song further discloses that a portion of the protective cover is provided to protrude between a side surface of the first housing and the flexible display (Fig. 12).
Regarding claim 31, Song further discloses: an anti-foreign body material (Fig. 12a, 1025) provided at a portion where the protective cover contacts the edge area of the flexible display (Fig. 12, 1025 covers this portion and could provide anti-foreign body material protection).
Regarding claim 32, Song further discloses that the protective cover is formed of a conductive material, a non-conductive material, or a combination of the conductive material and the non-conductive material (Fig. 12, 1022 would be either a conductive or a non-conductive material).
Regarding claim 35, Song further discloses that the flexible display includes a plurality of stacked layers (Fig. 5) and the extension is configured to move together with at least one of said stacked layers as the at least one of the stacked layers slips when the flexible display is drawn in and/or out of the first housing (Fig. 6), and wherein the extension is spaced apart from the protective cover when the flexible display is drawn in and/or out of the first housing (Fig. 12).
Regarding claim 36, Song further discloses that the protective cover is integrally formed with the first housing (Fig. 11-12).
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) 24-25 and 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song et al (US 2022/0035407) in view of JEON et al (US 2019/0252766).
Regarding claim 24, Song fails to teach the claim limitations.
JEON teaches a flexible printed circuit board (Fig. 4A, 333) positioned on a rear surface of the flexible display (Fig. 4A, 330), and wherein the extension (Fig. 3, edge of 330) is configured to be electrically connected with the flexible printed circuit board ([0051]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of JEON to the invention of Song, in order to construct the devices using known specifications and designs in the art to meet user needs based on known design possibilities.
Regarding claim 25, Song fails to teach the claim limitations.
JEON teaches that the extension (Fig. 4, 333) is configured to be electrically connected to a display driving chip ([0051]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of JEON to the invention of Song, in order to construct the devices using known specifications and designs in the art to meet user needs based on known design possibilities.
Regarding claim 29, Song fails to teach the claim limitations.
JEON teaches that the protective cover comprises a ground structure (Fig. 5A, 344) configured to protect an internal circuit of the electronic device from a current flowing through the antenna ([0059]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of JEON to the invention of Song, in order to construct the devices using known specifications and designs in the art to meet user needs based on known design possibilities.
Claim(s) 34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song et al (US 2022/0035407).
Regarding claim 34, Song fails to teach the claim limitations.
However, the examiner notes that the limitation of “wherein the protective cover has a thickness ranging from 0.4T to 0.8T” is considered to be a result effective variable, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the invention to include the limitation of “wherein the protective cover has a thickness ranging from 0.4T to 0.8T” as this limitation would be easily reached by one having ordinary skill in the art in order to construct the devices using understood variable specifications and designs in the art to best meet user needs based on known design possibilities.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 33 is 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.
Regarding claim 33, the prior art fails to teach or make obvious, alone or in combination, the limitation of “wherein the device is configured so that as a radius of curvature of the edge area of the flexible display decreases, an area where the edge area of the flexible display overlaps the protective cover increases” in combination with the other claim limitations.
Additional Relevant Prior Art:
Yeh et al (US 2006/0166713) teaches relevant art in Fig. 1-10.
Naksen et al (US 7558057) teaches relevant art in Fig. 1-38.
KWAK et al (US 2016/0299527) teaches relevant art in Fig. 2-6.
Moon et al (US 9578149) teaches relevant art in Fig. 4B-5A.
AHN et al (US 2018/0364760) teaches relevant art in Fig. 5A-6.
Song et al (US 10904371) teaches relevant art in Fig. 1-16.
Song et al (US 2022/0124189) teaches relevant art in Fig. 1-16.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL P MCFADDEN whose telephone number is (571)270-5649. The examiner can normally be reached M-Thur 8am-9pm PST.
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/MICHAEL P MCFADDEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2847
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