DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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
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.
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 – 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shin et al. (United States Patent Application Publication US 2021/0165518 A1), hereinafter referenced as Shin.
Regarding Claim 1, Shin discloses “A display device comprising: a display panel including a pixel; a touch panel including a touch sensor” (Figure 6B, Paragraph [0019], Paragraph [0096], Lines 1 – 3, and Paragraph [0106], Lines 1 – 3 (Notice that a display device is shown with display of panel form including a pixel as described at the referenced lines of Paragraph [0106] and shown with a touch input sensing unit of panel form including touch input via sensing electrodes.)), “and a display panel driver configured to perform a data writing operation to the pixel in an active period and perform a touch driving operation to the touch sensor in a blank period” (Figure 7A, Paragraph [0020], and Paragraphs [0117] through [0119] (Notice in Figure 7A that the combined controller 100, gate driver 210, and sensing line driver 310 provide a display panel driver configured to perform a data writing operation to at least a pixel of the described display in an active display period triggered by vertical start signal STV from controller 100 to gate driver 210 and the described display panel driver is configured to perform touch driving operation via sensing line driver 310 during a blank period initialized by the blank sync BSYNC signal from controller 100.)), “wherein the display panel driver includes a touch driver configured to perform the tough driving operation” (Figure 7 (Notice that sensing line driver 310 provides that touch driver of the overall display panel driver.)), “and a driving controller configured to control an operation of the display panel and the touch driver” (Figure 7A (Notice that the controller 100 provide the driving controller configure to control operation of the display panel via gate driver 210 and control operation of the touch driver 310.)), “and wherein the touch driver outputs a touch driving performing signal, which indicates that the touch driving operation was performed, in the blank period to the driving controller” (Figure 7A and Paragraph [0103] (Notice that touch driver 310 outputs at least a touch driving performing signal via a sensing signal sent to one of lines SL1-1 through SL-6, where a sensing signal sent to a last in sequence SL1-6 lines indicated a touch driving operation was performed for a previous SL1 line, in the blank period according to that determined in driving controller 100 via blank period determination unit 110.))
Regarding Claim 2, Shin discloses everything claimed as applied above (See Claim 1). In addition, Shin discloses “wherein the touch driver receives an active period completion signal from the driving controller and performs the touch driving operation in response to the active period completion signal” (Figure 7A and Paragraph [0119], Lines 6 - 7 (Notice that touch driver 310 receives an active period completion signal BSYNC (blank sync) and performs that touch driving operation in response to the active period completion signal BSYNC.)).
Claims 12 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kwon et al. (United States Patent US 10,198,064 B2), hereinafter referenced as Kwon.
Regarding Claim 12, Kwon discloses “A display device comprising: a display panel including a pixel” (Figure 2, Item 100 ‘display panel’, and Column 7, Lines 42 – 47 (Notice that Figure 2 shows a display device with display panel 100, where display panel 100 includes at least a pixel in structure.)), “a touch panel including a touch sensor” (Figure 2, Item TE ‘touch electrode’, and Column 7, Lines 50 – 52 (Notice that an array of touch electrodes TE provided a touch panel including at least on touch sensor TE.)), “and a display panel driver configured to perform a data writing operation to the pixel in an active period and perform a touch driving operation to the touch sensor in a blank period” (Figure 2, Column 6, Lines 23 – 29, Items 200, 300, 400, and 500 (Notice that display panel driver formed of at least items 200, 300, 400, and 500 are configured to perform a data writing operation via control of driving circuit 600 during an active display period of signal TSS from controller 200 to write data to a pixel of display panel 100 and are configured to perform a touch operation via control of touch driving circuit 300 during a blank or inactive period of signal of TSS from controller 200 with the touch sensor array of electrodes TE.)), “wherein the touch driving operation includes: a touch signal applying operation in which a touch signal is applied to the touch panel” (Column 7, Lines 62 – 66), “a touch sensing signal receiving operation in which a touch sensing signal is received from the touch panel” (Column 8, Lines 4 – 6), “and a touch sensing signal calculating operation in which touch sensing data is calculated based on the touch sensing signal” (Column 8, Lines 47 – 48 (Notice that touch information/data is calculated based to Tdata resulting from the touch sensing signals received at touch driving unit 300.)), “and wherein the display panel driver generates a touch driving performing signal after the touch sensing signal receiving operation is performed” (Figure 2, Item TSES ‘touch presence signal’ (Notice that a touch driving performing signal TSES is generated after the touch sensing signal receiving via touch driving circuit 300 is performed.)).
Regarding Claim 18, Kwon discloses “A touch driver” (Figure 2, Items 300, 400, and 500), “comprising: a completion signal receiving circuit configured to receive an active period completion signal’ (Figure 2, Item 500 ‘driving signal generator’, and TSS ‘touch synchronization signal’ (Notice the driving signal generator 500 provides a completion signal receiving circuit configured to receive and active period completion signal TSS.)), “a touch signal applying circuit configured to generate a touch signal in response to the active period completion signal” (Figure 7, Item 500, and Column 8, Lines 7 – 9 (Notice that driving signal generator 500 function as a touch signal applying circuit with generates a touch driving signal TDS in response to the active period completion signal TSS.)), “a touch sensing signal receiving circuit configured to receive a touch sensing signal generated by a touch sensor based on the touch signal” (Figure 7, Item 300 ‘touch driving circuit unit’, and Column 8, Lines 4 – 6 (Notice that touch driving circuit unit 300 receives a touch sensing capacitance signal generated by the touch sensor provided by the array of touch electrodes TE based on touch signal TDS.)), “and a completion signal outputting circuit configured to receive a sensing completion signal from the touch sensing signal receiving circuit and to output a touch driving performing signal to a driving controller” (Figure 7, Item 400, and Column 8, Lines 39 – 47 (Notice that touch controller 400 provides a completion signal outputting circuit configured to receive a sensing completion signal via the resultant Tdata from touch sensing receiving circuit 300 and output driving performing signal TSES to a driving controller 500.)).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 – 11, 13 – 17, and 19 – 20 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.
In the prior art of record, it has been shown to provide for the limitations of Claim 1 from which Claims 3 – 11 are dependent. However, it has not been shown in the prior art of record to provide for the limitations of Claims 3 – 11 in combination with those of Claim 1 while observing each separate chain of claim dependency.
Also, in the prior art of record, it has been shown to provide for the limitations of Claim 12 from which Claims 13 – 17 are dependent. However, it has not been shown in the prior art of record to provide for the limitations of Claims 13 – 17 in combination with those of Claim 12 while observing each separate chain of claim dependency.
Finally, in the prior art of record, it has been shown to provide for the limitations of Claim 18 from which Claims 19 – 29 are dependent. However, it has not been shown in the prior art of record to provide for the limitations of Claims 19 – 20 in combination with those of Claim 18 while observing each separate chain of claim dependency.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN M BUTCHER whose telephone number is (571)270-5575. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday from 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Ke Xiao, can be reached at (571) 272 - 7776. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRIAN M BUTCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2627 February 05, 2026