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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election of Species I, associated with claims 1-11 in the reply filed on 07/22/2026 is acknowledged.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 12/16/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements have been considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 1, lines 7-8, it is suggested that the limitation recites “a first antenna module disposed on one of the first housing and the second housing” should be changed to --a first antenna module disposed on one the first housing or one of the second housing-- to make it clearer.
In claim 1, line , it is suggested that the limitation recites “a radiation part included in the other of the first housing and the second housing” should be changed to --a radiation part included in the other one of the first housing or in the other one of the second housing-- to make it clearer and to avoid antecedence basis.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-3 and 5-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sungchul (KR 20210111050 A, with English translation attached) in view of Kim et al. (KR 20170116262 A, with English translation attached).
Regarding claim 1, Sungchul discloses an electronic device (which is a foldable electronic device, see fig. 1-17) comprising:
a first housing (211, see fig. 2 and 4a-4b);
a second housing (212) rotatably connected to the first housing (211), (see fig. 2 and 4a-4b, paragraph [0043]);
a display (220) disposed on a front surface of the electronic device and having a partial area configured to be deformed by a rotation of the second (212) housing relative to the first housing (211), (see fig. 2, paragraph [0041]);
a first antenna module (which is a first antenna module 410 includes array antennas 412 and 416 in FIG. 4A) disposed on one of the first housing (211) and the second housing (212) so that a communication signal is radiated in a direction identical to a direction in which the display faces the outside of the electronic device (see fig. 4a-4b, paragraph [0070]-[0073]); and
wherein the first antenna module (via first array antenna 412 or second array antenna 416) transmits or receives the communication signal in a designated frequency band through the radiation part (see paragraph [0070]-[0073]).
Sungchul does not explicitly disclose a radiation part included in the other of the first housing and the second housing and comprising an internal space that faces the first antenna module in a state in which the electronic device is folded so that the first housing and the second housing face each other.
Kim, on the other hand, discloses an electronic device including an antenna device. According to various embodiments, FIG. 13b shows the second body (1320) in an open state from the first body (1310), FIG. 13c shows the second body (1320) in a closed state overlapping the first body (1310), and FIG. 13d shows the back folding state in which the back surface of the first body (1310) and the back surface of the second body (1320) come into contact. According to one embodiment, an antenna radiator may be disposed as a conductive member in the region of C1 of the first body (1310). According to one embodiment, the second body (1320) may be formed of a conductive member or include a conductive member. The C2 region of the second body (1320) that overlaps with the first body (1310) may include an opening (e.g., 1451 in FIG. 14) to prevent degradation of the radiation performance of the antenna radiator placed in the C1 region. According to various embodiments, the opening may be positioned to be coupled with the antenna radiator when the first body (1310) and the second body (1320) overlap. According to one embodiment, the opening may be formed to have an optimal electrical length along the rim corresponding to the operating frequency band of the antenna radiator. According to one embodiment, when the antenna radiator operates in the 2.4 GHz band, the rim of the aperture may be formed to have an electrical length of λ. According to one embodiment, the opening may be positioned such that it contains an antenna radiator in an internal region at a vertically overlapping position (see fig. 13a-13d, and 14, paragraph [0148]-[0149]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the invention was made to modify the electronic device as taught by Sungchul with the electronic device as taught by Kim having a radiation part included in the other of the first housing and the second housing and comprising an internal space that faces the first antenna module in a state in which the electronic device is folded so that the first housing and the second housing face each other, and in order to prevent deterioration of the radiation performance of an antenna radiator in a region of the first body, and the opening is turned to have an optimal electrical length along the edge to correspond to the operation frequency band of the antenna radiator (see paragraph [0148] by Kim).
Regarding claim 2, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, further comprising: memory (130) storing one or more computer programs (see paragraph [0017]-[0018]); and one or more processors (120) communicatively coupled to the first antenna module, and the memory, wherein the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions (see paragraph [0015], [0017]-[0018, and [0037]) that, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to: control the communication signal of the first antenna module at least on the basis of a rotated state of the first housing and a rotated state of the second housing (see paragraph [0037], [0043], and [0137] by Sungchul).
Regarding claim 3, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 2, further comprising: a sensor module (which is a sensor module 176) communicatively coupled to the one or more processors (120) and configured to measure a relative position of the second housing relative to the first housing, wherein the one or more computer programs further include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors (120) individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to: identify information on the relative position of the second housing relative to the first housing at least on the basis of a value measured by the sensor module (via a sensor in the sensor module 176), identify the communication signal of the first antenna module predetermined at least on the basis of information on a position of the second housing relative to the first housing stored in the memory and corresponding to information on the identified relative position, and control the first antenna module so that the identified communication signal is outputted (see paragraph [0088]-[0089] by Sungchul).
Regarding claim 5, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, further comprising: memory (130) storing one or more computer programs (see paragraph [0017]-[0018]); and one or more processors (120) communicatively coupled to the first antenna module, and the memory, wherein the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions (see paragraph [0015], [0017]-[0018], and [0037]) that, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to: control the first antenna module to form a first beam pattern in an unfolded state of the electronic device in which one surface of the first housing and one surface of the second housing are directed in the same direction, and control the first antenna module to form a second beam pattern in the state in which the electronic device is folded so that the first housing and the second housing face each other (see paragraph [0006]-[0007], [0056], [0062], and [0101] by Sungchul).
Regarding claim 6, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, further comprising: an injection-molded product made of a nonmetallic material, wherein the injection-molded product made of the nonmetallic material is disposed in the radiation part (see paragraph [0006], [0055], [0057], [0154], [0162] by Kim).
Regarding claim 7, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, further comprising: a cover member disposed on at least one of the first housing and the second housing so as to face a rear surface of the electronic device and configured to define an external appearance of the electronic device; and a second antenna module disposed on at least one of the first housing and the second housing so that the communication signal is radiated in the direction identical to the direction in which the cover member faces the outside of the electronic device, wherein one area of the cover member, which faces the second antenna module, is made of a nonmetallic material (see paragraph [0103] and [0121] by Sungchul).
Regarding claim 8, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, wherein the radiation part having a width that includes a radiation width of the communication signal of the first antenna module (see paragraph [0142] and [0149] by Kim).
Regarding claim 9, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, wherein the display comprises: a display area configured to display a screen, and an opaque area configured to surround the display area, and wherein the first antenna module is disposed on one of the first housing and the second housing while corresponding to the opaque area (see paragraph [0041], [0043], and [0078] by Sungchul).
Regarding claim 10, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, wherein the electronic device comprises a lateral member configured to surround the front surface and a rear surface of the electronic device, and wherein at least a part of an area of the lateral member, which corresponds to a radiation area of the first antenna module, is made of a nonmetallic material (see paragraph [0103] and [0106] by Sungchul).
Regarding claim 11, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, wherein one of the first housing and the second housing has a seating part in which the first antenna module is disposed, and wherein the seating part comprises a partition wall configured to surround the first antenna module (see fig. 4a by Sungchul).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sungchul (KR 20210111050 A, with English translation attached) in view of Kim et al. (KR 20170116262 A, with English translation attached), and further in view of Park et al. (U.S Publication No. 20220261045 A1).
Regarding claim 4, Sungchul in view of Kim discloses the electronic device of claim 1, further comprising: a magnetic member disposed on one of the first housing and the second housing (see paragraph [0023] by Sungchul).
Sungchul in view of Kim does not explicitly disclose a Hall sensor disposed on the other of the first housing and the second housing so as to face the magnetic member; memory storing one or more computer programs; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the first antenna module, the Hall sensor and the memory, wherein the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to: determine a relative position of the second housing relative to the first housing by using a magnetic flux value detected by the Hall sensor, and control the communication signal of the first antenna module at least on the basis of the determined relative position.
Park, on the other hand, discloses an electronic device including a first housing and a second housing facing each other and combined with each other to be folded or unfolded. In various embodiments, the electronic device 100 (e.g., electronic device 401 of FIG. 4), at operation 1001, may sense an electrical signal being generated by a hall sensor or a magnetic sensor included in the electronic device 100 under the control of the processor 420, determine the closed or open state of the first housing 110 and/or the second housing 120, and determine whether the electronic device 100 is in the unfolding state or in the folding state. The hall sensor is configured to sense a change in a strength of a magnetic field, being changed depending on an operation in which the first housing and the second housing get closer to each other and farther away from each other, the hall sensor being further configured to convert the sensed change in magnetic field strength to an electrical signal and to transfer the electrical signal to the processor, and wherein the processor is configured to determine the folded state or the unfolded state of the electronic device based on the signal transferred from the hall sensor (see paragraph [0111], [0114], claims 4 and 11).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the electronic device as taught by Sungchul in view of Kim with the electronic device as taught by Park having a hall sensor, and wherein the hall sensor is configured to sense a change in a strength of a magnetic field, being changed depending on an operation in which the first housing and the second housing get closer to each other and farther away from each other, the hall sensor being further configured to convert the sensed change in magnetic field strength to an electrical signal and to transfer the electrical signal to the processor, and wherein the processor is configured to determine the folded state or the unfolded state of the electronic device based on the signal transferred from the hall sensor (see claim 4 by Park).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THAI N PHAM whose telephone number is (571)270-5518. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 am-5:00 pm.
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/Thai Pham/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845 08/22/2026
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