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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1, and 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by the US patent application publication by Haruyama et al (US 2018/0039090 A1).
Haruyama et al teaches, with regard to claims 1 and 19, an image display system that serves as the display module that is comprised of a display panel (100, Figure 1), a reflective unit (200) arranged on a light exit side of the display panel the reflective unit being configured to reflect first exit light from the display panel and guide the first exit light to exit from a light exit side of the reflective unit as second exit light and a polarizer (400) serves as the light control member on the light exit side of the reflective unit and configured to intercept at least part of the second exit light subjected to an odd number of reflection by the reflective unit, (please see Figure 1).
The reflective unit (200, Figure 1) serves as a negative refractive index plate since as demonstrated in Figure 1, the unit or plate would refract the incident light from the display panel via a negative Snell’s Law.
With regard to claim 19, Haruyama et al teaches that the image display device is an apparatus for displaying floating image (500, Figure 1) which means the apparatus serves as an aerial suspension display.
With regard to claim 17, Haruyama et al teaches that the reflective unit or the negative refractive index plate (200) is titled relative to the display panel (100) by an angle range of between 40 degrees and 50 degrees, (please see Figure 15, and paragraph [0077]) that is within the range of 10 to 50 degrees.
With regard to claim 18, Haruyama et al teaches that the display panel may comprise liquid crystal display (LCD), light emitting diode (LED) or an organic light emitting diode display (OLED, please see paragraph [0026]).
This reference has anticipated the claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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) 2-6 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Haruyama et al and in view of the US patent application publication by Yoneno et al (US 2014/0253880 A1).
The image display device or the display module taught by Haruyama et al as described in claim 1 has met all the limitations of the claims.
With regard to claims 2 and 20, Haruyama et al teaches that the reflective unit or the negative refractive index plate comprises a plurality of vertical mirror walls (220, Figure 2, paragraph [0031]). This reference however does not teach explicitly that the negative refractive index plate comprises a first reflective layer and a second reflective layer.
Yoneno in the same field of endeavor teaches negative refractive index plate may either comprise a plurality of mirror walls, (please see Figures 2A and 2B) or a first reflective layer and a second reflective layer (14, please see Figures 4 and 5). Yoneno specifically teaches that the negative refractive index plate may comprise a first reflecting layer comprises a plurality of first mirror surfaces that that two adjacent mirror surfaces form a first reflecting bars arranged along a first direction wherein the first direction is perpendicular to each of the first reflecting mirror surfaces and a second reflecting layer, that is located on a side of the first reflecting layer away from the display panel, that is comprised of a plurality of second mirror surfaces that two adjacent mirror surfaces form a second reflecting bars arranged along a second direction each of the second reflecting mirror surfaces is perpendicular to and intersects each of the first reflecting mirror surfaces. The second direction is perpendicular to each of the second reflecting mirror surfaces and perpendicular to the first direction.
It would then have been obvious to one skilled in the art to apply the teachings of Yoneno to modify the negative refractive index plate to alternatively have the structure of having a first and second reflecting layers for the benefit of making the negative refractive index plate has art well-known structure.
With regard to claims 3-5, Haruyama teaches that a first polarizer (300, Figure 1) is included to polarize the first exit light from the display panel (100) to make the first exit light a polarized light. The light control member (400) is the second polarizer. It is implicitly true that the polarization state of the first polarizer and the second polarizer should be the same in order for the polarized first exit light passes through the negative refractive index plate (200) is capable to pass through the light control member. Haruyama teaches that the polarization state may be circular polarization, (please see paragraph [0065]). With regard to claim 4, the circularly polarized light may be left-handed circularly polarized light and the circular polarizer is a left-handed circular polarizer. With regard to claim 5, the circularly polarized light may be right-handed circularly polarized light and the circular polarizer is a right-handed circular polarizer.
With regard to claim 6, Haruyama teaches that the circular polarizer comprises a quarter wave plate and a linear polarizer, (please see paragraph [0060]). As shown in Figures 9 and 16, the first linear polarizer (300) and the first retarder (i.e. the quarter wave plate) may be stacked together.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-16 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: of the prior art references considered, none has disclosed a display module that is comprised of a display panel, a negative refractive index plate and a light control member wherein the negative refractive index plate is comprised of a first reflecting layer comprises a plurality of first reflecting bars each has two opposite first reflecting surfaces and a second reflecting layer comprise a plurality of second reflecting bars each has two opposite second reflecting surfaces. The first exit light from the display panel comprises linearly polarized light and the light control member comprises a linear polarizer and the display module further comprises one or more light adjusting member that one of the light adjusting members is arranged between every two adjacent ones of the first reflecting bars or/and one of the light adjusting member is arranged between every two adjacent ones of the second reflecting bars, as explicitly set forth in claim 7 and its dependent claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US patent application publication by Yamada et al (US 2019/0369409 A1) discloses an optical apparatus comprises retroreflective member and retardation plate. US patent application publication by Daiku (US 2021/0096393 A1) discloses an aerial display apparatus that is comprised of a mirror device (10) serves as the negative refractive index plate and a light control device (40, Figure 18).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AUDREY Y CHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-2309. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 900AM-430PM.
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AUDREY Y. CHANG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2872
/AUDREY Y CHANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
