Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 19/061,089

DISPLAY CONTROL METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAY PANEL, AND DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIUM

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Feb 24, 2025
Examiner
NGUYEN, JENNIFER T
Art Unit
2629
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Kunshan Go-Visionox Opto-Electronics Co. Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
82%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 7m
To Grant
90%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 82% — above average
82%
Career Allow Rate
833 granted / 1022 resolved
+19.5% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+8.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 7m
Avg Prosecution
16 currently pending
Career history
1038
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.0%
-38.0% vs TC avg
§103
50.6%
+10.6% vs TC avg
§102
29.9%
-10.1% vs TC avg
§112
6.3%
-33.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1022 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . Priority Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e). Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application. 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. Claims 1-3 and 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tang (CN114220377) in view of Yu et al. (US 2021/0097920). Regarding claims 1 and 18, Tang discloses a display control method for a display panel, comprising: obtaining an initial driving voltage, wherein a display parameter of the display panel when the display panel performs reference gray level display based on the initial driving voltage (instead of the claimed “reference register value”) meets a target requirement, and the display parameter comprises brightness (obtaining an initial driving voltage of a first gray scale binding point corresponding to each brightness node; determining the driving voltage of the zero gray scale binding point corresponding to each brightness node according to the sum of the initial driving voltage and the compensation value of the first gray scale binding point, the compensation value being positively correlated with the gray scale value of the first gray scale binding point, summary of the invention, page 2/9 of document); and adjusting the initial driving voltage to obtain a target register value, and using the target register value as a register value corresponding to a gray level 0 of the display panel, wherein brightness of the display panel when the display panel performs gray level 0 display based on the target register value meets a requirement (adjusting the driving voltage of the other gray scale binding points of each brightness node according to the driving voltage of the zero gray scale binding point corresponding to each brightness node, so that the display brightness of the other gray scale binding points reaches the corresponding target brightness range, summary of the invention, page 2/9). Tang does not specifically disclose obtaining a reference register value corresponding to a reference gray level of the display panel, adjusting the reference register value to obtain a target register value. In a similar field of endeavor of display control, Yu discloses obtaining a reference register value corresponding to a reference gray level of the display panel, adjusting the reference register value to obtain a target register value (at each reference brightness adjustment value, gamma correction is performed on the register values of the gray scales of the display screen to be debugged to obtain the reference gamma band in correspondence with the corresponding reference brightness adjustment value, which is to make the gamma value of the gamma curve at each reference brightness adjustment value meet the target value, para. 0071). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate the reference register value as taught by Yu in the system of Tang in order to allow the displayed image meets the visual perceptions of human eyes (para. 0077). Regarding claim 2, the combination of Tang and Yu discloses the adjusting the reference register value to obtain a target register value comprises: decreasing the reference register value to obtain the target register value (para. 0103 of Yu). Regarding claim 3, the combination of Tang and Yu discloses the target register value is greater than 0 (para. 0071 of Yu); and the display panel comprises a plurality of levels configured for brightness adjustment, and the reference register value corresponding to the reference gray level has different values for at least part of different levels of the plurality of levels (paras. 0072-0073 of Yu). Regarding claim 13, the combination of Tang and Yu discloses before the obtaining a reference register value corresponding to a reference gray level of the display panel, the method further comprises: selecting a plurality of binding point gray levels from a grayscale range of the display panel (S201, page 4/9 of Tang); and determining register values corresponding to the binding point gray levels, wherein a display parameter of the display panel when the display panel performs binding point gray level display based on the register values corresponding to the binding point gray levels meets the target requirement (S202, page 4/9 of Tang). Regarding claim 14, the combination of Tang and Yu discloses one of the plurality of binding point gray levels is the reference gray level (S201, page 4/9 of Tang). Regarding claim 15, the combination of Tang and Yu discloses a binding point gray level with a smallest grayscale value among the plurality of binding point gray levels is the reference gray level (S201, page 4/9 of Tang). Regarding claim 16, the combination of Tang and Yu discloses the reference gray level comprises a gray level 1 (S201, page 4/9 of Tang). Regarding claim 17, the combination of Tang and Yu discloses the adjusting the reference register value to obtain a target register value comprises: increasing the reference register value to obtain the target register value (para. 0093 of Yu). Regarding claim 19, Tang discloses an electronic device (50, fig. 5), comprising: a processor and a memory storing computer program instructions, wherein the computer program instructions, when executed by the processor, cause a display control method for a display panel to be implemented (fig. 5, page 7/9), wherein the display control method for a display panel comprises: obtaining an initial driving voltage corresponding to a reference gray level of the display panel, wherein a display parameter of the display panel when the display panel performs reference gray level display based on the reference register value meets a target requirement, and the display parameter comprises brightness (obtaining an initial driving voltage of a first gray scale binding point corresponding to each brightness node; determining the driving voltage of the zero gray scale binding point corresponding to each brightness node according to the sum of the initial driving voltage and the compensation value of the first gray scale binding point, the compensation value being positively correlated with the gray scale value of the first gray scale binding point, summary of the invention, page 2/9); and adjusting an initial driving voltage to obtain a target register value, and using the target register value as a register value corresponding to a gray level 0 of the display panel, wherein brightness of the display panel when the display panel performs gray level 0 display based on the target register value meets a requirement (adjusting the driving voltage of the other gray scale binding points of each brightness node according to the driving voltage of the zero gray scale binding point corresponding to each brightness node, so that the display brightness of the other gray scale binding points reaches the corresponding target brightness range, summary of the invention, page 2/9). Tang does not specifically disclose obtaining a reference register value corresponding to a reference gray level of the display panel, adjusting the reference register value to obtain a target register value. In a similar field of endeavor of display control, Yu discloses obtaining a reference register value corresponding to a reference gray level of the display panel, adjusting the reference register value to obtain a target register value (at each reference brightness adjustment value, gamma correction is performed on the register values of the gray scales of the display screen to be debugged to obtain the reference gamma band in correspondence with the corresponding reference brightness adjustment value, which is to make the gamma value of the gamma curve at each reference brightness adjustment value meet the target value, para. 0071). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before effective filling date of the claimed invention to incorporate the reference register value as taught by Yu in the system of Tang in order to allow the displayed image meets the visual perceptions of human eyes (para. 0077). Regarding claim 20, Tang further discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, causes the display control method for a display panel (fig. 5, page 7/9). Allowable Subject Matter Claims 4-12 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. Claim 4 identifies the distinct limitations “selecting sub-pixels of at least two colors as target sub-pixels; determining a smallest reference register value from the target sub-pixels; and decreasing the smallest reference register value to obtain the target register value corresponding to each of the target sub-pixels”. Claims 5-6 are objected for their dependence upon claim 4. Claim 7 identifies the distinct limitations “a reference register value corresponding to the first sub-pixel at the reference gray level is a first reference register value, and a target register value corresponding to the first sub-pixel at the gray level 0 is a first target register value, a reference register value corresponding to the second sub-pixel at the reference gray level is a second reference register value, and a target register value corresponding to the second sub-pixel at the gray level 0 is a second target register value; a data voltage corresponding to the first reference register value is a first reference data voltage, and a data voltage corresponding to the first target register value is a first target data voltage, a data voltage corresponding to the second reference register value is a second reference data voltage, and a data voltage corresponding to the second target register value is a second target data voltage; and a first difference between the first target data voltage and the first reference data voltage is greater than a second difference between the second target data voltage and the second reference data voltage”. Claims 8-12 are objected for their dependence upon claim 7. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Liu et al. (US 2023/0343300) a disclose method includes obtaining a to-be-displayed grayscale of a to-be-displayed subpixel, selecting a suitable compensation manner based on the to-be-displayed grayscale, and providing a data voltage for the to-be-displayed sub-pixel based on the selected compensation manner (para. 0006). Zhou et al. (US 2022/0293023) disclose a gamma correction method, which determines voltages of a target binding point through RGB measurement values of a previous binding point of a corresponding target binding point at low-grayscale fault for an OLED module to be corrected (fig. 1, para. 0037). Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JENNIFER T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7696. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:00-5:00. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Benjamin C Lee can be reached at 5712722963. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /JENNIFER T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2629
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Prosecution Timeline

Feb 24, 2025
Application Filed
Jan 23, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
82%
Grant Probability
90%
With Interview (+8.0%)
2y 7m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1022 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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