DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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 § 103
2. 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 of this title, 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.
3. Claim(s) 1-2 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumoto et al. (JP 2012-078430 A, hereinafter referred as “Matsumoto”) in view of Yonekawa et al. (WO 2016/072199 A1, hereinafter referred as “Yonekawa”).
Regarding claim 1, Matsumoto discloses a display panel (¶0124 discloses liquid crystal display device 1) comprising, in order:
a first polarizing plate with a first transmission axis (Fig. 1 and ¶0124 disclose first polarizing plate 20; ¶0126 discloses the absorption axes of the first polarizing plate 20 and the second polarizing plate 30 are usually orthogonal to each other);
a first adhesive layer (Fig. 1 and ¶0124 disclose first pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 27);
a display cell (Fig. 1 and ¶0124 disclose liquid crystal cell 40);
a second adhesive layer (Fig. 1 and ¶0124 disclose second adhesive layer 37); and
a second polarizing plate including no phase difference film (Fig. 1 and ¶0125 disclose the retardation film is disposed only on one of the polarizing plate (i.e., first polarizing plate 20) on the back side or the viewing side of the liquid crystal cell 40, and the other is not provided with a film as shown in FIG. 1) and with a second transmission axis perpendicular to the first transmission axis (¶0126 discloses the absorption axes of the first polarizing plate 20 and the second polarizing plate 30 are usually orthogonal to each other).
Matsumoto doesn’t disclose the second adhesive layer having a storage modulus G′ of 40 KPa or lower at 85° C or higher and 95° C or lower.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yonekawa discloses the second adhesive layer having a storage modulus G′ of 40 KPa or lower at 85° C or higher and 95° C or lower (¶0100 discloses pressure-sensitive adhesive composition of the present invention is suitable for use in bonding a substrate constituting a liquid crystal cell and a polarizer; ¶0103 discloses storage elastic modulus (G′2) at 85 ° C. is preferably 0.05 MPa or less, more preferably 0.01 to 0.04 MPa, and particularly preferably 0.01 to 0.03 MPa).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Matsumoto so that the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer of the present invention has sufficient flexibility in a high temperature environment, and therefore the thermal contraction (dimensions) of the polarizer. The stress caused by (change) can be sufficiently relaxed (¶0107).
Regarding claim 2, Matsumoto doesn’t disclose the display panel according to claim 1, wherein the second adhesive layer has a storage modulus G′ of 5 KPa or higher and 40 KPa or lower at 85° C or higher and 95° C or lower.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yonekawa discloses wherein the second adhesive layer has a storage modulus G′ of 5 KPa or higher and 40 KPa or lower at 85° C or higher and 95° C or lower (¶0100 discloses pressure-sensitive adhesive composition of the present invention is suitable for use in bonding a substrate constituting a liquid crystal cell and a polarizer; ¶0103 discloses storage elastic modulus (G′2) at 85 ° C. is preferably 0.05 MPa or less, more preferably 0.01 to 0.04 MPa, and particularly preferably 0.01 to 0.03 MPa).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Matsumoto so that the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer of the present invention has sufficient flexibility in a high temperature environment, and therefore the thermal contraction (dimensions) of the polarizer. The stress caused by (change) can be sufficiently relaxed (¶0107).
Regarding claim 4, Matsumoto discloses the display panel according to claim 1, wherein the first polarizing plate includes a phase difference film (23) (Fig. 1 and ¶0124 disclose the first polarizing film 21 is sandwiched between the first retardation film 23 and the first outer resin film 25).
4. Claim(s) 5-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumoto in view of Yonekawa and in further view of Yamaoka et al. (WO 2021186946 A1, hereinafter referred as “Yamaoka”).
Regarding claim 5, Matsumoto as modified doesn’t disclose the display panel according to claim 4, wherein the first adhesive layer has a storage modulus of 80 KPa or higher at 85° C or higher and 95° C or lower.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yamaoka discloses wherein the first adhesive layer has a storage modulus of 80 KPa or higher at 85° C or higher and 95° C or lower (¶0070 disclose the first pressure-sensitive adhesive layer and / or the second pressure-sensitive adhesive layer has a storage elastic modulus at 85 ° C of… even more preferably 1.0 × 10^5 Pa or more).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Matsumoto so that when the storage elastic modulus is in such a range, it becomes easy to realize the desired amount of slippage and / or creep value (¶0070).
Regarding claim 6, Matsumoto as modified doesn’t disclose the display panel according to claim 1, wherein the phase difference film has at least one of an in-plane phase difference or an absolute value of a thickness direction phase difference of 10 nm or more.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yamaoka discloses wherein the phase difference film has at least one of an in-plane phase difference or an absolute value of a thickness direction phase difference of 10 nm or more (¶0011 disclose Re (550) of the retardation layer 30 is typically 100 nm to 200 nm).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Matsumoto so that phase difference unevenness is suppressed in high temperature environments and color unevenness is suppressed in high temperature environments (abstract).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claim 3 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PRIYANK J SHAH whose telephone number is (571)270-3732. The examiner can normally be reached on 10:00 - 6:00 M-F.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ghebretinsae, Temesghen can be reached on (571) 272-3017. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/PRIYANK J SHAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2626
Prosecution Insights