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 .
In the response to this Office action, the Office respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Office in prosecuting this application.
The Office has cited particular figures, elements, paragraphs and/or columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing the responses, to fully consider each of the cited references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage disclosed by the Office.
Disposition of the Claims
2. The instant application was effectively filed on February 21, 2017, wherein claims 10-15 are pending and claims 1-9 and 16-28 are currently withdrawn as drawn to restriction/election requirement.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/25/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Regarding restriction requirement mailed 01/13/2026, “Applicant respectfully submits that claims 1-28 are all for handling a touch
sensing operation based on display-related information, share the same inventive idea, and there should not be a serious burden on the examiner. Applicant respectfully requests to rejoin claims 1-9 and 16-28 if the generic claim 10 is found allowable”
In response to Applicant’s argument, Examiner respectfully disagrees and states the mode of operation of the claimed methods are different which will pose a serious burden while conducting search since serious burden maybe established based on different search strategies if it is necessary to search for one of the inventions that would not likely result in finding art relevant to other inventions.
In addition, each invention requires different search terms to be formulated along with the interpretation of the claims. Thus, Examiner maintains restriction as presented in action dated 01/13/2026.
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 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Malkin US Patent No. 11,455,059 B1 (hereinafter Malkin).
Regarding claim 10, Malkin teaches A method of controlling a touch panel for a driver circuit (Fig. 2 and Col. 18 lines 44-67, Col. 19 lines 52-67 and Col. 20 lines 1-18; processor programmed to execute the instructions to perform method), the driver circuit having a display part and a touch part (Fig. 2 and Col. 7 lines 23-46; the touch ASIC and display ASIC can be synchronized so as to properly share the circuitry i.e. circuitry processor), the method comprising: determining, by the display part, a periodicity of a plurality of lines of display data (Fig. 5; Col. 10 lines 53-67 and Col. 19 lines 52-67; settled portions 510 and 512 corresponds to claimed periodicity display data lines. Col. 11 lines 22-28 teaches It should be understood that during a display frame, each row of the display can be updated and each of the data lines can be driven with display data to update the displayed imaged. For simplicity of illustration and description, FIG. 5 shows one display timing signal (e.g., data line synchronization clock) and one corresponding display data signal line); receiving, by the touch part, an information of the periodicity from the display part (Fig. 5 and Col. 10 lines 55-65 and Col. 11 lines 11-21; To mitigate display noise, the touch sensing system can be configured to sample the touch electrodes during a settled period of the display line signal rather than during the transient portion of the display line signal. FIG. 5 illustrates and exemplary timing diagram 500 according to examples of the disclosure. FIG. 5 illustrates a display operation by a display timing signal 502, corresponding, for example, to a display line synchronization signal (i.e., a timing signal indicating display data line transitions). The period between rising edges of display timing signal 502 can correspond to a display line update period); and determining, by the touch part, to start a touch sensing operation at a time point according to the periodicity (Fig. 5 and Col. 11 lines 11-21; It should be understood that during a display frame, each row of the display can be updated and each of the data lines can be driven with display data to update the displayed imaged. For simplicity of illustration and description, FIG. 5 shows one display timing signal (e.g., data line synchronization clock) and one corresponding display data signal line. Touch sensing period 514 begins/starts at a time point according to settled portions 510 and 512 corresponding to claim periodicity).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-15 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.
Conclusion
3. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMY ONYEKABA whose telephone number is (571)270-7633. The examiner can normally be reached on 9-5.
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, NITIN K PATEL can be reached on 5712727677. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AMY ONYEKABA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2628
Prosecution Insights