DETAILED ACTION
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 1-4 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nonami et al. (WO 2021/131319). US 20220397970 is the PG-Pub of the National Stage Application that is translated as-is into English. See MPEP 1893.01(d).
Nonami discloses a touch sensor. Concerning claim 1, Nonami discloses the touch sensor (FIG. 8) comprises a substrate with a first and second grooves that extend linearly and have bottomed shapes with the conductive lines embedded in the grooves wherein the widths of one of the grooves and recesses are larger than the other groove and the depth for each groove is from 0.5 to 3 microns (para. 0035-0043 and 0082-0099; FIGS. 1, 3, 8 and 11-17). With respect to the depth of the groove having a larger width being greater than a groove having a width less than the larger width, if the radius of curvature of the bottom and side surfaces for each groove are the same, the resulting depth would have the relationship as claimed. Regarding claims 2 and 3, Nonami discloses the depth for each groove is from 0.5 to 3 microns and each groove can be for example from 1.8 to 4.2 microns (para. 0039-0040 and 0042). While it is noted that Nonami does not explicitly recite the claimed groove width of 8 to 12 microns and recess depth of 0.004 to 7 microns, Examiner notes that the widths are exemplary and as such, Nonami is open to other widths. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have any width and recess depth, including the claimed width for the desired electrical connections. Regarding claim 4, given the above, the value would at least overlap and include the claimed value. With respect to claim 8, a blackened layer is disposed on the grooves (e.g. FIGS. 11 and 12, element 38).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7 and 9-10 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 prior art is silent to the claimed structure in combination with the independent claim.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PRASHANT J KHATRI whose telephone number is (571)270-3470. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10AM-6:30PM.
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PRASHANT J. KHATRI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1783
/PRASHANT J KHATRI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1783
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