DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claims 1 – 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claims contain subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Specifically, Claim 1 recites “a fifth island portion” (Line 26), “a fourth connection portion connecting the first island portion and the fifth island portion” (Lines 31 – 32), “pixel circuits disposed on the first to fifth island portions” (Lines 34 – 35), “a light emitting layer disposed on the circuit layer, overlapping each of the first to fifth island portions” (Lines 36 – 37), “first to fifth cover portions” (Line 40), and “first to fifth island portions” (Line 41) where no fifth island portion and no fifth cover portion are described in the Specification. Note that Claims 2 – 18 fall rejected with Claim 1 at least due to dependency upon the subject matter of Claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
The subject matter of Claims 19 – 20 is allowable over the prior art of record for reasoning set forth in the Office Action mailed January 08, 2026 and parent applications 17/614,292 and 18/476,973.
Response to Applicants Amendments and Arguments
Applicants amendments and arguments filed July 07, 2026 have been fully considered.
First, the Examiner disagrees that - - no new matter has been added by the present Amendment - - (REMARKS, Page 10, Line 5 (Line reference made by all written lines excluding blank lines and page headings)). The Examiner disagrees because of the reasoning set forth in the 35 U.S.C. 112(a) rejections of Claims 1 – 18 made of record above.
Second, the Examiner agrees that the amendments to Claim 1 have overcome the rejection of Claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 101 on the grounds of statutory double patenting as set forth and made of record in the Office Action mailed January 08, 2026.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN M BUTCHER whose telephone number is (571)270-5575. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday from 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Ke Xiao, can be reached at (571) 272 - 7776. 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).
/BRIAN M BUTCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2627 August 10, 2026
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