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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Species D (Figs. 10-11) in the reply filed on 3/30/2026 is acknowledged.
The traversal is on the grounds that claims 1, 2 and 8 are generic to Species B, C, D and E, this is found partially persuasive as follows:
The office agrees that claims 1, 3, 5-7 read on Species D.
Claim 2, requires the first electrodes (E1) to have an opening (OP1) for accommodating the bonding pad (P1); this does not read on Species D. Instead, Figs. 10-11 disclose the second electrode E2 with an opening OP2 for accommodating the bonding pad P1 as described in claim 5. However, for the purpose of this office action, the claim language will be interpreted differently from the specification, and thus instant claim 2 first electrode is presently interpreted to cover either E1 or E2 in the specification.
Claim 4 requires the lighting devices (L1) connected to two bonding pads P1, so as to be arranged at adjacent ones of the corners of two or more of the sensing cells. This is not described in Figs. 10-11, instead L1 appears to be arranged at adjacent one of the edges of two or more of the sensing cells, therefore claim 4 does not read on Species D.
Claim 8 requires each of the lighting devices L1 to be located between one of the first electrodes E1 and one of the second electrodes E2. However, in Figs. 10-11, the lighting devices L1 are located between adjacent second electrodes E2, therefore claim 8 does not read on Species D.
For the purpose of examination, claims 1-3 and 5-7 read on Species D and are examined as follows; however, claims 4 and 8 are withdrawn from examination as directed to non-elected subject matter.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Priority
The disclosure of the prior-filed applications, Applications No. 17/401858, 17/897722 and 18/140890, fail to provide adequate support or enablement in the manner provided by 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, first paragraph for one or more claims of this application. The bonding pads of the instant claims finds support in parent application 18/735474 filed 6/06/2024. Therefore, the instant claims have an effective filing date of 6/06/2024.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: “Lighting touchpad with electrodes having different shapes”.
Claim Objections
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 7 recites “the first direction, the second direction…”, but this is the first time the terms “first direction” or “second direction” are introduced. Therefore, for proper antecedent basis, Claim 7 was interpreted to read “a first direction, a second direction”. Appropriate correction is required.
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 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. in US 2021/0109617 (hereinafter Lin).
Regarding claim 1, Lin disclose a lighting touchpad (Lin’s par. 2), comprising:
a substrate (Lin’s Fig. 11 and par. 28: see 110);
a plurality of first electrodes arranged on the substrate (Lin’s Figs. 1 and 11 and par. 40, 62: electrode 156 part of touch structure TS);
a plurality of second electrodes arranged on the substrate (Lin’s Figs. 1 and 11 and par. 40, 62: electrode 158 part of touch structure TS);
a plurality of bonding pads arranged on the substrate (Lin’s Fig. 11 and par. 61: see 720 which overlap the pixel SPX), wherein the first electrodes, the second electrodes, and the bonding pads are alternately arranged in a sensing area without overlapping with one another (Lin’s Fig. 1: see electrode 156, electrode 158 and pixel SPX [which includes bonding pads 720 in Fig. 11] alternately arranged in direction D3 without overlapping one another); and
a plurality of lighting devices connected to a part of the bonding pads (Lin’s Figs. 1, 11 and par. 61: see SPX where each includes an LED connected to bonding pads 720),
wherein the sensing area includes a plurality of sensing cells (Lin’s Fig. 1 is a sensing cell, or see annotated Lin’s Fig. 1 below), and the first electrodes, the second electrodes and the bonding pads are arranged according to a predetermined spatial characteristic for each of the sensing cells (Lin’s Fig. 1: see arrangement of electrodes 156, 158 and pixel SPX [which includes bonding pads 720 in Fig. 11]),
wherein each of the first electrodes has a first shape (Lin’s Fig. 1: see enclosed mesh diamond shape of 156), each of the second electrodes has a second shape different from the first shape (Lin’s Fig. 1: see open mesh shape of 158).
Lin fails to explicitly disclose the first electrodes and the second electrodes have different areas.
However, Lin does disclose the first electrode with more line portions than the second electrode (Lin’s Fig. 1: see mesh of 156 which includes enclosed inside portions, as opposed to mesh of 158 which does not include enclosing inside portions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, that the first electrodes and the second electrodes have different areas (Lin’s Fig. 1: enclosed mesh shape of 156 includes a larger area than open mesh shape 158 because the electrode 158 does not include the portions enclosing the inside portion);
In order to obtain the predictable result of an obvious result of one electrode having less lines portions than the other electrode as shown in Lin’s Fig. 1.
Regarding claim 2, Lin discloses wherein each of the first electrodes has at least one first opening for accommodating one or more of the bonding pads (Lin’s Fig. 1: see openings in 156 for accommodating subpixels SPX [which includes bonding pads 720 in Fig. 11]).
Regarding claim 3, Lin discloses wherein each of the sensing cells has a rectangular shape (Lin’s Fig. 1: see rectangle in direction D1-D2), and in each of the sensing cells, the bonding pads are arranged to be adjacent to four corners of the rectangular shape (Lin’s Fig. 1: see subpixels adjacent to each corner, these subpixels include a bonding pad 720 per Fig. 11).
Regarding claim 5, Lin discloses wherein each of the second electrodes has at least one second opening for accommodating one or more of the bonding pads (Lin’s Fig. 1: see openings in 158 for accommodating subpixels SPX [which includes bonding pads 720 in Fig. 11]).
Regarding claim 6, Lin further discloses wherein each of the lighting devices is connected to two of the bonding pads (Lin’s Fig. 11: see two pads 720 connected to each LED LS), so as to be arranged at edges of adjacent ones of the sensing cells (see annotated Lin’s Figs. 1 and Fig. 11 below where the edge of a sensing cell is draw between the two bonding pads 720).
It would also have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, that a sensing cell in Lin includes an edge between adjacent bonding pads 720 (as shown below), in order to obtain the predictable result of a sensing cell that includes a drive and a sense electrode.
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Regarding claim 7, Lin discloses wherein each of the lighting devices is connected to two of the bonding pads along a first direction, a second direction or a third direction crossing the first direction or the second direction (Lin’s Fig. 11: see two pads 720 connected to each LED LS along the cutting plane direction).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Liliana Cerullo whose telephone number is (571)270-5882. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM to 3PM MT.
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/LILIANA CERULLO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2621
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