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 .
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(s) 1, 6-7, 12-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by JP006 (JP2021027006A)
JP006 discloses
1. A light guide for a backlight unit, comprising:
at least one light incoupling portion (2) having at least one arrangement of total internal reflection collimators; and
a light guiding portion (1), comprising: a reflective inclined end face (131);
a top side (12); and an underside, wherein the light guiding portion (1) is configured to guide light coming from the at least one light incoupling portion (2) within the light guiding portion (1) to the reflective inclined end face (131), and outcouples light reflected by the reflective inclined end face (131) through the top side (12).
6.1, further comprising a diffuser film arranged on or above the top side of the light guiding portion (distribution control unit 14 is provided on the second surface 12 as an exit surface … light distribution control unit 14 is not limited to a lens, and may be, for example, a diffusion sheet, a prism, a diffraction grating, or the like”)
7.1, further comprising a reflective coating arranged on the underside of the light guiding portion (at least one of the first surface 11 and the second surface 12 has a light distribution control unit 14 … light distribution control unit 14 is not limited to a lens, and may be, for example, a diffusion sheet, a prism, a diffraction grating, or the like”).
12. A backlight unit comprising: a light guide, comprising:
at least one light incoupling portion (2) having at least one arrangement of total internal reflection collimators;
a light guiding portion (1), comprising: a reflective inclined end face (131);
a top side (12); and
an underside, wherein the light guiding portion (1) is configured to guide light coming from the at least one light incoupling portion (2) within the light guiding portion (1) to the reflective inclined end face (131), and outcouples light reflected by the reflective inclined end face (131) through the top side (12); and at least one arrangement of light sources (4, Fig. 1-2, 4, 12) configured to emit light in a direction of the total internal reflection collimators.
13. A display device comprising:
a backlight unit (“the lighting system 200 functions as a backlight for the display 5”);
a light guide 1, comprising:
at least one light incoupling portion (2) having at least one arrangement of total internal reflection collimators (“the light control body 2 is a collimated lens that, when light that spreads radially from the light source 4 is incident, condenses the light toward the incident surface 10 to bring it closer to parallel light”); and
a light guiding portion 1, comprising:
a reflective inclined end face (131);
a top side (12); and
an underside (11), wherein the light guiding portion (1) is configured to guide light coming from the at least one light incoupling portion (2) within the light guiding portion (1) to the reflective inclined end face (131), and outcouples light reflected by the reflective inclined end face through the top side (“That is, when a part of the light incident from the incident surface 10 is incident on the inclined surface 131 of the end surface 13, this light is totally reflected by the inclined surface 131 toward the second surface 12 and emitted from the second surface 12”);
at least one arrangement of light sources (4, Fig. 1-2, 12) configured to emit light in a direction of the total internal reflection collimators; and
a display panel (5) configured such that it is illuminated by light provided by the backlight unit 200 (JP006, Fig. 4, “lighting system 200 is arranged below the display 5 in the case 311 and outputs light from below the display 5 toward the display 5”).
14.13, wherein the display device is configured for a head-up display or to provide a switchable data protection functionality (“display system 300 is used, for example, as a head-up display (HUD) mounted on the moving body B1”).
15.13, further comprising a prism film (prism 3) configured to change a direction of the light coming from the backlight unit (JP006, “at least one of the first surface 11 and the second surface 12 has a light distribution control unit 14 … light distribution control unit 14 is not limited to a lens, and may be, for example, a diffusion sheet, a prism, a diffraction grating, or the like”
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.
Claim(s) 2-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP006 (JP2021027006A) in view of Bailey (US 20070081360)
Re claim 2.1, JP006 discloses wherein the at least one light incoupling portion (2, 20) has a first thickness, optical member 20Y, 20Z, incident surface 211, output surface 22, the light guiding portion (1) has a second thickness,
JP006 is silent to a conical light mixing portion is present, which connects the at least one light incoupling portion and the light guiding portion.
Bailey discloses collimators may be used as efficient angle-to-area converters, including, for example, collimators of several different geometric configurations, such as tapered cones, parabolas, confocal parabolic concentrators, and confocal elliptical concentrators (par. 51). The inverse-tapered light guide 40E [Fig. 7f shows 40C) provides improved coupling efficiency between the SSLS 20 and the DOLG 10. Advantageously, the inverse-tapered light guide 40E improves the overall brightness of the backlight by further improving conversion of angular distribution into area illumination (par. 74). It is also noted that the tapered pre-collimation light guide 40C comprises an elongated portion similar to the optical member 20Y, 20Z in JP006.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Bailey to provide improved efficiency between the light source and light guide and overall brightness of the backlight.
3.2, wherein the underside of the light guiding portion has outcoupling structures, wherein the outcoupling structures have regions which are inclined relative to the underside of the light guiding portion and configured to steer a fraction of the light guided within the light guiding portion and coming from the reflective inclined end face to the top side of the light guiding portion (JP006, Figs. 1, 7, 22, “the light from the light source 4 is controlled by the optical control body 2 having a collimating function so as to narrow the spreading angle, and is emitted toward the incident surface 10 of the light guide member … As shown in FIG. 1B, the prism 3 has a reflecting surface 30 that reflects light incident on the inside of the light guide member 1 toward the second surface 12 .. The angle formed by the reflecting surface 30 and the first surface 11”).
4.3, wherein a length and a taper of the conical light mixing portion and an inclination of the reflective inclined end face are arranged such that in conjunction with the outcoupling structures the light outcoupled from the light guiding portion has a narrow angular distribution (JP006, the light from the light source 4 is controlled by the optical control body 2 having a collimating function so as to narrow the spreading angle, and is emitted toward the incident surface 10 of the light guide member … ; Bailey, Figs. 7, par. 41, 74).
5.4, wherein a density of the outcoupling structures along a direction of propagation of the light guided within the light guiding portion and reflected by the reflective inclined end face is embodied such that the light outcoupled from the light guiding portion has a substantially constant brightness distribution over an entire length of the light guiding portion (JP006, "As a result, in the optical system 100, the light easily reaches the entire area of the first surface 11, and the light can be easily extracted uniformly from the entire area of the second surface 12 which is the exit surface").
Claim(s) 8-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP006 (JP2021027006A)/ Bailey (US 20070081360) further in view of Song (US 20220269092)
Re claim 8.3, JP006 discloses that by improving the light extraction efficiency of the light guide member 1, a reflective sheet, a prism sheet, and a reflective polarizing film (DBEF) are formed on the first [bottom] surface 11 side; JP006 further discloses that the second [top] surface 12 has a light distribution control unit 14 that controls the light distribution of the light extracted from the second surface 12 and “the light distribution control unit 14 is not limited to a lens, and may be, for example, a diffusion sheet, a prism, a diffraction grating, or the like”, Fig. 16-17
JP006 is silent to further comprising a reflective polarizer arranged on the top side of the light guiding portion
Song is an example that discloses a reflective polarizer 157 arranged on the top side of the light guiding portion (Song, Fig. 1, par. 86, 88)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Song for reflecting polarized light having a predetermined polarization.
9.8, further comprising a retardation layer arranged between the top side of the light guiding portion and the reflective polarizer (Song, Fig. 1, par. 54, 86, 88: waveplate 168 as ¼-wave phase retardance is between reflective polarizer 157 and light guide 164).
10.8, wherein the light guiding portion consists of a birefringent material (Song, par. 54: waveplate 168 may function as a broadband and wide angle quarter-wave plate (“QWP”) configured to provide a quarter-wave birefringence).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP006 (JP2021027006A)/ Bailey (US 20070081360)/ Song (US 20220269092) further in view of Chou (US 20230070680 )
Re claim 11.8, JP006 is silent to wherein the outcoupling structures have regions extending parallel to the underside of the light guiding portion.
Chou discloses a light guide 100 comprising outcoupling structures have regions extending parallel to the underside of the light guiding portion (Figs. 6A-C)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date the invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Chou for reducing light emission angle range
Conclusion
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/THIEN T MAI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876