DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 8-11, filed 6/25/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 19 under U.S.C 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of previously cited prior art Wang in view of Xie. See the rejections below.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-18 and 20 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.
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) 1 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Pub. 2019/0235294 A1 to Wang et al (“Wang”) in view of CN 106842663 to Xie et al (“Xie”).
As to claim 1, Wang et al (US 2019/0235294 A1) discloses an array substrate (See Fig. 1-5), comprising:
a substrate (100);
a plurality of gate lines (Fig. 2, 220) and a plurality of data lines (210) positioned on the substrate, wherein the plurality of gate lines extend along a first direction and are arranged in a second direction different from the second direction (¶ 0042, “the second signal line 220 can be a gate line configured to transmit a gate signal”), the plurality of data lines extend in the second direction and are arranged in the first direction (¶ 0042, “the first signal line 210 can be a display data line configured to transmit a display data signal”), the plurality of gate lines intersect with the plurality of data lines to define a plurality of pixel areas (See Fig. 2); and
a plurality of touch signal lines (130) positioned on the substrate, wherein the plurality of touch signal lines extend in the first direction, each of the plurality of touch signal lines (See Fig. 7) comprises a lower touch signal line (131) and an upper touch signal line (132), the lower touch signal line is positioned in a same layer as the plurality of data lines (See Fig. 7; lower touch signal line 131 is the in the same layer as defined data line 210), the upper touch signal line is positioned above the lower touch signal line in a direction perpendicular to the array substrate (See Fig. 7), and the upper touch signal line and the lower touch signal line are electrically connected each other (See Fig. 7, 131 is connected to 132 by via 140),
wherein a projection of the lower touch signal line on the substrate at least partially overlaps with a projection of the upper touch signal line on the substrate (See Fig. 2 and 7; The projections over 131 and 132 overlap with each other.).
Wang fails to disclose wherein the plurality of touch signals lines extend in the second direction.
Xie wherein the plurality of touch signals lines (See Fig. 1,3) extend in the second direction (See Fig. 1; Xie discloses touch signal lines extend in a horizontal direction (second direction).).
Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified Wang with the teachings of Xie wherein the plurality of touch signals lines extend in the second direction, as suggested by Xie thereby similarly using known configurations for disposing touch signal lines in touch display devices.
As to claim 19, Wang in view of Xie discloses all of the limitations of claim 1 and further discloses an opposite substrate opposite to the array substrate (Wnag, ¶ 0039, “the array substrate can be opposed to an opposite substrate to form a liquid crystal cell”).
Conclusion
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/NICHOLAS J LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2624
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