Ex Parte HSUDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardJun 13, 201714100967 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 13, 2017) Copy Citation United States Patent and Trademark Office UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O.Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 14/100,967 12/09/2013 LI-TAO HSU 19408-129 1185 7590 06/15/201760951 WPAT, PC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ATTORNEYS 2301 Dupont Dr. Suite 510 Irvine, CA 92612 EXAMINER ZHANG, RUIYUN ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 1782 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 06/15/2017 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): inbox @ wpatca.com pcollins @ wpatca.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte LI-TAO HSU Appeal 2016-003846 Application 14/100,967 Technology Center 1700 Before TERRY J. OWENS, GRACE KARAFFA OBERMANN, and AVELYN M. ROSS, Administrative Patent Judges. OWENS, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE The Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s rejection of claims 1—10. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). The Invention The Appellant claims a liquid crystal alignment agent, a liquid crystal alignment film made using the liquid crystal alignment agent, and liquid crystal display element comprising the liquid crystal alignment film. Claim 1 is illustrative: 1. A liquid crystal alignment agent comprising: a polymer composition (A) obtained by reacting a diamine compound (a) and a tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride compound (b); a solvent (B); and Appeal 2016-003846 Application 14/100,967 a poly(oxyalkyleneglycol)dialkylether compound (C); wherein the number average molecular weight of the poly(oxyalkyleneglycol)dialkylether compound (C) is from 250 to 2000; wherein the diamine compound (a) having the structure of Formula (1-2): wherein R2 represents -0-, -COO-, -OCO-, -NHCO-, -CONH-, or -CO-; R21 and R22 represents [sic, represent] a divalent group selected from the group consisting of an alicyclic group, an aromatic group, and a heterocyclic group; R23 represents a C3 to C18 alkyl group, a C3 to C18 alkoxyl group, a C: to C5 fluoroalkyl group, a C: to C5 fluoroalkoxyl group, a cyano group, or a halogen atom. CHEMINDUSTRY.RU, polyethylene glycol (2010). The Rejection Claims 1—10 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 over Nishikawa in view of Tsai, Mune and CHEMINDUSTRY.RU. OPINION We reverse the rejection. We need address only claim 1, the limitations of which are required by all of the other claims. Claim 1 requires a liquid crystal alignment agent comprising a poly(oxyalkyleneglycol)- dialkylether compound. NH R 3----R2!—R 22—R Formula (1-2) The References Nishikawa Mune Tsai US 5,969,055 Oct. 19, 1999 US 2004/0013953 A1 Jan. 22, 2004 US 2012/0172542 A1 July 5, 2012 2 Appeal 2016-003846 Application 14/100,967 Nishikawa discloses a liquid crystal alignment agent comprising a polyamic acid obtained by reacting at least one tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride with at least one diamine compound in an organic solvent (col. 2,11. 22—27). The organic solvent can be used in combination with a poor solvent for the polyamic acid, the listed poor solvents including diethylene glycol dimethyl ether and diethylene glycol diethyl ether (col. 14, 1. 56-col. 15,1. 3). Tsai discloses a liquid crystal alignment agent comprising a polyamic acid obtained by reacting a tetracarboxylic dianhydride compound with a diamine compound (129). The diamine compound can fall within the scope of the Appellant’s claim 1 ’s Formula (1-2) (| 38). Mune discloses “a photosensitive polyimide resin precursor composition capable of providing a transparent optical polyimide resin having a small bireffingent index, which can be suitably used for optical waveguides, optical waveguide devices, optical integrated circuits, optical wirings, etc. as broadly used in optical communication, optical information processing, and other general optical fields” (11). The composition comprises 1) a polyamic acid obtained by reacting a tetracarboxylic acid with a diamine, 2) a 1,4-dihydropyridine derivative, and 3) a dissolution control agent and contrast enhancer which can be polyethylene glycol dimethyl ether or polypropylene glycol dimethyl ether (|| 13, 25—29). The Examiner finds that Mune “teaches that the polyethylene glycol dialkyl ether can be used to control the dissolution of the resin composition in order to obtain a uniform patterned resin film with very smooth surface 3 Appeal 2016-003846 Application 14/100,967 ([0074]-[0085]) (Ans. 6—7)1 and that Mune’s disclosure that the photosensitive polyimide resin precursor composition can be used in “other general optical fields” (11) “is sufficient to lead one of ordinary skill in the art to use the teachings from Mune to modify the polyimide composition of Nishikawa” (Ans. 9—10). The Examiner concludes that “one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to use the ether as taught by ‘935 [Mune], to modify the alignment agent of ‘055 [Nishikawa], in order to render a uniform polyimide resin based alignment film having very smooth surface” (Ans. 7). The Examiner does not address the differences between the types of optical devices disclosed by Mune and liquid crystals and between Mune’s polyimide resin precursor composition and liquid crystal alignment agents and establish that regardless of those differences, Mune would have led one of ordinary skill in the art, through no more than ordinary creativity, to use Mune’s polyethylene glycol dimethyl ether or polypropylene glycol dimethyl ether dissolution control agent and contrast enhancer in Nishikawa’s liquid crystal alignment agent composition. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 418 (2007) (in making an obviousness determination one “can take account of the inferences and creative steps that a person of ordinary skill in the art would employ”). 1 The Examiner appears to be relying upon Mune’s disclosures that “it is possible to control the shape of the resulting pattern by selecting the compounding amount of the dissolution controlling agent” (| 80) and “[t]he surface of the pattern obtained by wet etching of the photosensitive polyimide resin precursor composition according to the invention is very smooth, including its side surfaces” (1 83). 4 Appeal 2016-003846 Application 14/100,967 Thus, the Examiner has not set forth a factual basis which is sufficient to support a prima facie case of obviousness of the Appellant’s claimed invention. See In re Warner, 379 F.2d 1011, 1017 (CCPA 1967) (“A rejection based on section 103 clearly must rest on a factual basis, and these facts must be interpreted without hindsight reconstruction of the invention from the prior art”). Accordingly, we reverse the rejection. DECISION/ORDER The rejection of claims 1—10 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 over Nishikawa in view of Tsai, Mune and CHEMINDUSTRY.RU is reversed. It is ordered that the Examiner’s decision is reversed. REVERSED 5 Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation