Ex Parte Skipor et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardJun 24, 201411770939 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 24, 2014) Copy Citation UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARKOFFICE 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. 11/770,939 06/29/2007 Andrew F. Skipor CML05308T 7160 59767 7590 06/24/2014 QD VISION, INC. 29 Hartwell Avenue Lexington, MA 02421 EXAMINER SUCH, MATTHEWW ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2896 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 06/24/2014 PAPER 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. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________ Ex parte QD VISION, INC. (Application 11/770,939) ____________ Appeal 2012-006239 from Technology Center 2800 Matthew W. Such, Primary Examiner ____________ Before RICHARD TORCZON, JOHN G. NEW and HUNG H. BUI, Administrative Patent Judges. TORCZON, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL The appellant (QDVI) seeks relief from the final rejection of claims 1-16. We AFFIRM. Appeal 2012-006239 Application 11/770,939 2 OPINION INTRODUCTION QDVI's "disclosure generally relates to light emitting displays and more particularly to free standing quantum dot light emitting display."1 Independent claim 1 defines the invention as:2 An apparatus comprising: a light emitting device including a plurality of quantum dots; and a first coil disposed contiguous to the light emitting device, wherein an electric field generated by the first coil causes the plurality of quantum dots to emit photons. The examiner rejects all of the claims as having been obvious3 from the disclosures of published patent applications of Jacobs4 and Colvin5 and of an article by Tsutsui6 as follows: · Claims 1, 2, 5 and 13-16 over the combined disclosures of Jacobs and Tsutsui;7 · Claims 1-6 and 8-10 over the combined disclosures of Colvin and Tsutsui;8 and · Claims 7, 11 and 12 over the combined disclosures of Colvin, Jacobs and Tsutsui.9 1 Spec. ¶ 1. 2 Br. 12 (claims app'x). In this opinion all claim language comes from the claims appendix to the appeal brief. Cf. Ans. 4, item (7) (not objecting). 3 35 U.S.C. 103. All statutory citations refer to the statute in effect in 2011 (the time of the final rejection and notice of appeal). 4 J.H.A.M. Jacobs et al., Lighting system, US 2009/0290332 A1. 5 A.E. Colvin Jr., Optical-based sensing devices, US 2004/0176669 A1. 6 T. Tsutsui, A light-emitting sandwich filling, 420 NATURE 752 (2002). 7 Final Rej. 2. 8 Id. at 7. Appeal 2012-006239 Application 11/770,939 3 QDVI does not contest the patentability of the claims separately and relies on its arguments for the first two rejections to overcome the third rejection.10 We select claim 1 for purposes of reviewing the rejections.11 FACTS AND FINDINGS Jacobs [1] Jacobs discloses "a lighting system comprising a base part with at least one primary coil, and at least one light module with a secondary coil adapted to inductively interact with the primary coil."12 [2] Jacobs Figure 4 (right) is a block diagram of a resonant converter with inductive coupling between the primary and secondary side.13 [3] The resonant converter 60 wirelessly transfers power from a direct-current power supply 30 to a light- emitting diode (LED) 20 via inductive coupling between a primary coil 18 and a secondary coil 26.14 [4] The LED may be an organic LED (OLED).15 9 Id. at 12. 10 Br. 10. 11 C.W. Zumbiel Co., Inc. v. Kappos, 702 F.3d 1371, 1378 n.2 & 1381 n.4 (Fed. Cir. 2012); 37 C.F.R. § 41.37(c)(1)(iv). 12 Jacobs ¶ 0001. 13 Id. ¶ 49. 14 Id. ¶¶ 59, 65 & 68-69. 15 Id. ¶¶ 41 & 154. Appeal 2012-006239 Application 11/770,939 4 [5] The examiner finds that Jacobs does not teach "that the organic light emitting device includes quantum dots as the photon emission source."16 Colvin [6] Colvin discloses "electro-optical sensing devices for detecting the presence or concentration of an analyte in a liquid or gaseous medium."17 [7] Colvin Figure 1 (right) is a schematic, section view of a fluorescence-based sensor.18 [8] In relevant part, the figure shows an inductor 40, which powers a radiation source 18, e.g., an LED.19 [9] The examiner finds that Colvin does not teach the use of an LED with quantum dots as the photo-emission source.20 Tsutsui [10] Tsutsui is a review of a paper on "the fabrication of high-efficiency organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in which the light-emitting centres are cadmium- selenium (CdSe) nanocrystals, or quantum dots."21 [11] A person having ordinary skill in the art would have known that OLEDs have many advantages, and were already commercially used, but also had as a 16 Final Rej. 3. 17 Colvin ¶ 3. 18 Id. ¶ 19. 19 Id. ¶ 92. 20 Final Rej. at 7. 21 Tsutsui at 752. Appeal 2012-006239 Application 11/770,939 5 drawback that the emission spectra are very broad so "it is difficult to get, for example, pure red light emitted with high quantum efficiency."22 [12] Tsutsui explains as background that:23 Some inorganic nanocrystals emit visible light with sharp emission spectra that are less than 30 nm [(full-width at half maximum (FWHM)]. The nanocrystals are in effect quantum dots and confine charge so well within their small volume that a high quantum efficiency, exceeding 50%, is possible. It might be expected, then, that quantum dots incorporated in organic LEDs would make excellent emission centres. In fact, electroluminescence has been observed by simply mixing inorganic nanocrystals with π-conjugated polymers, but the emission efficiency was far lower than that of conventional polymer LEDs. [13] Tsutsui Figure 1 (right) shows a quantum-dot LED as described in the paper, in which "a layer of cadmium–selenium nanocrystals, or quantum dots, is sandwiched between layers of electron- transporting and hole- transporting organic materials[, such that a]n applied electric field causes electrons and holes to move into the nanocrystal layer, where they are captured in the quantum dots and recombine, emitting photons[, resulting in a] spectrum of photon emission [that] is narrow, characterized by its full width at half the maximum value."24 22 Id. 23 Id. at 753 (endnotes omitted). 24 Id. Appeal 2012-006239 Application 11/770,939 6 [14] Tsutsui describes the device in the paper as "an organic LED with a single layer of CdSe quantum dots sandwiched between organic thin films (Fig. 1)."25 [15] Tsutsui reports that the authors of the paper have shown that the addition of the nanocrystals improves efficiency and stability and provides uniform spectrum that can be tuned during fabrication.26 We understand Tsutsui to teach that the paper under review provides an improved method for integrating nanocrystals into an OLED that minimizes the known drawbacks the art had experienced.27 [16] The examiner finds that a person having ordinary skill in the art would have appreciated the advantages of using the nanocrystals in an OLED.28 ANALYSIS The examiner has provided a facially reasonable basis for inferring that a person having ordinary skill in the art would have had reason to pursue the advantages of Tsutsui's quantum dots in the devices of Jacobs or of Colvin. QDVI contends that the examiner has not provided a reason to combine the teachings of either Jacobs and Tsutsui or Colvin and Tsutsui.29 QDVI also contends that one cannot simply combine the inventions, that the art is too unpredictable and that the result would be inoperative.30 25 Id. 26 Id. at 753 & 755. 27 Id. at 753: "Remarkably, the efficiency of their device is about 25 times higher than that achieved so far with quantum-dot LEDs. Thinking ahead to the design of device architectures, there are two noteworthy aspects here: the structure of this quantum-dot LED is already close to that for an optimum device and the process of fabricating a layer of quantum dots is simple." 28 Final Rej. at, e.g., 3. 29 Br. 4 & 8. 30 Br. 5, 8-10; Reply 2-7. Appeal 2012-006239 Application 11/770,939 7 QDVI's contentions appear to be based on a misapprehension of the Tsutsui review article. While Tsutsui reports problems with simply combining nanocrystals with organic polymers, Tsutsui also reports that the authors of the paper "[r]emarkably" achieved high efficiency "already close to that for an optimum device" with a simple process for making the layer of quantum dots.31 Inasmuch as Tsutsui reports a remarkable success in including quantum dots in a light-emitting device, QDVI's contentions that such a combination is not possible, is unpredictable and would be inoperative are all misplaced. To the extent that QDVI contends that Tsutsui's quantum-dot approach cannot be directly combined with the LEDs of the other references, the argument is misplaced because a person having ordinary skill in the art would understand that a Tsutsui-like structure could be used in place of the other LEDs in order to gain the advantages that Tsutsui teaches.32 To the extent that QDVI contends that any combination would be inoperative, the contention would require some factual basis beyond argument alone to challenge the teachings of the references.33 Tsutsui indicates that, properly used, quantum-dot LEDs are simple to make and are remarkably successful. 31 Tsutsui at 753. 32 Cf. In re Etter, 756 F.2d 852, 859 (Fed. Cir. 1985) (en banc) (explaining that the proper test is "not whether the references could be physically combined but whether the claimed inventions are rendered obvious by the teachings of the prior art as a whole"). 33 Gemtron Corp. v. Saint-Gobain Corp., 572 F.3d 1371, 1380 (Fed. Cir. 2009). Appeal 2012-006239 Application 11/770,939 8 HOLDING QDVI has not shown prejudicial error in the rejection of claim 1. QDVI has not urged the separate patentability of the other claims. Accordingly, final rejection of claims 1-16 is— AFFIRMED For the appellant: JOHN P. IWANICKI, Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., of Boston, Massachusetts. bar Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation