Appeal No. 2003-0269
Application No. 09/313,547
first and second electro-chemically interactive layers,
respectively, of an electro-chemically interactive material;
first and second barrier layers, respectively, of a
relatively non-reactive material; and
first and second orienting layers, respectively, of
orienting material,
the first electro-chemically interactive layer comprising a
first layer of electrically conductive material patterned to form
an array of reflective electrodes defining an array of pixel
elements.
The prior art set forth below is relied upon by the examiner
as evidence of obviousness:
Tsai et al. (Tsai) 5,808,715 Sep. 15, 1998
The admitted prior art described on pages 9-11 of the
specification and shown in Figure 1 of the drawing of this
application.
All of the claims on appeal stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over the admitted prior art in
view of Tsai. On page 4 of the final Office action (i.e., Paper
No. 14), the examiner describes his position as follows:
As explained above the admitted prior art
described in the present invention [sic, specification]
discloses the claimed invention except that a barrier
layer of relatively non-reactive material is formed
between the orientation layer and the electrode.
However, Tsai discloses in column 1, lines 51-59 that
since the entering external conductive impurities with
the size equal to or larger than the gap between the
upper and lower electrodes may cause a short circuit,
an overcoat (applicant’s barrier layer) made of oxide
or nitride (such as SiO2, TiO2 or Si3N4 [sic]) must be
formed between the ITO layer (applicant’s electro-
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