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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/28/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 claims 3-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Poletti et al. (WO 2019/008352) and further in view of Hoppe et al. (US 20170045682), and Oliver (DE 10333059) as cited in the machine translation provided herein, and Bogdahn et al. (US 8584491).
Regarding claims 1, Poletti discloses a method for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber comprising a hollow core extending along a longitudinal axis of the fiber and an inner sheath region surrounding the hollow core, which sheath region comprises a plurality of anti-resonance elements (summary of the invention), comprising the method steps of:
(a) providing a cladding tube (jacket 12) the core jacket 12 has a thickness defined by an inside and an outside and a length (see at least Fig 7-9) thus; comprising an inner bore of the cladding tube and a longitudinal axis of the cladding tube, along which a cladding tube wall delimited by an inner side and an outer side extends (Fig 11 S1),
(b) providing a number of tubular anti-resonance element preforms (capillary 14 Fig 11 S2),
(c) arranging the anti-resonance element preforms at desired positions on the inner side of the cladding tube wall to form a primary preform (Page 5; Col 23-27, Page 6; lines 10-2533 see at least Fig 2, 7-9), which comprises a hollow core region and an inner sheath region, and
(d) elongating the primary preform to form the hollow-core fiber or further processing the primary preform into a secondary preform from which the hollow-core fiber is drawn (Page 6; lines 18-21, 28-30), which discusses the optical fiber of Fig 2 on a much larger scale and heating and stretching in a draw tower- this is considered to meet the claim limitations of hot elongation collapse.
Poletti states;
The preforms which can be fabricated using the methods disclosed herein are not limited to the examples shown thus far. Other configurations of various numbers of tubes can be made, as will be readily appreciated. Any contact between two tubes or capillaries can be bonded by an appropriately directed laser beam. Welds for differently positioned or common contact lines can be performed in sequence to build up a preform structure, or a common contact line for multiple tubes /capillaries can be welded to create a complete preform with one welding step.
Thus it would be further obvious to draw an optical fiber with additional cladding as motivated to have cladding of a larger thickness
Poletti discloses an anti-resonance element preforms (capillary 14/18, Fig 2, 7-9) are provided,
each (capillary 14) has at least one ARE outer tube and optionally at least one ARE inner tube, wherein the ARE outer tube (18) and/or the ARE inner tube is produced by means of a vertical drawing process without using a molding tool, the vertical drawing process comprising the following steps:
(aa) providing a hollow starting cylinder (14) made of glass, which has a longitudinal cylinder axis (Fig 8-9) and an outer cylinder surface and an inner cylinder surface (Fig 2, 5), (Fig 11, S2)
Poletti discloses then drawing the preform after S7 step 7.
In an analogous art of manufacturing an optical fiber with hollow bodies therein (abstract) Hoppe discloses the pre-preform of cladding with tubes therein has an elongation step comprising a first drawing step (Fig 4a to 4b) with a first heating element, wherein drawing is done in a first heating element and additional drawing step (Fig 5) with a second element to draw the preform to a fiber (at least claim 18).
Where Poletti is silent as to how the glass tubes and capillaries are drawn, or the drawing step comprising first and second elongation steps. Poletti discloses the first drawing step in claim 1, it would be obvious to a skilled artisan to look to be motivated to look for a suitable method well-known in the art to draw optical fibers first-sixth aspects.
Hoppe discloses an elongation of a cladding and tubes therein with two drawing steps to bond the capillary tubes to the cladding and draw to a fiber with different heating elements to reduce the diameter to the desired final diameter at least [0125]-[0128]. It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide multiple heaters to draw a tube to the desired diameter.
The combined disclosure of Poletti and Hoppe do not disclose the structure and lengths of each of said first and second heating elements of the first and second drawing systems.
In an analogous art of drawing a preform Oliver discloses a heating furnace (49) for drawing a preform which may be 30 cm=300 mm long corresponding to claimed LH1. The drawing not having a molding tool.
In another analogous art of drawing glass preforms Bogdahn discloses a drawing system having a heating zone (heater 1, Col 4; lines 20-24) having a heating zone length which corresponds to claimed LH2, softens therein in some regions, and an intermediate cylinder is pulled from the softened region without using a molding tool (see pulled softened region 9 Col 6; lines 9-40), said heater having a heating zone with a length of 100 mm (Col 6; lines 18-23) Bogdahn discloses after drawing(dd) a step of cutting to length of the drawn tube (Col 6; lines 63)
The combined teachings of Poletti and Hoppe disclose drawing a cladding with hollow tubes to yield a preform and then drawing the preform to yield a fiber using two heating steps. The combined teachings do not teach the structures of the drawing system, or systems.
Annular heating furnaces for drawing optical preforms are well-known in the art in any stage of drawing from a larger pre-preform or preform to a fiber as indicated by Hoppe, Oliver and Bogdahn.
It would be obvious to use one or more annular furnaces known in the art for drawing in the method of Poletti.
Poletti discloses an outer tube (12) with a diameter of up to 30 mm (page 22; lines 20-28). Poletti discloses drawing to an optical fiber (at least claim 26) however fails to disclose the inner diameter. It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to continue drawing the preform as motivated to obtain the desired finished fiber product.
Regarding claims 3-6, Poletti fails to disclose machining the starting cylinder (12). Oliver discloses machining the raw cylinder, in particular drilling or grinding
The outer wall of the quartz glass tube thus obtained is ground to the desired outer dimension by means of peripheral piercing or longitudinal grinding in several operations using successively finer grain sizes. Likewise, the inner bore is drilled by means of a drill and for the purpose of a high-precision End be refinement of the shape and surface finish by honing. It is thus obtained extending in the longitudinal axis direction,
a further variant of the method for producing a constriction of the inner bore 65 a hollow cylinder 61 , wherein the inner bore 65 of the hollow cylinder 61 first mechanically machined to final dimensions
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to set the dimensions of the tube to be drawn as motivated to achieve the desired dimensions of any hollow cylinder
Regarding claim 5, Bogdahn discloses the outer diameter of the hollow cylinder is 145 mm in a specific embodiment however it would be obvious to a skilled artisan to optimize the initial cylinder, heating and draw rate as motivated to obtain a capillary of Poletti with the desired final diameter dimensions
Regarding claim 6, the drawn tubes of Poletti are drawn with an outer diameter Ta of the capillary drawn tube of 10 mm thus overlapping the range from 7 to 35 mm (page 22; lines 20-28).
Claim(s) 1, 3-6, 8-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Poletti et al. (WO 2019/008352) and further in view of Hoppe et al. (US 20170045682) and Oliver (DE 10333059) and Ganz (US 20170001901)
Regarding claims 1 and 3, Poletti discloses a method for producing an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber comprising a hollow core extending along a longitudinal axis of the fiber and an inner sheath region surrounding the hollow core, which sheath region comprises a plurality of anti-resonance elements (summary of the invention), comprising the method steps of:
(a) providing a cladding tube (jacket 12) the core jacket 12 has a thickness defined by an inside and an outside and a length (see at least Fig 7-9) thus; comprising an inner bore of the cladding tube and a longitudinal axis of the cladding tube, along which a cladding tube wall delimited by an inner side and an outer side extends (Fig 11 S1),
(b) providing a number of tubular anti-resonance element preforms (capillary 14 Fig 11 S2),
(c) arranging the anti-resonance element preforms at desired positions on the inner side of the cladding tube wall to form a primary preform (Page 5; Col 23-27, Page 6; lines 10-2533 see at least Fig 2, 7-9), which comprises a hollow core region and an inner sheath region, and
(d) elongating the primary preform to form the hollow-core fiber or further processing the primary preform into a secondary preform from which the hollow-core fiber is drawn (Page 6; lines 18-21, 28-30), which discusses the optical fiber of Fig 2 on a much larger scale and heating and stretching in a draw tower- this is considered to meet the claim limitations of hot elongation collapse and a combination thereof the single or repeated stretching as claimed is not limited to a time or by a separation of steps thus the disclosure of Poletti meets all these limitations given the broadest reasonable interpretation.
Poletti states;
The preforms which can be fabricated using the methods disclosed herein are not limited to the examples shown thus far. Other configurations of various numbers of tubes can be made, as will be readily appreciated. Any contact between two tubes or capillaries can be bonded by an appropriately directed laser beam. Welds for differently positioned or common contact lines can be performed in sequence to build up a preform structure, or a common contact line for multiple tubes /capillaries can be welded to create a complete preform with one welding step.
Thus it would be further obvious to draw an optical fiber with additional cladding as motivated to have cladding of a larger thickness
Poletti discloses an anti-resonance element preforms (capillary 14/18, Fig 2, 7-9) are provided,
each (capillary 14) has at least one ARE outer tube and optionally at least one ARE inner tube, wherein the ARE outer tube (18) and/or the ARE inner tube is produced by means of a vertical drawing process without using a molding tool, the vertical drawing process comprising the following steps:
(aa) providing a hollow starting cylinder (14) made of glass, which has a longitudinal cylinder axis (Fig 8-9) and an outer cylinder surface and an inner cylinder surface (Fig 2, 5), (Fig 11, S2)
Where Poletti is silent as to how the glass tubes and capillaries it would be obvious to a skilled artisan to look to be motivated to look for a suitable method well-known in the art to draw optical preforms- first-sixth aspects.
Hoppe discloses an elongation with two drawing steps with different heating elements to reduce the diameter to the desired final diameter. It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide multiple heaters to draw a tube to the desired diameter.
The combined disclosure of Poletti and Hoppe do not disclose the structure and lengths of each of said first and second heating elements of the first and second drawing systems.
In an analogous art of drawing a preform Oliver discloses a heating furnace (49) for drawing a preform which may be 30 cm=300 mm long corresponding to claimed LH1. The drawing not having a molding tool.
Additionally, In an analogous art of manufacturing glass tubes Ganz discloses an elongation process, with which the hollow starting cylinder (4) with a vertically oriented longitudinal axis is continuously fed into a first heating system with a first heating zone (heater 1) having a heating zone length of 150 mm to 200 mm [0043] yielding LH2
and a drawn tube (12) with an outer diameter Ta and an inner diameter Ti of about is pulled from the softened region without using a molding tool [0026]. a step of cutting to length of the drawn element (Abstract).
Where Poletti is silent as to how the glass tubes for the capillaries are manufactured it would be obvious to a skilled artisan to look to be motivated to look for suitable drawing furnaces known in the art as taught by Oliver and Ganz thus yielding LH2 < LH1.
Ganz discloses the outer diameter over the inner diameter less than 1.6 [0026] thus overlapping sufficiently with the claimed limitation.
It would furthermore be obvious to one skilled in the art to optimize the tube size of the cladding or capillaries because Poletti states at least on (page 11 lines 21-25) the diameter of the capillaries can be selected to maintain the non-contact arrangement and with a view to providing a central void of a desired width.
Regarding claim 4, Poletti fails to disclose machining the starting cylinder (12). Oliver discloses machining the raw cylinder, in particular drilling or grinding
The outer wall of the quartz glass tube thus obtained is ground to the desired outer dimension by means of peripheral piercing or longitudinal grinding in several operations using successively finer grain sizes. Likewise, the inner bore is drilled by means of a drill and for the purpose of a high-precision End be refinement of the shape and surface finish by honing. It is thus obtained extending in the longitudinal axis direction,
a further variant of the method for producing a constriction of the inner bore 65 a hollow cylinder 61 , wherein the inner bore 65 of the hollow cylinder 61 first mechanically machined to final dimensions
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to set the dimensions of the tube to be drawn as motivated to achieve the desired dimensions of any hollow cylinder
Regarding claim 5, Ganz discloses the outer diameter Ca is set to at least 180 mm. [0025] It would furthermore be obvious to one skilled in the art to optimize the tube size of the cladding or capillaries because Poletti states at least on (page 11 lines 21-25) the diameter of the capillaries can be selected as motivated to produce longitudinal fiber of desired dimensions.
Regarding claim 6, Ganz discloses the drawn tube is drawn with an outer diameter Ta is 28 mm (claim 10) thus overlapping the claimed range from 7 to 35 mm. Additionally the drawn tubes of Poletti are drawn with an outer diameter Ta of the capillary drawn tube of 10 mm thus overlapping the range from 7 to 35 mm (page 22; lines 20-28).
Regarding claims 8-10, assuming the tube is a drawn ARE tube of claim 1 Ganz discloses the wall thickness set to a value between 0.2 and 2 mm, and the diameter ratio Ta,/Ti is set to a value equal to or less than 1.6 (claim 1) thus in the range from 1.05 and 1.5.
Regarding claim 11, Poletti discloses quartz glass thus containing a tungsten concentration of less than 2 ppb by weight and Poletti and Ganz disclose no particles. Given the broadest reasonable interpretation this meets the claim limitation. Absent a particular step that obtains this as an unexpected result commensurate in scope with the claims the discovery of a new property from a known or obvious process does not make it patentable.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 01/28/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant has amended the claims to clarify that the further processing comprises two separate drawing systems.
Applicant points to Specification page 7, 1.29-page 8; lines 1 and 3 as indicated at the top of page 7; lines, this discloses a two stage elongation process. It does not actually support a first drawing system and second drawing system. The drawing systems used thereby differ in particular in the length of their heating zone.
Examiner has changed the rejection to rely on the Hoppe reference which discloses two heating and drawing elements to draw to the desired diameter.
Poletti appears to disclose the overall claimed method and it is known to draw glass tubing with heaters as indicated by Bogdahn, Oliver, Ganz and other references by the present Applicant provided below.
The only difference between the claimed invention and Poletti is the claimed recitation of drawing through two heating systems with the second having a shorter length. In re Harza, 274 F.2d 669, 124 USPQ 378 (CCPA 1960) that mere duplication of parts has no patentable significance unless a new and unexpected result is produced. In the present instance the duplication of heating systems to further draw and glass tube or preform is not unexpected. See also In re Burhans, 154 F.2d 690, 69 USPQ 330 (CCPA 1946) (selection of any order of performing process steps is prima facie obvious in the absence of new or unexpected results), thus where drawing furnaces of each length are known there is nothing unexpected from using the furnace of Olivier to draw a tube that is then processed in the known drawing method of Ganz.
The dimensions of the desired tubing are known and Poletti gives motivation for any dimension of tubing as well as orientation.
Applicant argues that Hoppe discloses creating a photonic crystal and Hoppe’s drawing steps would not be used to modify Poletti’s capillary formation because Hoppe uses a set of starting tubes drawn to specific internal and external diameters [0153]-[0154].
These statements are irrelevant. The name of the formed product does not teach away from the method of forming a cladding with elements within and drawing. Applicant’s pointing to a single embodiment in a working example of [0153]-[0154] does not teach away from drawing of a cladding and/or tubes within.
Applicant’s indication of the tubes placed side by side to create a “pre-preform” also does not teach away from drawing of a cladding and/or tubes within. Applicant attempts to argue the first drawing step is only to serve the purpose of sticking tubes together to form the “pre-preform” however Hoppe discloses the first drawing yields a preform in a first drawing step [0125] from the pre-preform and then a second drawing step draws to a fiber [0124]-[0128].
Applicant argues Hoppes tubes are similar to Poletti’s capillaries are not formed by the two-step drawing process (page 8; ¶2-3 of remarks filed 01/28/2026).
To put it simply, Poletti bonds the capillaries to the cladding with a laser and then a single drawing step, analogous art Hoppe discloses bonding capillaries to a cladding with a first drawing step and a second drawing step to form a fiber.
In response to applicant's argument that the examiner's conclusion of obviousness over Olivier is based upon improper hindsight reasoning, it must be recognized that any judgment on obviousness is in a sense necessarily a reconstruction based upon hindsight reasoning. But so long as it takes into account only knowledge which was within the level of ordinary skill at the time the claimed invention was made, and does not include knowledge gleaned only from the applicant's disclosure, such a reconstruction is proper. See In re McLaughlin, 443 F.2d 1392, 170 USPQ 209 (CCPA 1971).
Furthermore, the optimization of the heating zone lengths in active steps disclosed of a first drawing step and second drawing step would be obvious to a skilled artisan.
Applicant argues the rejection over Poletti et al. (WO 2019/008352) and further in view of Hoppe et al. (US 20170045682) and Oliver (DE 10333059) and Ganz (US 20170001901) for the same reasons which are answered above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
EP1533283 [0067]-[0070] drawing with heating coil 23, drawing steps and or heating coil may be considered multiples steps/ structures MPEP 2144.04 integral into separate. [0070] optimizing length.
All claims are identical to or patentably indistinct from, or have unity of invention with claims in the application prior to the entry of the submission under 37 CFR 1.114 (that is, restriction (including a lack of unity of invention) would not be proper) and all claims could have been finally rejected on the grounds and art of record in the next Office action if they had been entered in the application prior to entry under 37 CFR 1.114. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL even though it is a first action after the filing of a request for continued examination and the submission under 37 CFR 1.114. See MPEP § 706.07(b). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JODI COHEN FRANKLIN whose telephone number is (571)270-3966. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8 am-4 pm.
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JODI COHEN FRANKLIN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1741
/JODI C FRANKLIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1741