DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 January 16, 2026 has been entered.
Claim Objections
Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 8, “…a second signal input coupled to the second multimode interface...” in line 6 should be corrected to “…a second signal input coupled to the second input of the multimode interface...”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 8 – 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 8 was amended to recite a mode detector directed to an embodiment as described in Figure 7, where the mode detector comprises a comparator and circuitry. Claim 8 was amended to recite “circuitry coupled to the multimode interface, the circuitry configured to determine a threshold voltage”. In reviewing Applicants disclosure, the circuitry is described as a voltage divider (#708, Fig.7) that is coupled between VDD and ground and provides the reference voltage. There is no disclosure of the voltage divider being coupled to the multimode interface (#121, Fig.5). Therefore, the amendments in claim 8 is not supported by the original description which constitutes new matter to the original disclosure.
Claim 14 was amended to recite of a mode detector that directed to an embodiment as described in Figure 6, where the circuitry includes a transistor that provides the threshold voltage. Claim 8 was amended to recite a mode detector directed to an embodiment as described in Figure 7, where the mode detector comprises a comparator and circuitry, and where the circuitry (voltage divider) provides the threshold voltage. The specification is silent of a disclosure of a mode detector that includes all the components as recited in claims 8 and 14. Claim 14 recites of a mode detector that is not supported by the original description which constitutes new matter to the original disclosure.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 – 7, 21 – 24 and 27 – 28 are allowed
Conclusion
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/ARISTOCRATIS FOTAKIS/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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