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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed August 17, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1, 9, 24, and 26 have been amended. Claims 2-3 and 13-23 have been canceled. New claims 29-38 have been added. Claims 1, 4-12, and 24-38 are pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed August 17, 2026, with respect to the rejection of amended claim 24 under §102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of U.S. Pub. No. 2020/0142450 A1 (hereinafter “Dan”).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 24-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dan.
Regarding claim 24, Dan discloses a computing system (computing device 100) comprising:
an antenna (antenna 132);
an integrated circuit component (processor 112);
a shielding means (fin pack 126) to shield the antenna from electromagnetic noise to be generated by the integrated circuit component when the integrated circuit component is in operation (see ¶ 0030) and to vent air heated by the integrated circuit component out of the computing system (see ¶¶ 0023 and 0025); and
a venting means (heat transfer element 120; see ¶ 0021 stating that heat transfer element may be a heat pipe) to vent air heated by the integrated circuit component out of the computing system (see ¶¶ 0019-0020), the shielding means (126) located closer to the antenna (132) than the venting means (120; see Fig. 2).
Regarding claim 25, Dan discloses all the limitations of claim 24 as stated above. Dan
further discloses that the computing system comprises a fan (fan 128).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dan as applied to claim 24 above, and further in view of U.S. Pub. No. 2013/0279107 A1 (hereinafter “Knopf”).
Dan discloses all the limitations of claim 24 as stated above. Dan lacks a specific teaching that the antenna is configured to produce electromagnetic waves in Wi-Fi 2 GHz or Wi-Fi 6 GHz frequency band.
Knopf discloses a computing system comprising an antenna that produces electromagnetic waves in Wi-Fi 2 GHz or Wi-Fi 6 GHz frequency band (see ¶ 0085 stating that communications circuitry 3210, of which the antenna is a part, can operate using any suitable communications protocol including Wi-Fi 802.11).
Knopf is considered to be analogous art because it is in the same field of endeavor as the claimed invention. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the present application, to configure the antenna to produce electromagnetic waves in either the Wi-Fi 2 GHz or Wi-Fi 6 GHz frequency band, seeing as these are common frequency bands for Wi-Fi communication.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 4-12, and 27-38 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Claim 1 has been amended to include the allowable subject matter identified in the previous Office Action. The allowability resides in the overall structure of the apparatus as recited in the claim and at least in part because the prior art neither teaches nor suggests “one or more ventilation brackets located on an internal surface of the unitary component, an external surface of the unitary component, or both the internal surface and the external surface, wherein the first plurality of ventilation holes extends through the unitary component and the one or more ventilation brackets, the first thickness being a thickness of the unitary component plus a thickness of the one or more ventilation brackets.”
Claims 4-12 and 27-28 depend on claim 1 and are therefore allowable for at least the reasons stated above.
Claim 29 has been added and includes allowable subject matter identified in the previous Office Action. The allowability resides in the overall structure of the apparatus as recited in the claim and at least in part because the prior art neither teaches nor suggests “a second portion comprising a second plurality of ventilation holes, the first plurality of ventilation holes having a first thickness, the second plurality of ventilation holes having a second thickness, the antenna located on an external surface of the chassis side, the first portion located closer to the antenna than the second portion, wherein the first plurality of ventilation holes comprises a plurality of positive cross pattern ventilation holes and a plurality of negative cross pattern ventilation holes.”
Claims 30-38 depend, either directly or indirectly, on claim 29 and are therefore allowable for at least the reasons stated above.
CLOSEST PRIOR ART
U.S. Pub. No. 2017/0212554 A1 (hereinafter “Guterman”) discloses an apparatus (electronic device 10), comprising: an antenna (antenna 40); and a chassis (housing 12B) comprising a chassis side (rear edge of housing 12B described in paragraphs 0049-0050 and shown in Fig. 5), the chassis side comprising a first portion (ventilation port 134-1) comprising a first plurality of ventilation holes (first array of openings 132) and a second portion (ventilation port 134-2 and/or ventilation port 134-3) comprising a second plurality of ventilation holes (second and/or third array of openings 132; see paragraph 0051 and Fig. 5), the first plurality of ventilation holes having a first thickness (some thickness is inherent), the second plurality of ventilation holes having a second thickness (some thickness is inherent), the antenna (40) located on an external surface of the chassis side (see Figs. 9 and 11).
U.S. Pub. No. 2014/0140001 A1 (hereinafter “Gerken”) discloses a chassis (electronic system enclosure 308) comprising a chassis side (EMI shield 314), the chassis side comprising a first portion (bottom portion of EMI shield 314 as shown in Fig. 3) comprising a first plurality of ventilation holes (air ventilation channels 304) and a second portion (top portion of EMI shield 314 as shown in Fig. 3) comprising a second plurality of ventilation holes (air ventilation channels 301), the first plurality of ventilation holes (304) having a first thickness (thickness 318), the second plurality of ventilation holes (301) having a second thickness (thickness 310), the first thickness greater than the second thickness (see Fig. 3). Gerken also suggests a reason why it would be beneficial to position an antenna closer to a portion of a chassis having thicker ventilation holes (see paragraphs 0019-0023 discussing the conflict between electronic system cooling and EMI shielding, particularly how increasing the number of airflow apertures and/or increasing the cross-sectional areas of airflow apertures can be advantageous for cooling but can adversely affect EMI shielding; in paragraph 0023, Gerken discloses that EMI shielding is known to be enhanced by increasing the depth, or thickness, of airflow apertures, thus one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that a device susceptible to EM noise should be placed near apertures having the greatest thickness).
Neither Guterman nor Gerken teach or adequately suggest the ventilation bracket structure as recited in claim 1 or the positive and negative cross pattern ventilation hole structure as recited in claim 29.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 ROSS TERRY MULARSKI whose telephone number is (571)272-0284. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Imani Hayman can be reached at (571)270-5528. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/R.T.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2841 /IMANI N HAYMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2841
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