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 .
This Office Action is in response to the Applicant’s election-restriction submitted on November 06, 2025. In virtue of this response:
Claim 16 is hereby withdrawn; and thus,
Claims 1-15 and 17-18 are now pending in the instant application.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-15 and 17-18 in the reply filed on 11/06/2025 is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 3/21/2023, 8/12/2024 and 10/21/2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 16 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 16 should be cancelled
Appropriate correction is required.
Note: non-elected claim 16 would need to be cancelled during the next communication in order to advance prosecution of the instant application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Solomon (US 6,252,553).
PNG
media_image1.png
364
495
media_image1.png
Greyscale
With respect to claim 17, Solomon discloses in figures 1C and 5A an antenna comprising: a dielectric (14, e.g., a dielectric cavity); a patch electrode (12, e.g., a radiating patch) which is mounted on the dielectric (see figure 1C); and four feeding terminals (18, e.g., four feed points) which are mounted on the patch electrode (see figure 5A), wherein feeding phases of the four feeding terminals are respectively different by 90 degrees from feeding phases of the other neighboring feeding terminals (figure 5A shows 90 degrees phase different between the feed points 18 thereof), and each of the four feeding terminals is made electrically connected with a substrate-side feeding terminal (17’-18’, e.g., a feeding terminal) that is mounted on a circuit substrate (11, 14, 19, 38, e.g., formed as a circuit substrate) which performs signal processing for a reception signal from the patch electrode (see figure 1C).
PNG
media_image2.png
705
836
media_image2.png
Greyscale
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-15 are allowed.
Claim 18 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Prior art of record fails to disclose or fairly suggest the following limitations:
An antenna comprising: … “wherein substrate-side feeding terminals which are electrically connected respectively with the four feeding terminals in a one-to-one manner, a phase circuit which performs a phase shift for signals output from the substrate-side feeding terminals, a combining circuit which combines signals for which the phase shift is performed by the phase circuit, and an amplifier circuit which amplifies signals combined by the combining circuit are mounted on the circuit substrate”, in combination with the remaining claimed limitations as claimed in independent claim 1 (claims 2-14 would be allowable as being dependent on claim 1).
An information processing apparatus … comprising: … “wherein substrate-side feeding terminals which are electrically connected respectively with the four feeding terminals in a one-to-one manner, a phase circuit which performs a phase shift for signals output from the substrate-side feeding terminals, a combining circuit which combines signals for which the phase shift is performed by the phase circuit, and an amplifier circuit which amplifies signals combined by the combining circuit are mounted on the circuit substrate; and a position information processing circuit which calculates position information of the moving body based on a signal output from the antenna”, in combination with the remaining claimed limitations as claimed in independent claim 15.
An antenna comprising: … “wherein on the patch electrode, four slots are mounted in positions in line symmetry with respect to a symmetry axis, which passes through a center point of the patch electrode, and in point symmetry with respect to the center point”, as claimed in dependent claim 18.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Prior art Thiam et al. – US 7,277,056
Prior art Crouch et al. – US 7,209,080
Prior art Phillips et al. – US 7,084,815
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TUNG X LE whose telephone number is (571)272-6010. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday from 10am to 6pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Regis Betsch can be reached at 571-270-7101. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/TUNG X LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2844 December 19, 2025