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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Species A (Claims 1-15 and 20) in the reply filed on 27 January 2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that the restriction has not established that there would be a serious burden. This is not found persuasive because as stated in the requirement for restriction the searches directed to virtual beacons and physical beacons are not the same as they cover two different domains. Searching for virtual beacon does not require the search for a physical RF beacon and a search for a physical RF beacon does not result in the same art required for a virtual beacon as they are distinctly different beacon types and domains. As Applicant has admitted the application claims two independent or distinct inventions and that would require a different search strategy as prior art for one is not inherently prior art for the other.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Information Disclosure Statement
This office acknowledges receipt of the following item(s) from the applicant:
Information Disclosure Statement(s) (IDS) filed on 04 January 2023. The references have been considered.
Claim Objections
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 11 has an extra comma between terahertz and visible. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Referring to Claim 6, it is not clear how the “measuring a distance” can be both dynamic and on a pre-determined timing schedule at the same time. Dynamically measuring a distance means to continuously measuring the distance. As the claim is written is not clear if the dynamic measuring is only done for a pre-determined timing schedule, as in the ranging started and stopped in pre-determined periods and during those periods dynamic measurements are made or if the method requires continuous measuring as claimed in claim 1 to operate as intended. Correction/clarification is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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) 1-3, 5, 7, 9-12 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Crouch (US PGPub 2013/0002472) in view of El-Sallabi et al. (El-Sallabi, US PGPub 2020/0302641).
Referring to Claim 1, Crouch teaches receiving a virtual beacon (Fig. 1 #22; [0032]) scattered from the target (Fig. 1 #20; [0032]), the scattered virtual beacon including an RF pilot signal imposed thereon, by each element; extracting the RF pilot signal from the received scattered virtual beacon ([0034]), by each element; calculating a phase utilizing the measured distance to the area of the target and a frequency of the extracted RF pilot signal ([0034]), by each element; phase conjugating the RF pilot signal based on the calculated phase ([0034]), by each element; and transmitting the phase conjugated RF signal towards the target, by each element ([0034]), wherein the phase conjugated RF signals transmitted by the plurality of moving elements add coherently ([0034]) at the area of virtual beacon illumination on the target to enhance power density on the target, but does not explicitly disclose nor limit by each element; dynamically measuring a distance to an area of virtual beacon illumination on the target.
Crouch teaches in [0018] that the weapon may be fixed or moving, implicitly teaching the need for dynamic measuring a distance to an area of virtual beacon illumination. However, El-Sallabi teaches dynamically measuring a distance to the target; [0032] and [0067].
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Crouch with the dynamic measuring as taught by El-Sallabi so as to predictably allows for continuous tracking/monitoring movement of the target and updating location.
Referring to Claim 2, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches generating a reference signal in a form of a local oscillator (LO) with a frequency and phase common to all the elements; [0038] of Crouch.
Referring to Claim 3, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches wherein the virtual beacon is generated remotely and transmitted from a manned or unmanned aircraft, a manned or unmanned ground vehicle, a manned or unmanned surface vessel, an array element, or dismounted ground personnel; [0018] of Crouch.
Referring to Claim 5, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches determining a velocity of each element relative to the target and utilizing a respective measured distance and determined velocity to calculate the phase, by each respective element; implicitly disclosed in [0049] of Crouch.
Referring to Claim 7, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches wherein the phase conjugated RF signal is pulsed or continuous; [0017] and [0041] of Crouch.
Referring to Claim 9, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches wherein the virtual beacon is a high frequency virtual beacon; [0062] of Crouch.
Referring to Claim 10, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches wherein the virtual beacon is an infrared signal; [0056] and [0062] of Crouch.
Referring to Claim 11, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches wherein the virtual beacon is one of millimeter wave, terahertz, , visible, and ultraviolet; [0062] of Crouch.
Referring to Claim 12, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches wherein the RF pilot signal is amplitude modulated in the virtual beacon; [0042] of Crouch.
Referring to Claim 20, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches means for receiving a virtual beacon scattered from the target by each element, the scattered virtual beacon including an RF pilot signal imposed thereon; means for extracting the RF pilot signal from the received scattered virtual beacon, by each element; means for dynamically measuring a distance to an area of virtual beacon illumination on the target, by each element; means for calculating a phase utilizing the measured distance to the area of the target and a frequency of the extracted RF pilot signal, by each element; means for phase conjugating the RF pilot signal based on the calculated phase, by each element; and means for transmitting the phase conjugated RF signal towards the target, by each element, wherein the phase conjugated RF signals transmitted by the plurality of moving elements add coherently at the area of virtual beacon illumination on the target to enhance power density on the target; see the citations of Claim 1 as this claim is the system claim that is equivalent to the method of Claim 1.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi in view of Nakada et al. (Nakada, US PGPub 2024/0264307).
Referring to Claim 13, Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi teaches dynamically measuring a distance to an area of virtual beacon illumination on the target, but does not explicitly disclose nor limit it is performed by a range measurement circuit driven by a clock.
Crouch and El-Sallabi both implicitly teaches a clock as the both teach either time dependent measuring or time stamps. However, Nakada teaches a range measurement circuit driven by a clock; [0029].
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Crouch as modified by El-Sallabi with the clock operation as taught by Nakada to allow for clock synchronization to predictably increase accuracy and resolution of the distance measurements.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 8, 14 and 15 are 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WHITNEY T MOORE whose telephone number is (571)270-3338. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday from 7am-4pm.
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/WHITNEY MOORE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3646