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 .
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(s) 1, 12-14, 25 and 26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Korn (US 6407376).
Regarding claim 1, Korn teaches a system for processing optical signals, the system comprising: an optical channel monitor (OCM) processing block configured for optical channel monitoring (Fig. 1), the processing block comprising: a wavelength reference (WLREF) circuit configured to generate a wavelength reference (WLREF) signal for use in wavelength calibration for optical channel monitoring (Fig. 1, wavelength reference circuit 110); an optical channel monitor (OCM) circuit configured for monitoring WDM channels, the monitoring comprising measuring one or more characteristics associated with WDM signals communicated via the WDM channels (Fig. 1, OCM circuit 122+124+126; Col. 3, lines 56-65); and a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) combiner circuit configured to generate a combined signal based on combining of a first combining input signal and a second combining input signal (Fig. 1, wavelength combiner circuit where 14 and 111 meet); wherein the first combining input signal comprises an input WDM signal (Fig. 1, WDM signal 14); wherein the second combining input signal comprises the WLREF signal or a signal generated based on the WLREF signal (Fig. 1, WLREF signal from 110); and wherein the OCM circuit is configured to apply the monitoring to the combined signal (Fig. 1, combined signal 16).
Regarding claim 12, Korn teaches the system according to claim 1, wherein the WDM combiner circuit comprises one or more filters configured to apply filtering to one or both of the first combining input signal and the second combining input signal when generating the combined signal (Fig. 1, tunable filter 150; Col. 3, lines 45-55).
Regarding claim 13, Korn teaches the system according to claim 12, wherein the one or more filters comprise an optical bandpass filter (Fig. 1, tunable filter 150; Col. 3, lines 45-55).
Regarding claim 14, Korn teaches a method for optical channel monitoring, the method comprising: generating a wavelength reference (WLREF) signal for use in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) measurement (Fig. 1, wavelength reference circuit 110); applying optical channel monitoring of WDM channels, the optical channel monitoring comprising measuring one or more characteristics associated with WDM signals communicated via the WDM channels (Fig. 1, OCM circuit 122+124+126; Col. 3, lines 56-65); and generating a combined signal based on combining of a first combining input signal and a second combining input signal (Fig. 1, wavelength combiner circuit where 14 and 111 meet); wherein: the first combining input signal comprises an input WDM signal (Fig. 1, WDM signal 14); the second combining input signal comprises the WLREF signal or a signal generated based on the WLREF signal (Fig. 1, WLREF signal from 110); and the optical channel monitoring is applied to the combined signal (Fig. 1, combined signal 16).
Regarding claim 25, Korn teaches the method according to claim 14, wherein generating the combined signal comprises applying one or more filtering functions (Fig. 1, tunable filter 150; Col. 3, lines 45-55).
Regarding claim 26, Korn teaches the method according to claim 25, wherein the one or more filtering functions comprise optical bandpass filtering Fig. 1, tunable filter 150; Col. 3, lines 45-55).
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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 3 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Korn (US 6407376) in view of Takita (US 2007/0196107).
Regarding claim 3, Korn teaches the system according to claim 1.
Korn doesn’t teach wherein the optical channel monitor (OCM) processing block further comprises an optical splitter circuit configured to split a splitting input signal to a plurality of splitting output signals via a corresponding plurality of split ports, and wherein the splitting input signal comprises the WLREF signal.
Takita teaches an optical splitter circuit configured to split a splitting input signal to a plurality of splitting output signals via a corresponding plurality of split ports, and wherein the splitting input signal comprises the WLREF signal (Fig. 6 shows reference light source 1111 that outputs split reference lights to different output port).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the OCM block taught by Korn and incorporate the outputting of multiple WLREF signals as taught by Takita in order to provide various reference signals for different purposes like further detection and analysis.
Regarding claim 16, Korn teaches the method according to claim 14.
Korn doesn’t teach further comprising applying splitting to a splitting input signal, and outputting a plurality of splitting output signals, wherein the splitting input signal comprises the WLREF signal.
Takita teaches applying splitting to a splitting input signal, and outputting a plurality of splitting output signals, wherein the splitting input signal comprises the WLREF signal. (Fig. 6 shows reference light source 1111 that outputs split reference lights to different output port).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the OCM block taught by Korn and incorporate the outputting of multiple WLREF signals as taught by Takita in order to provide various reference signals for different purposes like further detection and analysis.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4-11 dependent on claim 1 and claims 15 and 17-24 dependent on claim 14 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See the notice of reference cited (PTO-892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PRANESH K BARUA whose telephone number is (571)270-1017. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Sat: 11-8pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Payne can be reached on 5712723024. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PRANESH K BARUA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635