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 without traverse of Group II and Group III in the reply filed on 11/24/25 is acknowledged.
Claims 17-36 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group II & III, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 11/24/25.
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 13 recites the limitation "the second port”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zurek et al. (hereinafter “Zurek”, US Pat No. 11,916,522).
As per claim 1, Zurek disclosed a wide-band radio frequency (RF) amplifier (see fig. 1, multi-band amplifier 100) using cross-over diplexers (see fig. 1, diplexer 102) comprising a first port (see fig. 1, 110) configured to receive a wide-band RF spectrum (see at least abstract) that includes RF signals (see fig. 1, RFin) within the wide-band RF spectrum a cross-over diplexer splitter (see at least abstract, a wideband amplifier includes a first diplexer receiving broadband input signals and divides them by frequency into a low band input signal and a high band input signal) coupled to the first port, wherein the cross-over diplexer splitter is configured to filter (see fig. 1, filter B1 & B2) the wide-band RF spectrum into a low frequency (LF) pass-band (see fig. 1, lower-band B1) with the RF signals including an LF signal within the LF pass-band and a high frequency (HF) pass-band (see fig. 1, upper-band B2) with the RF signals including an HF signal within the HF pass-band, with the LF pass-band crossing the HF pass-band at a cross-over frequency (see cut-off frequency at 3 decibels, col. 5/ln. 45-55 and claim 15); an HF RF amplifier (see fig. 1, 106) configured to amplify the HF signal within an HF amplification pass-band to form an amplified HF signal; an LF RF amplifier (see fig. 1, 104) configured to amplify the LF signal within an LF amplification pass-band to form an amplified LF signal; wherein the HF amplification pass-band includes at least a portion of the LF pass-band that is beyond the cross-over frequency (see col. 13/ln. 62-col. 14/ln. 1 and claims 1 & 10 and the LF amplification pass-band includes at least a portion of the HF pass-band that is beyond the cross-over frequency (see col. 13/ln. 62-col. 14/ln. 1 and claims 1 & 10); and a cross-over diplexer combiner (see fig. 1, diplexer 108) configured to combine the amplified HF signal and the amplified LF signal and output amplified RF signals in a wide-band RF spectrum .
As per claim 2. Zurek disclosed the cross-over diplexer splitter is configured to filter the wide-band RF spectrum such that the LF signal and the RF signal each have a loss of approximately 3 decibels (dB) at the cross-over frequency relative to a signal power of the LF signal and the HF signal in the wide-band RF spectrum at an input of the cross-over diplexer splitter (see cut-off frequency at 3 decibels, col. 5/ln. 45-55 and claim 15).
As per claim 6, Zurek disclosed a bandwidth of the wide-band RF spectrum is greater than one octave (see col. 1/ln 40-43).
As per claim 7, Zurek disclosed a harmonic of the amplified LF signal is attenuated since the harmonic has a frequency that is greater than the cross-over frequency to enable the cross-over diplexer combiner to filter the harmonic with one of a low pass filter and a band pass filter (see col. 3/ln. 17-25 and col.14/ln. 32-col. 15/ln. 3).
As per claim 8, Zurek disclosed a difference signal of the amplified HF signal and the amplified LF signal has a frequency that is less than the cross-over frequency to enable the cross-over diplexer combiner to filter the harmonic with one of a high pass filter and a band pass filter (see col. 3/ln. 17-25 and col.14/ln. 32-col. 15/ln. 3).
As per claim 9, Zurek disclosed the cross-over diplexer splitter and the cross-over diplexer combiner are configured to split the wide-band RF spectrum into contiguous sub-bands to amplify the HF signal and the LF signal within a selected bandwidth of the wide-band RF spectrum without guard bands (see col. 11/ln. 7-22 and col. 10/ln. 18-39, there are no unused frequency band between adjacent divided bands).
As per claim 10, Zurek disclosed the HF signal and the LF signal are amplitude and phase balanced at the cross-over frequency (see col. 13/ln. 5-14 and col. 13/ln. 62-col. 14/ln. 17).
As per claim 11, Zurek disclosed the wide-band RF amplifier is configured to amplify the HF signal and the LF signal without an attenuation guard band at the cross-over frequency (see col. 11/ln. 7-22, col. 10/ln. 18-39, and col. 13/ln. 15-22, there are no unused frequency band between adjacent divided bands).
As per claim 12, Zurek disclosed the HF pass-band and the LF pass-band are contiguous with no guard band between the HF pass-band and the LF pass-band (see col. 11/ln. 7-22, col. 10/ln. 18-39, and col. 13/ln. 15-22, there are no unused frequency band between adjacent divided bands).
As per claim 13, Zurek disclosed the second port is configured to be coupled to and communicate the RF signals in the amplified RF wide-band spectrum to one or more of a radio frequency repeater, a distributed antenna system, or one or more antennas (inherently).
As per claim 14, Zurek disclosed the second port (see fig. 1, RF out 12) is configured to be coupled to one or more of a wide-band optical distributed antenna system (inherently) or a bidirectional amplifier that is configured to be communicatively coupled to an output of the diplexer combiner and receive the amplified RF wide-band spectrum with the reduced second harmonic distortion to enable the RF signals within the amplified RF wide-band spectrum to be amplified by or used by the wide-band optical distributed antenna system or the bidirectional amplifier with reduced harmonic distortion.
As per claim 15, Zurek disclosed the wide-band RF amplifier is configured as a power amplifier (see fig. 1, PA1 104 and PA2 106) for amplification of the wide-band RF input spectrum for transmission at an antenna.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zurek and in view of Petrovic et al. (hereinafter “Petrovic”, US Pat No. 2015/0304596).
As per claim 16, Zurek disclosed the wide-band RF amplifier (see col. 1/ln. 40-46, PA and bi-directional amplifier LMBA) but not explicitly low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received wide-band RF spectrum. However, in the same field of endeavor, Petrovic discloses such wide-band radio frequency amplifier using cross-over diplexers/combiners (see fig. 6 and fig. 8). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art for to utilize such teaching, as taught by Petrovic, in order to maintaining linearity for multiple, simultaneous (concurrent), transmission signals.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 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 Pablo Tran whose telephone number is (571)272-7898. The examiner normal hours are 9:30 -5:00 (Monday-Friday). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Jinsong Hu, can be reached at (571)272-3965. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)273-8300.
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March 7, 2026
/PABLO N TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643