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 .
Claims 1-19 are pending.
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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tomita (US 2018/0188456).1 Regarding claim 1, Tomita teaches an optical amplification system comprising: a polarization beam splitter (PBS) (paragraph 0044: PBS 32); an optical circulator connected to an input fiber, the PBS, and an output fiber (paragraph 0051); a 90-degree twisted polarization maintaining waveguide coupled to the polarization beam splitter (paragraph 0044); and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) having two facets of input/outputs, wherein a first facet of the two facets of input/outputs is coupled to the polarization beam splitter and a second facet of the two facets of input/outputs is coupled to the 90-degree twisted waveguide (paragraph 0032). Regarding claim 2, Tomita teaches the 90-degree twisted polarization-maintaining waveguide is a polarization-maintaining optical fiber (paragraph 0037).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-19 are allowed.
Claims 3-10 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 MATTHEW MIKELS whose telephone number is (571)270-5470. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Thursday 7:00 AM ET - 4:30 PM ET, Friday 7:00 AM ET - 11:00 AM ET, the Examiner is on central time.2
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael G Lee can be reached at 571-272-2398. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW MIKELS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
1 In addition to the cited paragraphs, please see also the associated figures.
2 The Examiner can also be reached at matthew.mikels@uspto.gov.