DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Claims 10-28 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 10/6/2025.
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) 1-7 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0043218 to Borrelli et al. in view of US 2019/0346648 to Pausan et al.
Borrelli discloses a ferrule assembly comprising:
A ferrule having a front and rear end (paragraph 31) and a bore (figure 3), wherein at least a portion of the bore comprises a micro-bore (figure 6), and
A fiber (120) with an annular gap (113) between the fiber surface and the bore surface and a protrusion (105);
Wherein a protrusion extends through the gap and contacts the bore area (109; figure 6).
As to claim 7, Borrelli discloses a gap distance of 1um to 10um. Applicant’s claimed range is between 0.1um to 0.8um. The 0.8um upper bound is substantially close to the claim.
As to claim 9, the ferrule is housed within a housing and connector body (figure 1)
However, Borrelli discloses that these protrusions extend from a bore surface and not an optical fiber surface.
Pausan discloses a fiber with protrusions extending from a fiber jacket surface to relieve frictional forces (paragraph 17). It is noted that Pausan also discloses in the prior art figures, protrusions in the bore.
As to claims 3-4, the protrusions are at least in multiple, opposing 90 degree locations (figure 6).
As to claims 5-6, Examiner assumes this claim recitation to mean there is a protrusion long the optical axis that is “outside” of the micro-bore or ferrule. Pausan discloses extending of the fiber beyond an end face in figure 3.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to reverse the orientation of the protrusions, size and place them on the fiber as taught by Pausan in Borrelli to reduce friction and since it has been held that a mere reversal of essential working parts of a device involves only routine skill in the art. In re Einstein, 8 USPQ 167.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Borrelli in view of Pausan as applied to claims above, and further in view of US 2010/0247048 to Ooizumi et al.
Borrelli in view of Pausan discloses the invention as claimed except for the inner and outer cladding layers with ppm of a hydroxyl concentration in the range claimed.
Ooizumo discloses doping cladding layers with hydroxyl between 10-10,000 ppm (paragraph 82) to attenuate light.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to use multiple cladding layers with the hydroxyl concentrations claimed as taught by Ooizumi in Borrelli in view of Pausan to attenuate light to a desired output.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Eric K Wong whose telephone number is (571)272-2363. The examiner can normally be reached M-Tu, Th-F 8A-6P.
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ERIC K. WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2874
/Eric Wong/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874