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 .
Claim Objections
Claim 3 is objected to because of the following informalities: “the other end” in line 6 should read “an other end”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities: “two power first terminals” in line 8 should read “two first power terminals”. Appropriate correction is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 is 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. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to disclose or render obvious the photoelectric module comprising, among other things, wherein an insulated substrate is disposed on the front end of the housing, the at least two first power terminals are telescopically disposed inside the insulated substrate, one end of each of the at least two first power terminals passes through the insulated substrate and protrudes from the housing, and another end of the first power terminal passes through the insulated substrate and is connected to the flexible circuit board in the housing.
The closest relevant prior art of record, Kuang et al. (U.S. PG Pub. # 2013/0034994 A1), teaches just insulated substrate (10 and insulator of 20 of each 20) and power terminals (23 and 24), but fails to teach or suggest at least another insulated substrate as claimed. Thus, with no teaching from the prior art, and without the benefit of applicant's teachings, there is no motivation for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine/modify the prior art of record in a manner so as to create the claimed invention.
Claims 11 and 12 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to disclose or render obvious a cage or electronic device comprising, among other things, a photoelectric module and a flexible circuit board as claimed. The closest relevant prior art of record, Kuang et al. (U.S. PG Pub. # 2013/0034994 A1), teaches electrical connections (par. 0023) and circuit boards (62 and 64), but fails to teach or suggest a photoelectric module or a flexible circuit board as claimed. Thus, with no teaching from the prior art, and without the benefit of applicant's teachings, there is no motivation for one of ordinary skill in the art to combine/modify the prior art of record in a manner so as to create the claimed invention.
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)(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 – 3, 5 – 7, 9 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kuang et al. (U.S. PG Pub. # 2013/0034994 A1).
In Re claims 1 and 7, ‘994 teaches a photoelectric module, comprising: a housing (72); a circuit board (62 or 64) disposed in the housing, wherein an electrical signal terminal (one of the array of rectangular contacts seen in fig. 10, par. 0023) is disposed on the circuit board, and the electrical signal terminal is configured to be plugged and connected to the an electrical signal slot (one of recessed of 120 or 140, where 21 and 22 or 23 and 24 reside, respectfully) of the an electrical connection socket (par. 0023), comprising an insulated substrate (10 and insulator of each of 20), wherein the insulated substrate has an upper surface (top), a lower surface (bottom), and a side surface (side) adapted to match with a to-be-plugged in module (600), the insulated substrate comprises at least one plug portion, and each of the at least one plug portion comprises an electrical connection area (140) adapted to connect to a power terminal of the to-be-plugged module and a signal connection area (120) adapted to connect to a signal terminal of the to-be-plugged module (figs. 1, 7, 9, par. 0015);
at least two power terminals (23 and 24) are disposed in the electrical connection area, one end of each of the at least two power terminals is disposed in the insulated substrate (fig. 2), the other end of the power terminal extends to the lower surface of the insulated substrate through the insulated substrate (fig. 2), each of the at least two power terminals has a connection section (portion external to 26, fig. 3) adapted to connect to the power terminal of the to-be-plugged module, and a connection port (opening of 140 or an individual opening of a rib of 140 that receives 23 or 24, fig. 1) of the connection section is located on the side surface of the insulated substrate; and
the signal connection area (120) is provided with an electrical signal slot (opening of 120 or any of the rib areas of 120 that receive 21 or 22), an opening of the electrical signal slot is located on the side surface of the insulated substrate, the electrical signal slot exceeds extends beyond the connection section (fig. 1), and along a direction perpendicular to the lower surface (fig. 1), the electrical signal slot and the connection section are of different heights (fig. 1); and at least two second power terminals (other electrical rectangular tabs on 62 and 64), wherein the at least two second power terminals are insulated from the housing (through boards 62 or 64), one end of the at least two second power terminals protrudes from a front end of the housing (fig. 12), another end of the second power terminal is connected to a circuit board (62 or 64 as both end are on the circuit board) in the housing, and the at least two second power terminals are electrically connected to at least two first power terminals (par. 0023) of the electrical connection socket in a one-to-one correspondence, to couple a power supply voltage to an electronic device (any voltage is a supply of power).
In Re claim 2, ‘994 teaches wherein the insulated substrate has a concave portion (a recess of the plurality of recesses in 140 that receives one of 23) whose opening is located on the side surface, and the connection port of the connection section is located on a bottom of the concave portion (fig. 1).
In Re claim 3, ‘994 teaches wherein the electrical connection socket comprises a first inner surface and a second inner surface that are disposed opposite to each other (top and bottom of at least one recess of 140 where 21 and 22 reside), and along a direction from the upper surface to the lower surface of the insulated substrate, the electrical connection socket further comprises: at least one upper signal pin (22), wherein one end of each of the at least one upper signal pin is located on the first inner surface (fig. 4), and the other end of the upper signal pin extends from an interior of the insulated substrate to the lower surface of the insulated substrate through a metal lead (fig. 3); and at least one lower signal pin (21), wherein one end of each of the at least one lower signal pin is located on the second inner surface (fig. 4), and the other end of the lower signal pin extends from the interior of the insulated substrate to the lower surface of the insulated substrate through the metal lead (fig. 3).
In Re claim 5 ‘994 teaches wherein the electrical connection socket comprises one plug portion (fig. 2), the insulated substrate comprises a first insulated substrate and a second insulated substrate (10 and one of 26 or two of 26), the power terminal is disposed on the first insulated substrate, and the second insulated substrate is provided with the electrical signal slot (fig. 2); and the first insulated substrate and the second insulated substrate are of an integrated structure (fig. 2), or the first insulated substrate and the second insulated substrate are of a split structure (fig. 2).
In Re claim 6, ‘994 teaches wherein the insulated substrate has a central surface (top surface above 120), the central surface is located between the upper surface and the lower surface (in a vertical direction) and is parallel to the lower surface (fig. 2), the insulated substrate comprises two plug portions (any two pair of 23 and 24 and 21 and 22 in respective slots of 120 and 140) that are symmetrically disposed relative to the central surface.
In Re claims 9 and 10, ‘994 teaches wherein the electrical signal terminal is a multi-source agreement, ( MSA), edge connector terminal (par. 0016, 0023); wherein the photoelectric module is a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) module (par. 0023).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuang et al. (U.S. PG Pub. # 2013/0034994 A1).
‘994 teaches the socket of claim 1 and wherein an extension direction of the connection section of the power terminal is parallel to an extension direction of the electrical signal slot (fig. 2), but is silent to along an arrangement direction of the connection section and the electrical signal slot, a distance between the connection section of the power terminal and the upper signal pin is greater than 1.4 mm.
However, it is well known in the art to make terminals to be spaced apart from one another to a degree such that interference between signals is minimized.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the distance between the connection section of the power terminal and the upper signal pin to be greater than 1.4 mm so as to minimize the effect of interference between signals since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or working ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHAD SMITH whose telephone number is (571)270-1294. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30 - 5.
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/CHAD H SMITH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874