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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 4-14, 26-38 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Regarding independent claim 9, applicant asserts that: “Claim 9 has been rewritten into independent form incorporating the features of original claim 1 and intervening claim 8, from which claim 9 formerly depended. Claim 9 (amended) is therefore allowable. Claims 10-12 depend from claim 9 and is allowable because claim 9 is allowable.”
The examiner, however, disagrees.
Claim 9 has not been rewritten into independent form incorporating the features of original claim 1 and intervening claim 8, from which claim 9 formerly depended. Intervening claims 2 and 3, from which claim 9 formerly depended, have not been incorporated into amended claim 9. Therefore, amended claim 9 is not allowable.
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (US 2025/0158571) in view of Xue (US 2017/0026009).
As to claim 9, Huang discloses circuitry (see at least figure 3 below) comprising: a first amplifier 340; differential coupled lines having a first pair of coupled lines connected to a first output terminal of the first amplifier 340, and a second pair of coupled lines connected to a second output terminal of the first amplifier 340. See paragraph [0039] which discloses “Features of the cascading wideband coupler balun structure 300 may include using a smaller electrical length for each set of coupled line couplers to reduce footprint of the overall structure”.
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Huang fails to disclose a second amplifier configured to receive a signal via the differential coupled lines, wherein the second amplifier includes a first input terminal coupled to a second end of the second conductive path; and a second input terminal coupled to a second end of the fourth conductive path. Xue discloses a second amplifier 104 (see figure 1) configured to receive a signal via differential coupled lines 108 (see paragraph [0037]), wherein the second amplifier 104 includes a first input terminal coupled to a second end of a second conductive path; and a second input terminal coupled to a second end of a fourth conductive path (see figure 1). Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Xue to Huang, in order to yield predictable results of a multi-stage power amplifier such as achieving high gain and impedance matching flexibility.
Claims 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (US 2025/0158571) in view of Xue (US 2017/0026009) as applied to claim 9 above, and further in view of Mei (US 2014/0253246).
As to claim 10, the combination of Huang and Xue fails to disclose a first differential transmission line coupled between the first amplifier and the differential coupled lines; and a second differential transmission line coupled between the differential coupled lines and the second amplifier. Mei discloses a first differential transmission line 5 (see figure 7) coupled between an amplifier 3 and differential coupled lines. Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide the above teaching of Mei to the differential coupled lines in the combination of Huang and Xue, in order to yield predictable results such as improving dynamic range of the matching impedance.
As to claim 11, it is rejected for similar reasons with respect to claim 10 as set forth above.
As to claim 12, Huang discloses the combination of Huang and Xue discloses that the differential coupled lines are configured to provide impedance matching between the first and second amplifiers (see Huang, paragraphs [0037], [0038]; Xue, paragraph [0030]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 4-8, 13-14, 26-38 are allowed.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NGUYEN THANH VO whose telephone number is (571)272-7901. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Anderson can be reached at (571) 272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NGUYEN T VO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646