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 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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mueller et al. (hereinafter, “Mueller”, US Pat No. 2012/0243446) and in view of Park et al. (hereinafter, “park”, US Pat No. 2002/0243832).
As per claims 1 and 13, Mueller disclosed a radio frequency front end system (see at least fig. 8) including a ganged filter (see at least fig. 8, ganged filter 600-2) configured to filter a transmit signal on a plurality of transmit bands (see at least fig. 8, bands B1, B3 & B8, 0048-0052 & 0063), the ganged filter including a first transmit filter (see at least fig. 8, filter for B1) and a second transmit filter (see fig. 8, filter for band b3) that are ganged on a ganged side of the ganged filter; a power amplifier (see at least fig. 8, PA 820) configured to amplify the transmit signal, and the power amplifier coupled to the at least the first transmit filter and the second transmit filter on the ganged side of the ganged filter (see fig. 8, PA coupled to ganged filter 600-2); receive circuitry configured to receive signal on a plurality of receive bands (see at least fig. 7, 730, 0048-0052 & 0063); and an antenna switch module (see at least fig. 8, 710) coupled to the ganged filter and an antenna, the antenna switch module having more than one throw connected to the ganged filter (see 0067, adding additional poles (switched ports 715-m) to electromechanical band switch 710), the antenna switch module configured to selectively combine at least one transmit path with at least one receive path according to the plurality of receive bands, the plurality of transmit bands and the plurality of receive bands having no frequency overlap when concurrently active (see 0040 and 0049-0059).
Mueller disclosed that adding additional poles (switched ports 715-m) to electromechanical band switch 710 but does not explicitly teaches that the first transmit filter and the second transmit filter are coupled by separate electrical connections to different throws(poles) of the antenna switch module. However such teaching Parch disclosed such teaching (see fig. 6, transmit band WCDAMA2000 coupled to the fist throw of antenna switch 650 and transmit band WCDAMA1900 coupled to the second throw of antenna switch 650). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention for Mueller to adopt such teaching, as taught by Park, in order to provide a multimode/multiband mobile station that can reduce power consumption.
As per claims 2, 4, 8, 10, 16, and 18, , the improve communication of Mueller and Park does not explicitly disclose that the radio frequency front end system utilized an E-UTRAN New Radio-Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) module. However, such is notoriously well known in the art that the examiner takes Official Notice of such. Therefore, it would been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the at the time of invention for Mueller to utilize such a Non Standalone feature, well-known, in order to make it possible for mobile devices to access both 5G and 4G LTE networks at the same time, which allows carriers to tap into the benefits of both network technologies simultaneously.
As per claims 3, 9, and 17, the improve communication of Mueller and Park further disclosed the plurality of transmit bands have no frequency overlap when concurrently active (see at least fig. 6A, 0049-0050 and 0072).
As per claims 5,11, and 20, the improve communication of Mueller and Park further disclosed the radio frequency front end system has no band select switch (see at least fig. 7, 720, 0048, it is clear that no switch is needed to selected the desired band) coupled between an output of the amplifier and the ganged filter.
As per claims 6, 12, and 19, the improve communication of Mueller and Park further disclosed the radio frequency front end system is a multi-input and multi-output module (see fig. 7-12).
As per claim 7, as rejected above in claim 1, a transceiver; and a radio frequency front end module coupled to the transceiver (see fig. 7-12).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1, 7, and 13 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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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July 30, 2026
/PABLO N TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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