DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed December 03, 2025 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 13-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sarwar et al (U.S. Pub. No. 2024/0259189 A1) in view of Wang et al (U.S. Patent No. 11,360,921 B2) and further in view of Chen et al (U.S. Patent No. 10,193,631 B1)
Regarding claim 13, Sarwar et al teaches an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) for an optical transceiver compliant with at least one 400ZR or 400ZR+ implementation agreement (para [0016]; “A family of multiple long range (ZR) implementation agreements have been developed to define interoperable coherent interfaces for use with long range (e.g., 120 km) point-to-point data links. For example, 400ZR defined by OIF Implementation Agreement (IA) is a 400 Gigabit (400G) coherent interface for use with point-to-point data links up to 120 km, using ZR framing structure, as defined in the IA. Further, the Open ZR+ interoperability agreement relates to a potential range of solutions or operating modes for coherent solutions that may be outside of 400ZR. Open ZR+ is another agreement that focuses on optical specifications capable of flexible 100G-400G line rates and longer optical reaches than 400ZR.”; para [0073]; “…, the computing system 402 may be used in various elements of the above disclosure (e.g., client devices 102, transport devices 104, signal processing modules 112, time stamping module 114, encryption module 116, ZR signal processing module 118, etc.). In some embodiments, the computing system 402 may be used to control operations related to encrypting or decrypting ZR signals. The computing system 402 may include a processor 450, a memory 452, and a data storage 454. The processor 450, the memory 452, and the data storage 454 may be communicatively coupled.”; para [0075]; “…the processor 450 may be configured to interpret and/or execute program instructions and/or process data stored in the memory 452, …”; para [0076]; “The memory 452 and the data storage 454 may include …, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM),…”).
Sarwar et al teaches EEPROM used in 400ZR or 400ZR+ implementation agreement, as discussed above, and differs from the claimed invention in that Sarwar et al does not specifically teach the EEPROM comprising one or more registers being custom registers of page 01h the EEPROM. However, custom register in EEPROM is well known. Wang et al teaches EEPROM comprising one or more registers, wherein the one or more registers being custom registers of page 01h the EEPROM. (col. 4, lines 12-15; “…the customized code-writing information in the EEPROM is stored in the A0 LOW address of the QSFP+SRAM area and the four address spaces of 00h, 01h, 02h and 03h…”). Since it is well known that registers in EEPROM may be customized, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the EEPROM of Sarwar et al, by customizing the register for a specific code, as taught by Wang et al in order to provide flexibility, efficiency, and simplified management for non-volatile data and enabling efficient device configuration and upgrades.
Furthermore, the combination of Sarwar et al as modified by Wang et al does not specifically teach that the one or more registers stores default transmit power. Chen et al teaches optical module comprising EEPROM (col. 7, lines 1-4; “…the control circuit 200 may include at least two memories, i.e., a first non-volatile (NVM) memory 214 and a second random access memory (RAM) 216. The first NVM memory 214 may be a read-only memory, such as a flash memory, an EEPROM memory or the like,…”) which stores default transmit power (col. 8, lines 11-17 ; “…examples of configuration parameters that may be stored in the first NVM memory 214 may include but not limited to the following parameters: …, a transmitting optical power threshold of the optical transmitting unit,…”). As discussed in the combination, since it is well known that registers in EEPROM may be customized, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the EEPROM of the combination, by storing default transmit power value, as taught by Chen et al, in order for the module to operate according to manufacturer design specification.
Regarding claim 14, in view of the above combination, Chen et al teaches the custom registers are in one or more of bytes 191 to 222 of page 01h of the EEPROM (Chen et al: Col. 2, TABLE 1 shows address between 128-247 is allocated for user writable EEPROM).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Sarwar et al, Wang et and Chen et al teaches storing default transmit power and differs from the claimed invention in that the combination does not specifically teach that the default transmit power value is less than a maximum transmit power of the optical transceiver. Since the combination teaches storing transmit power, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to program the EEPROM to store the default transmit power value to any value such as less than a maximum transmit power of the optical transceiver according to manufacturer design choice.
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Sarwar et al, Wang et and Chen et al teaches storing default transmit power and differs from the claimed invention in that the combination does not specifically teach the default transmit power value is less than a high power alarm threshold for a 400ZR optical receiver. Since the combination teaches storing transmit power, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to program the EEPROM to store the default transmit power value is less than a high power alarm threshold for a 400ZR optical receiver according to manufacturer design choice.
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Sarwar et al, Wang et and Chen et al teaches storing default transmit power and differs from the claimed invention in that the combination does not specifically teach the default transmit power value is less than a high power alarm threshold for a 400ZR+ optical receiver. Since the combination teaches storing transmit power, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to program the EEPROM to store the default transmit power value is less than a high power alarm threshold for a 400ZR+ optical receiver according to manufacturer design choice.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see remarks, filed December 03, 2025, with respect to claims 1-12 and 18-20 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claims 1-12 and 18-20 has been withdrawn.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-12 and 18-20 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: see remarks filed December 03, 2025 in regards to claims 1-12 and 18-20.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. White (US Patent No. 10,980,145 B2) is cited to sow hot-pluggable connection for data communication.
Li (US Patent No. 7,274,911 B2) is cited to show system for conforming wireless devices to worldwide regulations.
Aronson et al (US Pub. No. 2017/0163346 A1) is citied to show method of monitoring an optoelectronic transceiver with multiple flag values for a respective operating condition.
Maniloff et al (US Patent No. 12,107,629 B2) is cited to show calibration of optical modules.
Rao et al (US Patent No. 12,438,617 B2) is cited to show determining optical transceiver type.
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DALZID E. SINGH
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2635
/DALZID E SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635