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
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keil et. al. in view of Sakurai. (10,025,034)
With regards to claim 1 Keil et. al. teaches a single-fiber bidirectional optical assembly (Fig. 1), comprising: an optical emitter (Fig. 1, LD), an optical receiver (Fig. 1, D), a lens assembly (Fig. 1, KL1), a first filter (Fig. 1. LT), and an optical fiber interface end (Fig. 1, Fk, FE), wherein the optical fiber interface end is used for being connected to an optical fiber (Fig. 1, F), a downlink optical signal emitted by the optical emitter (Fig. 1, LD, wavelength 1) is focused by the lens assembly (Fig. 1, KL1), the focused downlink optical signal is emitted to the optical fiber sequentially through the first filter (Fig. 1. LT), and the optical fiber interface end(Fig. 1, Fk, FE),, and is then transmitted by the optical fiber(Fig. 1, F); wherein an uplink optical signal transmitted by the optical fiber(wavelength 2) is reflected by the first filter(LT) and is then received by the optical receiver(D). Keil et. al. fails to teach and wherein the single-fiber bidirectional optical assembly further comprises at least one optical power attenuator, the optical power attenuator is arranged between the optical emitter and the optical fiber interface end. This is taught by Sakurai (Fig 2A, 2B, 30). Sakurai does not specifically teach that the transmittance of the optical power attenuator varies with a wavelength of an optical signal. However official notice is taken that it is well known in the art that the intensity of light is directly related to its wavelength and this relationship is a key aspect of spectroscopy
With regards to claim 2, neither Keil nor Sakura teach the single-fiber
bidirectional optical assembly according to claim 1, wherein the transmittance of
the optical power attenuator increases as the wavelength of the optical signal
increases. However official notice is taken that it is well known in the art that as
the wavelength of an optical signal increases, the power loss in the fiber
decreases leading to higher transmittance
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-11 are 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.
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/KENNETH N VANDERPUYE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2634