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 .
This Office Action is responsive to the Applicants' Request for Continued Examination (RCE) filed on 6/8/26 and amendment concurrently filed therewith. In virtue of this amendment, claims 7 and 19 are canceled; thus, claims 1-6, 8-18 and 20 are now presented in the instant application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(1) as being anticipated by Areher et al (US Pub. No: 2022/0095431).
With respect to claim 1, Areher et al in figures 1-2, disclose comprising: a light emitting diode (LED) driver circuit(60) having an LED drive terminal(Vgate), a power terminal(input of DC-DC converter(50)), a control input(70), and a control output(Iout or voltage output of the converter(50))), the LED driver circuit (60)configurable to: receive a first signal at the control input(70,100), the first signal indicative of a brightness level at the control input(70,100); responsive to the brightness level, a first voltage at the power terminal(input of terminal of the DC-DC converter(50)), and a second voltage (voltage of output of the converter(50) or VIN(load))) at the LED drive terminal(Vgate), provide a second signal at the control output, the second signal indicative of whether to adjust or maintain the first voltage. Paragraphs [30-56].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8 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.
Claims 9-20 are allowed.
Citation of pertinent prior art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicants' disclosure. See prior arts/references listed on the PTO-892 form attached.
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Minh Tran whose telephone number is (571)272-1817. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Taningco Alexander H can be reached on 571-272-8048. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Minh Tran/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2845
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