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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II in the reply filed on 1/21/2026 is acknowledged.
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(s) 11-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20100183294 to Villarruel et al.
Villarruel discloses in the abstract and figures 7 and 10, a receiver (252) comprising:
an optical de-multiplexer (262), configured to receive from a transmitter (10; figure 1 and paragraph 68), over an optical fiber (link 264), a combined beam that combines at least three modulated Tx light beams produced by at least three respective laser sources at different carrier frequencies, and to split the combined beam into at least three Rx light beams corresponding respectively to the modulated Tx light beams (via transmitter control system described in paragraphs 68-69);
a module, configured to convert the Rx light beams into corresponding Rx digital signals (254, 256; figure 9); and
a processor (106), configured to recover a data stream from each Rx digital signal while detecting interference in the Rx digital signal due to Four-Wave Mixing (FWM; paragraph 2) in the optical fiber, and to send to the transmitter a notification indicative of the interference for adjusting one or more of the carrier frequencies in order to mitigate the interference due to FWM (figure 10).
It is noted that no specifics are recited as to how the processor is configured to process and alter the digital signals. The prior art certainly is configured to process and alter signals as shown in Figure 10.
As to claim 12, interference is detected and accounted for (paragraph 48).
As to claim 13, an attribute is noted and an adjustment is made (boxes 310, 312 and 314; figure 10).
Claims 14-15 relate to detecting and processing pre-determined signals.
Claims 17-22 are method claims that recite the basic steps of providing and using the above structure. Since the structure has been disclosed, the general use of such is also anticipated.
However, Villaruel does not disclose certain terms such as “Front End Modules”, “Zero-dispersion f0” frequency (claim 11), and a Feed-Forward Equalizer (claim 16). It is noted that no specific structure is claimed as to how the associated functions for each of those terms are to be enabled.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to recognize that although these specific terms are not explicitly mentioned in the prior art, Villaruel discloses a processor configured to optimize signals at specific wavelengths using FWM and performs the same or similar functions as currently claimed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2008/0298805 (abstract and paragraph 23 for zero dispersion shifting).
US 2014/0050480 (FWM effects and mitigation).
EP 2033349 (FWM and zero dispersion wavelength bands).
EP 4336749 (Reduction of FWM).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Eric K Wong whose telephone number is (571)272-2363. The examiner can normally be reached M-Tu, Th-F 8A-6P.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hollweg can be reached on 571-270-1739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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ERIC K. WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2874
/Eric Wong/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874