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 Id (i.e., claims 1, 5-8) in the reply filed on 2/24/26 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sherrer et al. (US 20030034438; “Sherrer”) with obviousness evidenced by {OEB} Ghiasi (US 10866376).
Regarding claim 1, Sherrer teaches an optical fiber transmission device (e.g., fig. 3; ¶ 0055, as a non-limiting example, VCSEL array), comprising: a substrate; an optoelectronic {OE} device 36 disposed on an area of the substrate 26 (e.g., fig. 3), wherein the substrate 26 has a protruding structure (e.g., fig. 3; see the protruding structure rising from the horizontal surface that OE device 36 rests upon in fig. 3) at an interface with an edge of the OE device 36 (e.g., fig. 3; the top edge of the OE device 36 interfaces with the optical fibers 24 of the fiber array for the transmission of light to the fibers; ¶s 0055, 0060); and an optical fiber assembly 20 comprising an optical fiber 24 and a ferrule (e.g., fig. 2: the fibers are in a V-groove array which is a ferrule) that sleeves the optical fiber 24 (e.g., fig. 2), wherein the protruding structure (e.g., fig. 3; see the protruding structure rising from the horizontal surface that OE device 36 rests upon in fig. 3) of the substrate 26 is configured to abut against the ferrule (e.g., fig. 3: the V-groove fiber array ferrule 20 has a bottom surface that abuts the top surface/protrusions of the substrate 26 as shown in fig. 3) to limit a position of the optical fiber assembly 20 in a vertical direction of the substrate 26 (e.g., fig. 3), such that the protruding structure (e.g., fig. 3; see the protruding structure rising from the horizontal surface that OE device 36 rests upon in fig. 3) is a stopper for the optical fiber assembly 20 in the vertical direction (e.g., fig. 3).
Sherrer does not explicitly state “photonic integrated circuit”.
However, it was well-known to substitute a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) for an OE device at least as evidenced by Ghiasi (e.g., Ghiasi col. 4, lines 24-25: “…inserting or replacing an optoelectronic device or photonic integrated circuit (PIC)…”; see also: MPEP §2144.06 Art Recognized Equivalence for the Same Purpose [R-6 >I. < COMBINING EQUIVALENTS KNOWN FOR THE SAME PURPOSE, II. < SUBSTITUTING EQUIVALENTS KNOWN FOR THE SAME PURPOSE and/or MPEP §2144.07 Art Recognized Suitability for an Intended Purpose). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) for an OE device at least for the purpose of providing a means for coupling a PIC to optical fibers.
Thus claim 1 is rejected.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8 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.
The prior art, either alone or in combination, does not disclose or render obvious a fixing member sleeving the optical fiber assembly, wherein the optical fiber assembly is optically coupled with the photonic integrated circuit in an extending direction of the optical fiber assembly, and the extending direction forms an acute angle with a horizontal plane of the photonic integrated circuit in combination with the rest of claim 5.
It is noted that claim is allowable because the unique combination of each and every specific element stated in the claim.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mr. Michael Mooney whose telephone number is 571-272-2422. The examiner can normally be reached during weekdays, M-F.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Uyen-Chau Le can be reached on 571-272-2397. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL P MOONEY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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