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
This Office Action is in response to the Response to Election filed on 12/05/25. Examiner acknowledged that claims 1-16 and 19-20 are pending
Claims 17-18 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected Specie, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 12/05/25.
Claims 13-15 are withdrawn from further consideration as the claim pertains to a switch between the third terminal and the input terminal which is not illustrated by the selected Specie A of Fig. 1A.
Claims 19-20 are also withdrawn from further consideration since the elected specie A (Fig. 1A) does not include a second RF filter comprising a second common circuit.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the second RF filter comprising a second common circuit must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s) 19-20. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5, 8, 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding Claims 5, 8 and 16, it is not clear if applicant is referencing the same shunt resonator in claim 1 or trying to establish a new “second shunt resonator”.
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.
Claim(s) 1-8, 10-12 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sugimoto (US 2019/0036553) in view of Liu (US 2003/0011443).
Regarding Claim 1, Sugimoto teaches a radio frequency (RF) filtering circuit (Fig. 10: 100C; [0039] “duplexer 100A serves the function of separating a transmit signal and a received signal from each other. More specifically, the duplexer 100A includes two filter circuits 10 and 11”), comprising: a common circuit (Fig. 10: 60) connected between a junction between the input terminal (Fig. 10: 20) and the output terminal (Fig. 10: 22, 23), and a common terminal (Fig. 10: 21); a first branch circuit (Fig. 10: 10) electrically connected to the common circuit, the first branch circuit comprising at least one of a second series resonator or a second shunt resonator (Fig. 2: 45); a second branch circuit (Fig. 10: 11) electrically connected to the common circuit, the second branch circuit comprising at least one of a third series resonator or a third shunt resonator (Fig. 19: 86);
Sugimoto does not explicitly teach in Fig. 10 one or more switches being electrically connected to one of the first branch circuit or the second branch circuit, wherein the first branch circuit is different from the second branch circuit. However, Fig. 28 teaches a switch (Fig. 28: 71) connected to a first or second branch. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the invention to combine the teachings of Sugimoto with a switch in order to drive frequence through different filters via the switch in order filter different frequence bands to the appropriate output [0132, 0133].
Sugimoto does not teach a common circuit comprising one or more first series resonators in series between an input terminal and an output terminal, and one or more first shunt resonators each electrically connected between a junction between the input terminal and the output terminal, and a common terminal.
Liu is in the field of frequency matching and filtering (abstract) and teaches a common circuit (Fig. 3a: 300) comprising one or more first series resonators in series (Fig. 3a: 311, 333) between an input terminal and an output terminal, and one or more first shunt resonators (Fig. 3a: 322, 344) each electrically connected between a junction between the input terminal and the output terminal, and a common terminal.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to modify the device of Sugimoto with the common circuit of Liu in order to filter a frequency to send downstream for output since the resonators resonate at a specific frequency and provides a bandstop notch at a predetermined frequency so that impedance presented at the input is not affected by the load at the output port [0022].
Regarding Claim 2, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 1, wherein: in response to the one or more switches being electrically coupled to the first branch circuit, the output terminal outputs a first frequency range; and in response to the one or more switches being electrically coupled to the second branch circuit, the output terminal outputs a second frequency range, the second frequency range being different from the first frequency range ([0132] “The filter circuit 10 (first filter circuit) allows a transmit signal Tx1 (first transmit signal) of a predetermined frequency band to pass therethrough from the transmit terminal 22 (first terminal) to the common terminal 21. The filter circuit 11 (second filter circuit) allows a received signal Rx1 (first received signal) of this frequency band to pass therethrough from the common terminal 21 to the receive terminal 23 (second terminal)”).
Regarding Claim 3, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 2, wherein the first branch circuit and the second branch circuit are each electrically connected to the common circuit at a third terminal (Fig. 10: 21) between the input terminal (Fig. 10: 20) and the output terminal (Fig. 10: 22, 23).
Regarding Claim 4, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 3, wherein: the one or more switches are positioned between the third terminal and the output terminal (Fig. 12: 70 is between a common node (third terminal) and output terminal); and the one or more switches electrically connect the first branch circuit to the output terminal, or electrically connect the second branch circuit to the output terminal.
Regarding Claim 5, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 4, wherein: the first branch circuit comprises two second series resonators (Fig. 2: 44, 41) electrically connected between the output terminal and the third terminal, and one second shunt resonator (Fig. 2: 45) electrically connected between a junction between the two second series resonators and a common inductor (Fig. 2: 32); and the second branch circuit comprises two third series resonators (Fig. 22: 86, 80) electrically connected between the output terminal and the third terminal, and one third shunt resonator (fig. 22: 34) electrically connected between a junction between the two third series resonators and the common inductor.
Regrading Claim 6, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 3, wherein the first branch circuit corresponds to an upper skirt frequency of the first frequency range ([0042] “pass band of the filter circuit 10 is about 880 to 915 MHz”); and the second branch circuit corresponds to an upper skirt frequency of the second frequency range ([0042] “ass band of the filter circuit 11 is about 925 to 960 MHz”), the upper skirt frequencies of the first frequency range and the second frequency range being different from one another.
Regarding Claim 7, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 6, wherein the first frequency range and the second frequency range at least partially overlap with each other ([0058] “changing of the line-length or the line-width of one of or both of the stubs 30 and 31 can adjust the overlapping amount between the stubs 30 and 31).
Regarding Claim 8, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 2, wherein: the first branch circuit comprises a second shunt resonator (Fig. 2: 43) electrically connected to the common circuit at a third terminal (Fig. 2: 21), and another second shunt resonator (Fig. 2: 42) electrically connected to the common circuit at a fourth terminal (Fig. 2: node between 43 and 42), the second shunt resonator being different from the other second shunt resonator; and the second branch circuit comprises a third shunt resonator (Fig. 19: 85) electrically connected to the common circuit at the third terminal, and another third shunt resonator (Fig. 19: 84 tied to ground) electrically connected to the common circuit at the fourth terminal, the third shunt resonator being different from the other third shunt resonator.
Regarding Claim 10, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 8, wherein the first branch circuit corresponds to a lower skirt frequency of the first frequency range ([0042] “pass band of the filter circuit 10 is about 880 to 915 MHz”); and the second branch circuit corresponds to a lower skirt frequency of the second frequency range ([0042] “ass band of the filter circuit 11 is about 925 to 960 MHz”), the lower skirt frequencies of the first frequency range and the second frequency range being different from one another.
Regarding Claim 11, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 10, wherein first frequency range and the second frequency range at least partially overlap with each other ([0058] “changing of the line-length or the line-width of one of or both of the stubs 30 and 31 can adjust the overlapping amount between the stubs 30 and 31).
Regarding Claim 12, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 3, wherein: the one or more switches and the output terminal are part of an antenna (Fig. 2: 20 is antenna terminal); the first branch circuit comprises one second series resonator electrically connected to the common circuit at a third terminal (Fig. 2: 21); the second branch circuit comprises one third series resonator electrically connected to the common circuit at the third terminal (Fig. 10: 21); and the second series resonator is different from the third series resonator such that a first loading impedance of the first branch circuit is different from a second loading impedance of the second branch circuit (Fig. 19: 11a have different resonant circuits from Fig. 2: 10A thus they are different loading impedance).
Regarding Claim 16, Sugimoto teaches the RF filtering circuit of claim 1, wherein the one or more first series resonators, one or more first shunt resonators, the at least one of a second series resonator or a second shunt resonator, and the at least one of a third series resonator or a third shunt resonator comprise at least one of a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator or a surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator ([0047] “they are surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters… bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters…”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 9 is 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HENRY T LUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7008. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday: 8:00-6:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Regis Betsch can be reached at (571) 270-7101. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Henry Luong/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2844