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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on February 16, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed October 21, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants submit that regarding the combination of Nikitin with Brifman, if the Nikitin addition were really obvious, there would still be an obvious fundamental difference in the goals of the invention, the means of achieving those goals, and the lack of final positive results in Nikitin.
Examiner submits that Brifman refers of an ADC (Paragraph 0036) and a linear analog filter (paragraph 0069) but does not specifically mention of the solver-separator component being in communication with the linear analog filter and the analog to digital converter. Nikitin teaches of a digital signal processor in communication with the linear analog filter and the analog to digital converter (linear filter/ADC, Fig.2 and Paragraphs 0010 and 0320). One skilled in the art would have used the ADC to convert an analog signal into a digital signal that the solver-separator can process and have an analog filter used before an ADC to prevent aliasing. Therefore, the combination of Brifman and Nikitin teach all the limitations of claim 1.
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on October 21, 2025 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of 11,394,415 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
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.
Claims 1 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brifman et al (US 2021/0336645) in view of Nikitin (US 2021/0314201).
Re claim 1, Brifman teaches of a system for achieving a signal and noise separation in a phase-shift keyed signal (PSK, Paragraph 0042) comprising: an analog filter (analog filter, Paragraph 0069); an analog to digital converter (ADC, Paragraph 0036); a solver-separator component (#134, Fig.2) in communication with a preprocessor (#132, Fig.2); and wherein the preprocessor is configured to accept a signal to noise mixture via a channel with noise and send a modified signal to noise mixture to the solver-separator component for completing a clean separation of signal and noise (as shown in Fig.2) (see also claim 1 of Page 8). However, Brifman does not specifically teach of the solver-separator component in communication with the linear analog filter and the analog to digital converter.
Nikitin teaches of a digital signal processor in communication with the linear analog filter and the analog to digital converter (linear filter/ADC, Fig.2 and Paragraphs 0010 and 0320).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the preprocessor comprise of a linear analog filter to mitigate thermal noise and the analog to digital converter to improve signal processing in a receiver.
Re claim 9, Brifman and Nikitin teach of a system for achieving a signal and noise separation in an amplitude-phase modulated signal (amplitude-phase modulation, Paragraph 0042 of Brifman) comprising: a linear analog filter; an analog to digital converter; a solver-separator component in communication with the linear analog filter and the analog to digital converter; and wherein the linear analog filter is configured to accept a signal to noise mixture via a channel with noise and send a modified signal to noise mixture to the solver-separator component for completing a clean separation of signal and noise (see claim 1).
Re claim 17, Brifman teach of a method of achieving a clean signal and noise separation in phase-shift keyed and amplitude-phase modulated signals (Paragraph 0042), the method comprising: providing a Gaussian channel noise (AWGN, Fig.7 and claim 17 of Page 8 of Brifman); suppressing a spectrum of noise with a filter (Paragraphs 0063 and 0065, claim 17 of Page 8 of Brifman); using discrete measurements of the modified signal to noise mixture to build a system of linear algebraic equations (Paragraphs 0013 and 0036); using a linear separating matrix of coefficients to achieve a clean separation of signal and noise (Paragraphs 0013 and 0051, claim 17 of Page 8 of Brifman). However, Brifman does not specifically teach of the suppressing a spectrum of noise in the phase-shift keyed and the amplitude-phase modulated signals with a linear analog filter; quantizing a signal-noise mixture using an analog to digital converter.
Nikitin teaches of suppressing a spectrum of noise in the phase-shift keyed signals (Paragraph 0017) with a linear analog filter (linear filter, Paragraphs 0010 and 0320); quantizing a signal-noise mixture using an analog to digital converter (ADC, Paragraphs 0010 and 0320).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the frequency preprocessor comprise of a linear analog filter to mitigate thermal noise and the analog to digital converter to improve signal processing in a receiver.
Re claims 2 and 10, Brifman teaches of wherein the noise is an interference in a communication line (see claim 2 of Page 8).
Re claims 3, 11 and 19, Brifman and Nikitin teach all the limitations of claims 1, 9 and 17 as well as Nikitin teaches of wherein the linear analog filter is a low pass filter (lowpass, Paragraph 0320).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the linear analog filter be a low pass filter for reducing noise, smoothing signals, and protecting sensitive components from high-frequency interference.
Re claims 4 and 12, Brifman and Nikitin teach all the limitations of claims 1, 9 and 17 as well as Nikitin teaches of wherein the linear analog filter is a band pass filter (bandpass, Paragraph 0320).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the linear analog filter be a band pass filter to block out unwanted frequencies outside the selective specific band of frequencies.
Re claims 5 and 13, Brifman and Nikitin teach all the limitations of claims 1 and 9 as well as Nikitin teaches of wherein the analog to digital converter is configured to filter the signal to noise mixture at a sampling rate of fD per second (Paragraph 0026).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the analog to digital converter configured to filter the signal to noise mixture at a sampling rate of fD per second so as to create the digital signal.
Re claims 6, 14 and 20, Brifman teaches of wherein the solver-separator component is configured to solve a system of linear algebraic equations (SLAE, Paragraphs 0013) based on a linear separating matrix (LSM, Paragraph 0015).
Re claims 7 and 15, Brifman teaches of wherein the linear separating matrix comprises a signal part and a noise part (Paragraph 0051).
Re claims 8, 16 and 18, Brifman teaches of wherein the signal to noise mixture is pre-filtered to remove out-of-band noise frequencies (LFF, Paragraphs 0062 – 0063, Fig.7) prior to entering the linear analog filter (BPF, Fig.7 and Paragraph 0069).
Conclusion
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/ARISTOCRATIS FOTAKIS/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633