Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 8/19/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2022/0146740 A1 (previously made of record via information disclosure statement).
Claim 1: '740 discloses a multilevel retro-coupling device for a light radiation, comprising (see mainly figs. 1A-1B):
at least one first level (along which 141 extends) extending along a first plane along a length direction (parallel to the labeled x-direction) and a width direction (parallel to the labeled y-direction) and
a second level (along which 142 extends) extending along a second plane parallel to the first plane,
said first and second levels being at least partially superposed in a direction (parallel to the labeled z-direction) normal to the first and second planes,
the first level comprising at least one first waveguide 141 configured to guide a propagation of the light radiation in a first direction parallel to the length direction and the second level comprising at least one second waveguide 142 configured to guide the propagation of the light radiation in a second direction opposite the first direction,
the device comprising:
a coupling portion, wherein the first and second waveguides are coupled by moving the first and second waveguides closer to one another, such that the light radiation is propagated from the first level to the second level by evanescent coupling ([0048]),
at least one reflector 121 at an end of the coupling portion, configured to reflect the light radiation, and
wherein an entirety of the first waveguide 141 is at a same position in the height direction as the first level, and an entirety of the second waveguide 142 is at a same position in the height direction as the second level.
'740 does not show a top-down or plan view of the device and thus does not expressly disclose that in the coupling portion, the first and second waveguides are in a same position in the width direction (i.e., they have a common y-direction coordinate or are directly overlapping when viewed along the z-direction). However, '740 does disclose that the first and second waveguides 141 / 142 are evanescently coupled to each other ([0048]). It was well known in the art that the strength of evanescent coupling between waveguides decreases as the distance between them increases. Accordingly it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claim 1 to arrange the first and second waveguides 141 / 142 at a same position in the width direction, in order to avoid introducing unnecessary loss of the light being coupled between them.
Claim 2: The reflector 121 is formed by an interruption of the first and second waveguides in a plane normal to the first and second directions.
Response to Arguments
The rejection of the 5/20/2026 action based on US 6304697 B1 is withdrawn in view of the amendment to claim 1. The entireties of the first waveguide 12 and the second waveguide 11 are clearly not at a same position in the height direction as the first level and the second level (respectively) as interpreted in the rejection.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-16 are allowed. Claims 3-14 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 base claim and all applicable intervening claims.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mike Stahl at 571-272-2360. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful the examiner’s supervisor Uyen-Chau Le can be reached at 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 Stahl/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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