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 .
Claim Objection (Informality)
Claim 26 is objected to because it is missing "is" between "portion" and "formed" in line 2.
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.
Claims 14-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 14 is indefinite because it recites "an optical waveguide disposed along the main surfaces of the substrate". Since the main surfaces are on opposite sides of the substrate according to line 2, it is not apparent how a single optical waveguide could be disposed along both of the main surfaces simultaneously. This also appears to be inconsistent with the specification and drawings. Claims 15-26 are indefinite by dependence from claim 14.
Claim 14 could be made definite by replacing "along the main surfaces" in line 4 with "along a first main surface of said main surfaces". For the purpose of comparison with prior art in this action, it will be assumed that claim 14 includes this change.
Claims 20, 22, and 26 are further indefinite because each claim recites "the main surface" but does not identify which one of the two main surfaces from claim 14 is meant. In conjunction with the amendment proposed above for claim 14, claims 20, 22, and 26 could be made definite by replacing "the main surface" with "said first main surface". For the purpose of comparison with prior art in this action, it will be assumed that claims 20, 22, and 26 include this change.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 14-15, 22, and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2014/0286607 A1.
Claim 14: '607 discloses an optical device comprising (see mainly figs. 1 and 3):
a substrate 15 having
a pair of main surfaces (upper and lower surfaces) opposite each other in a first direction,
an end surface (left surface facing gap W in fig. 3) adjacent to the main surfaces, and
a pair of side surfaces (corresponding to left and right major surfaces in fig. 1), and
an optical waveguide 3 disposed along a first main surface of said main surfaces of the substrate and having a light incidence end or a light exit end 3a in a direction of a plane where the end surface is located,
wherein,
an adhesive 12 for connection is coated on the end surface of the substrate (at adhesive face 14a), and
at least one stepped portion (having depth D and including recess 7) is formed between the optical waveguide and the adhesive.
Claim 15: The stepped portion comprises: a first stepped portion 7 formed at the end surface of the substrate in a manner that one end is close to one of the side surfaces of the substrate and the other end is close to the other one of the side surfaces of the substrate (recess 7 extends across the width of the device as shown in fig. 1).
Claim 22: Referring to the fig. 4 variant, an end portion 3a of the optical waveguide is formed to be closer to an inner side than an end portion of the substrate when viewed from the first direction (note difference S), and the first stepped portion is exposed at said first main surface of the substrate (i.e. the upper surface). In fig. 4 bodies 5 and 6 taken together constitute the substrate relative to the optical waveguide (as noted in [0066] with regard to fig. 3, this is equivalent to a single-body substrate 15).
Claim 26: The first stepped portion is formed at the end surface of the substrate 15 in a manner substantially parallel to said first main surface of the substrate.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16-21 and 23-25 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 claims 14-15 and all applicable intervening claims, and if they are suitably amended to overcome the pertinent indefiniteness rejections above. Regarding claim 16, the applied '607 reference does not disclose or suggest further including a second stepped portion at the end surface of the substrate, such that the second stepped portion has a depth different from that of the first portion. Although '607 appears to contemplate a second stepped portion (upper instance of 30) in fig. 9, it is not provided at the end surface of the substrate (defined by bodies 5 and 6) and it has the same depth as the first (i.e. lower) stepped portion 30 according to [0140]-[0141]. All of claims 17-21 and 23-25 ultimately depend from claim 16.
Contact Information
Examiner: 571-272-2360
Examiner's direct supervisor: 571-272-2397
Official correspondence by fax: 571-273-8300
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/Michael Stahl/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874