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 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 (cited with a previous action).
Claim 14: '607 discloses an optical device comprising (see mainly figs. 1 and 4):
a substrate (comprising layers 5 and 6 together) having a pair of main surfaces (upper and lower surfaces in fig. 4) opposite each other in a first direction, first and second end surfaces (left end surface 14a and unlabeled right end surface) adjacent to the main surfaces, respectively, 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 (the upper surface in fig. 4) of the main surfaces of the substrate and having a light incidence end 3a and a light exit end 3b wherein
an adhesive 12 for connection is coated on the first end surface 14a of the substrate, and
at least one stepped portion (having depth D and including recess 7) is formed between the optical waveguide and the adhesive such that the light incidence end 3a and the light exit end 3b are both offset from the first end surface 14a relative to a longitudinal direction in which the optical waveguide extends along the first main surface (3a is offset from 14a by a distance S, and 3b is offset from by 14a by a greater distance as shown in fig. 4).
Claim 15: The at least one stepped portion comprises: a first stepped portion 7 formed at the first 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: The light incidence end 3a of the optical waveguide is formed to be closer to an inner side than the first end surface 14a of the substrate when viewed from the first direction (note difference S), and
the first stepped portion is exposed at the first main surface of the substrate (i.e. the upper surface).
Claim 26: The first stepped portion is formed at the first end surface of the substrate in a manner substantially parallel to the first main surface of the substrate.
Response to Arguments
The objections and indefiniteness rejections of the 3/5/2026 action are withdrawn in view of the 6/4/2026 amendments. Although amended claim 14 distinguishes over the fig. 3 embodiment of US 2014/0286607 A1 as applied in that action, the rejection has been revised herein to rely upon the fig. 4 embodiment in order to track the changes of the amendment.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16-21, 23-25, and 27 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 14 and all applicable intervening claims.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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
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