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.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 4743085 (cited in a previous action).
Claim 11: '085 discloses an optical fiber cable comprising (see mainly figs. 3-4):
one or more optical fibers 23;
a sheath 36 that surrounds the one or more optical fibers; and
a plurality of multi-filament strength members 42 and 52 embedded in the sheath, wherein at least one multi-filament strength member (any of strength members 52) of the plurality of multi-filament strength members is made up of a first multi-filament material (epoxy impregnated glass fibers, col. 5 lns. 11-25, claim 8) that is different from a second multi-filament material (polyurethane impregnated glass fiber roving, col. 5 lns. 26-43, claim 5) of other multi-filament strength members 42 of the plurality of multi-filament strength members, and where the at least one multi-filament strength member 52 has a numerical count that is at-least 50% of a numerical count of the plurality of multi-filament strength members (based on fig. 4, strength members 52 make up 8/12 or roughly 66% of the plurality).
Claims 11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 5838864 (cited in a previous action).
Claim 11: '864 discloses an optical fiber cable comprising (see mainly figs. 1-2):
one or more optical fibers 101;
a sheath 160 that surrounds the one or more optical fibers; and
a plurality of multi-filament strength members 131 and 141/142 embedded in the sheath, wherein at least one multi-filament strength member 131 of the plurality of multi-filament strength members is made up of a first multi-filament material (aramid yarn, col. 4 lns. 6-10, col. 5 lns. 65-66) that is different from a second multi-filament material (epoxy-impregnated E-glass fibers, col. 5 lns. 43-46) of other multi-filament strength members 141/142 of the plurality of multi-filament strength members, and where the at least one multi-filament strength member has a numerical count that is at-least 50% of a numerical count of the plurality of multi-filament strength members (there are 13 strength members 131 and 2 strength members 141/142; 13/15 is about 86%)
Claim 13: The first multi-filament material is aramid yarn (col. 4 lns. 6-10, col. 5 lns. 65-66) and the second multi-filament material is glass roving yarn (col. 5 lns. 43-46).
Claims 11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by JP 2022-165364 A (cited in a previous action). Any paragraph numbers mentioned below are those of the appended EPO machine translation.
Claim 11: '364 discloses an optical fiber cable comprising (see mainly fig. 2):
one or more optical fibers 3;
a sheath 13 that surrounds the one or more optical fibers; and
a plurality of multi-filament strength members 9a and 9b embedded in the sheath, wherein at least one multi-filament strength member 9b of the plurality of multi-filament strength members is made up of a first multi-filament material ("K-FRP" / aramid fiber reinforced resin, [0063]-[0064]) that is different from a second multi-filament material ("G-FRP" / glass fiber reinforced resin, [0063]-[0064]) of other multi-filament strength members 9a of the plurality of multi-filament strength members, and where the at least one multi-filament strength member 9b has a numerical count that is at-least 50% of a numerical count of the plurality of multi-filament strength members (there are 4 instances of 9a and 8 instances of 9b in the examples of [0063]-[0072] for a total plurality of 12; 8/12 is about 66%).
Claim 13: The first multi-filament material is aramid yarn and the second multi-filament material is glass roving yarn ([0063]-[0064]).
Response to Arguments
The objections, indefiniteness rejections, and prior art rejections of claim 1 and its dependent claims in the 4/14/2026 action are withdrawn in view of the 7/14/2026 amendments. Claim 11 was amended to add limitations from original claim 12, but both claims 11 and 12 were rejected in that action. Accordingly the prior art rejections of claim 11 have been repeated above, including revisions to account for the added limitations. The remarks at p. 8 appear to assert that claim 11 was amended to recite Young's modulus conditions, but claim 11 does not mention them.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-7, 9-10, 14, and 17-20 are allowed. Claims 15-16 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 11.
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
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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