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 .
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Destraves et al. (US 20200079159).
Re claim 1, Destraves et al. teaches:
A radio-frequency identification (RFID) module comprising:
a circuit board (chip 101 is on a PCB 136), and
a semiconductor device comprising a chip and mounted on the circuit board (chip 101 is on a PCB, and though semiconductor, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date for a chip to be made of semiconductor material for expected performance results), and
a coil conductor including a coil element assembly and a plurality of wire electrodes disposed on the circuit board (FIG. 2 and where wire electrodes are implicit on the board for connectivity between the chip and the antenna such as in paragraph [0061]), wherein the coil element assembly includes:
a plurality of coil elements each including a pair of leg portions and a bridge portion connecting first end portions of the pair of leg portions together, the coil elements being disposed to cross a predetermined winding axis the leg portions are interpreted as the vertical sides of the looped coil antenna 107 or the top/bottom portion and the bridge is interpreted as the top/bottom portion of the coil or the vertical sides, and the axis can be interpreted at 105); and
a block comprising a resin and fixing the plurality of coil elements arranged along the winding axis (paragraph [0058]+ and electrically insulating resin),
wherein the resin of the block is disposed between the pairs of leg portions of the plurality of coil elements (the resin is inside and thus between the legs),
wherein second end portions of the pair of leg portions of each of the plurality of coil elements are connected to predetermined wire electrodes disposed on a circuit board to form a coil conductor wound about the predetermined winding axis (as discussed above, the legs portions are interpreted as one of the top/ bottom or the sides or the antenna 107 and end portions are obvious to connected to the board to facilitate connection such as is known in the art to connect an antenna to a chip on a board), and
the coil conductor functions as an antenna for radio-frequency identification (paragraph [0002]+ teaches RFID).
Re claim 2, FIG. 2+ shows exposed leg portions.
Re claim 5, paragraph [0062]+ teaches coating with a rigid mass 130, and though silent to a sealing resin, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date, to select a known material (resin) for known properties (sealing/ encapsulating) to produce expected results.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 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 the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art of record fails to teach at least the limitations regarding the bent direction of the second end portions and coil elements (claim 3) and the surrounding of the entire space except for the second end portions as per claim 4.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL I WALSH whose telephone number is (571)272-2409. The examiner can normally be reached 7-9pm.
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/DANIEL I WALSH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876