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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 of this title, 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 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chul et al. (KR 20220093550 A) hereinafter Chul in view of Ko et al. (JP 2021034263A) hereinafter Ko.
Regarding claim 1, Chul discloses a submarine cable (Fig.1) comprising: one or more power units (5a,5b,5c), wherein the power unit comprises: a conductor (5a); an internal semi-conductive layer surrounding the conductor; an insulating layer surrounding the internal semi-conductive layer; an outer semi-conductive layer surrounding an outer side of the insulating layer (“The insulation system layer may define or form part of an electrical insulation system. Accordingly, an electrically insulating system may include one or more insulating system layers. In variants having several insulation system layers, the insulation system layers may be different, one layer may for example be an electrically insulating layer and one or more layers may for example be semiconducting layer(s) . As an example, the electrically insulating system may include three concentrically arranged insulating system layers, an inner semiconducting layer, an outer semiconducting layer, and an electrically insulating layer arranged between the inner semiconducting layer and the outer semiconducting layer” ); and a metal shielding layer (see 15 and 16 in Fig.2) provided on an outer side of the outer semi-conductive layer (7), wherein the metal shielding layer includes a plurality of metal wires (see 15) spaced apart from and spirally cross-wound on the outer side of the outer semi-conductive layer (see 15 spirally wound around 7 in Fig.2), and a shielding member (16) cross-wound on an outer side of the plurality of metal wires (see 16 cross wound with 15) , and a cross-wound pitch of the shielding member (see pitch between 16) is smaller than a cross-wound pitch of the metal wire ( see cross wound pitch length of 15) and greater than a cross-wound width of the shielding member (see width of 16).
Chul fails to specifically disclose wherein the metal wire and the shielding member are cross-wound in the same spiral direction.
Ko discloses wherein the metal wire (41a) and the shielding member (421) are cross-wound in the same spiral direction (see “ it is desirable that the winding direction of the second metal wire 41a in the horizontal winding shield layer 41 and the winding direction of the shield tape 421 in the shield tape layer 42 are the same direction”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Ko to modify the cable of Chul in order to allow the shielding tape follow the movement of the metal wires during bending of the cable prevent any wrinkling that may deteriorate transmission characteristics.
Regarding claim 2, Chul discloses the claimed invention except for wherein the cross-wound pitch of the shielding member is provided to be 0.8 times or less than the cross-wound pitch of the metal wire and three times or more than the cross-wound width of the shielding member.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to use wherein the cross-wound pitch of the shielding member is provided to be 0.8 times or less than the cross-wound pitch of the metal wire and three times or more than the cross-wound width of the shielding member in order to allow the cable to properly bend without having the shielding layer and shielding wires tangle together when external forces are applied to the cable , since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ233.
Regarding claim 8, Chul discloses wherein the shielding member is provided as a tape made of a metal material (see “a metallic material having high lubricity may be mixed with an adhesive material to be applied to the lubricity enhancing part 16b”.
Claim (s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chul in view of Ko as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Jung et al. (US 20190013112 A1) hereinafter Jung.
Regarding claim 10, Chul discloses wherein the submarine cable further comprises: a plurality of the power units (see 5a,5b,5c) ; a plurality of shaped fillers (17) disposed between the power units to receive the power units in a state in which the power units are spaced apart from each other, and constituting a cross-sectional shape of the submarine cable as a circular shape (see shape of 1) ; a bedding layer (see layer surrounding 17 and directly in touch with 17) provided on an outer side of the plurality of power units and the plurality of shaped fillers; at least one armor layer (21) provided with a plurality of armor wires disposed on an outer side of the bedding layer being cross-wound (21 is spirally wounded); and an outermost layer (23) provided on an outer side of the armor layer (21).
Chul is silent with respect to at least one optical unit received in at least one of the plurality of shaped fillers, and provided with an optical fiber.
Jung discloses at least one optical unit (100; Fig.1) received in at least one of the plurality of shaped fillers (see 300) , and provided with an optical fiber (100 has optical fiber inside).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Jung to modify the cable of Chul in order to transmit electrical signals to perform circuit operations.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-7 and 9 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 an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claims 3-7, the prior art of record neither anticipates norrenders obvious the claimed subject matter of the instant application as a whole eithertaken alone or in combination, in particular, prior art of record does not teach" wherein, in one power unit, at least one of the metal wire and the shielding member is provided with at least one bending reinforcement section cross-wound with a reinforcement cross-wound pitch reduced from a reference cross- wound pitch that is preset for each of the metal wire and the shielding member " in combination with the remaining limitations of the claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, the prior art of record neither anticipates norrenders obvious the claimed subject matter of the instant application as a whole eithertaken alone or in combination, in particular, prior art of record does not teach" wherein the shielding member is a braided strap in which a plurality of metal wire rods are braided such that a cross sectional width is greater than a cross sectional thickness" in combination with the remaining limitations of the claim 1.
Therefore, prior art of record neither anticipates nor renders obvious the instantapplication claimed invention as a whole either taken alone or in combination.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no laterthan the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferablyaccompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled "Comments onStatement of Reasons for Allowance."
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETE LEE whose telephone number is (571) 270-5921. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday (2nd & 4th Friday Off). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Timothy Dole can be reached at (571) 272-2229 The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/PETE T LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2848