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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I in the reply filed on 06/09/2026 is acknowledged. It is noted that the claim status of claim 16, belonging to Group II, should also be “Withdrawn” instead of “Original”.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 7 recites “the optical fibers are in groups of two with continuous bonding material between the groups and intermittent bonding material between each of the groups”. It is unclear how the bonding can be both continuous and intermittent between the groups. Base on the original disclosure, this limitation is treated as “the optical fibers are in groups of two with continuous bonding material between the optical fibers in the groups and intermittent bonding material between each of the groups”.
Claims 8, 9 are also rejected as dependent claims of claim 7 and failing to further clarify or remedy the above claimed limitation.
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(s) 1, 4, 10, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by JP 2017-156560 A patent publication.
Regarding claim 1, the ‘560 publication discloses a method of separating a ribbon of optical fibers (optical fiber ribbon 1), the ribbon comprising a plurality of optical fibers (3a-d), the optical fibers extending between a first and a second end along a fiber axis (horizontally in Figs. 1, 2, or vertically in Fig. 4), the ribbon including bonding material (adhesive 5) between the optical fibers, the method comprising: routing at least one thread (steel wire 13) about each of the optical fibers (between two adjacent fibers as illustrated in Fig. 3); and moving the thread in a first direction (downward, Fig. 4) along the fiber axis (vertical axis) to break the bonding material (5) between the optical fibers.
Regarding claim 4, the ‘560 publication further discloses that the bonding material is intermittently spaced between the optical fibers (as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2).
Regarding claim 10, the ‘560 publication further discloses that there are at least 2 optical fibers or at least 4 optical fibers or at least 6 optical fibers or at least 8 optical fibers or at least 10 optical fibers or at least 12 optical fibers or at least 14 or at least 16 optical fibers in the ribbon (Figs. 1, 2).
Regarding claim 20, the ‘560 publication discloses a method of separating a ribbon of optical fibers (1), the ribbon (1) comprising a plurality of optical fibers (3), the ribbon including bonding material (5) between the optical fibers, the method comprising: routing at least one thread (13) between the optical fibers (Fig. 4); and generating axial movement (direction “D”, Fig. 4) between the thread and the optical fibers to break the bonding material (5) between the optical fibers (3).
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.
Claim(s) 7, 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2017-156560 A patent publication as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of U.S. PGPub 2018/0314020 Aa by Sato et al.
Regarding claims 7, 8, the ‘560 publication discloses the optical fiber ribbon cable with intermittently bonding between the optical fibers, but does not specify a design in which the optical fibers are in groups of two with continuous bonding material between the optical fibers in the groups and intermittent bonding material between each of the groups. Sato also teaches an intermittent-connection-type optical fiber ribbon comprising a plurality of optical fibers (11-22, Fig. 1A), wherein the optical fibers are in groups of two with continuous bonding material between the optical fibers in the groups and intermittent bonding material between each of the groups (Fig. 1A), and wherein the optical fibers have a first pitch (entire length of the continuous bonding) between the optical fibers in the groups and a second pitch between each of the groups (gap C between the intermittent bonding in Fig. 1A). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the optical fiber ribbon disclosed in the ‘560 publication, by using a design featuring continuous bonding material between the optical fibers in the groups and intermittent bonding material between the groups as suggested by Sato, since it has the advantage of suppressing deterioration of transmission characteristics of optical fibers and preventing a defect during fusion splicing from occurring.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 21 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 ‘560 publication is identified as prior art that meets the claimed invention but fails to further disclose the limitation of moving the thread in a second direction after moving the optical fibers in the first direction to remove the thread from the optical fibers, or wherein the thread is routed by a stitching device, or changing the first pitch and the second pitch to a third uniform pitch between each of the fibers, or routing at least one thread between the optical fibers to establish the pitch between the optical fibers, when considered in view of the rest of the limitations of the claimed invention. Since the stated purpose of the invention in the ‘560 publication is the measure the strength of the bonding material (5) and is completely different from that of the instant application, the additional claimed limitations of applying the thread to the ribbon or further manipulating the ribbon would not have been reasonable, let alone obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art. FR2859737 disclose weaving threads between optical fibers but does not induce any fiber axial movement to breaking bonding materials.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US5442722 discloses using embedded zipcords to breaking a bonding material.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLIE PENG whose telephone number is (571)272-2177. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM - 6PM.
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/CHARLIE Y PENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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