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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant contends in page 4 of the remarks “independent claim 1 now clearly recites a half-wavelength element vertically installed on the conductive plate. Clearly this arrangement is not disclosed or suggested by the Baliarda publication or any other prior art of record.”
Examiner respectfully disagrees. Claim 1 broadly recites “a half-wavelength element” without reciting any radiator and frequency of operation. A “half-wavelength” is a filler term, which can be deemed as nebulous, absent recitation of an associated antenna frequency of operation. Nonetheless, Baliarda teaches in ¶ 63: “The antenna system in this example is formed by two arms that are, in this specific case, 3D structures, once acting as the active arm (171) and the other one acting as the parasitic arm (170). Here, the arms (170, 171) of the antenna system are presented as a parallelepipeds, but any other structure can be obviously taken instead.” As such, skilled artisan would recognize that “any other structure” encompasses the broadly claimed “half-wavelength element”.
Applicant further contends “the Office Action relies upon Figure 15C of the Baliarda publication as disclosing the half-wavelength element vertically installed on the conductive plate, as recited in claim 1. However, as illustrated in Figure 15C of the Baliarda publication, the active arm 171 is placed over the outside of the edge of the PCB 172 and not placed on the PCB 172. Therefore, the active arm 171 is clearly different from the claimed half-wavelength element.”
Examiner respectfully disagrees. A skilled artisan would appreciate that the active arm 171 cannot be merely floating in space above the conductive PCB 172. There is inherently a physical connection therebetween, be it conductive and/or insulative. Absent such connection (clearly exemplified in Figs. 15A-15B), the active arm 171 cannot operate. Additionally, claim 1 does NOT recite specifics of how “the half-wavelength element is vertically installed on the conductive plane”.
Nevertheless, gist of the invention appears to be, inter alia, a monopole/patch antenna 20 (Figs. 1-2, 5-6) having an element length set to ½ of the wavelength of a corresponding frequency band of 5.9 GHz band. See, e.g., ¶¶ 29-30 of the printed publication.
However, merely pieces of the invention have been claimed.
Absent specific structural and/or functional limitations recited to clearly discern the invention, prior art reads well on the breath of claim 1.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Baliarda” (US 20190288393).
Claim 1: Baliarda discloses a half-wavelength antenna device for a vehicle, the half-wavelength antenna device comprising:
a conductive plate 172 (Fig. 15C) having a feeding part (vertical line connected to 171) and a ground (¶ 63: “ground plane”);
a half-wavelength element 171 vertically installed on the conductive plate, the half-wavelength element being connected to the feeding part (thereby being “active”) but insulated from the ground (by virtue of a vertical gap therebetween, as depicted in Fig. 15C); and
a parasitic element 170 disposed in proximity and parallel to the half-wavelength element but insulated from the ground (by virtue of a horizontal and vertical gap therebetween, as depicted in Fig. 15C).
Baliarda fails to expressly the parasitic element electromagnetically coupled to the half-wavelength element.
However, Baliarda teaches in ¶ 63, “The antenna system in this example is formed by two arms that are, in this specific case, 3D structures, once acting as the active arm (171) and the other one acting as the parasitic arm (170). Here, the arms (170, 171) of the antenna system are presented as a parallelepipeds, but any other structure can be obviously taken instead.”
Baliarda further teaches in abstract, “The two arms are coupled through a region on first and second superconducting arms such that the combined structure forms a small antenna with broadband behavior, multiband behavior or a combination thereof. The coupling between the two radiating arms is obtained via the shape and spatial arrangement thereof, in which at least one portion on each arm is placed in close proximity to each other (e.g., at a distance smaller than 1/10 of the longest free-space operating wavelength) to allow electromagnetic fields in one arm to be transferred to the other through close proximity regions.”
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to use Baliarda’s antenna device such that the parasitic element is electromagnetically coupled to the half-wavelength element, in order to achieve broadband or multiband behavior.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Terashita (US 11456524)
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HASAN ISLAM whose telephone number is (571)270-1719. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thu 9AM-7PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DAMEON LEVI can be reached at (571)272-2105. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HASAN ISLAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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