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 .
EXAMINER’S AMENDMENT
The application has been amended as follows:
In claim 1, line 5, “within a field of view of the” has been changed to --within a field of view—
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claim 1is rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 11550062. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because of the illustration below.
Current application: claim 1
Patent 11550062: claim 1
An antenna comprising: a radio frequency lens; a plurality of feeds, at least some of which provide a plurality of directive beams from a single shared aperture of said radio frequency lens and from different directions within a field of view
An antenna comprising: a radio frequency lens; a plurality of feeds separately providing a plurality of directive beams from a single shared aperture of the radio frequency lens, the plurality of feeds having a field of view and wherein the plurality of directive beams are from different directions within the field of view
and a processing device configured to independently detect signals from each of the plurality of directive beams, extract detected signals from each of the plurality of beams
and a processing device to: detect one or more signals from individual beams of the plurality of directive beams; extract the detected signals from the individual beams; determine one or more duplicate signals present in extracted signals;
de-duplicate duplicate detected signals present in multiple beams of the plurality of directive beams, and jointly process the de-duplicated signals to determine a time and position of said antenna.
remove the one or more duplicate detected signals to retain distinct detected signals to be processed; and process the retained signals together to determine a time and a position of the antenna
It appears the difference between the current clam 1 and patented claim 1 is simply on the language instead of claim 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.
Claims 1 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Schaffner (US-20030043086-A1).
Regarding claim 1, Schaffner discloses an antenna comprising:
a radio frequency lens;
a plurality of feeds, at least some of which provide a plurality of directive beams from a single shared aperture (lens antenna implies beams focus to a shared combiner/receiver) of said radio frequency lens and from different directions within a field of view (field of view C in Fig. 1)( Each GPS signal arriving from the instantaneous location of its satellite will be focused onto this surface C, paragraph 0037),
a processing device configured to independently detect signals from each of the plurality of directive beams, extract detected signals from each of the plurality of beams, de-duplicate duplicate detected signals present in multiple beams of the plurality of directive beams (This antenna system can utilize simple signal processing circuits such as power detectors, switches, and passive filters, paragraph 0031, Fig. 3a-3b), and jointly processes process the de-duplicated signals to determine a time and position of said antenna (since the lens 15 has a wide field of view, enough of the GPS signals are received to be able to determine timing and position, paragraph 0039)( If an interfering signal 3 is present, as shown in FIG. 2, the particular element or group of elements 20 that is or are at the focus E of this interfering signal 3 are switched off. In FIG. 2 the switching off of the particular affected element is indicated by the absence of a connecting line from the affected element to the combiner 25)(an interfering signal is interpreted as duplicate signal like multipath signals).
Regarding claim 17, Schaffner discloses the antenna of claim 1, wherein each feed of the plurality of feeds provides a plurality of directive beams from the single shared aperture (aperture is the focus surface C shown in Fig. 1)(detected duplicate/interference signal is removed/de-duplicate at point E in Fig. 2 through use of load 35).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARRY K LIU whose telephone number is (571)270-1338. The examiner can normally be reached on every M-F 10 AM to 6:30 PM.
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/HARRY K LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645 Tel: (571) 270-1338
Fax: (571) 270-2338
Email: harry.liu@uspto.gov