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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on October 7, 2024 and March 11, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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 12 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 12: The limitation relating to “porosity” lacks antecedent basis in the claim. For examination purposes, the claim is interpreted as being dependent on claim 11, wherein a porous structure is introduced into the claim.
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 1-4, 8 and 15-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by KUME et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2016/0233578).
KUME, in figures 1 and 2, discloses:
Claim 1: A radome (10), wherein:
the radome comprises a substrate layer (20(2)) and a reinforcement layer (30);
the reinforcement layer is formed at least on an inner surface or an outer surface of the substrate layer (fig. 2); and
the reinforcement layer comprises a fiber layer (31) and thermoplastic resin (32) attached to the fiber layer, wherein the fiber layer comprises a first fiber, and a length of the first fiber is greater than or equal to 25 mm (¶[0041]); and
the substrate layer comprises thermoplastic resin (¶[0042]), wherein the thermoplastic resin in the reinforcement layer is made of a same material as the thermoplastic resin in the substrate layer (¶[0042], [0044]).
Claims 2 and 17: wherein the reinforcement layer comprises at least one of a woven fiber prepreg, a unidirectional fiber prepreg, or a fiber felt prepreg (¶[0039]).
Claims 3 and 18: wherein the first fiber comprises at least one of an inorganic fiber and an organic fiber (¶[0049]).
Claims 4 and 19: wherein the inorganic fiber comprises at least one of a glass fiber, a basalt fiber, an andesite fiber, an aluminum silicate fiber, a boron nitride fiber, an alumina fiber, or a quartz fiber (¶[0049]).
Claim 8: wherein a thickness of the substrate layer is 0.5 mm to 2 mm (¶[0069]).
Claim 15: wherein a weight ratio of the radome to an antenna system is 1:(10 to 50). Claim 15 is overly broad as it is not limited to any particular antenna system, nor any antenna system used with the claimed radome; therefore, any radome weight ratio is interpreted to meet the claim limitation.
Claim 16: A wireless communication system (¶[0002]), wherein the wireless communication system comprises a radome (10), wherein:
the radome comprises a substrate layer (20(2)) and a reinforcement layer (30);
the reinforcement layer is formed at least on an inner surface or an outer surface of the substrate layer (fig. 2); and
the reinforcement layer comprises a fiber layer (31) and thermoplastic resin (32) attached to the fiber layer, wherein the fiber layer comprises a first fiber, and a length of the first fiber is greater than or equal to 25 mm (¶[0041]); and
the substrate layer comprises thermoplastic resin (¶[0042]), wherein the thermoplastic resin in the reinforcement layer is made of a same material as the thermoplastic resin in the substrate layer (¶[0042], [0044]).
Claims 1-8, 10, 11 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by YANG et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2021/0122896).
YANG, in figure 1C, discloses:
Claim 1: A radome (¶[0078]), wherein:
the radome comprises a substrate layer (layer of aerogel 2 without fiber matrix 4) and a reinforcement layer (layer of aerogel 2 including fiber matrix 4);
the reinforcement layer is formed at least on an inner surface or an outer surface of the substrate layer (fig. 1C); and
the reinforcement layer comprises a fiber layer (4) and thermoplastic resin (2) attached to the fiber layer, wherein the fiber layer comprises a first fiber, and a length of the first fiber is greater than or equal to 25 mm (¶[0052]); and
the substrate layer comprises thermoplastic resin, wherein the thermoplastic resin in the reinforcement layer is made of a same material as the thermoplastic resin in the substrate layer (fig. 1C).
Claims 2 and 17: wherein the reinforcement layer comprises at least one of a woven fiber prepreg, a unidirectional fiber prepreg, or a fiber felt prepreg (¶[0052]).
Claims 3 and 18: wherein the first fiber comprises at least one of an inorganic fiber and an organic fiber (¶[0051]).
Claims 4 and 19: wherein the inorganic fiber comprises at least one of a glass fiber, a basalt fiber, an andesite fiber, an aluminum silicate fiber, a boron nitride fiber, an alumina fiber, or a quartz fiber (¶[0051]).
Claim 5: wherein the organic fiber comprises at least one of a polypropylene fiber, a polybutylene terephthalate fiber, a polyethylene terephthalate fiber, a poly trimethylene terephthalate fiber, a polyamide fiber, a polyphenylene sulfide fiber, a liquid crystal polymer fiber, a poly-p-phenylene benzobisoxazole fiber, a polybenzimidazole fiber, a polypyridobisinudazole fiber, or a polyimide fiber (¶[0052]).
Claim 6: wherein a gram weight of the first fiber is 200 g/m2 to 1000 g/m2 (¶[0009]-¶[0016]).
Claim 7: wherein a thickness of the reinforcement layer is 0.2 mm to 1 mm (¶[0009]-[0016]).
Claim 8: wherein a thickness of the substrate layer is 0.5 mm to 2 mm (¶[0009]-¶[0016]).
Claim 10: wherein the thermoplastic resin comprises at least one of polypropylene, polyethylene, polycarbonate, polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, polyamide, polyphenyleneoxide, polyphenylene sulfide, polyetherimide, or poly(ether-ether-ketone) (¶[0044]).
Claim 11: wherein the substrate layer is a porous structure, and a pore size of the porous structure is less than or equal to 100 µm (¶[0055]).
Claim 16: A wireless communication system (¶[0078]), wherein the wireless communication system comprises a radome (¶[0078]), wherein:
the radome comprises a substrate layer (layer of aerogel 2 without fiber matrix 4) and a reinforcement layer (layer of aerogel 2 including fiber matrix 4);
the reinforcement layer is formed at least on an inner surface or an outer surface of the substrate layer (fig. 1C); and
the reinforcement layer comprises a fiber layer (4) and thermoplastic resin (2) attached to the fiber layer, wherein the fiber layer comprises a first fiber, and a length of the first fiber is greater than or equal to 25 mm (¶[0052]); and
the substrate layer comprises thermoplastic resin, wherein the thermoplastic resin in the reinforcement layer is made of a same material as the thermoplastic resin in the substrate layer (fig. 1C).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9, 13, 14 and 20 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.
Claim 12 is would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT KARACSONY whose telephone number is (571)270-1268. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Monday - Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dimary Lopez can be reached at (571) 270-7893. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Robert Karacsony/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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