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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS's) submitted comply with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the examiner has considered the information disclosure statement; please see attached forms PTO-1449.
Drawings
The drawings submitted have been reviewed and determined to facilitate understanding of the invention. The drawings are accepted as submitted.
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.
Claims 1-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, regards as the invention.
The term “high quality factor” in independent Claims 1 and 16 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “high quality factor” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. While the method of determining a quality factor for a cavity filter is known to ordinary skill in the art, there is no standard for what qualifies as a “high quality factor”. Therefore, the it is not possible to determine the full scope of the claims.
Claims 2-15 and 17-21 depend from Claims 1 and 16, respectively and fail to remedy the indefiniteness of Claims 1 and 16.
For examination purposes, any cavity filter will be considered to be a “high quality cavity filter.”
Claims 13 and 20 recites the limitation "the resonator" in each respective line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-21 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action (see above).
Regarding independent Claims 1 and 16, the prior art of record does not describe or reasonably suggest, in conjunction with the further limitations of the present claims:
a first wavelength demultiplexer (WDM) coupled with said second light path configured to demultiplex the light in said second light path into N outputs;
a second WDM coupled with said third light path configured to demultiplex the light in said third light path into N outputs; and
a mixing circuit coupled with the N outputs from the first WDM and the N outputs from the second WDM.
Claims 2-15 and 17-21 depend from Claims 1 and 16 and are therefore allowable for at least the same reasons.
US Patent Application Publication US 2019/0199057 A1 to Wen et al. (“Wen”) stands as the closest prior art of record. Wen describes an optical circuit (see Fig 5), comprising:
an N by 1 channel arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) (110) having N inputs and 1 output;
an output mirror (516) coupled with the output of the AWG;
an optical splitter (514) splitting the output from the output mirror into two light paths, a first light path as a laser output (at port 4/140), and a second light path (at port 1); and
a high quality factor cavity filter (120) coupled with the second path.
Wen does not describe the above-identified allowable subject matter.
Conclusion
The prior art cited in the attached form PTO-892 are made of record and considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The cited prior art describes various optical circuits including at least some elements of the claims optical circuit.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JERRY RAHLL whose telephone number is (571)272-2356. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am-5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Uyen-Chau Le can be reached at 571-272-2397. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JERRY RAHLL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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