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 .
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 § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 2, 4, and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application Publication US 2011/0293221 A1 to Kaneshiro et al. (“US1”) in view of US Patent Application Publication US 2019/0033542 A1 to Epitaux et al. (“US2”)
Regarding Claim 1, US1 describes an optical module (see Figs 1-4 and 11), comprising:
a housing (30);
at least one optical coupler (13/14), disposed within an accommodation space (104) defined by the housing;
a motherboard (101), disposed in the housing;
a daughter board (100b), disposed in the housing and disposed on a mounting surface of the motherboard;
a first transmitting optical assembly (121a-121b of 100a), disposed on the mounting surface of the motherboard;
a second transmitting optical assembly (121a-121b of 100b), disposed on a mounting surface of the daughter board, wherein the mounting surface of the daughter board and the mounting surface of the motherboard face identical direction (see Fig 4);
a receiver optical assembly (122a, 122b of 100b);
at least one first inner optical fiber (13c), optically coupling the first transmitting optical assembly and the at least one optical coupler;
at least one second inner optical fiber (13d), optically coupling the second transmitting optical assembly and the at least one optical coupler; and
a plurality of third inner optical fibers (13a), optically coupling the receiver optical assembly and the at least one optical coupler.
US1 does not describe the receiver optical assembly disposed on the mounting surface of the motherboard.
US2 describes an optical module (see Figs 1-3), comprising:
a housing (21);
at least one optical coupler (shown in Fig 1), disposed within an accommodation space defined by the housing;
a motherboard (26), disposed in the housing;
a first transmitting optical assembly (23), disposed on the mounting surface of the motherboard;
a receiver optical assembly (24), disposed on the mounting surface of the motherboard;
at least one first inner optical fiber (24), optically coupling the first transmitting optical assembly and the at least one optical coupler; and
a plurality of third inner optical fibers (60), optically coupling the receiver optical assembly and the at least one optical coupler.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form the receiver optical assembly of US1 on the motherboard as described by US2. The motivation for doing so would have been to allow for flexibility in design/manufacturing.
Regarding Claim 2, US1 describes the optical module comprising a Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) configuration (see Figs 1-4).
Regarding Claim 4, US1 describes a bending fiber array comprising the plurality of third inner optical fibers, and the bending fiber array is optically coupled to the receiver optical assembly (see Fig 4).
Regarding Claim 5, US1 describes the second transmitting optical assembly located farther away from the at least one optical coupler than the first transmitting optical assembly, and the receiver optical assembly is located farther away from the at least one optical coupler than the second transmitting optical assembly (see Figs 4, and 11).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-20 are allowed.
Claims 3 and 6-11 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 3 describes
Claim 6 describes the second transmitting optical assembly is of a different height from those of the first transmitting optical assembly and the receiver optical assembly.
Claims 7 and 12 describe an upper cover disposed above the first transmitting optical assembly, wherein the at least one second inner optical fiber crosses the upper cover.
Claim 8 describes the daughter board having a recess located on the mounting surface, at least a part of the second transmitting optical assembly is disposed in the recess, and a depth of the recess is greater than half of a thickness of the daughter board.
Claims 9, 12, and 19 describe a top cover disposed above the second transmitting optical assembly, wherein the plurality of third inner optical fibers cross the top cover.
Claim 11 describes the motherboard having a recess located on the mounting surface, at least a part of the receiver optical assembly is disposed in the recess, and a depth of the recess is greater than half of a thickness of the motherboard.
These limitations represent subject matter not described or reasonably suggested, in conjunction with the further limitations of the present claims, by the prior art of record.
Claim 10 depends from Claim 9 and therefore contain at least the same allowable subject matter.
Claims 13-18 depend from Claim 12 and therefore contain at least the same allowable subject matter.
Claim 20 depends from Claim 19 and therefore contain at least the same 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 modules with housings, transmitters, receiver, and housings.
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.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
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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