DETAILED ACTION
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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S Pub. No. 2004/0071282 A1 to Noessing et al. (hereinafter “Noessing”) in view of U.S Patent No. 5,453,716 to Person et al. (hereinafter “Person”).
Regarding claim 1, Noessing teaches a device for detection of a clipped ringing signal (Abstract and paragraph [0037]; distortion preferably occurs at low amplitudes of the sinusoidal signals used for the PCM coding, the amplitudes being clipped by the distortion), comprising:
a ringing generator, configured to generate a ringing signal based on a ringing parameter (Abstract, Fig.1 and paragraphs [0033]- [0034]; a ringing signal generator which generates a ringing signal and is connected to the subscriber line);
a ringing signal adjusting-and-driving section, configured to receive the ringing signal and a gain adjusting signal, and attenuate or maintain a gain of the ringing signal based on the gain adjusting signal, to subsequently output the ringing signal to a subscriber loop (paragraphs [0029] and [0039]; system can be considerably reduced by means of the optimized adjustment of the ringing signal current and also by separately controlling the supply voltage for each subscriber line interface circuit or for each ringing signal generator) ; and
a voltage-detection and clipping-judgment section, coupled to the subscriber loop, and configured to detect the voltage waveform at the subscriber loop or detect the voltage waveform corresponding to the ringing signal (Abstract and paragraph [0037]; the supply voltage for the subscriber line interface circuit 104 or the ringing signal generator 114, respectively, is just sufficient for being able to transmit the ringing signal without distortion via the subscriber line 106. Such distortion preferably occurs at low amplitudes of the sinusoidal signals used for the PCM coding, the amplitudes being clipped by the distortion);
wherein in response to the determination that the ringing signal is clipped, the ringing signal adjusting-and-driving section is driven, by the gain adjusting signal, to attenuate the ringing signal (Abstract, paragraphs [0014] and [0039]; adjusting a ringing signal current in a subscriber line and a circuit arrangement which provides for optimum reduction in the power loss of a ringing signal generator and of a line card).
However, Noessing does not explicitly teach determining whether the signal is clipped based on whether the detected waveform is continuous.
Person teaches determining whether the signal is clipped based on whether the detected waveform is continuous (Abstract, column 4, lines 8-21; hen an amplified audio signal output waveform 25 is clipping, the clip detection circuit 38 of each amplifier operates and the NPN transistor 40 is turned ON. Spike noise 25a is generated during audio clipping at the pulse edge of the waveform 25 when the clipping detection circuit 38 is operated and the NPN transistor 40 is turned ON).
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to modify Noessing’s teaching with a feature of determining whether the signal is clipped based on whether the detected waveform is continuous as taught by Person in order to provide a clipping detection system that can be adjusted for the subjective preference of a user (column 1, lines 46-52; Person).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S Pub. No. 2004/0071282 A1 to Noessing et al. (hereinafter “Noessing”) in view of U.S Patent No. 5,453,716 to Person et al. (hereinafter “Person”) in further view of U.S Patent No. 5,001,748 to Burns et al. (hereinafter “Burns”).
Regarding claim 6, Noessing and Person do not teach the device for detection of a clipped ringing signal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the voltage waveform of the ringing signal is a sine waveform or a cosine waveform.
Burns discloses wherein the voltage waveform of the ringing signal is a sine waveform or a cosine waveform (Abstract and column 3, lines 7-33; ringing signal is a 20 Hz sine wave signal having a voltage of 86 volts rms).
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skilled in the art to modify Noessing in view of Person teaching with a feature of wherein the voltage waveform of the ringing signal is a sine waveform or a cosine waveform as taught by Burns in order to generate a smooth distinct ringing alert to a user (Abstract, Burns).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 and 7 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
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AKELAW TESHALE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2694
/AKELAW TESHALE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2694