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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
Information disclosure statements filed 10/16/2025 and 7/12/2024 have been considered.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US Patent No. 6,081,647 to Roth et al. (hereinafter “Roth”).
Regarding claim 1, Roth discloses an optical-fiber adapter, comprising: a base member (26 in Fig. 9) having a receiving groove (i.e. the internal of the base member that receives the cable connector 16 as shown in Fig. 5) and an insertion opening (i.e. the opening of 26 as shown in Fig. 9) and comprising a doorstop portion (26b in Fig. 2), wherein the insertion opening is in communication with the receiving groove (Fig. 9), and the doorstop portion is at a bottom portion of the insertion opening (26b in Fig. 2); and a door piece (30 in Fig. 9) at the receiving groove to selectively open or close the insertion opening, wherein each of two sides of the door piece has a pivot portion (51 in Fig. 9), each of the pivot portions is adjacent to the doorstop portion and pivotally connected to a corresponding one of two side walls of the base member (see Figs. 2, 5, 9), and an outer surface of the door piece comprises a protrusion adjacent to the doorstop portion (see the annotated figure shown below).
[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Protrusion on the door piece)][AltContent: oval]
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Regarding claim 2, Roth discloses wherein the optical-fiber adapter is adapted to be mated with an optical-fiber plug (16 in Fig. 5), the optical-fiber plug has a connection body (16 in Fig. 5), and a bottom surface of the connection body is adapted to contact the doorstop portion (clearly shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 5); when the door piece closes the insertion opening (Fig. 6), the door piece abuts against an inner surface of the doorstop portion (Fig. 6), and the protrusion is relatively at a top portion of the doorstop portion and adjacent to an entrance of the insertion opening (i.e. the protrusion is relatively at a top portion of 26b as shown in Fig. 6).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roth in view of US Patent No. 10,852,486 B2 to Hsu et al. (hereinafter “Hsu”).
Roth discloses an optical fiber adapter according to claim 1 as already discussed above. However, it does not explicitly disclose the two side walls of the base member having a thin wall portion and a thick wall portion, where the thin wall portion is adjacent to the doorstop portion, and a virtual shaft line being defined between the thin wall portions as claimed in the present application. On the other hand, such features are known in the art.
For example, Hsu discloses an optical fiber adapter comprising a base member (110 in Fig. 1) and a door piece (120 in Fig. 1), wherein the two side walls of the base member having a thin wall portion and a thick wall portion (i.e. the thick wall portion being the side wall of the base member near the indicia arrow of “E1” shown in Fig. 3, and the think wall portion being below the thick wall as shown in Fig. 3), where the thin wall portion is adjacent to the doorstop portion (see Fig. 5), and a virtual shaft line being defined between the thin wall portions (Fig. 5). One of ordinary skill in the art would readily recognize such thick and thin walls as advantageous and desirable since it would allow for a secure accommodation of the pivoting joints of the door piece without the need for increasing the lateral dimension of the adapter base member adjacent the pivoting joints. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the present application to modify the device of Roth to have the two side walls of the base member comprising a thin wall portion and a thick wall portion, where the thin wall portion is adjacent to the doorstop portion as claimed in the present application.
two side walls of the base member having a thin wall portion and a thick wall portion, where the thin wall portion is adjacent to the doorstop portion, and a virtual shaft line being defined between the thin wall portions as claimed in the present application. On the other hand, such features are known in the art.
Claim(s) 4, 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roth in view of US Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0147597 A1 to Duran (hereinafter “Duran”).
Regarding claim 4, Roth discloses an optical fiber adapter according to claim 1 as already discussed above. However, it does not explicitly disclose the door piece comprising a first section and a second section and the protrusion being at the first section in the manner claimed in the present application. On the other hand, such a door piece is known in the art. For example, Duran discloses an optical fiber adapter comprising a base member (204 in Fig. 5) and a door piece (650 in Fig. 7), wherein the door piece comprises a first section and a second section in a direction from the pivot portion to a direction away from the pivot portion (Fig. 6) and the protrusion being at the first section (i.e. the protrusion is disposed at the lower portion of the door piece as shown in Fig. 6). One of ordinary skill in the art would readily recognize such a feature as advantageous and desirable since Duran discloses that such a protrusion is advantageous in preventing the front portion of the fiber ferrule of the optical connector from hitting the door piece during the connection insertion motion. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the present application to modify the device of Roth to have the door piece comprising a first section and a second section and the protrusion being at the first section in the manner claimed in the present application.
Regarding claim 9, Roth discloses the protrusion adjacent to the doorstop portion as already discussed above regarding claim 1. In addition, Duran discloses the protrusion being a trapezoidal structure of a semi-circular structure (Fig. 7). As such, the modification of Roth in view of Duran as discussed above regarding claim 4 would also render the claim limitations of claim 9 obvious for the same reasons.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8, 10 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: as discussed above, an optical fiber adapter comprising a base member having a receiving groove and a doorstop portion, a door piece at the receiving groove to selectively open or close the insertion opening wherein the pivoting portion of the door piece is adjacent to the doorstop portion; wherein the outer surface of the door piece comprises a protrusion adjacent to the door stop portion, is known in the art.
However, none of the prior art fairly teaches or suggests such an optical fiber adapter wherein the protrusion comprises an abutting portion; when the door piece is in a first position to close the insertion opening, the abutting portion faces the insertion portion, and the abutting portion is nearer to an entrance of the insertion opening as compared with the second section; the optical-fiber adapter is adapted to be mated with an optical-fiber plug, the optical-fiber plug has a connection body, an insertion pin is exposed from a middle portion of a surface of the connection body, the surface of the connection body is adapted to contact the abutting portion, and a spacing is between the insertion pin and the second section, as claimed in claim 5 of the present application.
Also, none of the prior art fairly teaches or suggests such an optical fiber adapter wherein the protrusion comprises an attaching plane; when the door piece is in a second position to open the insertion opening, the optical-fiber adapter is adapted to be mated with an optical-fiber plug, the optical-fiber plug has a connection body, a bottom surface of the connection body is adapted to contact the attaching plane, and the bottom surface of the connection body, the attaching plane, and a surface of the doorstop portion are at a same plane and flush with each other, as claimed in claim 6 of the present application.
In addition, none of the prior art fairly teaches or suggests such an optical fiber adapter wherein the protrusion is an elongated structure laterally arranged on the outer surface of the door piece, the protrusion has a first inclined plane, a second inclined plane, and an attaching plane, the attaching plane is connected between one of two ends of the first inclined plane and one of two ends of the second inclined plane, the other end of the first inclined plane is connected to the first section, the other end of the second inclined plane is connected to the second section, and a length of the first inclined plane is less than a length of the second inclined plane, as claimed in claim 8 of the present application.
Also, none of the prior art fairly teaches or suggests such an optical fiber adapter wherein the base member has a through groove in communication with the insertion opening and the receiving groove, and the base member comprises an assembling portion adjacent to one of the two side walls adjacent to the through groove; the optical-fiber adapter further comprises a supporting member, the supporting member comprises an elastic piece, the elastic piece is in the receiving groove and abuts against an inner surface of the door piece, the inner surface of the door piece comprises a recessed portion, the elastic piece has a supporting portion abutting against the recessed portion, and the supporting member comprises an engaging portion assembled with the assembling portion, as claimed in claim 10 of the present application.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUNG H PAK whose telephone number is (571)272-2353. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7AM- 5PM.
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/SUNG H PAK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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