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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in China on February 28, 2022. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the CN 202210191220.1 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Objections
The claims are objected to because they include reference characters which are not enclosed within parentheses.
Reference characters corresponding to elements recited in the detailed description of the drawings and used in conjunction with the recitation of the same element or group of elements in the claims should be enclosed within parentheses so as to avoid confusion with other numbers or characters which may appear in the claims. See MPEP § 608.01(m).
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang et al. (WO 03/081324).
In regard to Claim 1:
Wang discloses, in Figure 23, a communication apparatus, comprising a first filter (111), a second filter (112), a coupling control unit (120);
wherein the first filter (100-1) and the second filter (100-2) are configured to filter a radio frequency signal (Page 7: lines 9-17); the first filter (100-1) comprises at least one resonant cavity (112-1), with the 1st resonant cavity (112-1) of the first filter (100-1) having a first coupling rod (160; Page 21: lines 23-32 and Page 22: lines 1-3); the second filter (100-2) comprises at least one resonant cavity (112-1 of 100-1), with the 1st resonant cavity (112-1 of 100-2) of the second filter (100-2) having a second coupling rod (160 of 100-2; Page 21: lines 23-32 and Page 22: lines 1-3);
the coupling control unit (120) is located between the 1st resonant cavity of the first filter (112-1 of 100-1) and the 1st resonant cavity of the second filter (112-1 of 100-2), and the coupling control unit (120) is connected to the first coupling rod (160 of 100-1) and the second coupling rod (160 of 100-2); and the coupling control unit (120) is configured to control connection or disconnection between the first coupling rod (160 of 100-1) and the second coupling rod (160 of 100-2), wherein if the first coupling rod (160 of 100-1) is connected to the second coupling rod (160 of 100-2), the communication apparatus is in an operating status of a power division state (Page 22: lines 16-18); and if the first coupling rod (160 of 100-1) is disconnected from the second coupling rod (160 of 100-2), the communication apparatus is in an operating status of a pass-through state (Page 22: lines 18-19).
Claim(s) 7 and 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhang et al. (CN 215896652).
In regard to Claim 7:
Zhang discloses, in Figure 1, a communication apparatus, comprising a first filter (10), a second filter (20), and a common resonant cavity (00);
wherein the first filter (10) and the second filter (20) are configured to filter a radio frequency signal (Translation page 2: Paragraph 0004);
the first filter (10) comprises at least one resonant cavity (11-16);
the second filter (20) comprises at least one resonant cavity (21-26);
the common resonant cavity (00) is located between a 1st resonant cavity (11) of the first filter (10) and a 1st resonant cavity (12) of the second filter (20), and the common resonant cavity (00) is connected to the 1st resonant cavity (11) of the first filter (10) and the 1st resonant cavity (21) of the second filter (20); and
the common resonant cavity (00) is configured to isolate the first filter (10) from the second filter (20), or couple the first filter (10) to the second filter (20), wherein if the first filter (10) is isolated from the second filter (20), the communication apparatus is in an operating status of a pass-through state (Translation page 2, Paragraph 0009: lines 8-9); and if the first filter (10) is coupled to the second filter (20), the communication apparatus is in an operating status of a power division state (Translation page 2, Paragraph 0009: lines 9-10).
In regard to Claim 10:
Zhang discloses, in Figure 1, a communication apparatus, comprising a first filter (10), a second filter (20), and a ground control assembly (40);
wherein the first filter (10) and the second filter (20) are configured to filter a radio frequency signal (Translation page 2: Paragraph 0004);
the first filter (10) comprises at least one resonant cavity (11-16), the second filter (20) comprises at least one resonant cavity (21-26), and the ground control assembly (40) is connected to the 1st resonant cavity of the second filter (40 is connected to 21 via 22-23 and 32); and
the ground control assembly (40) is configured to control whether the 1st resonant cavity (11) of the second filter (20) is grounded (Translation page 4, Paragraph 0001), wherein if the 1st resonant cavity (21) of the second filter (20) is not grounded (Translation page 2, Paragraph 0001), the communication apparatus is in an operating status of a power division state (Translation page 2, Paragraph 0009: lines 9-10); and if the 1st resonant cavity (21) of the second filter (20) is grounded, the communication apparatus is in an operating status of a pass-through state (Translation page 2, Paragraph 0009: lines 8-9).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6, 8-9, and 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Shi et al. (US 2014/0184354) discloses a filter apparatus, a base station system, and a method for frequency channel switching. In application of technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the grounding probe connected to the electrical ground contacts or approaches the resonator to short-circuit or disturb a resonant cavity that includes the resonator, so as to reject output of an input signal of the filter apparatus and finally achieve an effect of closing the filter apparatus; when the filter apparatus is used in combination with multiple other filter apparatuses, and when the filter apparatus is closed, spurious signals of the other filter apparatuses are not propagated to an antenna port through the filter apparatus.
Fiedziuszko et al. (US 6,356,171) discloses an electromagnetic cavity filter is formed by at least two cavities having electrically conductive walls. Each cavity is the equivalent of two filter poles because two orthogonal modes of electromagnetic radiation can resonate within each cavity. Characterizing vector tuning elements are coupled to each of the cavities that are each aligned along respective axes. The tuning elements are used to provoke derivative orthogonal modes and determine the degree of coupling between orthogonal modes. One or more intercavity couplers interconnect the cavities and are rotated at arbitrary angles that are different from the axes of the characterizing vector tuning elements. Electrically adjacent and nonadjacent modes of proximate cavities can be coupled, permitting elliptic filter functions. Electrically nonadjacent modes are coupled by means of an iris interconnecting the two cavities. Electrically adjacent modes are coupled by means of an electrically conductive probe penetrating each of the cavities. A dielectric resonator may be disposed within each cavity to reduce the physical size of the cavity while preserving its electrical characteristics. Input and output coupling elements, coupled to selected cavities may be disposed at locations that are angularly rotated with respect to a corresponding characterizing vector tuning element by a selectable angle that varies between 0 and .+-.180 degrees.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to John W Poos whose telephone number is (571)270-5077. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 8-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jessica Han can be reached at 571-272-2078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOHN W POOS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2896