8/19/24 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 .
Detailed Action.
Information Disclosure Statement
The prior art documents submitted by Applicant(s) in the information Disclosure Statement(s) have all been considered and made of record (note the attached copy of form(s) PTO-1449).
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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
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.
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 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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Allen”; et al., US 20100150504 A1.
With regard to claim 1 Allen teaches a fiber optic cable (see figs. 1-23) comprising:
fiber optic cable (see at least fig.20) comprising: a plurality of internal optical fibers 20; a fiber optic cable portion (i. e, a fiber optic cable portion between terminations 40) including: an outer jacket/cover 78 (parag. 0060-0071), and an inner conduit 10, the inner conduit containing the plurality of optical fibers 20 disposed therein (see at least 9-12); and a flexible conduit portion (a portion the flexible conduit portion 10 proximal to the termination portion 40—similar to that of the applicant portion of figs. 2-3), wherein the flexible conduit portion has a proximal end and a distal end (see at least 9-12); the proximal end being secured to the fiber optic cable portion and the distal end having a terminating device 40, wherein the terminating device at least partially encases the flexible conduit portion (shown in at least 9-12), and wherein the plurality of optical fibers 20 passes through the flexible conduit portion and the terminating device (shown in at least 9-12).
However, Allen does not explicitly teach all limitations of the claim, such as outer jacket/cover in a single embodiment. Nonetheless, the embodiments of Allen are closely interrelated and one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify one or more of the embodiment teaching of Allen to a single embodiment so as to provide protection in hazardous environment (see parag. 0060).
Citation of Relevant Prior Art
Prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. In accordance with MPEP 707.05 the following references are pertinent in rejection of this application since they provide substantially the same information disclosure as this patent does. These references are:
US 20110229098 A1
US 20100150504 A1
US 5364389 A
US 8290333 B2
US 20140219621 A1
US 5135265 A
US 5838861 A
US 20130294735 A1
US 6669627 B1
US 20040184748 A1
US 20090002689 A1
US 20060120672 A1
US 8737786 B1
US 5879075 A
US 20050111811 A1
US 8620130 B2
US 20140126873 A1
US 10564363 B1
US 6867668 B1
WO 2006081541 A2
US 20060169469 A1
US 20100030033 A1
US 4453291 A
US 5416874 A
US 5863083 A
JP 2011208686 A
US 5514128 A
US 4299244 A
US 20150226927 A1
US 20140241674 A1
US 20110081121 A1
US 5645519 A
US 20150155697 A1
US 20040141707 A1
US 8824841 B1
US 20110262084 A1
US 20090060421 A1
US 8577199 B2
US 20030122040 A1
US 20100059229 A1
US 5649042 A
US 20150078720 A1
US 4582067 A
US 20140133823 A1
US 20110024103 A1
US 7228047 B1
US 5554026 A
US 20080138026 A1
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAVEH C KIANNI whose telephone number is (571)272-2417. The examiner can normally be reached on 9-19.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hollweg can be reached on571-270-1739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/KAVEH C KIANNI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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