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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on August 7, 2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed August 7, 2026 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bacco et al. (Patent Pub. No. CA 3221200 A1).
Regarding claim 20, Bacco et al. shows in Fig. 1 a receiver (1) for a quantum signal, comprising: a mixer (2, i.e., optical coupler) for mixing or interfering a local oscillator signal (LO) and a quantum signal (INPUT) to form interference signals; and a pair of photodetectors (PD1 and PD2) that can be balanced for outputting a difference signal in response to the interference signals; and an electronic circuit (14-16) for amplifying the difference signals and determining a quadrature component of the quantum signal from the difference signals with shot noise limited precision or sub-shot noise limited precision or quantum noise limited precision (Page 16, lines 6-21).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-19 and 21 are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Yuan et al. (Patent Pub. No. US 2016/0047643 A1) discloses interference of pulses of light used in quantum communications systems, for example in quantum key distribution (QKD) or measurement device independent QKD (MDI-QKD).
Lucamarini et al. (Patent Pub. No. US 2018/0241553 A1) discloses a quantum communication system for distributing a key between first and second units.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SEUNG C SOHN whose telephone number is (571)272-4123. The examiner can normally be reached M - F 8 - 5.
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/SEUNG C SOHN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2878
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