Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on 06/05/2026, 06/09/2026, and 08/03/2026 have been considered by the examiner and made of record in the application file.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 5-8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. However, upon further consideration, Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Applicants’ arguments are rendered moot in view of the present Office Action.
Applicant respectfully requests that the provisional non-statutory double patenting rejection of Claims 1-8 over Claims 1-9 of co-pending application no. 18/842,515 be held in abeyance until all other issues are resolved in this application. Hence, the provisional non-statutory double patenting rejection is currently upheld.
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) 1 and 5-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hakomori (US 20110176809) in view of Mizutani (US 8331784).
Consider Claim 1, Hakomori discloses an optical communication system comprising: a master station device (Figure 8, element P2); and a slave station device (Figure 8, element P6), and transmits an optical signal including the generated digital signal and an analog main signal, to the slave station device via an optical fiber (Figure 8, where element P23 takes digital signal and analog signal and transmits them to fiber to elements P6), but does not disclose wherein the master station device generates a digital signal including one frame in which plural pieces of control information are stored and the slave station device acquires at least one piece of control information out of the plural pieces of control information, from the digital signal included in the optical signal received from the master station device via the optical fiber.
However, Mizutani discloses the master station device generates a digital signal including one frame in which plural pieces of control information are stored (Figure 4, where element 622 generates frame for downstream transmission and Column 23, Lines 12-20, where downstream frame includes control information such as PLOAM messages and line in G.984.3) and the slave station device acquires at least one piece of control information out of the plural pieces of control information, from the digital signal included in the optical signal received from the master station device via the optical fiber (Figure 45 and Column 39, Lines 54-60, where element 311 extracts control information from received Ethernet frame within ONU received in downstream from OLT), wherein the one frame is an Ethernet frame (Figure 45 and Column 39, Line 29-30 where ONU receives Ethernet frame) and the plural pieces of control information are stored in a payload section of the Ethernet frame (Column 23, Lines 20-22, where control information is stored in payload of frame).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before theeffective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachingsof Mizutani into Hakomori to enable dynamic bandwidth allocation to lower latency.
Consider Claim 5, Hakomori discloses The optical communication system according to claim 1, wherein the master station (Figure 8, element P2) device generates a first optical signal based on the digital signal, generates the optical signal by wavelength-multiplexing (Figure 8, element P23 performs WDM) the generated first optical signal (Figure 8, element P22 supplies digital signal) with a second optical signal based on the main signal (Figure 8, element P4 provides analog signal), and transmits the generated optical signal to the slave station device via the optical fiber (Figure 8, element P3, transmits signal to element P6).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before theeffective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachingsof Mizutani into Hakomori to enable dynamic bandwidth allocation to lower latency.
Consider Claim 6, Hakomori discloses a master station (Figure 8, element P2) device, comprising: circuitry (Figure 1, element P23) configured to transmit an optical signal including the digital signal generated by the circuitry, and an analog main signal, to another device via an optical fiber (Figure 8 and Paragraph 004, where P23 takes analog signal and digital signal and transmits them to elements P6) but does not disclose a generation unit configured to generate a digital signal including one frame in which plural pieces of control information are stored.
However, Mizutani discloses generating a digital signal including one frame (Figure 4, where element 622 generates frames) in which plural pieces of control information are stored (Figure 4, where element 622 generates frame for downstream transmission and Column 23, Lines 12-20, where downstream frame includes control information such as PLOAM messages and line in G.984.3) and wherein the one frame is an Ethernet frame (Figure 45 and Column 39, Line 29-30 where ONU receives Ethernet frame; Column 39, Lines 58-60, where downstream/Ethernet frame originates from OLT) and the plural pieces of control information are stored in a payload section of the Ethernet frame (Column 23, Lines 20-22, where control information is stored in payload of frame).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before theeffective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachingsof Mizutani into Hakomori to enable dynamic bandwidth allocation to lower latency.
Consider Claim 7, Hakimori discloses a slave station device (Figure 1, element 6), configured to receive an optical signal that includes a digital signal (Figure 1, where WDM signal from element 23 contains digital signal), and an analog main signal (Figure 1, where WDM signal from element 23 contains analog signal signal), from another device via an optical fiber (Figure 1, WDM signal comes from element 23 and is transmitted via optical fiber) but does not disclose including a digital signal one frame in which plural pieces of control information are stored and an acquisition unit configured to acquire at least one control information out of the plural pieces of control information, from the digital signal included in the optical signal received by the reception unit. While Hakimori does not explicitly disclose circuitry within the slave device (Figure 1, ONU element 6), paragraph 0057 indicates that the ONU demultiplexes the WDM optical signal into an analog and digital signal. It would be obvious to one of skill in the ordinary art that the ONU must include a demultiplexing unit to demultiplex the WDM signal and that the demultiplexing unit acts as the “circuitry” to receive the incoming optical signal.
However, Mizutani discloses a digital signal including one frame in which plural pieces of control information are (Figure 4, where element 622 generates frame for downstream transmission and Column 23, Lines 12-20, where downstream frame includes control information such as PLOAM messages and line in G.984.3), acquiring at least one control information out of the plural pieces of control information, from the digital signal included in the optical signal received by the circuitry (Figure 45 and Column 39, Lines 54-60, where element 311 extracts control information from received Ethernet frame within ONU received in downstream from OLT) and wherein the one frame is an Ethernet frame (Figure 45 and Column 39, Line 29-30 where ONU receives Ethernet frame) and the plural pieces of control information are stored in a payload section of the Ethernet frame (Column 23, Lines 20-22, where control information is stored in payload of frame).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before theeffective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachingsof Mizutani into Hakomori to enable dynamic bandwidth allocation to lower latency.
Consider Claim 8, Hakomori discloses an optical communication method in an optical communication system including a master station device (Figure 8, element P2) and a slave station device (Figure 8, element P6), the method comprising:, and transmitting an optical signal including the generated digital signal and an analog main signal, to the slave station device via an optical fiber (Figure 8, where element P23 takes digital signal and analog signal and transmits them to fiber to elements P6); but does not disclose by the master station device, generating a digital signal including one frame in which plural pieces of control information are stored and by the slave station device, acquiring at least one piece of control information out of the plural pieces of control information, from the digital signal included in the optical signal received from the master station device via the optical fiber.
However, Mizutani discloses the master station device, generating a digital signal including one frame in which plural pieces of control information are stored (Figure 4, where element 622 generates frame for downstream transmission and Column 23, Lines 12-20, where downstream frame includes control information such as PLOAM messages and line in G.984.3) and by the slave station device, acquiring at least one piece of control information out of the plural pieces of control information, from the digital signal included in the optical signal received from the master station device via the optical fiber (Figure 45 and Column 39, Lines 54-60, where element 311 extracts control information from received Ethernet frame within ONU received in downstream from OLT), wherein the one frame is an Ethernet frame (Figure 45 and Column 39, Line 29-42 where ONU receives Ethernet frame) wherein the one frame is an Ethernet frame (Figure 45 and Column 39, Line 29-30 where ONU receives Ethernet frame) and the plural pieces of control information are stored in a payload section of the Ethernet frame (Column 23, Lines 20-22, where control information is stored in payload of frame).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before theeffective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachingsof Mizutani into Hakomori to enable dynamic bandwidth allocation to lower latency.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 and 9-13 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
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/ASIF SHAMEEM/Examiner, Art Unit 2634
/KENNETH N VANDERPUYE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2634
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