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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0302673 to Izawa et al. in view of US 7,835,081 to Ozeki.
Izawa discloses an optical receptacle comprising:
A first optical surface (624) for allowing incidence light emitted from a light emitting element (610);
A second optical surface (grating 624; paragraph 74) for causing, to be emitted toward the optical transmission member (130), the light incident on the first optical surface and travelling inside the optical receptacle; and
As to claims 3 and 13, a photodetector (114) is disclosed.
As to claim 4, the device is integrally formed.
As to claim 5, the diffraction portion (624) can be different from the other surface (621).
However, Izawa fails to disclose the diffraction portion satisfying the Expressions. It appears these Expressions detail the shape, period and angles of the grating surface (Applicant’s definition of the blaze shape).
Claims 2, and 6-11 relate to setting values.
Ozeki discloses in figures 1 and 4-5, the ability to alter and optimize these values that correspond to the Expressions claimed.
Claim 12 is similar to the above but appears to combine prior dependent claim 2 features.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to adjust and optimize the blaze shapes as taught by Ozeki to finalize a shape to the claimed Expressions in the optical surface in Izawa to redirect light with precision and discovering optimal values in result effective variables involves routine skill in the art. In re Boesch, 617 F.2d 272, 205 USPQ 215 (CCPA 1980).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Eric K Wong whose telephone number is (571)272-2363. The examiner can normally be reached M-Tu, Th-F 8A-6P.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hollweg can be reached on 571-270-1739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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ERIC K. WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2874
/Eric Wong/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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