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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-2, 4-5, 8, 10, 12-14, 16, 19, 22-23, 25, 29, 34, 36, 40-41, and 47 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1, the limitation “at least one support substrate” is recited as being a part of each antenna device. Further in the claim, the limitation “wherein at least two of said plurality of antenna device share said support substrate” is stated. It is unclear how to resolve these two limitations, as each antenna device is recited as having its own support substrate. Does this mean the same support substrate cane be for multiple antenna devices? Does this just mean the support substrates are just separate areas of a larger support substrate? Is separation required between the substrates? For examination, it is assumed the same support can be referred to for multiple antenna devices.
Regarding multiple claims, “and/or” is recited for several claims and it is unclear how to parse the claims in some areas, especially since some of clauses separated by “and/or” are not clearly related. It is suggested to use indenting/paragraphs to clearly articulate which clauses are being separated by the optional language. For examination, if one clause it taught by the prior art the rest are considered optional and not examined.
The rest of the claims are rejected based on their dependence from the above claims.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, 8, 10, 13-14, 16, 19, 22-23, 25, 29, 34, 36, 40-41, and 47 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Howell-McLean et al. (U.S. Patent Application No. 20190185109), hereinafter known as Howell, in view of Hahn (U.S. Patent Application No. 20210188393), hereinafter known as Hahn.
Regarding claim 1, Howell teaches (Figs. 1-24) a bicycle frame (52), - at least one antenna system (98) at least partially mounted, directly or indirectly, to said bicycle frame (see Fig. 1), wherein the antenna system comprises a plurality of antenna devices (232, see Fig. 18), each antenna device comprising: at least one, support substrate (208), a shielding structure (120), wherein said shielding structure is substantially free of conductive material ([0094]), and wherein an outer side of the shielding structure facing away from said conductive radiator is at least partially exposed to the environment (see Fig. 1), wherein at least two of said plurality of antenna devices share said support substrate (see Fig. 18).
Howell does not teach further details of the antenna devices.
Hahn teaches (Figs. 1-16) a bicycle frame (12), - at least one antenna system (100) at least partially mounted, directly or indirectly, to said bicycle frame (see Fig. 1), wherein the antenna system comprises an antenna device (100), each antenna device comprising: at least one, support substrate (142), at least one conductive radiator (148) applied onto said substrate, a shielding structure (102) covering said at least one conductive radiator (see Fig. 4), wherein said shielding structure is substantially free of conductive material ([0060]), and wherein an outer side of the shielding structure facing away from said conductive radiator is at least partially exposed to the environment (see Fig. 1), and wherein the radiators of said antenna device are deposited and/or printed and/or metallized and/or plated onto said shared support substrate ([0056]).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of invention to one of ordinary skill in the art to include a conductive radiator within the antenna devices of Howell since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to employ/use a known technique to improve similar devices (methods, products) in the same way is obvious. KSR International Co. v Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 415-421, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1395-97 (2007) Using a conductive element for a radiative body in an antenna is well known to a skilled artisan.
Regarding claim 2, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein the outer side of the shielding structure is substantially positioned flush with an adjacent outer surface of the bicycle (see Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 4, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein said at least two of said plurality of antenna devices sharing said support substrate, together form a single moulded interconnect device (see Fig. 18).
Regarding claim 5, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein at least one antenna device is at least partially made by means of laser direct structuring (LDS) and/or wherein said at least two of said plurality of antenna devices sharing said support substrate, are at least partially made by means of laser direct structuring (LDS) and/or wherein at least one support substrate comprises at least one through hole via, and/or at least one contact pad, and/or at least one feed line (This limitation is in regards to how the antenna device was made, which does not meaningfully provide any structural limitations. Therefore, the limitation is treated as a Product-by-Process limitation. Since, the structure of antenna device is found to be substantially identical to the structure claimed by claim 5, the claim is therefore taught by the combination of Howell and Hahn. See MPEP 2113.).
Regarding claim 8, Hahn further teaches (Figs. 1-16) wherein at least one radiator of at least one antenna device is at least partially embedded in the support substrate (see. Fig. 8) and/or wherein said at least two of said plurality of antenna devices sharing the same support substrate are configured to operate in different frequency bands.
Regarding claim 10, Hahn further teaches (Figs. 1-16) wherein at least one radiator has a 3D geometry, and wherein at least one support structure has a 3D surface onto which said at least one radiator having a matching 3D geometry is applied (see Fig. 9) and/or wherein at least one radiator has thickness of between 1 and 20 micron.
Regarding claim 13, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein the bicycle comprises a bicycle control unit (98), and wherein at least one antenna device is at least partially mounted directly to said control unit and/or integrated with said control unit (see Fig. 18).
Regarding claim 14, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein at least one support surface is at least partially made of a foamed, polymer-based material and/or wherein the radiators of said plurality of antenna devices sharing the same support substrate are positioned in line with each other (see Fig. 18).
Regarding claim 16, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein at least one antenna device is at least partially mounted directly to said bicycle frame (see Fig. 1), wherein at least a part of said antenna device is at least partially accommodated by said bicycle frame and/or wherein a part of at least one antenna device makes integral part of said bicycle frame and/or wherein the bicycle frame is at least partially composed a conductive material
Regarding claim 19, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein the bicycle comprises at least one component (68) mounted to said bicycle frame (see Fig. 1), and wherein at least one antenna device is at least partially mounted directly to said component (see Fig. 1), wherein at least a part of said antenna device is at least partially accommodated by said component (see Fig. 18), wherein the component is a component chosen from the group consisting of: a headlight, a taillight, a stem, a handlebar (see Fig. 1), a kickstand, a seat post, a brake lever, a shift lever, a saddle, a bicycle control unit, and a rechargeable battery and/or, wherein at least a part of at least one antenna device makes integral part of said component.
Regarding claim 22, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein the bicycle comprises a plurality of antenna devices (see Fig. 18).
Regarding claim 23, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein the bicycle comprises a plurality of antenna devices, wherein at least two antenna devices are mounted to different parts of the bicycle or wherein the bicycle comprises a plurality of antenna devices, wherein at least two antenna devices are mounted to the same part of the bicycle (see Fig. 18).
Regarding claim 25, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein the radiators of the at least two antenna devices are situated in the same plane (see Fig. 18) and/or wherein at least one antenna device comprises at least two conductive radiators and/or wherein at least one conductive radiator of at least one antenna device is formed by a conductive layer and/or wherein each antenna device comprises a conductive ground plane mounted to the support substrate at a side of the support substrate facing away from the at least one radiator.
Regarding claim 29, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein at least one antenna device is horizontally polarized and/or wherein at least one antenna device is vertically polarized and/or wherein each antenna device is connected to a feeding point and/or wherein at least one radiator of at least one antenna device is flat (see Fig. 18) and/or wherein at least one radiator of at least one antenna device is curved and/or angular.
Regarding claim 34, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein at least one radiator of at least one antenna device is deposited and/or printed and/or metallized and/or plated onto said substrate (This limitation is in regards to how the antenna device was made, which does not meaningfully provide any structural limitations. Therefore, the limitation is treated as a Product-by-Process limitation. Since, the structure of antenna device is found to be substantially identical to the structure claimed by claim 5, the claim is therefore taught by the combination of Howell and Hahn. See MPEP 2113.). and/or wherein at least one radiator of at least one antenna device is at least partially composed of copper and/or gold and/or nickel.
Regarding claim 36, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein at least one radiator comprises a multi-layered structure comprising a plurality of metal layers and/or wherein at least one support substrate of at least one antenna device is a moulded substrate (see Fig. 18).
Regarding claim 40, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein the antenna system is configured to operate in at least one wireless communication system selected from the group including: Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz IEEE802.11b/g, 5 GHz IEEE802.11a, Hyperlan, IEEE802.11 (WiFi), ultra wide band (UWB), LTE, NFC, WiMAX, ZigBee, ZigBee at 860 MHz, ZigBee at 915 MHz, GPS, GPS at 1.575 GHz, GPS at 1.227 GHz, Galileo, GSM-900, DCS-1800, UMTS, CDMA, DBA, WLAN, WLAN at 2.4 GHz-5 GHz, PCS1900, KPCS, WCDMA, DAB, 2.4-2.483 GHz band, and 2.471-2.497 GHz band ([0105]).
Regarding claim 41, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) wherein at least a part of at least one antenna device is mounted to and/or makes part of a bicycle control unit (see Fig. 1)
and/or wherein the shielding structure comprises a shielding layer, said shielding layer comprises at least one dielectric layer and wherein the shielding layer comprises a laminate of dielectric layers.
Regarding claim 47, Howell further teaches (Figs. 1-24) an antenna system or antenna device for use in a bicycle according to claim 1 (see Fig. 1).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Bierwerth et al. (U.S. Patent Application No. 20170080993) teaches an antenna system on a bicycle.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL MUNOZ whose telephone number is (571)270-1957. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
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/DANIEL MUNOZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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