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 .
Receipt is acknowledged of IDS filed on 10/09/2024.
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
This application is a 371 of PCT/NL2023/050186 filed on 04/11/2023.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Damaghi et al. (US 2017/0280211) in view of Brand et al. (US 2018/0239024).
Re Claims 1 and 10-11: Damaghi et al. teaches data motion storage and method, which includes an identification station {herein Earth station 20a} (¶ 131+); wherein the identification station comprises: an optical beam generator {herein at least one of the signal generator and the signal transmitter may generate an optical beam signal} configured to generate at least one beam of optical radiation with controllable spectral properties (¶ 19+, 138+); transmission optics configured to transmit the at least one beam in the direction of the identification tag (¶ 132+); receive optics configured to receive a portion of the optical radiation that is filtered and reflected by the tag (¶ 129+); a demultiplexing unit 118A configured to separate the received portion of the optical radiation into a plurality of respective spectral components (¶ 170+); a detection unit {herein data acquisition/DAQ 120 may include a physical photodetector, such as a photodiode} configured with respective photodetection components to issue respective detection signals indicative of respective magnitudes of the respective spectral components (¶ 171+, 190+); and a signal processing unit configured to identify the orbital object on the basis of the detection signals, wherein the retroreflecting identification tag comprises a spectral filter having a surface area partitioned into respective surface area portions having respective, mutually different spectral characteristics (¶ 171+).
Damaghi et al. also discloses the first vessel comprises a system asset tracker that may be configured to maintain position information regarding the second vessel (see ¶ 21+).
Damaghi et al. fails to specifically teach at least one tagged orbital object, having a retroreflecting identification tag mounted thereon.
Brand et al. teaches space asset tracker, comprising at least one tagged orbital object {herein space asset tag 200}, having a retroreflecting identification tag mounted thereon (¶ 24-46+).
In view of Brand et al.’s teachings, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to employ into the teachings of Damaghi et al. at least one tagged orbital object, having a retroreflecting identification tag mounted thereon so as to enable means of identifying objects in space. Such modification would be beneficial for tracking space asset/object with a position sensing receiver embedded in the tag and automatically transmit tracking information based on the position information.
Re Claim 10: Damaghi et al. teaches system and method, wherein the identification station further comprises a tracking module configured to track a position and/or attitude of an orbital object (¶ 21+).
Claim(s) 2-3, 12 and 17-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Damaghi et al. (US 2017/0280211) as modified by Brand et al. (US 2018/0239024) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Youn (US 2009/0224989).
Re Claim 12: The teachings of Damaghi et al. have been discussed above. Damaghi et al. teaches a filter 48 (¶ 215+).
Damaghi et al. as modified by Brand et al. fails to specifically teach wherein the spectral filter of the retroreflecting identification tag comprises respective notch filters, bandpass filters in respective surface area portions.
Youn teaches transmission line notch filter, wherein the spectral filter of the retroreflecting identification tag comprises respective notch filters 28, bandpass filters in respective surface area portions (¶ 25-29+).
In view of Youn’s teachings, it would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to employ into the teachings of Damaghi et al. the spectral filter of the retroreflecting identification tag comprises respective notch filters, bandpass filters in respective surface area portions so as to so as to block out back-reflected process beam light to better achieve blackbody radiation. Such modification would be beneficial by removing interference signal of a specific frequency.
Re Claims 17-18: Damaghi et al. teaches system and method, wherein the demultiplexing unit comprises a chain of optical demultiplexing elements that are each configured to selectively redirect a respective spectral fraction of incoming optical radiation and to transmit a remaining spectral fraction of the incoming optical radiation so as to separate the received portion of the optical radiation into respective optical channels for the respective photodetection components (¶ 171+, 190+, 213+).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-9, 13-16 and 19-20are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art of record fails to specifically teach:
Re Claim 4: each surface area portion has a surface area that is a value k/K times a combined surface area of the surface area portions, wherein k and K are natural numbers, and wherein k is in the range from 0 to K;
Re Claim 7: the retroreflecting identification tag is one of a plurality of retroreflecting identification tags mounted in a distributed manner on the at least one tagged orbital object, wherein the plurality of retroreflecting identification tags have same partitioning of their surface area for the mutually different spectral characteristics;
Re Claim 8: the demultiplexing unit comprises a chain of optical demultiplexing elements that are each configured to selectively redirect a respective spectral fraction of incoming optical radiation and to transmit a remaining spectral fraction of the incoming optical radiation so as to separate the received portion of the optical radiation into respective optical channels for the respective photodetection components. These limitations in conjunction with other limitations in the claimed invention were not shown by the prior art of record.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wang et al. (US 2024/0088957) teaches beamforming for backscatter radio.
Mroczek et al. (US 2017/0264022) teaches method to locate and identify artificial objects in space using van atta array retro-reflectors and radar system.
Sheng (CN 110858799 A) teaches the tag device, electronic device, communication method and storage medium in a wireless communication system.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EDWYN LABAZE whose telephone number is (571)272-2395. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30AM-5:00PM.
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/EDWYN LABAZE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876