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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10 October 2024 complies with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the examiner has considered the information disclosure statement; please see attached forms PTO-1449.
Drawings
The drawings submitted have been reviewed and determined to facilitate understanding of the invention. The drawings are accepted as submitted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US Patent Application Publication US 2016/0238796 A1 to Nguyen et al. (“US1”), cited in Applicant’s IDS.
US1 describes an optical connector (see Figs 6-12) comprising:
a ferrule (210) including a connection end surface having a fiber hole through which an optical fiber is inserted;
a holding (204) member that holds the ferrule;
a spring push (100); and
a biasing member (212) that biases the ferrule, one end of the biasing member contacting the holding member and the other end of the biasing member contacting the spring push (see Fig 8), wherein
the holding member includes an engaging portion (202), and
the spring push includes an engaged portion (118) that engages the engaging portion.
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 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US1 as applied to Claim 1 above.
US1 further describes the engaging portion and engaged portion engaged to prevent the holding member from falling off the spring push due to a biasing force of the biasing member, and allow the holding member to approach the spring push (see [0024]).
US1 does not describe the engaged portion as a hole and at least part of the engaging portion is inserted into the hole. Instead, US1 describes the engaging portion of the holding member as a hole (202) and the engaged portion (118) of the spring push as inserted into the hole (see [0024] and Figs 8, 10).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to alter the connector of US1 such that the hole of the holder member is replaced with the engaged portion structure of the spring push and vice versa, since it has been that reversal and/or rearrangement of parts are obvious modifications (see MPEP 2144.04.VI.C).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 4-8 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.
Claim 2 describes an extending portion extending toward the spring push and penetrating the biasing member, and the engaging portion is disposed on the extending portion.
Claim 4 describes that when the release member is pulled in a rearward direction from the ferrule toward the spring push, the release member bends the engaging claw toward an inner side in the radial direction and releases an engagement between the engaging claw and the adapter.
Claims 5-8 depend from Claim 4 and therefore contain at least the same allowable subject matter.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JERRY RAHLL whose telephone number is (571)272-2356. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am-5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Uyen-Chau Le can be reached at 571-272-2397. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JERRY RAHLL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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