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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed on 11/05/2024 and 11/13/2024 has been considered and placed of record in the file.
Oath/Declaration
The Oath or Declaration is being considered by examiner and complies with PTO requirements.
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) 51, 66, 67, 68-70 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chow US 6,009,122 in view of Garcia US 2015/0281983.
Consider claim 51, Chow discloses A method of encoding communication data (see FIG. 5 and col. 11 lines 35-37) for acoustic communication by way of a downhole communication channel (this limitation is in preamble, hence not given patentable weight), the method comprising:
encoding first communication data in units of individual communication symbols of one or more predefined first communication symbols (see FIG. 5, col. 11 lines 35-40, and claim 14, wherein first data symbol encoder encodes first data signals onto a plurality of frequency tones associated with a symbol), the first communication symbols each comprising one or more selected frequency tones (see col. 11 lines 35-37); and
encoding second communication data in units of individual communication symbols of one or more predefined second communication symbols (see FIG. 5, col. 11 lines 35-40, and claim 14, wherein second data symbol encoder encodes second data signals onto a plurality of frequency tones associated with a symbol), the second communication symbols each comprising one or more selected frequency tones (see col. 11 lines 35-37), the one or more predefined second symbols being different from the one or more predefined first symbols (see claim 14),
wherein each of the first communication symbols, each of the second communication symbols, or each of the first and each of the second communication symbols comprise a plurality of selected frequency tones (see claim 14 and col. 11 lines 35-42, wherein bits are allocated to particular frequency tones of the symbol), and
wherein encoding at least one of the first communication data and the second communication data comprises encoding the respective communication data based on a plurality of different communication symbols (see claim 14).
However Chow does not explicitly disclose wherein the first communication symbols and the second communication symbols each comprise a respective plurality of selected frequency tones in a predefined time sequence. Garcia teaches wherein the communication symbols comprise a respective plurality of selected frequency tones in a predefined time sequence (see ¶ [0034], wherein each symbol occupying a predetermined time slot on the sub-carrier i.e. tone). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the invention of Chow, and to include wherein the first communication symbols and the second communication symbols each comprise a respective plurality of selected frequency tones in a predefined time sequence, as taught by Garcia for the purpose of further disclosing the communication symbol as disclosed in Chow using the same effective technique of the communication symbol as disclosed in Garcia.
Claims 66, 67, and 68 are rejected on the same ground as for claim 51 because of similar scope.
Consider claim 69, Chow discloses A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions for causing processing circuitry to cause performance of the method according to claim 51 (see 4 lines 35-38).
Consider claim 70, Chow discloses A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising executable instructions for causing processing circuitry to cause performance of the method according to claim 67 (see 4 lines 35-38).
Claim(s) 62 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chow US 6,009,122 in view of Garcia US 2015/0281983 as applied to claim 51 above, and further in view of Nilsson et al. US 12,096,089.
Consider claim 62, Chow in view of Garcia discloses every claimed limitation in claim 51.
However Chow in view of Garcia does not explicitly disclose wherein the first communication data is encoded to have a lower bit rate than the encoded second communication data. Nilsson teaches wherein the first communication data is encoded to have a lower bit rate than the encoded second communication data (see claim 1, wherein the second encoded bit rate is higher than the first encoded bit rate). Nilsson further discloses improving content delivery mechanism (see col 1 line 57). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the invention of Chow in view of Garcia, and to include wherein the first communication data is encoded to have a lower bit rate than the encoded second communication data, as taught by Nilsson for the purpose of improving content delivery mechanism.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 52-61 and 63-65 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
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/JANICE N TIEU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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