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.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the labeling of “10,11”, “10,12”, “10,13”, “10,14”, and “10,15” for terminal devices shown in Figures 1 and 3 are inconsistence with the labeling of “10” for terminal device shown in Figure 2. Further, the labeling of “10A,11A”, “10A,12A”, “10A,13A”, “10A,14A”, and “10A,15A” for terminal devices shown in Figures 7 and 9 are also inconsistence with the labeling of “11A” for terminal device shown in Figure 8. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 3-6 and 8-10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 3, line 1, the phrase “further comprising” should be “wherein the information processing part comprises”. See the block elements 50 and 55 of Figure 2.
Claim 5, line 3, the phrase “converts the frequency” should be “converts the frequency of the pulse repetition signal”.
Claim 8, line 5, the phrase “the plurality of terminal devices include” should be “the plurality of terminal devices includes”.
Claim 4 depends from claim 3, therefore it is also objected.
Claim 6 depends from claim 5, therefore it is also objected.
Claims 9 and 10 both depend from claim 8, therefore they are also objected.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 7, 8, and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Gagnon et al. (US 9,819,544 B2), hereinafter “Gagnon”.
Gagnon illustrates a communication system 300 in FIG. 2 comprising a master device and daisy-chained devices (310-340) for use in a daisy chain communication configuration.
FIG. 3 illustrates components of a daisy-chained device 1 or I of FIG. 2 comprising processing functionality 331 and signal transmission functionality 335, wherein the signal transmission functionality 335 comprises an input terminal 336 receives an input signal from an output terminal 200 of the master device, a frequency divider 337, and an output terminal 338, and wherein the processing functionality 331 comprises a communication interface 333 connected to the master device via a communication link 230, a processing unit 332 processes the input signal from the input terminal 336, and a memory 334 including an address lookup table 220.
Regarding claim 1, Gagnon illustrates a terminal device (daisy-chained device I in FIG. 3) for which a communication address (a plurality of addresses and corresponding frequencies) is set, the terminal device comprising: an input terminal (input terminal 336) to which a pulse repetition signal (the input signal having a pre-determined base frequency or a square wave which is considered a specific type of pulse repetition signal. In signal processing, the rate at which these waves repeat is known as the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) or pulse repetition rate (PRR), which is synonymous with the fundamental frequency of the periodic signal. Col. 5, lines 26-32) for setting the communication address is input; a signal converter (frequency divider 337) that converts a frequency or a duty ratio of the pulse repetition signal input to the input terminal and outputs a converted pulse repetition signal; and an output terminal (output terminal 338) that outputs the converted pulse repetition signal to another terminal device different from the terminal device (daisy-chained device 320 or 340 of FIG. 2, col. 5, lines 53-60).
Regarding claim 2, as shown in FIG. 3, the daisy-chained device further comprising an information processing part (processing unit 332) that sets the communication address based on the frequency or the duty ratio of the pulse repetition signal input to the input terminal.
Regarding claim 3, as shown in FIG. 3, the daisy-chained device further comprising a storage (address lookup table 220 of the memory 334) in which a correspondence relationship between the frequency or the duty ratio of the pulse repetition signal and the communication address is stored in advance, wherein the information processing part sets the communication address based on the frequency or the duty ratio of the pulse repetition signal input to the input terminal and the correspondence relationship stored in the storage. Also see col. 6, line 60 to col. 7, line 3.
Regarding claim 4, as shown in FIG. 3, wherein the address lookup table 220 of the memory 334 stores the communication address set by the processing unit 332. Although Gagnon does not explicitly show or teach that the communication address is held in the address lookup table 220 of the memory 334 after the daisy-chained device is powered off, it is well known in the art that a processing circuit, such as the processing unit 332 and the address lookup table 220 of the memory 334 of the processing functionality 331 often utilizes non-volatile memory, such as read only memory (ROM), flash memory (NAND/NOR), or non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), clearly, as shown in FIG. 3, the processing unit 332 and the memory-based LUT 334 are standard components in computing and networking, the persistence of data after power-off is determined by the choice between volatile and non-volatile memory for the address lookup table 220 to store addresses or frequencies that can be retrieved via direct addressing, replacing the need for expensive runtime re-calculations.
Regarding claim 5, as shown in FIG. 3, wherein the signal converter (frequency divider 337) converts the frequency by dividing the frequency of the pulse repetition signal and outputs the converted pulse repetition signal (col. 5, line 56 to col. 6, line 31).
Regarding claim 7, as shown in FIG. 3, the daisy-chained device further comprising a bus communication terminal (the communication interface 333) different from the input terminal 336 and the output terminal 338, wherein a control signal (from the processing unit 332) for controlling the terminal device is input to the bus communication terminal, and the control signal includes information related to the communication address set by the information processing part (the communication interface 333 and the address lookup table 220).
Regarding claim 8, as shown in FIG. 2, the communication system (300) comprising: a plurality of terminal devices (daisy-chained devices 310-340) each of which is the terminal device (FIG. 3); and a management device (master device) that outputs the pulse repetition signal (200), wherein the plurality of terminal devices include at least a first terminal device (310), a second terminal device (320), and a third terminal device (330), the management device is connected to the input terminal of the first terminal device, the output terminal of the first terminal device is connected to the input terminal of the second terminal device, and the output terminal of the second terminal device is connected to the input terminal of the third terminal device.
Regarding claim 10, as applied to claim 8 and shown in FIG. 2, wherein each of the plurality of terminal devices is bus-connected to the management device via a bus communication terminal (the communication interface 306 or 333, such as a universal serial bus USB interface, col. 7, lines 4-10) different from the input terminal 336 and the output terminal 338, the management device controls each of the plurality of terminal devices by outputting a control signal (from the processing unit 302) for controlling each of the plurality of terminal devices to the bus communication terminal, and the control signal includes information related to the communication address set by each of the plurality of terminal devices.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gagnon in view of Bartlett (US 2016/0056668 A1), hereinafter “Bartlett”.
Regarding claim 6 applied to claim 5 as stated above, although Gagnon illustrates one of the daisy-chained devices shown in Figure 3 comprises the input terminal 336 configured to output a pulse repetitional signal (square wave) through the frequency divider 337 to another daisy-chained device or through the processing unit 332 to the master device, Gagnon fails to show or teach that the daisy-chained device further comprising an oscillation circuit that outputs the pulse repetition signal.
Bartlett illustrates a system 100 in FIG. 1 comprising a central control unit 200 for controlling an appliance enables electronical circuits. FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of the central control unit 200 comprising a microprocessor 210, a keypad 220, a display 230, and a constant current source 240. Bartlett also teaches that the microprocessor 210, for example a microcontroller, may be a single component and in some embodiments includes a processor, an oscillator, Random Access Memory (RAM), an Analogue to Digital (A-D) converter 218, a timer, a comparator, and Read Only Memory (ROM). See paragraph [0050].
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art as taught by Bartlett to implement Gagnon’s processing unit 332 of the daisy-chained device to include an oscillation circuit configured to output the pulse repetition signal to the master device in order to generate periodic electronic signals of the pulse repetition signals (often in the form of square waves) for use as system clocks or timing references.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 9 is 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
ICHIKAWA illustrates a communication system 10 in FIG. 1 for performing communication with a plurality of terminal devices 200 and for receiving a request for publishing a message or subscribing to a message from each terminal device in order to exchange a message among the plurality of terminal devices.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Young T. Tse whose telephone number is (571)272-3051. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10:30am-7pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh M Fan can be reached at 571-272-3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Young T. Tse/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632