Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-10,20-21 in the reply filed on 6/3/26 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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 –
(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent in the United States.
Claim(s) 1,4-10 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(b) as being anticipated by Buchsbaum (US 6700690).
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Regarding claim 1, Buchsbaum teaches (Fig. 1) An optical filter for filtering an incoming broadband beam, said optical filter comprising:
a first variable filter (1) configured to receive at least part of the incoming broadband beam (3) and transmit a first filtered beam; and
a second variable filter (2) configured to receive the first filtered beam and transmit a second filtered beam.
Regarding claim 4, Buchsbaum further teaches The optical filter according to claim 1, wherein the first variable filter is a short wave pass filter (Fig. 5, 1 being short and 2 being long with respect to each other, Examiner notes the shortpass or longpass is a bandpass filter in most real world applications, e.g., a shortpass filter will be cut off somewhere in UV if not in visible).
Regarding claim 5, Buchsbaum further teaches The optical filter according to claim 4, wherein the second variable filter is a long wave pass filter (see claim 4 rejection above).
Regarding claim 6, Buchsbaum further teaches The optical filter according to claim 1, wherein the first variable filter has a transmission spectrum which changes with position over the first variable filter (col. 7, ¶ 1, “The wedged coating imparts a corresponding variation of the center wavelength of the filter bandpass with respect to the linear position of the filter pair (1 and 2)”).
Regarding claim 7, Buchsbaum further teaches The optical filter according to claim 1, wherein the second variable filter has a transmission spectrum which changes with position over the second variable filter (col. 7, ¶ 1, “The wedged coating imparts a corresponding variation of the center wavelength of the filter bandpass with respect to the linear position of the filter pair (1 and 2)”).
Regarding claim 8, Buchsbaum further teaches The optical filter according to claim 1, the first variable filter and/or the second variable filter comprises a linear variable filter (col. 6, last ¶, “linearly variable”).
Regarding claim 9, Buchsbaum further teaches The optical filter according to claim 1, wherein the first variable filter and/or the second variable filter are connected to a controller, wherein the controller is configured to control the first variable filter and/or the second variable filter (col. 7, line 38, “servo control”).
Regarding claim 10, Buchsbaum further teaches The optical filter according to claim 1, wherein the first variable filter and the second variable filter are configured to enable the optical filter to operate as a variable bandpass filter (col. 7, ¶ 2, “The variable bandwidth tunable optical filter (10) can be adjusted to a specific center wavelength by moving the filter pair (1 and 2) together linearly through the incident beam (3)”).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 2-3,20-21 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Buchsbaum.
Regarding claim 2, Buchsbaum teaches all the limitations as stated in claim 1, but does not explicitly teach The optical filter according to claim 1, wherein the first variable filter is a long wave pass filter. The difference between the claimed invention and Buchsbaum’s teaching is the 1st and the 2nd filters switch position.
Absent any showing of criticality and/or unpredictability, having the 1st and the 2nd filters switch position would have been known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention for the purposes of design choices.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of Buchsbaum by having the 1st and the 2nd filters switch position for the purposes of design choices.
Regarding claim 3, the modified Buchsbaum further teaches The optical filter according to claim 2, wherein the second variable filter is a short wave pass filter (see claim 2 rejection above, as the result of switching).
Regarding claim 20, Buchsbaum teaches all the limitations as stated in claim 10, but does not explicitly teach The optical filter according to claim 10, wherein said bandpass filter has an out of band suppression of more than or equal to 10 dB.
However the out of band suppression is “a result-effective variable” because it confers filtering effects. And it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have said bandpass filter has an out of band suppression of more than or equal to 10 dB, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges of a result-effective variable involves only routine skill in the art, MPEP2144.05.
One would be motivated to have said bandpass filter has an out of band suppression of more than or equal to 10 dB for the purposes of having desired filtering effects.
Regarding claim 21, Buchsbaum teaches all the limitations as stated in claim 1, but does not explicitly teach A broadband light source comprising: a light source configured to generate a broadband beam; and the optical filter according to claim 1 arrange to receive the generated broadband beam.
Absent any showing of criticality and/or unpredictability, having a broadband light source comprising: a light source configured to generate a broadband beam; and the optical filter according to claim 1 arrange to receive the generated broadband beam would have been known to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention for the purposes of design choices, e.g., using a low cost broadband beam for general purposes applications.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of by having a broadband light source comprising: a light source configured to generate a broadband beam; and the optical filter according to claim 1 arrange to receive the generated broadband beam for the purposes of design choices.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEN HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-0234. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 9:00AM-4:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pinping Sun can be reached on (571) 270-1284. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WEN HUANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
wen.huang2@uspto.gov
(571)270-0234
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