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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements submitted on 09/25/2024 and 02/27/2025 have been considered and made of record by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 6 is objected to because of the following informalities: as to claim 6, last line, “the output signal” should be replaced by the differential output signal. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 7 is objected to because of the following informalities: as to claim 7, line 2, “the output signal” should be replaced by the differential output signal. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 10 is objected to because of the following informalities: as to claim 10, line 1, “the output signal” should be replaced by the differential output signal. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: as to claim 11, line 3, “the output signal” should be replaced by the differential output signal. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 14 is objected to because of the following informalities: as to claim 14, line 2, “the output signal” should be replaced by the differential output signal. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. As to claim 16, the limitation “the improvement comprising an improved switching means comprising a wireless switching means” is indefinite, because it is not clear what the improvements are. According to MPEP (see 37 CFR 1.75e and MPEP § 608.01(m)), where the nature of the case admits, as in the case of an improvement, any independent claim should contain in the following order: (1) A preamble comprising a general description of all the elements or steps of the claimed combination which are conventional or known, (2) A phrase such as "wherein the improvement comprises," and (3) Those elements, steps and/or relationships which constitute that portion of the claimed combination which the applicant considers as the new or improved portion. The improved switching means as claimed does not include any elements that shows the improvement of this switching means over the conventional switching means.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-6, 17, 21, and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Vyas et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Vyas) ("Development of SoC for interfacing avionics units with ARINC 429 bus," 2016 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION AND ELECTRONICS SYSTEMS(ICCES), IEEE 21 October 2016 pp. 1-5, see the IDS submitted on 02/27/2025).
As to claim 1, Vyas discloses a system (see Fig. 4) comprising: a transmission unit configured to generate a signal sequence (see Figs. 4-6, UART is the transmission unit for transmitting a signal to ARINC-429, see also page 3, “Design Flow” section); and an ARINC-429 compatible transmitter (see Figs. 4-6, in Fig. 6, details of ARINC-429 Transmitter are shown) configured to: receive the signal sequence from the transmission unit (see Figs. 4-6, page 3, “Design Flow” section and page 4, “ARINC-429 transmitter” section); convert the signal sequence into a differential output signal for output to a receiver (see pages 1-2, “ARINC 429” section, page 3, “Design Flow” section, and page 4, “ARINC-429 transmitter” and “ARINC-429 receiver” sections); and transmit the differential output signal to the receiver (see Fig. 7 and page 4, “ARINC-429 transmitter” and “ARINC-429 receiver” sections) at a transmission rate based upon the received signal sequence from the transmission unit (see page 1, last line and page 2, lines 1 and 4, the transmitted signal is based on the received signal sequence because it has been obtained from it); wherein the transmission rate is selected from a group consisting of a high transmission rate and a low transmission rate (see page 1, last line and page 2, lines 1 and 4, 12.5 kbps is the low transmission rate and 100 kbps is the high transmission rate).
As to claim 2, Vyas discloses that the high transmission rate is 100 kb/s ±1% (see page 1, last line and page 2, lines 1 and 4).
As to claim 3, Vyas discloses that the low transmission rate is in the range of from 12 to 14.5 kb/s ±1% (see page 1, last line and page 2, lines 1 and 4).
As to claim 4, Vyas discloses that the high transmission rate is 100 kb/s ±1%; and the low transmission rate is in the range of from 12 to 14.5 kb/s ±1% (see page 1, last line and page 2, lines 1 and 4).
As to claim 5, Vyas discloses that for switching between the low transmission rate and the high transmission rate, only the signal sequence forming a data word is required (see Figs. 4-6, pages 1-2, section “ARINC 429”, in order to transmit a signal at any rate an input comprising data is required. Therefore, for switching between the low transmission rate and the high transmission rate, only the signal sequence forming a data word is required. The examiner has given this limitation its broadest reasonable interpretation).
As to claim 6, Vyas discloses that the ARINC-429 compatible transmitter comprises two output lines whose differential voltage level defines the output signal (see Figs, 2, 6, 7 and pages 1-2, “ARINC 429” section).
As to claim 17, Vyas discloses a method comprising: transmitting an output signal from an ARINC-429 compatible transmitter at a high transmission rate of 100 kb/s ±1% (see page 1, last line, page 2, lines 1 and 4, page 4, “ARINC-429 Transmitter” section and Figs. 6 and 7); and based upon receiving a signal sequence from a transmission unit, transmitting the output signal from the ARINC-429 compatible transmitter at a low transmission rate of between 12 to 14.5 kb/s ±1% (see page 1, last line, page 2, lines 1 and 4, page 4, “ARINC-429 Transmitter” section and Figs. 6 and 7, see also pages 1-2, “ARINC 429” section, page 3, “Design Flow” section, and page 4, “ARINC-429 receiver” sections).
As to claim 21, Vyas discloses an aircraft comprising the system of claim 1 (see the abstract, page 1, “ARINC 429” section and the rejection of claim 1).
As to claim 22, Vyas discloses an aircraft configured to operate the method of claim 17 (see the abstract, page 1, “ARINC 429” section and see the rejection of claim 17).
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 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vyas, in view of Ishikawa et al. (hereinafter, referred to as Ishikawa) (US 2016/0218771).
As to claim 16, since this claim is a Jepson claim, the limitation “conventional switching means comprises an input pin provided for signaling the switching of the data transmission rate at the transmission unit” is considered as the preamble of the claim which comprises a general description of all the elements or steps of the claimed combination which are conventional and known and therefore no patentable weight has been given to this limitation. As to claim 16, Vyas discloses a system (see Fig. 4) comprising: an ARINC-429 compatible transmitter (see Figs. 4-6 and page 4, “ARINC-429 Transmitter” section) configured to operate with two different data transmission rates, a lower data transmission rate and a higher data transmission rate (see page 1, last line, page 2, lines 1 and 4, page 4, “ARINC-429 Transmitter” section and Figs. 6 and 7, 12.5 kbps is the low transmission rate and 100 kbps is the high transmission rate); and a transmission unit (see Figs. 4-6 and page 4, “ARINC-429 Transmitter” section) for implementing the data transmission rates (see page 1, last line, page 2, lines 1 and 4, page 4, “ARINC-429 Transmitter” section and Figs. 6 and 7); the improvement comprising an improved switching comprising wireless switching provided by the transmission unit to the ARINC-429 compatible transmitter (see page 1, last line, page 2, lines 1 and 4, page 3, “Design Flow” section, page 4, “ARINC-429 Transmitter” section and Figs. 6 and 7, the transmission rate is switched from 12.5 to 100 Kbps and vice versa); wherein the data transmission rate of the ARINC-429 compatible transmitter is switched between the low and high data transmission rates based upon a received signal sequence from the transmission unit (see page 1, last line and page 2, lines 1 and 4, the transmitted signal is based on the received signal sequence because it has been obtained from it). Vyas discloses all the subject matters claimed in claim 16, except for a switching means for switching between the transmission rates. Ishikawa, in the same field of endeavor, discloses a communication system comprising a transmitter and a receiver (see Fig. 1). Ishikawa discloses that the transmitter comprising a selector switch that changes a transmission rate of a signal before transmission (see the abstract and paragraph 0013). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the teachings of Vyas, as suggested by Ishikawa, to enable the system to implement the transmission rate switching more accurately and effectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-15 and 18-20 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEILA MALEK whose telephone number is (571)272-8731. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30am-4:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh 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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LEILA . MALEK
Examiner
Art Unit 2632
/LEILA MALEK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632