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 .
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(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Potetz et al. (USP 5,481,560).
Regarding claim 1, Potetz et al.’s figure 1 shows A PWM control apparatus comprising a normalization counter (104) configured to count up or down by an average of 2^N/Cmax between 0 and 2^N for each input of a clock signal (148), wherein: N is a natural number, Cmax is a value changing according to a carrier period, and the PWM control apparatus further comprises a comparator (124) configured to compare a normalization count value of the normalization counter with a comparison value (132) for determining a duty ratio of a PWM signal and output a comparison result as a PWM signal (156) as called for in claim 1.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Azuma et al. (US 2005/0285582).
Regarding claim 1, Azuma et al.’s figure 1 shows A PWM control apparatus comprising a normalization counter (12) configured to count up or down by an average of 2^N/Cmax between 0 and 2^N for each input of a clock signal (CK), wherein: N is a natural number, Cmax is a value changing according to a carrier period, and the PWM control apparatus further comprises a comparator (14) configured to compare a normalization count value of the normalization counter with a comparison value (13) for determining a duty ratio of a PWM signal and output a comparison result as a PWM signal (156) as called for in claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. In this regard, applicant’s cited prior art has been carefully considered.
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/TUAN T LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2842 3/10/2026
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