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 Objections
Claims 12-13 are objected to because of the following informalities: “Meander line shape” should be changed to “meander line shape”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
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Claims 1, 9, 12-13 and 17 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 15 and 17 of U.S. Patent No. 12,142,855. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims 15 and 17 of the above Patent recite all the limitations of claims 1 and 17 as below:
Examined Claims
U.S. Patent No. 12,142,855
1.An antenna module comprising:
-a first radiation part and a second radiation part configured to receive a current via at least one feeder line;
-a first coupling radiation part coupled to the first radiation part while being spaced a predetermined distance apart from the first radiation part; and
-a second coupling radiation part coupled to the second radiation part and spaced apart from the second radiation part in a predetermined interval,
-wherein the first coupling radiation part is formed as a line patch having a predetermined width (see claim 17 for predetermined width), and
-wherein the second coupling radiation part comprises: a square patch in a quadrangular shape; a first line patch extended from one end of the square patch (first line patch is second line patch in claim 17); and
-a second line patch extended from another end of the square patch (third line patch in claim 17).
9. The antenna module according to claim 1, wherein the first radiation part and the second radiation part are formed on a substrate, and wherein the first coupling radiation part and the second coupling radiation part are formed on at least one outer side surface of a bracket covering the substrate.
12. The antenna module according to claim 1, wherein the line patch of the first coupling radiation part is formed in a Meander line shape.
13. The antenna module according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first line patch and the second line patch is formed in a Meander line shape.
17. An electronic device comprising:
-a substrate;
-a first radiation part and a second radiation part connected to the substrate via at least one feeder line and configured to receive a current;
-a bracket covering the substrate;
-a first coupling radiation part spaced apart from the first radiation part in a predetermined interval, formed on at least one outer side surface of the bracket, and coupled to the first radiation part; and
-a second coupling radiation part spaced apart from the second radiation part in a predetermined interval, formed on at least one outer side surface of the bracket, and coupled to the second radiation part,
-wherein the first coupling radiation part is formed as a line patch having a predetermined width, and
wherein the second coupling radiation part comprises: a square patch in a quadrangular shape; a first line patch extended from one end of the square patch; and a second line patch extended from another end of the square patch.
15. An electronic device comprising:
a substrate;
-a first radiation part and a second radiation part connected to the substrate via at least one feeder line and configured to receive a current;
a bracket covering the substrate;
-a first coupling radiation part spaced apart from the first radiation part in a predetermined interval, formed on at least one outer side surface of the bracket, and coupled to the first radiation part; and
-a second coupling radiation part spaced apart from the second radiation part in a predetermined interval, formed on at least one outer side surface of the bracket, and coupled to the second radiation part,
-wherein the first coupling radiation part is formed as a first line patch having a first meander line shape, and
-wherein the second coupling radiation part comprises a quadrangular-shaped patch and
a second line patch having a second meander shape.
17. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein the first line patch has a predetermined width, and
wherein the second coupling radiation part comprises: the second line patch extended from one end of the quadrangular-shaped patch; and
a third line patch extended from another end of the quadrangular-shaped patch.
15. An electronic device comprising:
-a substrate;
-a first radiation part and a second radiation part connected to the substrate via at least one feeder line and configured to receive a current;
-a bracket covering the substrate;
-a first coupling radiation part spaced apart from the first radiation part in a predetermined interval, formed on at least one outer side surface of the bracket, and coupled to the first radiation part; and
-a second coupling radiation part spaced apart from the second radiation part in a predetermined interval, formed on at least one outer side surface of the bracket, and coupled to the second radiation part,
-wherein the first coupling radiation part is formed as a first line patch having a first meander line shape, and
wherein the second coupling radiation part comprises a quadrangular-shaped patch and
a second line patch having a second meander shape.
17. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein the first line patch has a predetermined width, and
wherein the second coupling radiation part comprises: the second line patch extended from one end of the quadrangular-shaped patch; and a third line patch extended from another end of the quadrangular-shaped patch.
Claims 2, 4-5, 7, 10-11, 14-15, 18 and 20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 15 and 17 of U.S. Patent No. 12,142,855 in view of Shibata et al (US 2019/0157762).
Regarding claims 2, 7, 14-15 and 18, the U.S. Patent No. 12,142,855 discloses every feature of claimed invention as expressly recited in claim 17 except for
the first radiation part and the second radiation part radiating signals in different frequency bands;
one of the first radiation part and the second radiation part is a radiation part for Wi-Fi, and the other one is a radiation part for Bluetooth.
the first radiation part configured to cause resonance with the first coupling radiation part in at least one of a 2.4 to 2.5 GHz band or a 5.0 to 5.2 GHz band;
the second radiation part configured to cause resonance with the second coupling radiation part in a band of 2.4 to 2.5 GHz.
However, such difference is not patentable merit. It is a common practice and well known in the art that radiating elements with different sizes are used for different frequency bands. One of such examples is the teaching of Shibata in Figure 1 and par. 0043, the first radiation part (31) and the second radiation part (32) radiating signals in different frequency bands. Therefore, to employ having the radiation parts as claimed invention would have been obvious to persons kill in the art.
Regarding claims 4-5, 10-11 and 20, the U.S. Patent No. 12,142,855 discloses every feature of claimed invention as expressly recited in claims 1 and 17, except for
wherein a length of a radiation patch of the first radiation part is 17.5 to 17.7 mm;
wherein the square patch is formed to have a length of 21.6 to 21.8 mm and a width of 4.9 to 5.1 mm, wherein a length of the first line patch is 24.25 to 24.45 mm, and wherein a length of the second line patch is 18.75 to 18.95 mm;
wherein a length of a radiation patch of the second radiation part is 17.2 to 17.4 mm;
wherein a length of the line patch of the first coupling radiation part is 31.3 to 31.5 mm.
However, such difference is not patentable merit. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to set or select the lengths and width of the radiation patches, square patch, line patches of the radiation parts and coupling radiation parts at a desired values for desired operating frequencies assigned to the antenna module and 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 involves only ordinary skill in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6, 8, 16 and 19 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.
Inquiry
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIEU HIEN T DUONG whose telephone number is (571)272-8980. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00am-4:00pm.
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/DIEU HIEN T DUONG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845