DETAILED ACTION
Notice to Applicant
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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.
Claims 1-15 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 3, 6, and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
The Examiner suggests making the following changes to improve claim language clarity therein:
On line 1 of claim 3, insert --the-- before “controller”.
On line 1 of claims 6 and 15, insert --block-- after each occurrence of “controller”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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, 5, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kheirkhari et al. US 2014/0099893.
As per claims 1, 5, and 14, Kheirkari et al. discloses in Fig. 1 a communications circuit (e.g. transceiver device 100), comprising:
as per claim 1, an antenna block (e.g. antennas 112 and 114) that receives a desired electromagnetic signal; a signal loop (e.g. IC chip 136) comprising an input port (e.g. top terminal of LNA 116), an output port (e.g. top terminal of PA 110), and a signal conditioning block (e.g. active interference cancellation (AIC) module 128) between the input port and the output port, the antenna block being in bidirectional communication with the input port of the signal loop (Paragraphs 37-39; Antenna 114 receives an RF signal which is amplified by LNA 116. A phase adjusted output signal is fed to gain module 134 and is injected into antenna 114. Thus antennas 112 and 114 are necessarily “in bidirectional communication” with the top terminal of LNA 116.), wherein the signal conditioning block applies a phase shift and a gain factor to the desired signal (Paragraph 39; Phase shifter module 132 and gain module 134 respectively apply a phase shift and a gain factor to the signal from the top terminal of PA 110.); and a controller block (e.g. digital signal processor (DSP) 126) that is configured to adjust the phase shift and the gain factor of the signal conditioning block to improve a signal quality factor of the desired signal from the antenna block (Paragraphs 5 and 39; DSP 126 controls the phase shifter module 132 and gain module 134 to provide active interference cancellation (i.e. “improve signal quality factor of the desired signal”.);
as per claim 5, wherein the signal quality factor comprises a measure of available antenna power transferred to the output port (Paragraph 39; Gain module 134 adjusts the amplitude of the signal (i.e. “measure of available antenna power”.); and
as per claim 14, wherein the signal conditioning block comprises a phase shifter (e.g. phase shifter 132) that applies the phase shift and a gain block (e.g. gain module 134) that applies the gain factor.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 6-13, and 15 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 RAKESH PATEL whose telephone number is (571)272-0961. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5PM EST M-F.
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/RAKESH B PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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