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 § 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.
Claims 4 and 14 are 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.
The term “small form factor” in claims 4 and 14 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “small” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention.
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(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HT813 Administration Guide, by Granstream Networks Incorporated, published 2021 (HT813) in view of “RJ-11”, posted at < https://www.idc-online.com/technical_references/pdfs/data_communications/RJ.pdf > on 8/14/2022, and downloaded from <https://web.archive.org/web/20220814120248/https://www.idc-online.com/technical_references/pdfs/data_communications/RJ.pdf> (IDC-Online), and “Power over Ethernet (PoE): Types, Uses & Benefits,” Posted at <https://www.advantech.com/en-us/resources/industry-focus/power-over-ethernet> on 8/5/2024 (Advantech).
With regard to claim 1, HT813 discloses a method for operating a signal converter, comprising:
establishing a first interface between the signal converter and an analog device of a first network, and a second interface between the signal converter and an edge node of a different second network (HT813: Pages 10 and 14. The HT813 acts as a gateway between various types of networks, including and analog telephone network (first interface) and an IP network (Second interface);
receiving, by the first circuit portion, a first analog signal from the analog device (HT813: Pages 10 and 14);
converting, by the first circuit portion, the first analog signal to a first electrical signal (HT813: Pages 10 and 14. To connect to an analog network, the analog signal would have to be converted to a signal to be utilized within the device.);
formatting, by the second circuit portion, the first electrical signal for communication over the second network (HT813: Pages 10 and 14. To transmit the information over an IP network, the signal would need to be formatted for communication over the network, such as by providing IP packets.); and
communicating, from the second circuit portion, the formatted first electrical signal to the edge node (HT813: Pages 10 and 14).
HT813 fails to disclose, but IDC-Online teaches supplying power to a first circuit portion of the signal converter from the analog device (IDC-Online: Page 1, Paragraphs 5-7. RJ-11 connectors, which were commonly used for public switched telephone network devices, included enough power for most telephone terminals, where such terminals would receive the analog signal and convert the signal to a usable state, such as audio signals. When applied to HT813, this would apply power for receiving the signal into the device (including a conversion to be used within the device.).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to utilize power from a public switched telephone network connection for the first circuit portion to utilize power that is already provided to ensure that the received analog signal can be captured by the signal converter in a usable form.
HT813 fails to teach, but Advantech teaches supplying power to a second circuit portion of the signal converter from the edge node (Advantech: Page 1, Paragraph 1. Power over Ethernet provides electrical power over a single ethernet cable.).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide power to the second circuit from the edge node (IP network node) to simplify the connection of the converter device (Advantech: Page 1, Paragraph 1). Further, by utilizing power provided by both sides (from the analog side as per IDC-Online and the digital side as per Advantech), the device would be able to reduce the power requirements from each side without sacrificing functionality.
With regard to claim 2, HT813 in view of IDC-Online and Advantech teaches wherein the first analog signal comprises a radio analog audio signal, an ear and mouth audio signal, a discrete input and output signal, a discrete relay signal, a serial data bus signal, a two-wire data bus signal, a wideband ciphertext signal, a public switched telephone network signal, and a push-to-talk signal (IDC-Online: Page 1, Paragraphs 5-7. As above, RJ-11 connectors were commonly used for public switched telephone network signals.).
With regard to claim 3, HT813 in view of IDC-Online and Advantech teaches wherein the first electrical signal comprises an internet protocol signal (HT813: Pages 10 and 14. The signal generated would be an IP signal.).
With regard to claim 4, HT813 in view of IDC-Online and Advantech teaches wherein the signal converter comprises a small form factor pluggable device configured to be plugged into the edge node and provide a communications bridge between the first network and the second network (HT813: Pages 1, 10, and 14. Lacking detail of what constitutes a “small form factor pluggable device,” the small device of HT813 would appear to satisfy the instant claim language.).
With regard to claim 5, HT813 fails to teach, but knowledge possessed by one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing teaches further comprising: receiving, by the second circuit portion of the signal converter, a second electrical signal communicated over the second network from an analog device of a third network; converting, by the signal converter, the second electrical signal into a second analog signal; and providing the second analog signal from the signal converter to the analog device (More specifically, Official Notice is taken that it was well-known to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to allow multiple devices to connect to a single network and interact with each other.). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to allow two HT813 devices to be connected to the network, with analog devices connecting to the HT813 communicating with each other via the two different HT813 devices over the IP network to more seamlessly integrate the analog devices and VOIP (digital) devices into one network, such that analog devices would be able to function in a similar manner as such VOIP devices (e.g. making analog device to analog device calls over the IP network in the same manner as VOIP devices).
With regard to claim 6, HT813 teaches discontinuing said first interface between the signal converter and an analog device of a first network; and establishing a third interface between the signal converter and another analog device of the first network, while maintaining the second interface between the signal converter and the edge node of the second network (HT813: Pages 10 and 14. The HT813 provides several ports, which would clearly allow for the disconnection and reconnection of a wire in one of the ports without disconnecting a wire for a different port.).
With regard to claim 7, HT813 teaches receiving a control signal from a remote device to disable operations of the first circuit portion and or the second circuit portion, while another signal converter connected to the edge device is enabled (HT813: Page 73. Lacking detail of why the control signal is received or what functionality is realized, the HT813 being remotely managed, including rebooting (which serves to at least temporarily disable operations) being able to be performed would teach the instant claim limitation, where such functionality would be regardless of any other devices connected to the network, and thus would still function “while another signal converter is connected to the edge device is enabled.” For clarity, it is recommended that the instant claim be amended to clearly reflect what is intended (e.g. providing some detection of the other signal converter and disabling based on the detecting.).).
With regard to claim 8, HT813 teaches remotely configuring one or more communication or management parameters of the second circuit portion of the signal converter (HT813: Page 73).
With regard to claim 9, HT813 fails to disclose, but knowledge possessed by one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing teaches interchanging the first circuit portion with a different another first circuit portion by: removing the first circuit portion circuit from the signal converter; and coupling the different another first circuit portion to the second circuit portion; wherein the different another first circuit portion is configured to convert second analog signals to electrical signals, the second analog signals having a second analog signal format different from a first analog signal format of the first analog signals (More specifically, Official Notice is taken that modular designs were well-known to one of ordinary skill in the art, where part of a device would be replaceable with a different part to realize slightly different functionalities.). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to utilize a modular design such that the analog port of HT813 would be able to be replaced with a different type of analog port to allow the device to have increased compatibility without requiring the housing to include different ports for all of the different types of supported connections.
With regard to claim 10, HT813 fails to disclose, but knowledge possessed by one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing teaches detecting, by the second circuit portion of the signal converter, when the first circuit portion has been replaced with the different another first circuit portion; and selectively reconfiguring the second circuit portion responsive to said detecting (More specifically, Official Notice is taken that the automatic reconfiguring of switched components, such as via plug and play, was well-known to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing.). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to detect when the first circuit portion has been replaced and to selectively reconfigure the second portion responsive to said detecting to leverage well-known plug and play techniques to enable the modular device to automatically function with such replacements.
With regard to claims 11-20, the instant claims are similar to claims 1-10, and are rejected for similar reasons.
Conclusion
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SCOTT B. CHRISTENSEN
Examiner
Art Unit 2444
/SCOTT B CHRISTENSEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444
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