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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Applicants’ communication filed on 11/14/2024. In virtue of this communication, claims 1-15 are currently pending in the instant application.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because fig. 6 shows the measuring of the at least one noise parameter is done “especially” over a certain frequency range and “preferably connected to at least one port” at step 101. These terms do not define the scope of the invention. Please remove the terms especially and preferably from the steps 101 and 102 of fig. 6.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, because the specification, while being enabling for the limitations addressed, does not reasonably provide enablement for claims within the “spirit or scope of the invention” nor the “equivalents” of the claims. The specification does not enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to determine the invention commensurate in scope with these claims.
Here, the specification in par. 0070 states “Numerous changes to the disclosed embodiments can be made in accordance with the disclosure herein without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above described embodiments. Rather, the scope of the invention should be defined in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.” This enables more than is possible to determine from the claims. Please delete this section from par. 0070 of the instant publication.
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 1-15 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 “especially ” in claims 1, 3-4, 6-10 and 13-15 and the term “preferably” in claims 14-15 are relative terms which render the claims indefinite. The term “especially” and “preferably” are not defined by the claims, 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.
Further, claim 3 recites “in the context of a matched load” and this is also indefinite.
Still further, the “load characteristic” throughout the claims is indefinite as to whether this is the impedance of the antenna. The specification does not mention the word impedance and par. 0012 states “In addition to this or as an alternative, the at least one antenna load characteristic comprises or is at least one characteristic in the context of a matched load, especially a 50 Ohm matched load, and/or an open load and/or a short circuit” which does not provide a definite meaning.
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, 13 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hamilton, II et al. (US 2020/0313778 A1).
Regarding Claim 1 Hamilton teaches the limitations "A receiver comprising: at least one port for directly or indirectly connecting at least one antenna, and a processing unit connected to the at least one port, wherein the processing unit is configured to measure at least one noise parameter, especially over a certain frequency range, with respect to the at least one antenna, and (see fig. 2 and par. 0023 “FIG. 2 illustrates a first example of the wireless device 100 of FIG. 1 in which a terminating load is switched into, and out of, a noise measuring process used to detect the presence or absence of an external antenna 140 at external antenna RF connector terminal 150. In the example shown, the input of the receiver Rx is connected to one terminal of switch 120, and switch 120 selectively switches the receiver Rx input to either the external antenna 140 (identified with a “3”), the internal antenna 160 (identified with a “2”), or a terminating load 210 (identified “1”). The RF transceiver 110 includes noise level measurement circuity 200 that measures a noise level associated with signals received at the input to the receiver Rx.”);
wherein the processing unit is configured to correlate the correspondingly measured at least one noise parameter to at least one antenna load characteristic for detecting the at least one antenna and/or for determining the corresponding type of the at least one antenna" (see abstract “ The system also includes a controller that determines whether an external antenna is connected to the antenna terminal based on the first RF noise level and the second RF noise level.” Also see par. 0023 “The RSSI circuitry measures and calculates a value that represents a level of sampled noise in the input signal. The terminating load 210 may include a known load impedance that, when connected to the receiver Rx input, reduces the impact or influence of external RF signal sources and RF noise on an internal reference noise measurement (described further below with respect to FIG. 3A). In another implementation, the terminating load 210 may include a resistive matching load.” Here the load impedance of an antenna is correlated with measured noise parameters such as RSSI and determines if an antenna is connected based upon this).
Claims 13 and 15 are rejected for the same reasons set forth above because the claims have similar limitations or have been addressed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-12 and 14 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 as well as overcoming the numerous 112 indefinite rejections.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID BILODEAU whose telephone number is (571)270-3192. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 6:00am-4:00pm Eastern Standard Time. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wesley Kim can be reached at (571) 272-7867. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/David Bilodeau/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2648
