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 .
Response to Arguments
It is acknowledged that the 07/07/2026 amendments to the instant claims have overcome the 35 U.S.C. 12(b) rejections of the previous Office Action (04/07/2026).
Applicant’s arguments, see sections § 102 Rejections and § 103 Rejections, filed 07/07/2026, with respect to art rejections of the previous Office Action have been fully considered and are persuasive.
Claim 26 has been amended to additionally recite: “the respective time delay being imparted within a first frequency region of the transmission medium and the respective phase shift being imparted within a second frequency of the transmission medium higher in frequency than the first frequency region”, overcoming the prior art rejections.
Claim 33 has been amended to additionally recite: “respective phase shift and a respective time delay, the respective time delay being constrained to be within a corresponding OFDM symbol cyclic prefix window length”, overcoming the prior art rejections.
Claim 40 has been amended to additionally recite: “at least one of the respective phase shift or the respective time delay being adjusted in response to signaling received from the receiver;” overcoming the prior art rejections.
The 07/07/2026 amendment to independent claim 26 has overcome the
nonstatutory double patenting rejection of claims 26-32 as being unpatentable over
claims 15-21 of U.S. Patent No. 12,155,517.
Claims 26-32 are no longer rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting.
Claim Objections
Claims 26-32 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 26, line 2 the recited “a communications medium” should be “a transmission medium” to match the claimed “the transmission medium” of line 4.
Dependent claims 27-32 are also objected to since the depend on objected claim 26.
Claim 33, line 15 the recited “OFDM” should be “orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)”.
Dependent claims 34-39 are also objected to since they depend on objected claim 33.
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 40-45 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 40 has been amended to recite “at least one of the respective phase shift
or the respective time delay being adjusted in response to signaling received from the receiver;”.
The specification does not describe or suggest “the respective time delay being adjusted in response to signaling received from the receiver”.
It does however describe and support the claimed “the respective phase shift being adjusted in response to signaling received from the receiver”.
PGpubs of the instant application, [0047] discloses: “Further, the phase shift may change in response to signaling received from a receiver or management entity.”, [0053] describes: “ the amount of phase shift is adapted in response to a control signal from a receiver or transceiver at a far end of the HFC or other transmission medium.”, [0054] describes: “…the amount of phase shift is adapted in response to increase or decreases in capacity or demand. For example, as demand increases the phase shift is adjusted. This may be performed in response to signaling from a far end receiver/transceiver, from a network management entity, or from some other entity”.
Examiner has not been able to location corresponding sections for the “time delay being adjusted in response to signaling received from the receiver”.
Dependent claims 41-45 are also rejected since the depend on rejected claim 40.
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 26-39 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.
Claim 26 has been amended to recite: “the respective time delay being imparted
within a first frequency region of the transmission medium and the respective phase shift being imparted within a second frequency region of the transmission medium higher in frequency than the first frequency region”.
Claim 26, lines 3-4 claims “for each of a plurality of spatially diverse data signals to be transmitted via a frequency channel of the transmission medium” and lines 15-15 claim “to the frequency channel of the transmission medium”.
The relation between the claimed “frequency channel of the transmission
medium” and the “a first frequency region of the transmission medium” and the “second frequency region of the transmission medium” us unclear.
Dependent claims 27-32 are also rejected since they depend on rejected claim 26.
Claim 33, lines 14-15 have been amended to claim “the respective time delay being constrained to be within a corresponding OFDM symbol cyclic prefix window length”.
Claim 33 does not previous claim an OFDM symbol or a cyclic prefix window of an OFDM symbol. The relation between the claimed “OFDM symbol” and “each of a plurality of spatially diverse data signals” or “each spatially diverse data signal” (lines 10, 16) is unclear.
Dependent claims 34-37, 39 are also rejected since they depend on rejected claim 33.
Claim 38, the recited “wherein the specific compensation circuitry” lacks antecedent basis in the claim. Claim 38 depends on claim 37 that has been amended to no longer claim “a specific compensation circuitry”.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SOPHIA VLAHOS whose telephone number is (571)272-5507. The examiner can normally be reached M 8:00-4:00, TWRF 8:00-2:00.
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SOPHIA VLAHOS
Examiner
Art Unit 2633
/SOPHIA VLAHOS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633 08/07/2026
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