Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
2. This communication is responsive to Application No. 18/970,593 filed on January 13, 2025. Claims 1-20 have been canceled. Claims 21-40 have been added. Accordingly, claims 21-40 are subject to examination.
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS)
3. The IDSs submitted on 01/27/25 and 08/28/25 have been entered and considered by the Examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
4. 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.
5. Claim 21-40 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 pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
New claim 21 recites “an adaptive equalization coefficient configured to enable an adaptive equalization operation to converge”. The specification, in particular, paragraph 73 discloses “a coefficient used when the equalizer performs the adaptive equalization operation is an adaptive equalization coefficient”. According to the claim, it appears that the function “to enable an adaptive equalization operation to converge” is performed by the “adaptive equalization coefficient”. However, based on the specification, it appears that the function “to enable an adaptive equalization operation to converge” is performed by the “equalizer” by using the “adaptive equalization coefficient”. Therefore, the limitation “an adaptive equalization coefficient configured to enable an adaptive equalization operation to converge” of claim 21 and its dependent claims consider to be failing to comply with the written description requirement.
Similar rejection applies to claims 30 and 39.
To overcome the above rejection, Examiner suggests to replace the limitation “an adaptive equalization coefficient configured to enable an adaptive equalization operation to converge” with “an adaptive equalization coefficient configured to be used to enable an adaptive equalization operation to converge”.
Reason for Allowance
6. Izawa (US 2024/0267083 A1) teaches in Figures 1-2 and 7 a detection unit configured to detect an abnormality in a transmission line, based on an amount of change over time in a filter coefficient (101). Levin (US 2023/0100177 A1) teaches in Figures 1-2 a serializer/deserializer (SerDes) circuit configured to set a gain target based on changes in equalizer coefficients (100/200). Chandrasekhar (US 2020/0382361 A1) teaches in Figure 8 detecting anomalies and performing corrective actions to resolve the anomalies. However, the prior art of record when implemented, would not produce said suggested method as claimed in claim 21 and said suggested apparatus/chip as claimed in claims 30 and 39.
Conclusion
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to SHAWKAT M. ALI whose telephone number is (571) 270-1639. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 8:30AM-3:30PM ET.
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 AIR at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s Supervisor, SAM K. AHN can be reached on (571) 272-3044. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHAWKAT M ALI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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