The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2/12/2025 and 6/18/2025 has been accepted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Boduch US-8737776-B2 .Regarding Claim 1, Boduch disclosed A reconfigurable optical add and drop multiplexer (ROADM) (Fig. 12) system, comprising: at least one switching device configured to route optical signals through the ROADM system, wherein each switching device comprises: a wavelength selective switch (WSS) (1205) configured to receive a plurality of input optical signals at a plurality of input ports (EXPRESS IN 1 thru 3)and transmitting a first output optical signal (DWDM OUT); and optically coupled to the WSS, wherein configured to receive the first output optical signal and a second signal, and is configured to transmit a second output optical signal based on the second signal and the first output optical signal received from the WSS
(e.g. col. 15, lines 5-40) FIG. 12 illustrates another example ROADM 1200 employing a 2.times.1 WSS device 1210 connected in parallel with a pair of 1.times.1 WSS devices 1212 and 1214 to optical couplers OC#5 and OC#6 1252 to form a 4.times.1 WSS 1205. In addition, an embedded optical amplifier 1230 amplifies wavelengths entering OC #6 1252 via WSS 1214. Thus, the ROADM 1200 illustrates another aspect of this invention--the ability to selectively amplify the wavelengths following a specific path through an N.times.1 WSS while not amplifying wavelengths following other paths through an N.times.1 WSS. The ROADM 1200 contains all the optical circuitry of the ROADM 1000 of FIG. 10, a drop optical amplifier (EDFA #3) 1220, an add optical amplifier (EDFA #4) 1230, wavelength de-multiplexing circuitry (OC #9 1222 plus a tunable filter array 1224), wavelength multiplexing circuitry (OC #3 1232), and two electrical VOAs (EVOAs) 1234, 1236. Also, ROADM 1200 has an "expansion in" port 1240 and "expansion out" port 1250 instead of the add in port 1040 and drop out port 1042 of ROADM 1000 (FIG. 10). (The expansion in port 1240 and the add in port 1040 each can be used as an extra add port; similarly, the expansion out port 1250 and the drop out port 1042 each can be used as extra drop port.)
Boduch does not describe the (OSC Filter 1510) as a Loading Device driving the output signal. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the OSC Filter is a “loading device” since filters take a portion of the input signal and transfers (loading) that portion to the other side or output. This is in effect loading a signal.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-13 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.
Claims 14-20 are allowed.
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.., US-10009671-B2 Younce; Richard Y., US-20150139643-A1 HASLAM; Thomas, US-7184666-B1 Li; Melissa, US-20160057514-A1 LORD; Andrew, US-20190115977-A1 YUKI; Masahiro.
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/DAVID C PAYNE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2635
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