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 .
Claim Objections
Claim 6 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Please delete “substantially” in claim 6.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 6, 7, 13, 17, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kambara (TW 202410552, cited by the applicant, English translation is used for this action).
Re claims 1, 17: Kambara teaches a communication device (10B) comprising a dielectric layer (14) serving as a nonconductive carrier, and a metal resonant structure (151), disposed on the nonconductive carrier, wherein the metal resonant structure comprises a plurality of first metal units (151c), having large sizes, a plurality of second metal units (151b), having median sizes, and a plurality of third metal units (151a), having small sizes, wherein the second metal units are disposed between the first metal units and the third metal units (fig. 5), wherein when the communication device receives an RF (Radio Frequency) signal, the metal resonant structure generates a reflection signal according to the RF signal (see figs. 1A-7; page 5, 2nd paragraph – page 11, 2nd paragraph).
Re claims 3, 18. The communication device as claimed in claim 1, wherein in response to the RF signal, the first metal units provide a first reflection angle (i.e., reflection angle, page 12, 3rd paragraph)
Re claim 6: Wherein each of the first metal units substantially has a large cross-shape, each of the second metal units substantially has a median cross-shape, and each of the third metal units substantially has a small cross-shape (fig. 5).
Re claim 7: Wherein the communication device covers an operational frequency band from 1GHz to 100GHz, and a frequency of the RF signal falls within the operational frequency band (page 5, 3rd paragraph).
Re claim 13: Wherein when the communication device receives the RF signal, the metal resonant structure further generates a transmission signal according to the RF signal (i.e., the reflected wave is generated according to the incident wave).
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) 8-12 and 14-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kambara.
The teachings of Kambara have been discussed above.
Although, Kambara teaches the reflecting panel for reflecting an electromagnetic wave, he fails to particularly teach operational frequency of the metal unit and implementation of device.
However, it would have been an obvious design variation well within the ordinary skill in the art failing to provide any unexpected results for making each and every metal unit operating at different operational frequency band and implementing reflecting panel with various devices such as a shoulder pad, a picnic mat, a tent, and a backpack for redirecting particular operational frequency band to the desired direction.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 4, 5, 19, and 20 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
None of prior art teaches the communication device comprising metal resonant structure to increase a strength of the reflection signal, wherein in response to the RF signal, the second metal units provide a second reflection angle, and the second reflection angle is greater than the first reflection angle as set forth in the claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Nakamura et al. (US 2025/0273867), Chen et al. EP 2182582), and Brown (US 7623088) teach reflecting arrays.
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/SEUNG H LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
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