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
The previously indicated allowable subject matter incorporated in the amended claim 1 has been withdrawn. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection under 35 U.S.C. (a)(1) that does not rely on any reference or rationale applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the unlabeled rectangular box(es) shown in the drawings should be provided with descriptive text labels. In particular, element 11 in Fig. 1 should be labeled “power divider” and element 12 in Fig. 1 should be labeled “phase shifter”. 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.
Claim 2 is 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.
It appears that claim 1 is directed to an embodiment illustrated in Fig. 3A. Claim 2, which depends on claim 1, appears to be directed to an embodiment illustrated in Fig. 2, which is a different embodiment than the one shown in Fig. 3A. The specification does not provide description that both embodiments can be used together. More specifically, the first control portion recited in claim 1 includes a first phase shifter and a first power amplifier and the second control portion recited in claim 1 includes a second phase shifter and a second power amplifier. On the other hand, the first control portion recited in claim 2 includes a first switch unit and the second control portion recited in claim 2 includes a second switch unit and the phase shifter. The specification does not describe how the first control portion recited in claim 1 and the first control portion in claim 2 can be used together. Similarly, The specification also does not describe how the second control portion recited in claim 1 and the second control portion in claim 2 can be used together.
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 2 is 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 limitation “a processing instruction” has been recited twice (see lines 5 and 6). It is not clear whether these two occurrences are referred to the same or different instruction.
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.
Claims 1, 7 and 9 and are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Monk (2005/0017897).
Regarding claim 1, Monk teaches an adjustable power divider circuit (referred to “polarization control apparatus”, [0028]), the circuit (see figure 2) configured to implement an arbitrary polarization mode (referred to “desired plane of polarization 308”, [0038]) , disposed between a radio-frequency (RF) circuit (inherently included for providing an RF signal (“low-level RF signal”, [0023] to an input port (210) ) and an antenna element (276, 206) as at least one antenna element, and comprising:
an input signal portion (220) electrically connected, via the input port, to the RF circuit and configured to convert a RF signal (“signal from the input port 210”, [0029]), as at least one RF signal, transmitted by the RF circuit into a plurality of 2 corresponding input signals (“two signals transmitted, via two channels 222 and 224”, [0029]);
two signal control portions (222, 224), as at least two signal control portions, connected to the input signal portion and including: a first signal control portion (222) configured to receive a first one of the input signals and convert the first input signal into a corresponding first control signal (outputted from (254) of (222)); and a second signal control portion (224) configured to receive a second one of the input signals and convert the second input signal into a corresponding second control signal (outputted from (254) of (224));
a processing unit (204) electrically connected to the signal control portions and configured to transmit a first processing instruction (represented by corresponding control input (“radome depolarization offsets”, [0032]) to the first signal control portion and a second processing instruction (represented by corresponding control input (“radome depolarization offsets”, [0032]) to the second signal control portion so that the first signal control portion converts the first input signal into the corresponding first control signal according to the first processing instruction and the second signal control portion converts the second input signal into the corresponding second control signal according to the second processing instruction (see [0029, 0032]); and
an orthogonal coupler (258) (referred to “quadrature hybrid 258”, [0029]), as at least one orthogonal coupler, including a first orthogonal coupler (258) configured to convert the first control signal into a first output signal (Ey) and the second control signal into a second output signal (Ex), and having: a first input port (coupled to (254) of (222)) configured to receive the first control signal transmitted from the first signal control portion; a second input port (coupled to (254) of (224)) configured to receive the second control signal transmitted from the second signal control portion; a first output port configured to output the first output signal; and a second output port configured to output the second output signal, wherein the first output signal has a 90-degree phase difference from the second output signal (as the first and second output signals are respective vertical and horizontal signals (referred to “Vertical and horizontal signals Ey and Ex”, [0030])),(see [0029, 0030]), and at least one signal excitation portion (see (276)), wherein the signal excitation portion is electrically connected to at least one of the first and second output ports (outputs of (258)) and configured to receive at least one of the first and second output signals (output signals of 258: Ex and Ey).
wherein the adjustable power divider circuit is configured to make each of at least one antenna element (being the antenna element) that is connected to the first output port or the second output port to enter a predetermined polarization mode (referred to “desired plane of polarization 308”, [0038]) according to the first output signal or the second output signal (see [0032, 0033, 0051]).
Regarding claim 7, Monk teaches that the adjustable power divider circuit has only one signal excitation portion (276 in Fig.2) configured to adjust a phase of the first output signal or the second output signal to be + π/2,- π/2 , or 0 (as shown in Fig. 2, Ex and Ey go through horizontal port and(H) and Vertical port (V) of 260, it is known horizontal is 0, vertical is π/2).
Regarding claim 9, Monk teaches that the adjustable power divider circuit has a first signal excitation portion (276 in Fig. 2) electrically connected to the first output port and configured to adjust a phase of the first output signal to be π /2 or 0, and a second signal excitation portion electrically connected to the second output port and configured to adjust a phase of the second output signal to be π /2 or 0 (as shown in Fig. 2, Ex and Ey go through horizontal port and(H) and Vertical port (V) of 260, it is known horizontal is 0, vertical is π/2).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11, 13 and 15-20 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.
Claims 21-27 are allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Chieh M Fan whose telephone number is (571)272-3042. The examiner can normally be reached 6:30-3:00 M-F.
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/CHIEH M FAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2632
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