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 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.
Claim 1 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.
Claim 1 recites “heavy copper” and “lower copper”, with renders the claim indefinite as it is not clear from the claims how “heavy” the heavy copper is or how “lower” the lower copper is.
Claims 2-20 are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph for indirectly including the above noted deficiencies.
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) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 2022/0192002) in view of Beihoff et al. (US 2006/0092611).
With respect to claim 1, Zhou discloses a system, comprising: a DC-to-DC converter (paragraph 0044, 0075 discloses a converter type), wherein the DC-to-DC converter comprises: a printed circuit board (PCB) (PCB 110), comprising a plurality of layers including inner copper layers and outer copper layers (figure 2 discloses a plurality of conductive/copper layers 140, paragraph 0026), wherein the inner copper layers are heavy copper and the outer copper layers are a lower copper than the inner copper layers (figure 4 discloses that layers 112 and layer 22 of board assembly 400 are different)
Zhou, however, does not disclose expressly a plurality of ribbon cable connector fingers protruding from a side of the PCB.
Benioff discloses in paragraphs 0094, and figure 27 discloses ribbons or braids for making connection for an electrical power converter.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention, to have modify Zhou and include the ribbon contacts of Benioff, for the purpose of providing stress relief when making the connections, for example (paragraph 0094).
With respect to claim 2, Zhou in view of Benioff disclose the system of claim 1; except for, wherein a cross section of the PCB is over 50% copper.
Zhou discloses that the conductive layers 140 are made of copper, thus it would have been obvious to have made the copper layers and the PCB over 50% copper, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233.
Claim(s) 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 2022/0192002) in view of Beihoff et al. (US 2006/0092611) in further view of Flett et al. (US 2013/0187453).
With respect to claims 7, 8, Zhou in view of Benioff disclose the system of claim 1; except for, wherein a ribbon cable connection finger of the plurality of ribbon cable connector fingers comprises a ferrite choke slipped over the finger, wherein the ferrite choke comprises surface mount caps.
Flett discloses a battery charger and motor driver circuit assembly comprising a ribbon cable and ferrite bead to clamp around the ribbon cable, paragraph 0038, figure 5.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention, to have modify Zhou and Beihoff and include the ferrite choke/bead of Flett, for the purpose of providing a filter subassembly, for example.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6, 9-20 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 once the above rejection with respect to 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph is fixed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CARLOS AMAYA whose telephone number is (571)272-8941. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00AM-4:00PM.
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/CARLOS AMAYA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2836