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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the application filed February 21, 2025. Claims 1-8 are presented for examination. Claim 1 is an independent claim.
Priority
Examiner acknowledges the claims for domestic priority under 35 U.S. C. 119 (e) to provisional patent application 63564583, which was filed March 13, 2024.
Oath/Declaration
The Office acknowledges receipt of a properly signed Oath/Declaration submitted March 14, 2025.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement filed (February 21, 2025) has been received, entered into the record, and considered.
Drawings
The drawings filed February 21, 2025 are accepted by the examiner.
Abstract
The abstract filed February 21, 2025 is accepted by the examiner.
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 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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Womack et al. (US 20220075137 A1) in view of Yang et al. (US 20210076527 A1).
As to Claim 1:
Womack et al. discloses an adapter-aligned enclosure (Womack, see figure 4) to be placed in a server cabinet (Womack, see 128 in figure 2) comprising a hole in at least one of a top (Womack, see 242 in figure 4) or bottom of the enclosure (Womack, see 244 in figure 4) and a plurality of fiber optic connectors distributed on a front face of the enclosure (Womack, see 264 and 268 in figure 4 and paragraph [0051], where Womack discloses that the interior space 248 provides space for the optical devices and components to optically couple one or more input adapter ports 264 to a plurality of distribution ports 268. The interior space 248 includes a combination of an optical splitter of the types motioned elsewhere herein as well the distribution patch field. The input adapter port 264 is disposed in an upper portion of the front opening 252 proximate to the top rail 184. The input adapter port 264 is sized and configured to receive an input connector 272 (shown for clarity without an associated cable), which may be configured for any acceptable adapter, e.g., LC, MPO, MDC, SN, CS, SC, or other. Only one input adapter port 264 is shown, but in other embodiments, there may be a plurality of input adapter ports 264) wherein the connectors are arranged in a plurality of groups which are vertically arranged in a specific manner (Womack, see 268 in figure 3) related to at least one of a rack unit of a cabinet or an equipment port interval (Womack, see 240 in figure 4).
Womack differs from the claimed subject matter in that Womack does not explicitly disclose application-specified.
However in an analogous art, Yang discloses application-specified (Yang, see paragraph [0010], where Yang discloses that the cable backplane board in the embodiments of the present application can reduce transmission losses of a high-speed signal, extend an interconnection distance of single boards in the sub-rack, increase a rate of interconnected signals, enhance electrical performance of connections, increase a number of connections of a port, and improve a switching capacity of the sub-rack).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Womack with Yang. One would be motivated to modify Womack by disclosing application-specified as taught by Yang, and thereby producing PCBs that meet the rate and a number of signals (Yang, see paragraph [0005]).
As to Claim 2:
Womack in view of Yang discloses that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, wherein the enclosure is attached to at least one of a rail, cable management finger slot, or a PDU in the server cabinet (Womack, see paragraph [0045], where Womack discloses that referring now primarily to FIG. 3, the illustrative embodiment of the fiber optic splitter module 132 is presented in more detail. The fiber optic splitter module 132 comprises certain internal components from the cabinet 136. The fiber optic splitter module 132, when assembled, may include a top rail 184, a bottom rail 188, and a splitter assembly 212. In some embodiments, fiber optic splitter module 132 may further include a vertical cable manager 216 or a storage rack 220).
As to Claim 3:
Womack in view of Yang discloses that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, wherein the enclosure (Womack, see height of 212 being of similar height to server cabinet 132 in figure 2) spans nearly the height of the server cabinet (Womack, server cabinet 132 in figure 2).
As to Claim 4:
Womack in view of Yang discloses that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, further comprising multi-fiber trunk cables or backbone (Womack, see 280 in figure 3) connections entering the hole in the at least one of the top or bottom of the enclosure (Womack, see 264 in figure 3) being distributed to the plurality of fiber optic connectors (Womack, see 272 in figure 3).
As to Claim 5:
Womack in view of Yang discloses that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, wherein the vertically arranged groups of fiber topic connectors include at least one vertically oriented LC duplex fiber connector (Womack, see 264 and 268 in figure 4 and paragraph [0051], where Womack discloses that the interior space 248 provides space for the optical devices and components to optically couple one or more input adapter ports 264 to a plurality of distribution ports 268. The interior space 248 includes a combination of an optical splitter of the types motioned elsewhere herein as well the distribution patch field. The input adapter port 264 is disposed in an upper portion of the front opening 252 proximate to the top rail 184. The input adapter port 264 is sized and configured to receive an input connector 272 (shown for clarity without an associated cable), which may be configured for any acceptable adapter, e.g., LC, MPO, MDC, SN, CS, SC, or other. Only one input adapter port 264 is shown, but in other embodiments, there may be a plurality of input adapter ports 264).
As to Claim 6:
Womack in view of Yang discloses that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, wherein the vertically arranged groups of fiber topic connectors include at least one horizontally oriented LC duplex fiber connector (Womack, see 264 and 268 in figure 4 and paragraph [0051], where Womack discloses that the interior space 248 provides space for the optical devices and components to optically couple one or more input adapter ports 264 to a plurality of distribution ports 268. The interior space 248 includes a combination of an optical splitter of the types motioned elsewhere herein as well the distribution patch field. The input adapter port 264 is disposed in an upper portion of the front opening 252 proximate to the top rail 184. The input adapter port 264 is sized and configured to receive an input connector 272 (shown for clarity without an associated cable), which may be configured for any acceptable adapter, e.g., LC, MPO, MDC, SN, CS, SC, or other. Only one input adapter port 264 is shown, but in other embodiments, there may be a plurality of input adapter ports 264).
As to Claim 7:
Womack in view of Yang discloses that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, further comprising attachment devices (Womack, see 288 and 292 in figure 4).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Womack et al. (US 20220075137 A1) in view of Yang et al. (US 20210076527 A1) in further view of Adiletta et al. (US 20190387291 A1)
As to Claim 8:
Womack in view of Yang differs from the claimed subject matter in that Womack in view of Yang does not explicitly disclose that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a QR code or bar code to be used for mapping and documenting interconnections.
However in an analogous art, Adiletta discloses that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a QR code or bar code to be used for mapping and documenting interconnections (Adiletta, see paragraph [0108], where Adiletta discloses that ID/location component 2044 can couple to a scanner (e.g., bar code, or the like) and receive signals indicative of barcodes scanned by the scanner. In such an example, barcodes can be implemented on racks, posts, brackets, and/or sleds of the data center and such signals can be used by the ID/location component 2044 to determine a location of the robot within the data center and/or identify particular racks, sled spaces, and/or sleds of the data center).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Womack in view of Yang with Adiletta. One would be motivated to modify Womack in view of Yang by disclosing that the application-specified adapter-aligned enclosure of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a QR code or bar code to be used for mapping and documenting interconnections as taught by Adiletta, and thereby providing an improved method of managing (e.g., installing, replacing, performing maintenance, or the like) the volume of physical resources spread throughout the data center (Adiletta, see paragraph [0003].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to
applicant's disclosure. Kewitsch (US 20140079364 A1) discloses a highly scalable and modular automated optical cross connect switch comprised of large numbers of densely packed fiber strands suspended within a common volume. In particular, apparatus and methods enabling programmable interconnection of large numbers of optical fibers (100's-1000's) having structured and coherent braid representations are provided.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NELSON ROSARIO whose telephone number is (571)270-1866. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday, 7:30am- 5:00pm EST. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew Eason can be reached on (571) 270-7230. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/NELSON M ROSARIO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2624
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