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 .
This action is in response to Application filed on 02/21/2025
Application is a CON of PCT/KR2023/008876 06/26/2023
Application claims a FP date of 08/22/2022
Claims 1 and 12 are independent
Claims 1-20 are pending
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in the instant Application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 02/21/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98(a)(4). Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered 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, 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 1-3, 5, 7, 9, 12-14, 16 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2020/0128622 A1) in view of Nosaka (U. S. Patent Publication Number 2019/0097672 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Song discloses an electronic device (Fig 1- electronic device 101) comprising:
at least one camera (Fig 1-camera module 180; camera module 205, 212, 213);
a first conductive pattern separated from the at least one camera by a first distance (In Fig 2, Song discloses the use of multiple antennas – 242, 244 and 248. In ¶0039 he also discloses that antenna module may include a radiating element composed of a conductive material or a conductive pattern formed in or on a substrate. He also disclosed including plurality of antennas. The distance of antenna 242 from camera 108 could be interpreted as “a first distance”);
a second conductive pattern separated from the at least one camera by a second distance, the second distance being longer than the first distance (The distance of antenna 244 from camera 108 could be interpreted as “a second distance” and as it is different, it could be interpreted as this distance is longer than the first distance); and
a communication processor (Fig 1 – communication module 190/390) configured to transmit a data signal to an external electronic device and configured to receive a control signal from the external electronic device (In ¶0038, Song discloses that the communication module 190 may establish a direct communication channel between the electronic device 101 and the external device or server), through the first conductive pattern and the second conductive pattern (In ¶0039, Song further discloses that the antenna module 197 may include plurality of antennas to transmit and receive RF signals), and
adjust, when the at least one camera is operated in the first time period, a strength of the first data signal to be lower than a preset strength associated with an operation of the at least one camera (Song discloses this limitation in the flow chart of Figs 6 and 8 and corresponding disclosure).
Song discloses the communication processor (communication module 190) but fails to clearly disclose transmit a first data signal to the external electronic device by controlling the first conductive pattern and the second conductive pattern in a first time period indicated by the control signal transmitted from the external electronic device;
transmit a second data signal to the external electronic device by controlling the second conductive pattern in a second time period different from the first time period;
Instead in a similar endeavor, Nosaka discloses wherein the communication processor (Fig 1 – communication apparatus 4 includes a RF front end circuits that comprises a controller 27) is further configured to:
transmit a first data signal to the external electronic device by controlling the first conductive pattern and the second conductive pattern in a first time period indicated by the control signal transmitted from the external electronic device (Examiner would like to state on the record, that the claim does not clarify or define “controlling the first conductive pattern and the second conductive pattern”. However, since the conductive pattern has been interpreted as “antenna”, Examiner has interpreted this as controlling the first and the second antenna. Nosaka, throughout his disclosure, teaches about impedance matching circuit 21 and the filter circuits 22 and 23. Specifically in ¶0082, he teaches that the impedance matching circuit 21 achieves impedance matching between the impedance of the filter circuit 22 and the predetermined impedance that adjusts the impedance of the filter circuit. Since in ¶0103-¶0104 and in ¶0163, Nosaka teaches that the impedance matching circuit 21A includes a capacitor 212C);
transmit a second data signal to the external electronic device by controlling the second conductive pattern in a second time period different from the first time period; (In ¶0085, Nosaka discloses that that pass bands of the filter circuits are different and the controller 27 controls ON and OFF of each switch on the basis of the frequency band to be used. Figs 3, 4A, 4B illustrates bandpass characteristics if the two filters. In Fig 4A and 4B and in ¶0126, Nosaka teaches that the insertion loss of a transmission signal path illustrates the ratio of the strength of a signal outputted from the antenna to the strength of the signal inputted to the transmission terminal 120; It is therefore clear that the electronic device transmits data signal at different time periods while controlling the different antennas).
Song and Nosaka are combinable because both use communication devices like the antenna in a mobile communication apparatuses.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the impedance matching circuit as taught by Nosaka in the imaging module disclosed by Song.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to “reduce the size of the communication apparatus by supporting multi-band” as disclosed by Nosaka in ¶0044.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Song and Nosaka to obtain the invention as specified in claim 1.
Regarding Claim 2, Song in view of Nosaka discloses wherein the communication processor (Song: processor 140) is further configured to monitor the control signal by a preset period (Song: In ¶0023, Song discloses that the processor 120 controls at least one component coupled with the processor and made process data received from the communication module 190).
Regarding Claim 3, Song in view of Nosaka discloses wherein the communication processor is further configured to receive the control signal based on the preset period associated with exchanging of the control signal to communicate with the external electronic device based on a plurality of wireless communication protocols supported by the external electronic device (Song: In ¶0063 and in Fig 3, Song discloses the multiple external devices and in ¶0064 he also discloses that they may communicate with different frequency bands).
Regarding Claim 5, Song in view of Nosaka discloses further comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry, wherein the communication processor is further configured to adjust a frequency corresponding to at least one of the first data signal or the second data signal based on the RF circuitry when transmitting the at least one of the first data signal or the second data signal (Song: Song discloses this in ¶0051-¶0052 where he discloses that the RFIC 222 may convert a baseband signal generated by the first CP 212 into an RF signal of about 700 MHz to about 3 GHz used for the first cellular network 292).
Regarding Claim 7, Song in view of Nosaka discloses wherein the first data signal comprises a third data signal and a fourth data signal, and2 wherein the communication processor is further configured to:
transmit the third data signal in the first data signal, to the external electronic device, based on a first radio access technology (RAT), and
transmit the fourth data signal in the first data signal, to the external electronic device, based on a second RAT (Song: Fig 2, 3 and ¶0062-¶0064).
Regarding Claim 9, Song in view of Nosaka discloses further comprising a processor configured to transmit, to the communication processor, information about the operation of the at least one camera (Song: In ¶0041, Song discloses that commands or data may be transmitted or received between the electronic device 101 and the external device 104 via the server ).
Regarding Claim 12, this claim is a methods claim that has limitations parallel to Claim 1. Claim 12 is therefore rejected on the same grounds as Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 13, this claim is a methods claim that has limitations parallel to Claim 2. Claim 13 is therefore rejected on the same grounds as Claim 2.
Regarding Claim 14, this claim is a methods claim that has limitations parallel to Claim 3. Claim 14 is therefore rejected on the same grounds as Claim 3.
Regarding Claim 16, this claim is a methods claim that has limitations parallel to Claim 5. Claim 16 is therefore rejected on the same grounds as Claim 5.
Regarding Claim 18, this claim is a methods claim that has limitations parallel to Claim 7. Claim 18 is therefore rejected on the same grounds as Claim 7.
Regarding Claim 19, this claim is a methods claim that has limitations parallel to Claim 9. Claim 19 is therefore rejected on the same grounds as Claim 9.
Claims 4-5 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2020/0128622 A1) in view of Nosaka (U. S. Patent Publication Number 2019/0097672 A1) as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Woo et al. (WO 2020141753 A1 published on 07/09/2020. U. S. Patent Publication Number 2022/0070800 A1 has been used for citing purposes).
Regarding Claim 4, Song in view of Nosaka fail to clearly disclose wherein the communication processor is further configured to increase the preset period to monitor the control signal based on receiving the control signal including another data that is different from data indicating the first time period.
Instead in a similar endeavor, Woo discloses wherein the communication processor (Fig 1 – communication module 190) is further configured to increase the preset period to monitor the control signal based on receiving the control signal including another data that is different from data indicating the first time period (In ¶0085, Woo teaches that the electronic device 101 may continuously monitor the channel and strength of the beam by using at leasr one of the SS/PBCH block and CSI-RS included in the transmit beam. He also teaches that the device may adaptively select a beam having a good beam quality by using the monitoring operation; Woo also teaches this in Figs 8-11 and corresponding disclosure.).
Song, Nosaka and Woo are combinable because all use communication devices like the antenna in a mobile communication apparatuses.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the impedance matching circuit as taught by Nosaka and use beam sweeping to determine a beam pair between transmit beam of the base station as taught by Woo in the imaging module disclosed by Song.
The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to “reduce the size of the communication apparatus by supporting multi-band” as disclosed by Nosaka in ¶0044 and to reduce “power consumption for determining a beam pair” as disclosed by Woo in ¶0010
Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Song, Nosaka and Woo to obtain the invention as specified in claim 4.
Regarding Claim 5, Song in view of Nosaka and Woo disclose further comprising radio frequency (RF) circuitry (Woo: In ¶0047 Woo teaches the use of radio frequency integrated circuit RFIC), wherein the communication processor (Woo: Fig 1 – communication module 190) is further configured to adjust a frequency corresponding to at least one of the first data signal or the second data signal based on the RF circuitry when transmitting the at least one of the first data signal or the second data signal (Woo: In Fig 2 and in ¶0056 teaches the multiple RFICs 222, 224, 226 and 228; See ¶0058-¶0067 where Woo teaches the preprocessing of the RF signal and converting the preprocessed RF signal into a baseband signal so as to be processed by the communication processor).
Regarding Claim 15, this claim is a methods claim that has limitations parallel to Claim 4. Claim 15 is therefore rejected on the same grounds as Claim 4.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 8, 10-11, 17 and 20 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.
Reference Cited
The following prior art made of record but not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Ham et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2019/0386380 A1) discloses an electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a housing including a first plate, a second plate facing away from the first plate, and a side member surrounding a space between the first plate and the second plate, a first PCB disposed in parallel with the first plate in the space between the first plate and the second plate, and including a first face facing the first plate and a second face facing the second plate, at least one conductive plate formed on the second face, a first conductive pattern embedded in the first PCB and disposed to be closer to a portion of the side member than the conductive plate when viewed from above the first plate, a first wireless communication circuit mounted on a first face of the first PCB, electrically coupled to the conductive plate and the first conductive pattern.
Shimezawa et al. (U.S. Patent Publication Number 2024/0163890 A1) discloses A terminal device that performs communication with a base station, including: a wireless transmitter that transmits an uplink channel using a first signal waveform or a second signal waveform, the first signal waveform is a signal generated without performing a predetermined conversion process, and the second signal waveform is a signal generated by performing the predetermined conversion process, in a case where the uplink channel is a predetermined control channel, the second signal waveform is used for transmitting the uplink channel, and in a case where the uplink channel is a predetermined shared channel, either the first signal waveform or the second signal waveform is used for transmitting the uplink channel based on control information uniquely notified from the base station to the terminal device.
Conclusion
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/PADMA HALIYUR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639 July 6, 2026
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