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.
Claims 1-10 are 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. Claims 2-3 and 5-10 depend upon rejected claim 1 and inherit the deficiency thereby.
Claim 1, Line 4, “a waveguide of a waveguide-type” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to what the “waveguide-type” is intended to further convey, thereby leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
Claim 4, Line 2, “a width of the waveguide” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to how this is related to the “a width Wa of the waveguide at the second end part”, as previously defined in claim 1, from which this claim depends, thereby leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
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.
Claims 1 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cheng (US 8669834).
As per Claims 1 and 8:
Cheng discloses in Figure 15:
A wiring board (B1, as shown in annotated related Figure 5A by Image 1 below, which is evidently a printed circuit board (PCB) as there are through-holes formed within the PCB, [Col. 1, Lines 62-63]) comprising a base body (the bottom “copper layer” as shown in Figure 15, and corresponding to “bottom layer” 15, as shown in related Figure 1) with a signal line (S1, as shown below in annotated Image 2, which is evidently a microstrip due to the “microstrip-to-SIW transition at each end”, [Col. 18, Lines 59-61], as shown in Figure 15) having a first end part that is one end of the signal line in a signal transmission direction (E1 corresponding to the end part of the microstrip line S1 in the y direction which is inherently the signal transmission direction, as per the microstrip-to-SIW transition at each end defining the signal transmission directions, [Col. 18, Lines 59-61], as shown below in annotated Image 2), and the width (“Wtrans”, being the width of S1 as the first end part, E1) of the signal line (S1) gradually increases toward the first end part (as per Claim 8, the width of S1 at E1 is evidently gradually greater than the width away from the first end part, corresponding to T1 as shown in annotated Image 2 below), and with a waveguide of a waveguide-type (“SIW”, [Col. 18, Line 59]) having a second end part (E2 corresponding to the end part of the SIW, as further shown by the “LSIW” length, as shown below in annotated Image 2) that is one end of the waveguide in the signal transmission direction (the y direction), a center part in the signal transmission direction (C1, as shown below in annotated Image 2, within the y (signal transmission) direction), and an intermediate part on a side of the second end part closer to the center part (I1, as shown below in annotated Image 2, is closer to C1 and on a side of E2), wherein the first end part (E1) and the second end part (E2) are coupled to one another (as is evident by the connections of the SIW as shown in Figure 15) and a width Wa of the waveguide at the second end part (corresponding to the width “W” as shown in Figure 15) is wider than a width Wb of the waveguide at the intermediate part (corresponding to “WSIW” as shown in Figure 15, WSIW is 1.5mm and W is 3mm, therefore W is evidently wider than WSIW, [Col. 18, Lines 63-67]).
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABIGAIL YALDO whose telephone number is (703)756-1784. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7 AM - 4 PM.
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/ABIGAIL AMIR YALDO/ Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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