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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tsuboi et al (US 2011/0039551).
Regarding claim 1, Tsuboi et al teach a method, comprising: correlating (see figure 2, component 1074 “correlation processing unit”) a digital received signal (see figure 2, output of component 1071) with a selected data pattern (see figure 2, component 1072 “sequence selection unit), , the selected data pattern comprising one of: a predetermined data pattern or a recovered data pattern (see figure 2, and paragraph 0135); and providing an indication of quality that is at least partially based on a determined correlation between the digital received signal and the selected data pattern (see figure 2, component 1074 and 1075 paragraph 0135 - 0139).
Regarding claim 4, which inherits the limitations of claim 1, Tsuboi et al further teach comprising: mapping the determined correlation to a signal quality value; and generating the indication of signal quality at least partially based on the signal quality value (see figure 2, components 1074 and 1075 paragraph 0135 - 0139).
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) 5 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsuboi et al (US 2011/0039551 in view of Li et al (2024/0107426).
Regarding claim 5, which inherits the limitations of claim 1, Tsuboi et al does not expressly disclose using a Finite Impulse Response filter as correlator. However, use of FIR filters as correlators is well known in art. Further, Li et al disclose a correlator comprising: providing the digital received signal to a signal input of a finite impulse response filter (see figure 5 and paragraph 0050); and providing the selected data pattern to a coefficient input of the finite impulse response filter (see figure 5 and paragraph 0050); and utilizing an output of the finite impulse response filter as a correlation signal indicative of correlation between the digital received signal and the selected data pattern (see figure 5 and paragraph 0050). Therefore, it would have been obvious to an ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to use a FIR filter as correlator. The motivation or suggestion to do so is to have inherent stability and linear phase response.
Regarding claim 6, which inherits the limitations of claim 1, Tsuboi et al in view of Li et al further teach herein the correlating the digital received signal with the selected data pattern comprising: cross correlating the digital received signal with the selected data pattern (see Tsuboi et al figure 2, and Li et al figure 5).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, and 7 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 8 – 16 are allowable over prior art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAISON JOSEPH whose telephone number is (571)272-6041. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 - 4.
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JAISON . JOSEPH
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2633
/JAISON JOSEPH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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