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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/17/2025 and 3/26/2026 were filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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) 1-3 and 7-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fu et al CN 11010107B in view of Xu et al CN21549706U. (both of record)
Fu et al discloses a laminated coupling bandpass filter, comprising a first layer, a second layer, and a third layer, wherein the first layer, the second layer, and the third layer are spaced apart sequentially in a direction from the top portion to the bottom portion, the first layer and the third layer are located on two opposite sides of the second layer respectively, the first layer comprises at least two resonance units, each resonance unit comprises a microstrip ( 401 402 403 404 ), the second layer comprises a metal planar conductor (i.e. a transfer busbar) , the third layer comprises a ground GND (i.e. a first metal isolation plate), and the microstrip of the resonance unit is connected to the metal conductor 501 through metal holes (V12 V 22 V32 V42) (i.e. a corresponding first connection column) and is grounded through the metal planar conductor, wherein the metal holes and the resonance unit are the same in quantity and are in a one-to-one correspondence with each other.
Thus, Fu et al is shown to teach all the limitation of the claims with the exception a housing, comprising a top portion, a bottom portion disposed opposite to the top portion, and a side portion located between the top portion and the bottom portion; and a filter assembly, accommodated in the housing.
Xu et al discloses a lowpass filter comprising a multiple layered filter structure wherein the filter structure is fixed in a shell 1, which shields the signal .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been found it obvious to place the bandpass filter of Fu et al in a shell (housing ) as taught by Xu et al .
The motivation for this modification would have been to provide the advantageous benefit of a shielding means.
With regards to claim 2, the filter further comprises a grounding terminal, the metal planar conductor is connected to the ground GND through six metal holes (601) (i.e. a second connection column), and the ground GND is in contact with the grounding terminal, to implement grounding.
With regards to claim 3, the filter comprises a grounding terminal , and the metal planar conductor is in contact with the grounding terminal, to implement grounding.
With regards to claim 7, there are at least two microstrips (102 401) in each resonance unit, the at least two microstrips are disposed sequentially in the direction from the top portion to the bottom portion, and the at least two microstrips are all connected to the metal holes (V12 V22 V32 V42).
With regards to claim 8, surfaces of the at least two microstrips of each resonance unit are parallel to each other and are perpendicular to an extension direction of metal holes.
With regards to claim 9, each microstrip is in contact with the grounding terminal through metal holes.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 and 10 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIMBERLY E GLENN whose telephone number is (571)272-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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July 30, 2026
/K.E.G/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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