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 2-8, and 10-11 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 4-6, 8, and 10-11 depend upon rejected claim 3 and inherit the deficiency thereby.
Claim 2, Line 3; and Claim 11, Line 3, “a single conductor” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to how this recitation relates to the “first shielding conductor” and “second shielding conductor” as defined in claim 1, from which this claim depends (i.e. the same shielding conductor, a differing and newly defined conductor, etc.), thereby leaving the boundaries of this claim unclear.
Claim 3, Lines 2 and 5, “at one end” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to what limitation this “at one end” is intended to encompass (i.e. which planar electrode the one end is corresponding to, the third planar electrode, the first planar electrode, etc.), thereby leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
Claim 3, Lines 3 and 6, “at one other end” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to what limitation this “at one other end” is intended to encompass (i.e. which planar electrode the one other end is corresponding to, the third planar electrode, the first planar electrode, etc.), thereby leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
Claim 5, Line 3, “substantially equal” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to what the terminology “substantially” is intended to convey (i.e. how close the recited values must be, a range, the scope, etc.), thereby leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
Claim 7, Lines 2-3, “a substrate” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to how this recitation is related to the “a dielectric substrate” as defined in claim 1, from which this claim depends (i.e. the same substrate, separate and distinct substrates, etc.), 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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 5, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Suzuki (JP 7389837B2), examiner is depending on examiner’s attached translation.
As per Claim 1:
Suzuki discloses in Figure 14:
A filter comprising a first via electrode (one of “via electrode section”, 20A, as shown in related figure 15 and corresponding to one of a singular via of 11A in Figure 14, [0090]) and second via electrode (one of “via electrode section”, 20E, as shown in related figure 15 and corresponding to one of a singular via of 11E in Figure 14, [0090]) in a dielectric substrate (“dielectric substrate”, 14), a first shielding conductor (“shielded conductor”, 12A) on the dielectric substrate (14) located at or adjacent to one end of the first via electrode (one of 11A) and one end of the second via electrode (one of 11E, 12A is located adjacent to a bottom end, as defined below in Image 1, of the one of 11A and one of 11E), a second shielding conductor (“shielded conductor”, 12B, as shown in related Figure 17) on the dielectric substrate (14) located at or adjacent to one other end of the first via electrode (one of 11A) and one other end of the second via electrode (one of 11E, 12A is located adjacent to a top end, as defined below in Image 1, of the one of 11A and one of 11E) and (as per claim 14) the first (12A) and second shielding conductors (12B) are plate-shaped (as is evident by the plate shape of 12A and 12B shown in Figure 14), a first (“capacitor electrodes”, 19A), second (the portion of “coupling pattern” 78 corresponding to 11A/20A, defined as C1 in Image 1 below), third (“capacitor electrodes”, 19E), and fourth planar electrode (the portion of “coupling pattern” 78 corresponding to 11E/20E, defined as C2 in Image 1 below) each in the dielectric substrate (14, as is evident by Figure 14), the first planar electrode (19A) connected to the one end of the first via electrode (one of 11A, 19A is connected to the bottom end of the one of 11A), the second planar electrode (C1) connected to the other end of the first via electrode (one of 11A, C1 is connected to the top end of the one of 11A), the third planar electrode (19E) connected to one end of the second via electrode (one of 11E, 19E is connected to the bottom end of the one of 11E), the fourth planar electrode (C2) connected to the other end of the second via electrode (one of 11E, C2 is connected to the top end of the one of 11E), the first (19A) and third planar electrode (19E) are individually capacitively coupled to the first shielding conductor (12A, 19A and 19E are separately connected, [0017], to 12A, as is evident by Figure 14), and the second (C1) and fourth planar electrode (C2) are electrically connected and define a common electrode (C1 and C2 both define the “coupling pattern” 78 and are connected, as is evident by Figure 14), (as per Claim 3) a third via electrode (an other of “via electrode section”, 20A, corresponding to an other singular via of 20A, as shown in related figure 15 and corresponding to an other 11A in Figure 14, [0090]) connected at one end to the first planar electrode (19A, bottom end of an other 11A is connected to 19A) and at one other end to the second planar electrode (C1, top end of an other 11A is connected to 19A), a fourth via electrode (an other of “via electrode section”, 20E, corresponding to an other singular via of 20E, as shown in related figure 15 and corresponding to an other 11E in Figure 14, [0090]) connected at one end to the third planar electrode (19E, bottom end of an other 11E is connected to 19E) and at one other end to the fourth planar electrode (C2, top end of an other 11E is connected to C2), and (as per Claim 5) a distance between the first (one of 11A) and the third via electrode (an other of 11A) is substantially equal to a distance between the second (one of 11E) and fourth via electrode (an other of 11E, as is evident by one of 11A and an other of 11A being within the same “virtual circle”, 26, and one of 11E and an other of 11E being within the same “virtual circle”, 26, as shown in related Figure 15, the diameters for both virtual circles are the same, [0049], and thereby they are substantially equal in distance).
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9, 12-13, and 15-16 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.
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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