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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited in the IDS have been considered by examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 1-2, 4-6, 10 and 13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kurasawa et al (U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0173245).
Regarding claim 1, Kurasawa discloses a position detection of a touch pen (i.e. detect position of touch pen 100), (fig. 2, [0043-0044]), method comprising:
connecting each of a plurality of sending coil conductors (67-1 to 67-10) provided in parallel to a driving circuit (18) in a first connection mode in a first period (i.e. when switch SW12 and SW13 are turned ON), and detecting, by using a plurality of detection coils (SGL1-SGL4), a first alternating magnetic field (current I1) generated by an indicator (100) according to first alternating magnetic fields simultaneously sent from the plurality of sending coil conductors (67-1 to 67-10) in response to first alternating current (I1) supplied from the driving circuit (18), to obtain a first result (i.e. result from I1), (figs. 8-10, [0055, 0080-0082, 0087-0088 and 0103-0104]);
connecting each of the plurality of sending coil conductors (67-1 to 67-10) to the driving circuit (18) in a second connection mode (i.e. when switch SW11 and SW14 are turned ON) different from the first connection mode in a second period (i.e. period when SW11 and SW14 are ON) different from the first period, and detecting, by using the detection coils (SGL1-SGL4), a second alternating magnetic field (I2) generated by the indicator (100) according to second alternating magnetic fields simultaneously sent from the plurality of sending coil conductors (67-1 to 67-10) in response to second alternating current (I2) supplied from the driving circuit (18), to obtain a second result (i.e. result from I2), (figs. 8-9, [0055 and 0080-0088]); and
deriving a position of the indicator (100) based on the first result and the second result, (fig. 10, [0101-0104]).
Regarding claim 2, Kurasawa discloses wherein each of the first connection mode (i.e. period when switch SW12 and SW13 are turned ON) and the second connection mode (i.e. when switch SW11 and SW14 are turned ON) is configured to satisfy a relation where a plurality of vectors each indicating a connection state of a corresponding one of the sending coil conductors are linearly independent of each other (i.e. each connection state of SW12 and SW13 indicate a connection state for coil 67-2 to transmit current I1 from line 53 to line 52), (fig. 8, [0082-0083 and 0088]).
Regarding claim 4, Kurasawa discloses wherein the deriving of the position of the indicator (i.e. position of touch pen 100) derives the position of the indicator in an arrangement direction of the sending coil conductors (i.e. arrangement of electrodes 67-1 to 67-10 in the direction Dy) based on the first result (current I1) and the second result (current I2), (fig. 8, [0085-0087]).
Regarding claim 5, Kurasawa discloses wherein each of the plurality of sending coil conductors includes two linear electrodes (67-4 and 67-6) where current flows such that phases of time derivatives are opposite to each other (i.e. current I1 is opposite direction of current I2), (fig. 8, [0085-0088]).
Regarding claim 6, Kurasawa discloses wherein the current flowing in a first one (i.e. current I1 of electrode 67-4) of the two linear electrodes (67-4 and 67-6) has a sign different (i.e. current I1 and I2 are opposite direction thus having different signs) from a sign of the current flowing in a second one of the two linear electrodes (i.e. current I2 of electrode 67-6), (fig. 8, [0085-0088]).
Regarding claim 10, Kurasawa discloses wherein each of the plurality of sending coil conductors (67-1 to 67-10) includes a loop coil, (fig. 8, [0091]).
Regarding claim 14, please refer to claim 1 for details.
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) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kurasawa in view of Pollmann (U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0286460).
Regarding claim 13, Kurasawa discloses everything as specified above in claim 1. In addition, Kurasawa discloses an integrated circuit (19) configured to be connected to a plurality of sending coil conductors (67-1 to 67-10) provided in parallel, a driving circuit (18), and a plurality of detection coils (SGL1-SGL4), (figs. 1 and 8, [0028, 0080-0082]), the integrated circuit comprising:
at least one processor (14), (fig. 1, [0026]).
However, Kurasawa does not mention a memory storing instructions.
In a similar field of endeavor, Pollmann teaches
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor (i.e. the control circuit 237 includes a microcomputer having a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the microcomputer to perform the functions of the control circuit 237), [0045].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Kurasawa, by specifically providing the memory, as taught by Pollmann, for the purpose of storing instructions for the control circuit to process.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 7-9 and 11-12 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.
Reasons for Allowance
Claim 3, none of the prior art of record teaches alone or in combination the limitation “wherein each of the first connection mode and the second connection mode is determined according to a matrix that has a rank equivalent to a number of the sending coil conductors that simultaneously send the first and the second alternating magnetic fields.”
Claim 7, none of the prior art of record teaches alone or in combination the limitation “wherein the current flowing in a first one of the two linear electrodes has a sign identical to a sign of the current flowing in a second one of the two linear electrodes but has a level different from a level of the current flowing in the second one of the two linear electrodes.”
Claim 8, none of the prior art of record teaches alone or in combination the limitation “wherein a plurality of the linear electrodes constituting each of the plurality of sending coil conductors corresponds to some of a plurality of linear electrodes arranged in one line, and a corresponding one of the linear electrodes not constituting the plurality of sending coil conductors is not disposed between the plurality of linear electrodes constituting each of the plurality of sending coil conductors.”
Claim 9, none of the prior art of record teaches alone or in combination the limitation “wherein a plurality of the linear electrodes constituting each of the plurality of sending coil conductors corresponds to some of a plurality of linear electrodes arranged in one line, and a corresponding one of the linear electrodes not constituting the plurality of sending coil conductors is disposed between the plurality of linear electrodes constituting each of the plurality of sending coil conductors.”
Claim 11 is dependent upon claim 11 and is allowed for the reason mentioned above in claim 9.
Claim 12, none of the prior art of record teaches alone or in combination the limitation “connecting each of the plurality of sending coil conductors to the driving circuit in a third connection mode different from the first and second connection modes, and detecting, by using the detection coils, a third alternating magnetic field generated by the indicator according to third alternating magnetic fields simultaneously sent from the plurality of sending coil conductors in response to third alternating current supplied from the driving circuit, to obtain a third result, wherein the deriving of the position of the indicator based on the first result, the second result, and the third result.”
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/LONG D PHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2623
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