Obviousness

Based on my analysis of the prior art cited during the prosecution of U.S. Patent 8,593,358, a strong case for obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103 can be made by combining existing technologies that were well-known before the patent's priority date of August 14, 2008.

A person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) at the time of the invention would have been an electrical engineer with experience in radio frequency (RF) circuit design and antenna design for portable wireless devices, possessing knowledge of impedance matching, antenna tuning techniques, and the integration of multiple radio systems (like Cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS) into a single device.

Obviousness Combination: Motorola '723 and Kyocera '989

A combination of U.S. Patent 6,762,723 (Motorola '723) and U.S. Patent 7,132,989 (Kyocera '989) would render the independent claims of the '358 patent obvious.

• Primary Reference: US 6,762,723 (Motorola '723), titled "Wireless communication device having multiband antenna," filed November 8, 2002.

  • What it Teaches: Motorola '723 discloses a compact multiband antenna structure for a wireless communication device. It explicitly teaches combining multiple antenna elements for different frequency bands into a single structure. For example, it describes a first antenna element for a cellular band and a second, coupled antenna element for another band like GPS or Bluetooth. This establishes the foundational concept of a single antenna structure being used by transceivers operating in different bands, a core element of the '358 patent. The use of multiple coupled elements can be seen as a basic form of an antenna array.

• Secondary Reference: US 7,132,989 (Kyocera '989), titled "Apparatus, system, and method for adjusting antenna characteristics using tunable parasitic elements," filed May 4, 2005.

  • What it Teaches: Kyocera '989 teaches a method for dynamically optimizing antenna performance by using electronically tunable parasitic elements. It explicitly discloses a "controller" that provides a "control signal" to at least one "tunable parasitic element" to adjust antenna characteristics like resonant frequency and impedance match (VSWR). This directly teaches the limitations of claims 1, 8, and 25 regarding an antenna that is tuned by one or more passive elements which are selected or interconnected using electronic control.

Motivation to Combine

A PHOSITA starting with the multiband antenna design from Motorola '723 would have recognized a well-known problem: passive multiband antennas are a compromise, often exhibiting suboptimal performance in any given band compared to a dedicated, single-band antenna. Furthermore, antenna performance in a portable device is heavily affected by its environment, such as the proximity of the user's hand or head, which detunes the antenna and degrades signal quality.

The Kyocera '989 patent directly addresses this exact problem by providing a solution: electronically tuning the antenna to actively compensate for environmental effects and to optimize performance for the specific frequency band currently in use. Therefore, a PHOSITA would have been motivated to apply the tuning method described in Kyocera '989 to the multiband antenna structure taught by Motorola '723 for the predictable purpose of improving its performance, efficiency, and reliability across its various operating bands. This combination would represent a predictable improvement of a known device (a multiband antenna) with a known technique (electronic tuning) to yield predictable results (improved performance).

Mapping the Combination to Claim Limitations

• Claim 1/8: An antenna array used by a plurality of transceivers in different bands, tuned by electronically controlled elements.

  • Motorola '723 provides the multi-element (array) antenna structure used for a plurality of frequency bands (e.g., cellular and GPS/Bluetooth).
  • Kyocera '989 provides the teaching of tuning this type of antenna using electronically controlled passive elements under the direction of a controller. Combining them results in the claimed invention.

• Claim 14/19: Simultaneous Operation.

  • The '358 patent argues for novelty in allowing simultaneous use of the antenna by multiple transceivers. While the primary references focus on tuning for one band at a time, the use of multiple radios simultaneously in a device (e.g., a phone on a call while Bluetooth is active) was standard by 2008. To enable this with a shared antenna, a PHOSITA would have naturally turned to well-understood RF design principles, such as using diplexers, filters, or trap circuits at the antenna feed point to provide the necessary isolation between the different radio front-ends. The '358 patent itself acknowledges this, stating "low cost LC circuits may be etched into and/or added on the circuit board ... in order to create an RF Trap for the other bands" (Col. 7, lines 11-15). This is not an invention, but the application of a standard technique. Combining the tunable antenna of Motorola/Kyocera with standard filtering techniques to enable simultaneous operation would have been obvious.

• Claim 25: A tuner/controller component.

  • Kyocera '989 explicitly discloses a controller and tunable elements as a system for adjusting antenna characteristics. This reference teaches the core of the component claimed in claim 25.

• Claim 28: A wireless communication system.

  • The combination of Motorola '723 and Kyocera '989 describes the wireless device. Placing this device into a system where it communicates with other devices (the fundamental purpose of any wireless device) is inherent and does not add a patentable distinction.

In conclusion, the core concepts of the '358 patent—sharing a multi-element antenna among different radios and electronically tuning it for better performance—are a combination of known elements from the prior art. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Motorola '723 and Kyocera '989 to achieve the predictable result of a more efficient and reliable multiband antenna system for a portable wireless device.