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 .
Status of the Claims
Claim 1 is pending.
Drawings
The disclosure is objected to because it contains an embedded hyperlink and/or other form of browser-executable code, and case QR codes (see Figures 8, 10 and 11). Applicant is required to delete the embedded hyperlink and/or other form of browser-executable code; references to websites should be limited to the top-level domain name without any prefix such as http:// or other browser-executable code. See MPEP § 608.01.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: in line 1 of Claim 1, “to using set” should read “of using a set”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 1 objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(c) as being in improper form because a multiple dependent claim (i.e. claim 1 depends upon itself). See MPEP § 608.01(n). Accordingly, the claim 1 has not been further treated on the merits.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected as failing to define the invention in the manner required by 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph.
The claim is narrative in form and replete with indefinite language. The structure which goes to make up the device must be clearly and positively specified. The structure must be organized and correlated in such a manner as to present a complete operative device. Each claim must be in one sentence form only. The paragraphs under claim 1 are improperly formatted and not numbered. Note the format of the claims in the patent(s) cited.
Claim 1 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential structural cooperative relationships of elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the necessary structural connections. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted structural cooperative relationship is the “system.” Claim 1 recites “methods and systems” but does not describe a process/steps or a tangible system that can execute the steps.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter (Step 1). The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because Applicant attempts to claim a process without setting forth any steps involved. “Use” claims do not purport to claim a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter and therefore fail to comply with 35 U.S.C. 101 [see MPEP 2173.05(q)].
Therefore, claim 1 is not eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C 101.
Relevant Prior Art
Though claim 1 is not examined on the merits due to the above 112 and 101 rejections, relevant prior art include:
Garafutdinov et al., “A new digital approach to SNP encoding for DNA identification,” December 2020, Forensic Science International, Vol. 317, and Javed et al., “Health-ID: A Blockchain-Based Decentralized Identity Management for Remote Healthcare,” June 2021, Healthcare, 9, 712.
Garafutdinov teaches assigning a unique genetic identification number (GIN) to each person, and where each SNP is presented and then digitized as a 4-bit box (for each nucleotide letter) and further assigned binary codes. Garafutdinov also discusses that “Given that tetra-allelic SNPs are almost bi-allelic due to very low frequencies of the third and fourth alleles, DNA identification should be based on the larger number of SNPs. The diversity of allele frequencies around the world must also be considered. In general, any SNPs (bi, tri-, or tetra-allelic) can be utilized to create a GIN (see page 3, col. 2, para 4, lines 12-17).
Javed teaches a blockchain-based decentralized identity management system that allows patients and healthcare providers to identify and authenticate themselves transparently and securely across different eHealth domains (see abstract).
Conclusion
No claims allowed.
Inquiries
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KRITHIKA R KARUNAKARAN whose telephone number is (571)272-5527. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10am – 6pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Larry D Riggs can be reached at (571) 270-3062. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KRITHIKA R KARUNAKARAN/Examiner, Art Unit 1686
/LARRY D RIGGS II/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1686