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 .
In response to the restriction requirement, Applicant elected claims 1, 4-6, 11, and 14-16 for further examination. As a result, claims 2-3, 7-10, 12-13, and 17-20 are withdrawn from further prosecution.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the enablement requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to enable one skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and/or use the invention.
Regarding to the limitations “generating a graph having a plurality of nodes, wherein each node of the graph comprises one of the randomly generated recipes” and “connecting the nodes of the graph, wherein the connected nodes comprise recipes in a single bucket”, the Specification teaches each recipe of the plurality of recipes randomly generated from a pool of chemicals is a node in the graph, and therefore the plurality of randomly generated recipes corresponds to the plurality of nodes in the graph. The Specification further teaches, in order to connect the nodes in the graph, the nodes of the recipes in a single bucket from bucketizing are connected. It is however, the randomly generated recipes and the recipes from bucketizing are not the same; as a result, it is unclear how to associate the recipes from bucketizing to the randomly generated recipes in order to connect the nodes accordingly to fully form the graph. With such unclear, one would not know how to form the graph for further determining the maximum clique and outputting the candidate recipes.
Regarding to the limitation “randomly generating combinations C of chemicals from the pool of chemicals S, comprising C(S, ET)”, “the pool of chemicals” is cited without sufficient antecedent basis requirement. In addition, it is unclear the meaning of “C(S, ET)”. The claim language should specify the meaning in wordings so the scope of the limitation can be determined.
Regarding to the limitation, “wherein each bucket comprises recipes sharing at least ET number of chemicals in common”, the “ET number of chemicals in common” should be rephrased so it can go along with the language “wherein ET comprises a selected number of shared chemicals between each recipe” cited in the earlier step.
Claims 4-6 and 14-16 are rejected because they depend on claim 1 or 11.
CONTACT INFORMATION
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Hutchinson et al. (US 10984145), Wang et al. (US 983440), and Aben et al. (US 2012/0123748).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAM S NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2151.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DOUGLAS RODRIGUEZ, can be reached on 571-431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/LAM S NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853