DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-15 and 17-24, submitted 27 January 2026, are pending in the application. Claims 17-24 remain withdrawn. Claims 1-15 remain rejected.
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 .
Rejections – Maintained
The status of the rejections in the previous Office Action are set out below.
Rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103
Applicant asserts that Hutchaleelaha et al. should not be admissible as prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) due to the reference being first published 11 February 2019. Applicant additionally notes that the instant application claims priority to provisional applications 62/940,154, filed on 25 November 2019, and 62/937,706 filed on 19 November 2019. However, the Applicant did not include a statement in the specification at the time of filing and has not provided a declaration to invoke a 102(b)(1)(A) exception. Consequently, the rejections of the previous Office Action are maintained and the pending claims under examination (i.e., claims 1-15) remain rejected. To overcome the rejection, the Applicant could provide a declaration stating that they are invoking a 102(b) exception. See MPEP § 2153.01(a).
Conclusion
Claims 1-15 remain rejected. No claims are allowed.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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JUSTIN CHRISTOPHER SANCHEZ
Examiner
Art Unit 1622
/J.C.S./Examiner, Art Unit 1622
/JAMES H ALSTRUM-ACEVEDO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1622
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