DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/05/26 has been entered.
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 1-7 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 written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
As to claim 1, the claim recites “when the receipt confirmation message indicates that not all of the unreceived biometric information has been successfully received … deleting … biometric information stored … except for biometric information corresponding to unreceived biometric information that has not been successfully received by the communication terminal”. The original disclosure fails to provide support for such a feature. While the original disclosure does state that the sensor controller “may delete biometric information stored … except for unreceived biometric information” ([0061] of pgpub), there does not appear to be a mechanism for determining when only a portion of the information has been received. In addition, the disclosure notes that “when ALL unreceived … information … is received, a receipt success message is generated” ([0102]) and that “if ALL unreceived biometric information has not been received … a receipt failure message is generated” ([0103]). In addition, while the claim recites the condition for deletion is triggered by the transmission of the receipt confirmation message, the original disclosure states that the information is stored for a “storage period” and when said storage period ends, the information is sequentially deleted, but before the information is deleted, the “information generated by transmitting unreceived biometric information every non-receipt communication cycle is safely transmitted to the communication terminal”, indicating that deletions are not based on the transmission of the message, but done so at regular time intervals, and that data is transmitted prior to deletion, which is different from a selective deletion of information that was already successfully transmitted.
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.
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to claim 1, the claim recites “generating, by the sensor transmitter, a non-receipt request message for requesting biometric information unreceived by the communication terminal”. The same claim also recites “when the user command for requesting the unreceived biometric information is inputted, the non-receipt request message is generated and transmitted to the sensor transmitter”. It’s unclear why the sensor transmitter would generate a non-receipt request and why it would transmit it to itself. It’s also unclear why there are two separate steps for generating the non-receipt request message, whether they are the same or different messages, and why the condition for generating them are different. Lastly, it’s also unclear why there would be a determination of whether biometric information unreceived by the communication terminal exists AFTER a non-receipt request is generated.
Claim 1 recites a “first communication interval set every non-receipt communication cycle”. It is unclear whether this first communication interval is the same interval as the non-receipt communication cycle, whether it’s a portion of this non-receipt communication cycle, or whether it’s determined at the start of each non-receipt communication cycle regardless of when it actually starts and ends.
Where there is a great deal of confusion and uncertainty as to the proper interpretation of the limitations of a claim, it would not be proper to reject such a claim on the basis of prior art. As stated in In re Steele, 305 F.2d 859, 134 USPQ 292 (CCPA 1962), a rejection should not be based on considerable speculation about the meaning of terms employed in a claim or assumptions that must be made as to the scope of the claims. See MPEP 2173.06.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Miller et al. (US 2017/0156665) teaches a system for establishing connection between a monitoring device and a patient device in which data is transmitted from the monitoring device to the patient device, and a confirmation message is issued once data is received. In response to the confirmation message, the monitoring device can delete the transmitted data ([0094]). Brenneman et al. (US 2008/0092638) teaches an analyte sensor system in which the sensor module regularly transmits measured data and then delete the measurement data upon receipt of an acknowledgment signal that the data was received, allowing for any newly stored but not yet transmitted data to be preserved in the sensor module ([0043]). Reihman et al. (US 2017/0124350) teaches a sensor system in which backfill data representative of sensor data is stored at a continuous glucose sensor ([0007]) until a later time when the backfill data may be transmitted ([0103]).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTIAN JANG whose telephone number is (571)270-3820. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (7-3:30 EST).
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CHRISTIAN JANG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3791
/CHRISTIAN JANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3791 2/23/26
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