The arguments and amendments submitted 12/19/2025 have been considered. The claims, however, remain unpatentable for the reasons described below.
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.
Claims 1-7 and 21-32 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 pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 recites the following two features: a) “each of the first light sources and each of multiple groups of the first light sources being individually addressable" and b) “each of the second light sources and each of multiple groups of the second light sources being individually addressable", but there is no description anywhere in the disclosure of feature a) nor feature b), and therefore each of these features is unsupported new matter. Dependent claims fall herewith.
Response to Arguments
Amended claim 1 incorporating the subject matter of previously presented claim 8, which was indicated as allowable over the prior art, is rejected under 112(a), as described above, and is therefore not presently allowable.
Regarding amended claim 1, Applicant presents an argument contending that there is literal support in the Abstract for the features a) and b) along with further support in paras. 0016 and 0038 of the specification.
However, this argument is not persuasive for the following reasons. First, there is no literal support in the abstract for these features. In fact, the abstract only provides support for “Each of the first light sources or each of multiple groups of the first light sources is individually addressable” (with highlighting of the term “or” added by examiner) along with a corresponding description for the second light sources. Thus, the abstract only provides support for two alternative configurations of individually addressing each set of light sources (e.g. each of the first light sources being individually addressable or each of multiple groups of the first light sources being individually addressable), not the combination of both configurations of individual addressing. Similarly each of paragraphs 0016 and 0038 are limited to a description of one of the two alternative configurations, respectively, not the combination of the two configurations.
Conclusion
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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/JRS/
Examiner
Art Unit 1745
/PHILIP C TUCKER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1745
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