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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 04/23/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
3. The present office action is made in response to the amendment filed by applicant on 04/23/2026. It is noted that in the amendment, applicant has made changes to the claims. There is not any change being made to the abstract, the drawings and the specification.
3. Regarding to the claims, applicant has amended claims 1, 4, 6, 16 and 21, canceled claim 5, and added a set of new claims, i.e., claims 22-23, into the application.
Response to Arguments
4. The amendments to the claims as provided in the amendment of 04/23/2026, and applicant's arguments provided in the mentioned amendment, pages 6-8, have been fully considered and resulted the following conclusions.
A) Regarding the claims, the following conclusions are made:
A1) because applicant has canceled claim 5 and added new claims 22-23 into the application, thus as amended and newly-added, the pending claims are now claims 1-4, 6-7 and 16-23. Note that claims 8-15 were canceled in the amendment of 10/03/2025.
A2) a review of the newly-added claims 22-23 has resulted that each newly-added claims further limit the subject matter recited in its base claim 1, thus all pending claims 1-4, 6-7 and 16-23 are examined in the present office action.
B) Regarding the rejection of claims 1-7 and 16-21 under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chou et al (US Publication No. 2019/0128869) in view of Kihara et al (US Patent No. 8,786,693), set forth in the office action of 01/26/2026, the amendments to the claims as provided in the amendment of 04/23/2026, and applicant’s arguments provided in the mentioned amendment, pages 6-8, have been fully considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
6. The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
7. Claims 1-4, 6-7 and 16-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chou et al (US Publication No. 2019/0128869, of record) in view of Tiao et al (US Patent No. 9,117,149).
Chou et al discloses a spacer body for supporting sample(s) in a diagnostic analysis.
a) Regarding present claims 1-4, 6-7, and 16-23, the spacer body as described in paragraphs [0004]-[0005], [0022]-[0053], … and fig. 1 comprises the following features:
a1) a first plate (10);
a2) a second plate (20);
a3) a plurality of spacers (40) formed on a surface of the first plate (10) for supporting cytological sample (90) wherein each spacers has a thickness less than 20 µm and has a substantially circular configuration;
a4) at least one of the first and second plates is made by a transparent material, see paragraphs [0254], [0320], [024], … wherein the spacers is able to make by the same material as that of the plate, see paragraph [0024], thus when the first plate (10) is made by a transparent material then the spacers fixed on the first plate each are made by the same transparent material as that of the first plate;
a5) the second plate (20) configured to be positioned over the spacers (40), see fig. 1C, which second plate acts as a coverslip;
a6) the plurality of spacers (40) comprise distinct and separated spacer portions positioned on the first plate (10), see fig. 1, which adjacent spacers define a central aperture opening sized and shaped to receive/support cytological material(s) (90);
a7) regarding the feature that the material of the spacer is a translucent material as recited in present claim 1, such feature is merely that of a preferred embodiment and no criticality has been disclosed. The support for that conclusion is found in the present specification in paragraphs [0016] and [0018] and is claimed in present claim 16 on lines 3-4. It is also noted that the use of either a transparent or translucent material for a base of a slide used in a microscope is known to one skill in the art as can be seen in the US Publication No. 2014/0022631, see paragraphs [0047], [0050], …, for example, which a copy of the Publication is provided in the office action of01/26/2026; and
a8) regarding the feature regarding “a central opening” as recited in present claims 1 and 18 and the shapes of the spacer body and the central opening as recited in present claims 2 and 3, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art to select a numbers of spacers for supporting a biological sample, thus when one skill in the art select spacers forming a central opening, i.e., a selection of spacers having eight spacers without the center spacers from the selection shown in fig. 1A then the spacers comprises a central opening which has a rectangular shape and the outer perimeter of the spacer body has a rectangular shape.
The only feature missing from the device provided by Chou et al is that Chou et al does not disclose that the spacer body comprises at least one discrete focal feature within the translucent material to act as an optical focal reference.
However, a slide supporting a biological sample which slide is disposed in a stage of a microscope wherein the microscope has actuator(s) for moving the objective lens and/or the stage for the purpose of focusing and wherein the slide comprises a plurality of address coding sectors in the form of barcodes which are used as optical focal reference(s) is known to one skilled in the art as can be seen in the microscope provided by Tiao et al, see columns 1-2, 4 and 17 and figs. 1 and 28, for example. See particularly column 17 on lines 43-47 and fig. 28. Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the sample body provided by Chou et al by using a spacer body having a plate having a section for supporting a sample and another section having barcodes embedded/dispersed within the plate as suggested by Tiao et al for the purpose of providing optical focal reference during a focusing process in an observation of a sample located in a spacer body.
b) Regarding present claims 6, 19, 21 and 22, it is noted that the barcodes each is a combination of printed dots, lines or segments in combination creating/forming a plurality of characters or shapes of different sizes and configurations. Applicant is respectfully invited to review the present specification in paragraph [0018] which discloses that a pigment is a printed dots, lines or circle, etc.
Conclusion
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THONG Q NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-2316. The examiner can normally be reached on M - Th: 6:00 ~ 17:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, STEPHONE B. ALLEN can be reached on (571) 272-2434. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THONG Q NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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