DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-25 are pending.
Notice of AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after 16 March 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. § 101:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 18-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 18 is directed to a “computer readable storage medium.” The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium typically covers non-statutory transitory forms of signal transmission, such as, a propagating electrical or electromagnetic signal. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 84 USPQ2d 1495 (Fed. Cir. 2007). The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a data storage device encompasses non-statutory transitory propagating signals per se. See Ex parte Mewherter, 107 USPQ2d 1857, 1862 (PTAB 2013) (precedential). The specification fails to provide a definition of “computer readable storage medium” that excludes transitory forms of signal transmission. Accordingly, the recited “computer readable storage medium” has been interpreted to include nonstatutory subject matter.
In order to obviate the rejection, it is recommended that the claim be amended to explicitly exclude transitory forms of signal transmission (e.g., by addition of the phrase “non-transitory”).
Claims 19-25, which depend on claim 18, merely recite additional instructions stored in the aforementioned computer readable storage medium. Thus, these claims are also directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-17 contain allowable subject matter.
Claims 1-17 are allowed.
Conclusion
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Asher D. Kells
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2171
/Asher D Kells/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2171
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