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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on January 29, 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 – 19 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.
Regarding claim 1, line 10, the limitation “an attribute”. It is not clear if this is referring to the same “an attribute” at line 5. Thus, this claim is indefinite. In the interest of advancing prosecution, Examiner has considered both occurrences of “an attribute” to be the same attribute of the face.
Independent claims 10 and 15 are rejected for the same issue is noted in claim 1.
Dependent claims 2 – 9 are rejected for inheriting this deficiency of base claim 1.
Dependent claims 11 – 14 are rejected for inheriting this deficiency of base claim 10.
Dependent claims 16 – 19 are rejected for inheriting this deficiency of base claim 15.
Clarification is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 – 19 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base 35 U.S.C. 112(b) claim, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter.
Regarding claim 1, the prior art references taken individually or in combination fail to particularly disclose, fairly suggest, or render obvious the limitations as further recited. The applied prior arts Saito and Yamada doesn’t disclose the limitation, generating a second estimated value regarding the attribute of the face image, based on the plurality of first estimated values and the plurality of pieces of similarity information used as weights for the plurality of the first estimated values. Saito in [0014] discloses about receiving a face image and extracting, from the face image a second feature amount for estimating an attribute.
Furthermore, Yamada in [0111-0114] discloses about first feature amount for classifying a capturing environment and generating a plurality of pieces of similarity information that indicates a similarity between the first feature amount and a plurality of representative features pieces of feature information respectively associated with each of a plurality of environment clusters. Lastly, Yamada in [0004] and [0010] in the combination discloses about generating each of a plurality of first estimated values regarding an attribute of the face image by inputting the second feature amount of the face image into each of a plurality of estimation models learned for each of the environment clusters. But neither of the reference Saito or Yamada in the combination discloses about similarity information of the environment used as weights for the plurality of the first estimated values.
Dependent claims 2 – 9, are allowed by virtually being dependent upon claim 1.
Regarding claim 10, is a non-transitory computer readable storage medium claim corresponds to method claim 1. Therefore, claim 10 is allowable for the same reason provided above for claim 1.
Dependent claims 11 – 14, are allowed by virtually being dependent upon claim 10.
Regarding claim 15, apparatus claim 15 corresponds to method claim 1 . Therefore, claim 15 is allowable for the same reason provided above for claim 1.
Dependent claims 16 – 19, are allowed by virtually being dependent upon claim 15.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZAID MUHAMMAD SALEH whose telephone number is (703)756-1684. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 am - 5 pm ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vu Le can be reached on (571)272-7332. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZAID MUHAMMAD SALEH/
Examiner, Art Unit 2668
03/28/2026
/VU LE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2668