DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to Applicant’s RCE amendment submission filed on 12/22/2025. Claims 1, 7 and 15 were amended. Claim 2 was canceled in the previous OA. Claims 1, 3-15 are pending in this application of which Claims 1, 5, and 7 are independent and have been examined.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments and amendments, in the RCE amendment filed on December 22, 2025 (herein “Amendment”), with respect to claim objection (claim 15) invoked in the previous Office Action are acknowledged. The previous objections are withdrawn in view of amendment.
Claim objection with respect to claims 1 and 3 are not persuasive, as such those objections are maintained.
Applicant on page 7 states: "the step of calculating a cumulative value of products of the first audio signal and the second audio signal" in claim 1 is amended to "the step of calculating the cumulative value of products of the first audio signal and the second audio signal" (Note: I remember that this technical feature was removed during the phone interview”
Examiner, is not sure what it is that the applicant referring to. If there is a specific change/amendment provided by the Applicant, it needs to be reflected in the claim set filed with the amendment. Please consider applying the changes as appropriate in the claim language as an ordinary/routine amendment.
Applicant furthers: "The processing method of the audio signal" in claim 3 is amended to "The audio signal processing method".
Similarly, such changes should be provided within the claim set.
Applicant’s arguments and amendments in the Amendment with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) has been fully considered and persuasive. Consequently, 35 U.S.C. 112(b) claim (7) rejection is withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments filed in the Amendment with respect to the 35 USC §103 rejection raised in the previous office action have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection which was necessitated by applicant’s amendment. Therefore, the previous rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is introduced for independent claims further adding Shin et al. (US 20220386046 A1) to the combination of Lei, Puthuff and Tokozume.
Please see prior art section below for more detail including updated citations and obviousness rationale.
Claim Objections
Listed claims are objected to for the informalities shown and may be addressed with suggested amendments:
Claim 1, recite:” … the step of calculating [[a]] the cumulative value of products of the first audio signal and the second audio …”
Claim 3, recite: “The audio signal processing method
Applicant is advised to review all claims for any potential claim objection issues.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3, 5, 7 - 9, and 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei (CN110931027A), and in further view of Puthuff (WO0021194A1), Tokozume (US20220351711A1), and Shin et al. (US 20220386046 A1)(herein “Shin”).
Lei, Puthuff and Tokozume were applied in the previous Office Action.
Regarding claims 1, 5, and 7 Lei teaches [An audio signal processing method, applied to an electronic device comprising a bone conduction sensor and a microphone, wherein the method comprises the following steps: - claim 1], [An electronic device, comprising a microphone, a bone conduction sensor, a memory, a processor, and an audio signal processing program stored on the memory and operable on the processor, wherein when the audio signal processing program is executed by the processor, the steps of the audio signal processing method according to claim 1 are implemented. – claim 5], and [A non-transitory machine readable storage medium having an audio signal processing program stored thereon, wherein when the audio signal processing program is executed by a processor, the steps of the audio signal processing method according to claim 1 are implemented. – claim 7] (Lei, Page 1:"Audio processing method and device, electronic equipment ….", and Page 2, ll. 23- 27:"there is provided an apparatus for audio processing, the apparatus comprising: the first acquisition module is used for acquiring a first audio signal acquired by the air conduction audio acquisition [microphone] equipment and a second audio signal acquired by the body conduction audio acquisition [bone conduction sensor] equipment;", and Page 2, Line 32- page 3, line 2:” … the device comprises air conduction audio acquisition equipment, body conduction audio acquisition equipment, audio signal playing equipment, a processor and a memory; wherein, an air conduction audio acquisition device for acquiring a first audio signal conducted through air;” , and Page 3, ll. 9-11:” … a computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program is stored, which when executed by a processor implements the method of audio processing shown in the first aspect.”)
acquiring a first audio signal received by the bone conduction sensor and a second audio signal received by the microphone; (lei, Page 3, ll. 1-4: "An air conduction audio acquisition device [microphone] for acquiring a first audio signal conducted through air; a body conduction audio acquisition device [bone conduction sensor] for acquiring a second audio signal conducted through body tissue;").
converting the first audio signal and the second audio signal from time domain signals to frequency domain signals based on Fourier transform; (Lei, Page 19, ll. 33-36:"step S701, performing FFT on the first audio signal and the second audio signal respectively to obtain a frequency domain signal corresponding to the first audio signal and a frequency domain signal corresponding to the second audio signal.") Note: Applying FFT implies audio signals were in time domain before conversion.
calculating a cumulative value of products of the first audio signal and the second audio signal after converted to frequency domain signals; (Lei discloses performing speech enhancement processing on the first audio signal and the second audio signal based on the signal correlation [cumulative value] between the first audio signal and the second audio signal. Page 11, ll. 18-20:" … signal correlation between the first audio signal and the second audio signal, the speech enhancement processing is performed on the first audio signal and the second audio signal ..."). Note: To perform correlation in the frequency domain, both signals need to be transformed into the frequency domain by performing Fourier transform of each signal first. Since both signals are already transformed into frequency domain, their product represents their correlation. Furthermore, the cumulative value taught by Tokozume equation (3) as follows later in this claim mapping below.
determining a frequency division value according to the cumulative value, the first audio signal and the second audio signal after converted; and (Lei, discloses signal correlation as per as-filed specification page 9, line 30 to be Frequency division value, where it states "Then, the correlation factor corr(k) is used as the frequency division value." Further examiner’s note: it is worth noting that the crossover frequency point [Frequency division value] of two signals is obtained by calculating their cross-correlation in the frequency domain, specifically by analyzing the point where the cross-spectral density (CSD) of the signal’s changes sign, signifying a crossover in their dominant frequency components.
synthesizing an audio output signal based on the first sub-audio output signal and the second sub-audio output signal, (Lei, Page 2, ll. 20-22:” performing voice enhancement processing on the first audio signal and the second audio signal based on the signal correlation between the first audio signal and the second audio signal to obtain an audio signal to be output after the voice enhancement processing.”)
the first audio signal and the second audio signal after converted comprises: take the first audio signal after converted as Y1(k), and the second audio signal after converted as Y2(k), (Lei, Page 19, ll. 33-36:"step S701, performing FFT on the first audio signal and the second audio signal respectively to obtain a frequency domain signal corresponding to the first audio signal [Y1(k)] and a frequency domain signal corresponding to the second audio signal [Y2(k)].")
Lei does not teach, however Puthuff teaches collecting a component of the first audio signal whose frequency value is lower than the frequency division value as a first sub-audio output signal; (Puthuff, Page 17, ll. 18-25:” … always passing the microphone signal [2nd audio signal] at the highest frequencies and the bone conduction signal [1st audio signal] at the lowest frequencies until crossover region frequency exceeds the audio band. The operation of such a system is represented graphically in FIG. 11. The signal from microphone 184 is amplified by amplifier 188, while the signal from vibration [bone conduction] sensor 186 is amplified by amplifier 190. The signal outputs from sliding filters 180 and 182 are combined in adder 192 to generate the circuit output.”)
collecting a component of the second audio signal whose frequency value is higher than the frequency division value as a second sub-audio output signal; (Puthuff, Page 17, ll. 18-25:” … always passing the microphone signal [2nd audio signal] at the highest frequencies and the bone conduction signal [1st audio signal] at the lowest frequencies until crossover region frequency exceeds the audio band. The operation of such a system is represented graphically in FIG. 11. The signal from microphone 184 is amplified by amplifier 188, while the signal from vibration [bone conduction] sensor 186 is amplified by amplifier 190. The signal outputs from sliding filters 180 and 182 are combined in adder 192 to generate the circuit output.”)
Puthuff is considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Lei further in view of Puthuff to collect a component of the first/second audio signal whose frequency value is lower/higher than the frequency division value as a first/second sub-audio output signal. Motivation to do so would improve overall system performance. (Page 6, line 14).
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Lei, as modified above, does not teach, however, Tokozume teaches the step of calculating a cumulative value of products of the first audio signal and the second audio signal after converted to frequency domain signals, determining a frequency division value according to the cumulative value, [[the first audio signal and the second audio signal after converted comprises: take the first audio signal after converted as Y1(k), and the second audio signal after converted as Y2(k),]] a correlation factor corr(k) in the frequency domain of the first audio signal and the second audio signal is calculated according to the following equation:
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the correlation factor corr(k) is used as the frequency division value, (Tokozume, ABS:” … A signal processing device includes: a correlation calculation unit that calculates a correlation between a first sound pickup signal by a first microphone installed outside a predetermined region and a second sound pickup signal by a second microphone installed in the predetermined region; a determination unit that determines the correlation; and a control unit that performs control based on a result of the determination. “, and Par. 0064:” Note that the correlation between the two signals a=(a1, a2, . . . , aN) and b=(b1, b2, . . . , bN) may be a Pearson's correlation coefficient expressed by the following formula (2) or a cosine similarity expressed by the following formula (3), in addition to the inner product value.
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(2)
wherein ā and b̅ are average values of a and b, respectively.
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(3)
Examiner note: Equation (3) as taught by Tokozume is the zero average version of equation 2, which is the same equation claimed by the applicant. Furthermore, cumulative value as recited earlier can be considered as the numerator of the equation 3.
Tokozume is considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application to combine Lei, as modified above, with Tokozume. As implied in Tokozume [Par. 0071], one of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine the teachings because it would offer significant advantages due to computational efficiency and better handling of time shifts.
Lei, as modified above, does not teach, however, Shin teaches inputting the audio output signal to an audio using terminal, and receiving the audio output signal by the audio using terminal, (Shin, Par. 0102:” … the audio module 630 may obtain utterance characteristics through tuning using received digital data, that is, the bone conduction-related and audio data collected through the microphone 670.”, and Par. 0127:” … the operation of outputting the bone conduction-related data to the audio module 630 of the electronic device [audio using terminal] through the second path of the sensor device 610 may include outputting the bone conduction-related data based on TDM scheme through the second path …”)
acquiring a usage status of the audio using terminal, and determining an application program responding to the audio output signal according to the usage status, (Shin, Par. 0088:” … upon receipt of a user input for executing a specified application such as a call application or a voice assistant function, the wearable device 200 may identify that the specified condition is satisfied.”)
responding to the audio output signal by the application program determined, (Shin, Par. 0087:” … when an application or function requiring increased voice recognition performance such as a call application or a voice assistant function is executed, the bone conduction function may be activated to obtain bone conduction-related data.”, and Par. 0142:” … when a running application or function is terminated, for example, even when the execution of an application (e.g., a call application or a voice assistant function) related to utterance …”, and Par. 0147:” … voice data may be transmitted to the processor 620 during the call. For example, when the voice assistant function of the electronic device 101 interworking with the wearable device 200 is used, …”).
wherein the audio using terminal is an intelligent device and the electronic device is a bone conduction headphone connected with the audio using terminal. (Shin, Par. 0007:” Embodiments of the disclosure provide an electronic device [intelligent device] including an integrated inertia sensor which increases the precision of an audio or voice signal, such as a bone conduction sensor, without adding a separate element, and an operating method thereof.”, and Par. 0050:” … While the user terminal (e.g., the electronic device 101) may include a smartphone [intelligent device] as illustrated in FIG. 2, the user terminal may be implemented as various kinds of devices …”).
Shin is considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Lei further in view of Shin to input the audio output signal to an audio using terminal, and receiving the audio output signal by the audio using terminal, acquiring a usage status of the audio using terminal, and determining an application program responding to the audio output signal according to the usage status, responding to the audio output signal by the application program determined, wherein the audio using terminal is an intelligent device and the electronic device is a bone conduction headphone connected with the audio using terminal. Motivation to do so would improve mobility and user accessibility (Shin, Par. 0003).
Regarding claims 3, 9, and 12 Lei teaches performing noise reduction processing on the first audio signal and the second audio signal, the step of processing the first audio signal and the second audio signal according to the frequency division value to obtain the audio output signal of the electronic device comprises: (Lei, Page 9, ll. 1-13: … for signal processing of an earphone having two audio acquisition devices, before transmitting audio signals to a connected terminal device, a conventional method is to perform noise reduction and speech enhancement processing on the audio signals acquired by the two audio acquisition devices, and then superimpose the audio signals acquired by the two audio acquisition devices, specifically as shown in fig. 3, perform Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), signal noise estimation, signal speech estimation, Inverse Fourier Transform (IFFT) on the audio signals acquired by the bulk conduction audio acquisition device and the audio signals acquired by the air conduction audio acquisition device, perform low pass filtering on the audio signals corresponding to the IFFT bulk conduction audio acquisition device, perform high pass filtering on the audio signals corresponding to the IFFT air conduction audio acquisition device, and superposing the two filtered signals to obtain an output signal, outputting the output signal to terminal equipment such as a mobile phone connected with an earphone, …”).
processing the first audio signal and the second audio signal after noise reduction processed according to the frequency division value to obtain the audio output signal of the electronic device. (Lei, Page 9, ll. 1-13: … for signal processing of an earphone having two audio acquisition devices, before transmitting audio signals to a connected terminal device, a conventional method is to perform noise reduction and speech enhancement processing on the audio signals acquired by the two audio acquisition devices, and then superimpose the audio signals acquired by the two audio acquisition devices, specifically as shown in fig. 3, perform Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), signal noise estimation, signal speech estimation, Inverse Fourier Transform (IFFT) on the audio signals acquired by the bulk conduction audio acquisition device and the audio signals acquired by the air conduction audio acquisition device, perform low pass filtering on the audio signals corresponding to the IFFT bulk conduction audio acquisition device, perform high pass filtering on the audio signals corresponding to the IFFT air conduction audio acquisition device, and superposing the two filtered signals to obtain an output signal, outputting the output signal to terminal equipment such as a mobile phone connected with an earphone, …”).
Regarding claims 8, and 11 Lei teaches wherein the first audio signal and the second audio signal are converted from time domain signals to frequency domain signals based on Fourier transform. (Lei, Page 19, ll. 33-36:"step S701, performing FFT on the first audio signal and the second audio signal respectively to obtain a frequency domain signal corresponding to the first audio signal and a frequency domain signal corresponding to the second audio signal.") Note: Applying FFT implies audio signals were in time domain before conversion.
Claims 4, 10, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei , Puthuff, Tokozume and Shin, and in further view of Herve et al. (EP2518724A1).
Herve was applied in the previous Office Action.
Regarding claims 4, 10, and 13 Lei, as modified above, teaches an audio signal processing method of claim1, an electronic device of claim 5, and a non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 7, respectively.
Lei, as modified above, does not teach, however, Herve teaches wherein the electronic device comprises at least two microphones, and the step of acquiring the first audio signal received by the bone conduction sensor and the second audio signal received by the microphone comprises: (Herve, Par. 0028:” This figure shows the physiological sensor 18 [bone conduction] and the two omnidirectional microphones, front20 and rear 22.”)
acquiring the first audio signal received by the bone conduction sensor; and (Herve, Par. 0031:” The signal collected by the physiological sensor 18 [bone conduction] is a signal comprising mainly components in the lower region of the sound spectrum (typically 0- 1500 Hz). “)
acquiring the second audio signal according to at least two microphone audio signals received by the at least two microphones. (Herve, Par. 0032:” The signals collected by microphones 20, 22 will be used mainly for the high end of the spectrum (above 1500 Hz), but these signals are highly noisy and it will be essential to carry out strong denoising processing to eliminate the parasitic noise components, the level of which may be such, in certain environments, that they completely obscure the speech signal picked up by these microphones 20, 22.”)
Herve is considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Lei, as modified above, further in view of Herve to acquiring the first audio signal received by the bone conduction sensor; and acquiring the second audio signal according to at least two microphone audio signals received by the at least two microphones. Motivation to do so would ensure sufficient intelligibility of the signal picked up by the microphone (Herve, Par. 0003).
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Claims 14, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei , Puthuff, Tokozume, Shin, and Herve, and in further view of Chen (US20200294521A1), and Dunn (US 8036716 B2).
Herve, Chen, and Dunn were applied in the previous Office Action.
Regarding claim 14, Lei, as modified above, teaches an audio signal processing method of claim 4.
Lei, as modified above, does not teach, however, Chen teaches taking one of the at least two microphone audio signals as a main signal, the microphone audio signals other than the main signal as slave signals, [[optimizing the main signal through the slave signals as the second audio signal]]. (Chen, Par. 0069:” … At a block 104, a “main” or “primary” microphone channel is created on a head wearable device using one or more microphones. The main microphone(s) is positioned to optimize reception of desired audio thereby enhancing a first signal-to-noise ratio associated with the main microphone, indicated as SNRM. At a block 106, a reference [slave] microphone channel is created on the head wearable device using one or more microphones. …”).
Chen is considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Lei, as modified above, further in view of Chen to take one of the at least two microphone audio signals as a main signal, the microphone audio signals other than the main signal as slave signals . Motivation to do so would improve voice activity detection accuracy for the noise cancellation (Chen, Par. 0206).
Lei, as modified above, does not teach, however, Dunn teaches [[taking one of the at least two microphone audio signals as a main signal, the microphone audio signals other than the main signal as slave signals, ]]optimizing the main signal through the slave signals as the second audio signal. (Dunn, claim 1:” 1. A communication device comprising: first and second microphones respectively configured to receive first raw acoustic data associated with a desired acoustic source and second raw acoustic data associated with background acoustic sources; a processor configured to enhance [optimize] the first raw [main signal] acoustic data from the first microphone using the second raw [slave signal] acoustic data from the second microphone to produce third enhanced acoustic data; …”)
Dunn is considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Lei, as modified above, further in view of Dunn to optimize the main signal through the slave signals as the second audio signal. Motivation to do so would allow for improved audio quality (Dunn, Col. 4, ll. 3-4).
Regarding claim 15, Lei, as modified above, teaches an audio signal processing method of claim 14.
Lei, as modified above, does not teach, however, Chen further teaches selecting the audio signal among the at least two microphone audio signals that has the largest signal-to-noise ratio as the main signal. (Chen, Par. 0069:” FIG. 1 illustrates a general process at 100 for microphone configuration on a head wearable device according to embodiments of the invention. With reference to FIG. 1, a process starts at a block 102. At a block 104, a “main” or “primary” microphone channel is created on a head wearable device using one or more microphones. The main microphone(s) is positioned to optimize reception of desired audio thereby enhancing a first signal-to-noise ratio associated with the main microphone, indicated as SNRM. At a block 106, a reference microphone channel is created on the head wearable device using one or more microphones. The reference microphone(s) is positioned on the head wearable device to provide a lower signal-to-noise ratio with respect to detection of desired audio from the user, thereby resulting in a second signal-to-noise ratio indicated as SNRR. Thus, at a block 108 a signal-to-noise ratio difference is accomplished by placement geometry of the microphones on the head wearable device, resulting in the first signal-to-noise ratio SNRM being greater than the second signal-to-noise ratio SNRR.”)
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lei , Puthuff, Tokozume, and Shin and in further view of Garcia Martin (EP2518724A1).
Garcia Martin was applied in the previous Office Action.
Regarding claim 6, Lei, as modified above, teaches an electronic device of claim 5.
Lei, as modified above, does not teach, however, Garcia Martin teaches wherein the electronic device is a bone conduction headphone, an intelligent wearable device and/or a hearing aid. (Garcia Martin, Par. 0044:” e.g., bone-conduction headphones that rest on the listener's cheekbones or temples, and so, since these headphones produce their sound via vibrations, the not in-ear earphones do not have visible speakers but wireless invisible bone sensor vibrators.”)
Garcia Martin is considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Lei, as modified above, further in view of Garcia Martin to wherein the electronic device is a bone conduction headphone, an intelligent wearable device and/or a hearing aid. Motivation to do so would allow for reducing the electronic size of a listening system in headphones and in-ear earphones (Garcia Martin, Par. 0058).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. Nobuaki Tanaka (US20240412751A1) teaches in Par. 0011:” a Fourier transform unit to divide an input signal, the input signal containing a component other than a target signal, into frames sectioned by fixed time and transform the input signal into a frequency spectrum so as to generate a plurality of pairs of frequency spectra, the pairs of frequency spectra having a fixed time difference, by using a delay amount;”, and Par. 0012:” a cross spectrum unit to generate a plurality of cross spectra or a plurality of coherences from the plurality of pairs of frequency spectra having the fixed time difference; and a noise removal unit to average the plurality of cross spectra or the plurality of coherences so as to extract a power spectrum of the target signal.”
Examiner's Note: Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers and/or paragraph numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
In the case of amending the Claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DARIOUSH AGAHI, P.E. whose telephone number is (408)918-7689. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday and alternate Fridays, 7:30-4:30 PT.
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DARIOUSH AGAHI, P.E.
Primary Examiner
/DARIOUSH AGAHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2656