DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/15/2026 has been entered.
This Action is in response to communications filed 01/22/2026 which were entered on 02/15/2026.
Claims 1 and 5 have been amended.
Claims 2 and 6 have been cancelled.
Claims 13 and 14 are newly added.
Claims 1, 4-5, and 8-14 are pending.
Claims 1, 4-5, and 8-14 are rejected.
The Examiner notes the current action does not include prior art rejections over the current presentation of the claims. The cited relevant prior art references made of record below are considered as pertinent to the claims and disclosed details provided in the Specification.
The claims are subject to the rejections provided herein which must be addressed accordingly.
Response to Arguments
In Remarks filed on 01/22/2026, Applicant substantially argues:
On Pages 6-7, the applied references, specifically Isozaki, fails to disclose the currently amended limitation of claim 1, and similarly recited in claim 5, which now includes limitations from currently cancelled claims 2 and 6, respectively, including detecting receiving an activation command to a specified row and generating a corresponding scrambling key for the specified row in response to the activation command. In particular, Applicant points to the activation commands in consideration in Isozaki as being distinct from the DRAM row activation commands as claimed and therefore the encryption keys generated therein are distinct from the scrambling keys as claimed. Applicant’s arguments filed have been fully considered and they are found to be persuasive. The Examiner therefore withdraws the corresponding 103 rejections over claims 1, 4-5, and 8-12 made in the Office actioned dated 11/25/2025. The Examiner notes the amendments have been determined to incur newly introduced 35 U.S.C. 112 rejection issues presented herein including new matter.
The prior art references of record fail to disclose the limitations of newly added claims 13 and 14 by virtue of dependency on respective independent claims 1 and 5 for the reasons indicated above. Applicant’s arguments filed have been fully considered. The claims are rejected according to the rejections presented in the current action.
All arguments by the applicant are believed to be covered in the body of the office action; thus, this action constitutes a complete response to the issues raised in the remarks dated January 22, 2026 and entered on February 15, 2026.
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.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
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 of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1, 4-5, and 8-14 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 claims 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is current amended to recite “apply, at least to a data part of the command, a scrambling key that was generated in response to a deactivation command that deactivated the given active row.” Applicant, in Remarks filed 01/22/2026, points to Paragraphs [0018] and [0035] for support. Upon review of the cited paragraphs, in addition to the entirety of the originally filed Specification, the amended limitation indicated above is not found to be supported by the originally filed Specification and is considered new matter. The Specification lacks any reference to “deactivation commands” and therefore does not address or present support for applying a scrambling key generated in response to a deactivation command.
Claim 5 is amended in the same manner as claim 1 and recites the same issue identified above. Claims 4 and 8-14 are also rejected by virtue of dependency from claims 1 and 5.
Newly added claim 13 recites “the scrambling circuitry is configured to maintain scrambling keys only for the rows of the DRAM that are active at the given time.” Applicant, in Remarks filed 01/22/2026, does not positively identify any portion of the Specification which supports the new claim limitation and upon review of the originally filed Specification, the Examiner does not find any support recited wherein the maintained scrambling keys are limited to “only for the rows of the DRAM that are active at the given time” and therefore the limitation is considered as new matter.
Newly added claim 14 recites the same issue as claim 13 identified above.
If Applicant does not believe the limitations are new matter, the Applicant may explicitly point to where in the Specification support may be found to substantiate the limitations and scope of the claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Vimercati et al. (US 2022/0385451) – Paragraph [0060] wherein scrambling key generation is discussed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER J YOON whose telephone number is (408)918-7629. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8am-3pm ET. The examiner’s email is alexander.yoon2@uspto.gov.
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/ALEXANDER YOON/
Examiner, Art Unit 2135
/JARED I RUTZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2135