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 .
Status of Application
Claims 1-24 and 30-34 are pending. Claims 16-24 are withdrawn. Claims 1-15 and 30-34 are presented for examination.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/12/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see amendment, filed 12/12/2025, with respect to the prior art rejections have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejections of the claims over the prior art have been withdrawn.
However, a new rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) is made as presented below.
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.
1. Claim 13 is 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.
Claim 13 recites “each article including one of the repeating evaluation regions”. However, claim 13 depends from claim 1, and claim 1 recites that the repeating evaluation regions are on the test substrate. Therefore, it is unclear how the regions can be on both the test substrate and the article. Thus, claim 13 is indefinite. For examination purposes, the claim has been interpreted as “each article including a region that is the same as one of the repeating evaluation regions of the test substrate.
Allowable Subject Matter
2. Claims 1-12, 14, 15 and 30-34 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The closest prior art of record is Sreenivasan. However, as convincingly argued by Applicant, Sreenivasan fails to teach or suggest generating N whole substrate drop patterns wherein N is two or more and the N whole substrate drop patterns have M repeating drop patterns, wherein M is two and the M repeating drop patterns are identical to each other. Therefore, claim 1 is allowable over the prior art of record. Claims 2-12, 14, 15 and 30-34 depend from claim 1 and are allowable for the same reasons.
Conclusion
Claims 1-24 and 30-34 are pending.
Claims 16-24 are withdrawn.
Claim 13 is rejected.
Claims 1-12, 14, 15 and 30-34 are allowed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT S WALTERS JR whose telephone number is (571)270-5351. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-5.
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/ROBERT S WALTERS JR/
February 18, 2026Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1717