Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/184,921

DYNAMIC UNCOMPRESSION FOR CHANNEL-SEPARABLE OPERATION IN NEURAL NETWORK

Non-Final OA §101§103§112
Filed
Mar 16, 2023
Examiner
CADY, MATTHEW ALAN
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Intel Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds

Examiner Intelligence

Grants only 0% of cases
0%
Career Allowance Rate
0 granted / 0 resolved
-60.0% vs TC avg
Minimal +0% lift
Without
With
+0.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
Avg Prosecution
17 currently pending
Career history
18
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
12.8%
-27.2% vs TC avg
§103
82.1%
+42.1% vs TC avg
§102
2.6%
-37.4% vs TC avg
§112
2.6%
-37.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 0 resolved cases

Office Action

§101 §103 §112
CTNF 18/184,921 CTNF 101736 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. 07-30-03-h AIA Claim Interpretation 07-30-03 AIA The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f): (f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph: An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof. 07-30-06 This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: “a datastore configured to store” in claim 11 and “a processing element configured to compute” in claim 1, 11, and 16. Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof. If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. Limitation “a densifying module configured to” recited in claim 11 invokes 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the entire claimed function and to clearly link the structure, material, or acts to the function. Therefore, claim 11 (and corresponding dependent claims 12-15) is indefinite and is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph. Applicant may: (a) Amend the claim so that the claim limitation will no longer be interpreted as a limitation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph; (b) Amend the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites what structure, material, or acts perform the entire claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or (c) Amend the written description of the specification such that it clearly links the structure, material, or acts disclosed therein to the function recited in the claim, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)). If applicant is of the opinion that the written description of the specification already implicitly or inherently discloses the corresponding structure, material, or acts and clearly links them to the function so that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize what structure, material, or acts perform the claimed function, applicant should clarify the record by either: (a) Amending the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function and clearly links or associates the structure, material, or acts to the claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or (b) Stating on the record what the corresponding structure, material, or acts, which are implicitly or inherently set forth in the written description of the specification, perform the claimed function. For more information, see 37 CFR 1.75(d) and MPEP §§ 608.01(o) and 2181. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. Claim 11 recites “the compute block”, but there is no compute block to refer to in the claim. Thus, claim 11 (and dependent claims 12-15) is rejected under 35 USC § 112(b) for lack of antecedent basis. Claim 5 recites “the output operand”, but there is no output operand to refer to in the claim, or the parent claim, 4. Claim 5 should instead depend on claim 1, not claim 4. Thus, claim 5 is rejected under 35 USC § 112(b) for lack of antecedent basis. Claim 15 recites “the output operand”, but there is no output operand to refer to in the claim, or the parent claim, 14. Claim 15 should instead depend on claim 11, not claim 14. Thus, claim 5 is rejected under 35 USC § 112(b) for lack of antecedent basis. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101 07-04-01 AIA 07-04 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows: 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. Step 1 According to the first part of the analysis, in the instant case, claims 1-10 are directed to a method, claims 11-20 are directed to a machine. Each of these claims fall within one of the four statutory categories (i.e., process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter). For claim 1, Step 2A Prong 1 determining whether the input operand comprises any zero-valued data element based on a sparsity bitmap of the input operand, the sparsity bitmap comprising a plurality of bits, each bit corresponding to a respective data element in the input operand and indicating whether the respective data element is zero or nonzero; (This step for ‘determining’ is considered a mental process) Step 2A Prong 2 storing compressed data in a datastore, the compressed data comprising one or more nonzero-valued data elements that are a subset of an input operand of the layer, the input operand comprising a plurality of data elements; (This step for storing compressed data is considered extra solution activity. See MPEP § 2106.05(g)) after determining that the input operand comprises a zero-valued data element, generating uncompressed data by inserting the zero-valued data element into the compressed data based on a position of the zero-valued data element in the input operand; (This step for generating uncompressed data is considered extra solution activity. See MPEP § 2106.05(g)) and transmitting the uncompressed data to a processing element, the processing element configured to compute an output operand based on the uncompressed data. (This step for transmitting uncompressed data is considered extra solution activity. See MPEP § 2106.05(g)) Step 2B The claim recites mental processes such as ‘determining’ while the additional elements of storing compressed data, generating uncompressed data, and transmitting uncompressed data are extra solution activity recited at a high level of generality. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 2, Step 2A Prong 1 (Claim 2 depends on claim 1, which has been determined to recite abstract ideas including mental processes. Therefore, claim 2 also recites an abstract idea.) Step 2A Prong 2 The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating a new sparsity bitmap for the uncompressed data, the new sparsity bitmap comprising one or more bits, each of which has a value of one. (This step for generating a sparsity bitmap using the uncompressed data is considered extra-solution activity. See MPEP § 2106.05(g)) Step 2B The claim recites mental processes while the additional element of generating data is extra-solution activity recited at a high level of generality. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 3, Step 2A Prong 1 The method of claim 1, wherein the layer is selected from a group consisting of a depthwise convolution layer, a group convolution layer, an elementwise layer, and a pooling layer. (This step for selecting a layer can be performed in the mind and is considered a mental process) Step 2A Prong 2 The claim does not include additional elements, when considered separately and in combination, that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application. Step 2B The claim recites mental processes without any technological improvement or inventive step. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 4, Step 2A Prong 1 (Claim 4 depends on claim 1, which has been determined to recite abstract ideas including mental processes. Therefore, claim 4 also recites an abstract idea.) Step 2A Prong 2 The method of claim 1, wherein the input operand is a part of an input feature map of the layer, the input feature map comprises one or more channels, and the one or more data elements in the input operand is in different channels of the one or more channels. (This step for limiting the data of the input operand to a specific structure is without improvement and does not integrate the exception.) Step 2B The claim recites mental processes while the additional element of defining an input operand is recited at a high level of generality. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 5, Step 2A Prong 1 (Claim 5 depends on claim 4, which has been determined to recite abstract ideas including mental processes. Therefore, claim 5 also recites an abstract idea.) Step 2A Prong 2 The method of claim 4, wherein the output operand comprises data elements in two or more of the different channels. (This step for limiting the data of the output operand to a specific structure is without improvement and does not integrate the exception.) Step 2B The claim recites mental processes while the additional element of defining an output operand is recited at a high level of generality. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 6, Step 2A Prong 1 (Claim 6 depends on claim 1, which has been determined to recite abstract ideas including mental processes. Therefore, claim 6 also recites an abstract idea.) Step 2A Prong 2 The method of claim 1, further comprising: storing the output operand in the datastore; and writing a subset of the output operand from the datastore to a memory, the subset of the output operand comprising one or more nonzero-valued data elements in the output operand. (This step for storing data and writing data to memory is considered extra-solution activity. See MPEP § 2106.05(g)) Step 2B The claim recites mental processes while the additional elements of storing data and writing data to memory is recited at a high level of generality. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 7, Step 2A Prong 1 (Claim 7 depends on claim 1, which has been determined to recite abstract ideas including mental processes. Therefore, claim 7 also recites an abstract idea.) Step 2A Prong 2 The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating a new sparsity bitmap for the output operand, the new sparsity bitmap comprising one or more bits, each of which corresponds to a respective data element in the output operand and indicates whether the respective data element in the output operand is zero or nonzero. (This step for generating a new bitmap is considered extra-solution activity. See MPEP § 2106.05(g)) Step 2B The claim recites mental processes while the additional elements of generating new data is recited at a high level of generality. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 8, Step 2A Prong 1 The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the input operand comprises the zero-valued data element based on the sparsity bitmap of the input operand comprises: determining whether a bit in the sparsity bitmap is zero. (This step for ‘determining’ is considered a mental process) Step 2A Prong 2 The claim does not include additional elements, when considered separately and in combination, that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application. Step 2B The claim recites mental processes without any technological improvement or inventive step. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 9, Step 2A Prong 1 The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining the position of the zero-valued data element in the input operand based on a position of a bit in the sparsity bitmap that corresponds to the zero-valued data element, wherein the plurality of bits in the sparsity bitmap is in a sequence. (This step for ‘determining’ is considered a mental process) Step 2A Prong 2 The claim does not include additional elements, when considered separately and in combination, that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application. Step 2B The claim recites mental processes without any technological improvement or inventive step. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 10, Step 2A Prong 1 wherein determining whether the input operand comprises the zero-valued data element comprises determining whether the input operand comprises the zero-valued data element after the compressed data and the sparsity bitmap are stored in the datastore. (This step for ‘determining’ is considered a mental process) Step 2A Prong 2 The method of claim 1, further comprising: storing the sparsity bitmap in the datastore, (This step for storing the bitmap before determining is extra-solution activity. See MPEP § 2106.05(g)) Step 2B The claim recites mental processes while the additional element of storing data is extra-solution activity recited at a high level of generality. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 11, Claim 11 is substantially similar to claim 1, and is rejected using the same reasoning. For claim 12, Claim 12 is substantially similar to claim 2, and is rejected using the same reasoning. For claim 13, Claim 13 is substantially similar to claim 3, and is rejected using the same reasoning. For claim 14, Claim 14 is substantially similar to claim 4, and is rejected using the same reasoning. For claim 15, Claim 15 is substantially similar to claim 5, and is rejected using the same reasoning. For claim 16, Claim 16 is substantially similar to claim 1, and is rejected using the same reasoning. For claim 17, Claim 17 is substantially similar to claim 2, and is rejected using the same reasoning. For claim 18, Step 2A Prong 1 (Claim 18 depends on claim 16, which has been determined to recite abstract ideas including mental processes. Therefore, claim 18 also recites an abstract idea.) Step 2A Prong 2 The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein: the input operand is a part of an input feature map of the layer, the input feature map comprises a plurality of channels, the plurality of data elements in the input operand is in different channels of the plurality of channels; (This step for limiting the data of the input operand to a specific structure is without improvement and does not integrate the exception.) and the output operand comprises data elements in two or more of the different channels. (This step for limiting the data of the output operand to a specific structure is without improvement and does not integrate the exception.) Step 2B The claim recites mental processes while the additional element of defining operands is recited at a high level of generality. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, when considered individually and in combination, they do not add significantly more (also known as an inventive concept) to the exception. For claim 19, Claim 19 is substantially similar to claim 7, and is rejected using the same reasoning. For claim 20, Claim 20 is substantially similar to claim 8, and is rejected using the same reasoning. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1, 3-5, 8-11, 13-18, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kun Xu et al. (hereinafter Xu) (“US 20220318604 A1” 10/06/2022) in view of Zhi-Gang Liu et al. (hereinafter Liu) (“US 20220164663 A1”, 05/26/2022) . Regarding claim 1, Xu teaches; A method of executing a layer of a deep neural network (DNN), comprising: ([0056] At block 712, the decompressed weight tensor is written to a target memory (e.g., a state buffer) in the accelerator. Upon receiving the decompressed weight tensor, the accelerator can load the weight tensor into a processing engine array and begin performing computations using the decompressed weight tensor. The computations can be part of a continuing training process, or can be for an inference operation.) NOTE: The methods disclosed by Xu pertain to compressing and decompressing weight tensors of a layer which are then used in the execution of that layer. ([0014] Weight models used in machine learning, and in particular for deep learning, can be large. For example, some weight tensors can take up 32 GB of storage space. When the neural network model size is greater than the external memory capacity of a computing device, the model cannot fit in a single device… [0015] Although weight tensors used in machine learning can be large, most weight tensors are also sparse, since many of the weight values are zero. To reduce the storage size of weight tensors and speed up loading of weight tensors from system memory, a compression technique can be employed to remove zero values from a weight tensor before storing the weight tensor in system memory.) NOTE: The methods disclosed by Xu address a problem commonly encountered in deep learning, thus, the aforementioned layer can be a layer of a DNN. storing compressed data in a datastore, ([Abstract] To reduce the storage size of weight tensors and speed up loading of weight tensors from system memory, a compression technique can be employed to remove zero values from a weight tensor before storing the weight tensor in system memory.) NOTE: Teaches storing compressed data in a datastore (compressed weight tensor stored in memory). the compressed data comprising one or more nonzero-valued data elements that are a subset of an input operand of the layer, the input operand comprising a plurality of data elements; ([Abstract] To reduce the storage size of weight tensors and speed up loading of weight tensors from system memory, a compression technique can be employed to remove zero values from a weight tensor before storing the weight tensor in system memory.) NOTE: Teaches the compressed data comprising one or more nonzero-valued data elements that are a subset of a weight operand of the layer (zero values of the layers weight tensor are removed, meaning the remaining non-zero valued data elements are a subset of the weight tensor of that layer), the weight operand comprising a plurality of data elements (the term 'removing values' is plural, indicating a plurality of data elements in the tensor) determining whether the input operand comprises any zero-valued data element based on a sparsity bitmap of the input operand , ([0028] For example, compression header 220 may include a bit map 222 to provide index information indicating locations of the zero weight values (or non-zero weight values) in the decompressed weight tensor.) NOTE: Teaches determining whether the weight operand comprises any zero-valued data element based on a sparsity bitmap of the weight operand (bit map indicates the location of zero valued data in the weight tensor). the sparsity bitmap comprising a plurality of bits, each bit corresponding to a respective data element in the input operand and indicating whether the respective data element is zero or nonzero; [fig. 2] PNG media_image1.png 394 736 media_image1.png Greyscale ([0028] Weight compression 266 can be performed to reduce the storage size of initial weight tensor 202 by removing any zero values from modified weight tensor 204 (or initial weight tensor 202)… For example, compression header 220 may include a bit map 222 to provide index information indicating locations of the zero weight values (or non-zero weight values) in the decompressed weight tensor.) NOTE: Teaches the sparsity bitmap comprising a plurality of bits (plurality of bits in bit map 222 as pictured in fig. 2), each bit corresponding to a respective data element in the weight operand (in fig. 2, each bit of bit map 222 corresponds to a data element in the weight tensor 204) and indicating whether the respective data element is zero or nonzero (0 bit indicates zero element and 1 bit indicates nonzero element). after determining that the input operand comprises a zero-valued data element, generating uncompressed data by inserting the zero-valued data element into the compressed data based on a position of the zero-valued data element in the input operand ; [fig. 2] PNG media_image1.png 394 736 media_image1.png Greyscale ([0030] To regenerate the weight tensor (e.g., for loading into a systolic array, and/or for use in subsequent training or inference operations), weight expansion operation 268 can be performed on compressed weight tensor 266 to re-insert zero values in the proper locations in the weight tensor. For example, bit map 222 containing the index information indicating locations of the zero weight values can be read, and the non-zero weight values can be placed, in the order as the weight values appear in compressed weight tensor 226, into the decompressed weight tensor 250 at the corresponding indexes of the ‘1’ values in bit map 222. Thus, W0 is placed at index 0, W3 is placed at index 3, W5 is placed at index 5, and W7 is placed at index 7 of decompressed weight tensor 250. The remaining weight values of decompressed weight tensor 250 are set to zero.) NOTE: Teaches after determining that the weight operand comprises a zero-valued data element, generating uncompressed data (as shown in fig 2, generation of the decompressed data / weight expansion is performed after determining that the weight tensor comprises zero-valued data elements) by inserting the zero-valued data element into the compressed data based on a position of the zero-valued data element in the weight operand. and transmitting the uncompressed data to a processing element, the processing element configured to compute an output operand based on the uncompressed data. ([0056] At block 712, the decompressed weight tensor is written to a target memory (e.g., a state buffer) in the accelerator. Upon receiving the decompressed weight tensor, the accelerator can load the weight tensor into a processing engine array and begin performing computations using the decompressed weight tensor. The computations can be part of a continuing training process, or can be for an inference operation.) NOTE: Teaches transmitting the uncompressed data to a processing element (load the decompressed weight tensor to a processing engine), the processing element configured to compute an output operand (the result of the inference operation) based on the uncompressed data (performing computations using the decompressed weight tensor). Xu fails to teach but Liu teaches; Input operand ([Abstract] The processor is configured to generate, based on an input tensor, a number of basic block matrices, each basic block matrix including a number of elements; for each basic block matrix: prune, based on a sparsity value, the elements of the basic block matrix, generate a mask for the basic block matrix, each mask including a number of bits, each bit corresponding to a different element of the basic block matrix, and compress the basic block matrix to generate a compressed basic block matrix having fewer elements than the basic block matrix. The MMA is configured to multiply, based on the masks, the compressed basic block matrices and a weight matrix to generate an output matrix.) NOTE: Teaches compressing an input tensor / input operand. OBVIOUSNESS TO COMBINE XU AND LIU: Xu and Liu are both analogous art to each other and to the present invention as they both pertain to compressing operands in a neural network. Xu pertains to a method of compressing (to save resources) and decompressing weight tensors (when they need to be used) while Liu pertains to an activation compression method. Additionally, Lu states; ([0013] ANN accelerators maintain the input feature maps in a dense or uncompressed form, even though the input feature maps typically contain a significant amount of activations that have a value of zero (e.g., greater than 60%).) NOTE: Indicates that a large portion input feature map activations are zero valued. [0114] Embodiments of the present disclosure advantageously compress the input feature maps during inference by dynamically removing or pruning smaller value activations (including zero values), lower the memory footprint of the activation memory by factor greater than 2×, reduce the power consumption related to activation memory accesses (e.g., DRAM, SRAM, cache, etc.), and increase the effective processing throughput by factor greater than 2× for a MAC array. NOTE: Indicates that compressing input feature maps greatly lowers memory footprint, reduces power consumption, and increases throughput. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to perform the process of compressing and decompressing data taught by Xu on input feature map data rather than weight tensors to address the issue of large amounts of zero activations in input feature maps to lower memory footprint, reduce power consumption, and increase throughput. Regarding claim 3, Xu in view of Liu teach The method of claim 1 (Using the same reasoning from claim 1) Xu fails to teach but Liu teaches; wherein the layer is selected from a group consisting of a depthwise convolution layer, a group convolution layer, an elementwise layer, and a pooling layer. ([0035] Pooling layer 30-2 is locally-connected to convolutional layer 30-1, and includes a plurality of nodes that are connected to local regions in the input volume (not depicted for clarity). Pooling layer 30-2 also produces an output volume that is provided as the input volume to the subsequent layer, such as, for example, another convolutional layer 30-1, a flatten layer 40, etc. In certain embodiments, convolutional layer 30-1 and pooling layer 30-2 form a single hidden layer 30. Similarly, in certain embodiments, convolutional layer 30-1, a ReLU layer and pooling layer 30-2 form a single hidden layer 30. Generally, the output volumes of the convolutional and pooling layers may be described as feature maps, and one or more single hidden layers 30 form a feature learning portion of CNN 15.) NOTE: Liu teaches a pooling layer being executed to produce an output operand (output feature map). Xu and Liu both teach a layer of a neural network being executed to produce an output operand, thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to substitute the layer of Xu with the pooling layer of Liu, predictably resulting in an output operand. OBVIOUSNESS: Using the reasoning from claim one, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to perform the process of compressing and decompressing data taught by Xu on input feature map data as taught by Liu to address the issue of large amounts of zero activations in input feature maps to lower memory footprint, reduce power consumption, and increase throughput. Regarding claim 4, Xu in view of Liu teach; The method of claim 1 (Using the same reasoning from claim 1) Xu fails to teach but Liu teaches; wherein the input operand is a part of an input feature map of the layer, ([0041] Input feature maps 204 include four channels and one input data matrix for each channel, i.e., input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4... Convolutional layer calculation 200 convolves filter 202 with input feature maps 204 to produce output feature maps 206.) ([0042] Generally, input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4 form an input tensor) NOTE: Teaches the input operand (input tensor) is a part of an input feature map (the input tensor is formed from the input data matrices of the input feature map) of the layer. the input feature map comprises one or more channels, ([0041] Input feature maps 204 include four channels and one input data matrix for each channel, i.e., input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4) and the one or more data elements in the input operand is in different channels of the one or more channels. (([0041] Input feature maps 204 include four channels and one input data matrix for each channel, i.e., input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4... Convolutional layer calculation 200 convolves filter 202 with input feature maps 204 to produce output feature maps 206.) ([0042] Generally, input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4 form an input tensor) NOTE: Teaches the one or more data elements in the input operand is in different channels of the one or more channels (the input tensor includes data matrices for each channel, ‘each’ indicating a plurality of channels). OBVIOUSNESS: Using the reasoning from claim one, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to perform the process of compressing and decompressing data taught by Xu on input feature map data as taught by Liu to address the issue of large amounts of zero activations in input feature maps to lower memory footprint, reduce power consumption, and increase throughput. Regarding claim 5, Xu in view of Liu teaches; The method of claim 1 (Using the same reasoning from claim 1) Xu fails to teach but Liu teaches; wherein the output operand comprises data elements in two or more of the different channels. ([0035] Generally, the output volumes of the convolutional and pooling layers may be described as feature maps) ([0041] Output feature maps 206 include four channels and one output data matrix for each filter or weight set, i.e., output data matrices 206.sup.1, 206.sup.2, 206.sup.3 and 206.sup.4.) NOTE: Teaches the output operand (the output feature map of the NN layer) comprises data elements in two or more of the different channels (output feature map includes 4 channels where each output data matrix of the feature map corresponds to a channel). OBVIOUSNESS: Using the reasoning from claim one, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to perform the process of compressing and decompressing data taught by Xu on input feature map data as taught by Liu to address the issue of large amounts of zero activations in input feature maps to lower memory footprint, reduce power consumption, and increase throughput. Regarding claim 8, Xu in view of Liu teaches; The method of claim 1 (Using the same reasoning from claim 1) Xu teaches; wherein determining whether the input operand comprises the zero-valued data element based on the sparsity bitmap of the input operand comprises: determining whether a bit in the sparsity bitmap is zero. ([0028] A value of ‘1’ in bit map 222 indicates that the corresponding element in the weight tensor is a non-zero value, and a value of ‘0’ in bit map 222 indicates that the corresponding element in the weight tensor has a zero value.) NOTE: Teaches determining whether a bit in the sparsity bitmap is zero (bitmap indicates zero values with a '0' bit). Xu fails to teach but Liu teaches; Input operand ([Abstract] The processor is configured to generate, based on an input tensor, a number of basic block matrices, each basic block matrix including a number of elements; for each basic block matrix: prune, based on a sparsity value, the elements of the basic block matrix, generate a mask for the basic block matrix, each mask including a number of bits, each bit corresponding to a different element of the basic block matrix, and compress the basic block matrix to generate a compressed basic block matrix having fewer elements than the basic block matrix. The MMA is configured to multiply, based on the masks, the compressed basic block matrices and a weight matrix to generate an output matrix.) NOTE: Teaches compressing an input tensor / input operand. OBVIOUSNESS: Using the reasoning from claim one, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to perform the process of compressing and decompressing data taught by Xu on input feature map data as taught by Liu to address the issue of large amounts of zero activations in input feature maps to lower memory footprint, reduce power consumption, and increase throughput. Regarding claim 9, Xu in view of Liu teaches; The method of claim 1 (Using the same reasoning from claim 1) Xu teaches; further comprising: determining the position of the zero-valued data element in the input operand based on a position of a bit in the sparsity bitmap that corresponds to the zero-valued data element, [fig. 2] PNG media_image1.png 394 736 media_image1.png Greyscale ([0028] For example, compression header 220 may include a bit map 222 to provide index information indicating locations of the zero weight values (or non-zero weight values) in the decompressed weight tensor. Bit map 222 can be a binary bit map containing a number of bits being equal to the number of elements or weight values in the weight tensor.) NOTE: Teaches determining the position of the zero-valued data element in the weight operand based on a position of a bit in the sparsity bitmap that corresponds to the zero-valued data element (the bit map indicates zero or non-zero data values in the weight tensor based on the position of the bit corresponding to the data value). wherein the plurality of bits in the sparsity bitmap is in a sequence. [fig. 2] PNG media_image1.png 394 736 media_image1.png Greyscale NOTE: The bitmap 222 is an ordered set of bits corresponding to the order of the bits in the weight tensor, which is considered a sequence. Thus, Xu teaches the plurality of bits in the sparsity bitmap being in a sequence. Xu fails to teach but Liu teaches; Input operand ([Abstract] The processor is configured to generate, based on an input tensor, a number of basic block matrices, each basic block matrix including a number of elements; for each basic block matrix: prune, based on a sparsity value, the elements of the basic block matrix, generate a mask for the basic block matrix, each mask including a number of bits, each bit corresponding to a different element of the basic block matrix, and compress the basic block matrix to generate a compressed basic block matrix having fewer elements than the basic block matrix. The MMA is configured to multiply, based on the masks, the compressed basic block matrices and a weight matrix to generate an output matrix.) NOTE: Teaches compressing an input tensor / input operand. OBVIOUSNESS: Using the reasoning from claim one, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to perform the process of compressing and decompressing data taught by Xu on input feature map data as taught by Liu to address the issue of large amounts of zero activations in input feature maps to lower memory footprint, reduce power consumption, and increase throughput. Regarding claim 10, Xu in view of Liu teaches; The method of claim 1 (Using the same reasoning from claim 1) Xu teaches; further comprising: storing the sparsity bitmap in the datastore, ([0028] For example, compression header 220 may include a bit map 222 to provide index information indicating locations of the zero weight values (or non-zero weight values) in the decompressed weight tensor.) ([0029] Compression header 220 can be stored together with compressed weight tensor 226 (e.g., in system memory) such that a component (e.g., a DMA engine) reading the compressed weight tensor 226 can access compression header 220 to obtain information on how to expand or decompress the compressed weight tensor 226.) NOTE: The compression header comprises the bitmap and is stored in memory. Thus, Xu teaches storing the sparsity bitmap in the datastore (memory). wherein determining whether the input operand comprises the zero-valued data element comprises determining whether the input operand comprises the zero-valued data element after the compressed data and the sparsity bitmap are stored in the datastore. ([0030] To regenerate the weight tensor (e.g., for loading into a systolic array, and/or for use in subsequent training or inference operations), weight expansion operation 268 can be performed on compressed weight tensor 266 to re-insert zero values in the proper locations in the weight tensor. For example, bit map 222 containing the index information indicating locations of the zero weight values can be read, and the non-zero weight values can be placed, in the order as the weight values appear in compressed weight tensor 226, into the decompressed weight tensor 250 at the corresponding indexes of the ‘1’ values in bit map 222. Thus, W0 is placed at index 0, W3 is placed at index 3, W5 is placed at index 5, and W7 is placed at index 7 of decompressed weight tensor 250. The remaining weight values of decompressed weight tensor 250 are set to zero.) NOTE: Teaches determining whether the weight operand comprises the zero-valued data element (bitmap indicates locations of the zero valued data in the weight tensor) after the compressed data and the sparsity bitmap are stored in the datastore (at the time bit map is read, the compressed weight tensor and the compression header containing the sparsity bitmap have already been stored in memory). Xu fails to teach but Liu teaches; Input operand ([Abstract] The processor is configured to generate, based on an input tensor, a number of basic block matrices, each basic block matrix including a number of elements; for each basic block matrix: prune, based on a sparsity value, the elements of the basic block matrix, generate a mask for the basic block matrix, each mask including a number of bits, each bit corresponding to a different element of the basic block matrix, and compress the basic block matrix to generate a compressed basic block matrix having fewer elements than the basic block matrix. The MMA is configured to multiply, based on the masks, the compressed basic block matrices and a weight matrix to generate an output matrix.) NOTE: Teaches compressing an input tensor / input operand. OBVIOUSNESS: Using the reasoning from claim one, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to perform the process of compressing and decompressing data taught by Xu on input feature map data as taught by Liu to address the issue of large amounts of zero activations in input feature maps to lower memory footprint, reduce power consumption, and increase throughput. Regarding claim 11, Claim 11 is a machine claim that is substantially similar to method claim 1, except for the preamble, which is taught by Xu; A DNN accelerator configured to execute a layer of a deep neural network (DNN), the compute block comprising: ([0017] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a computing system 100. Computing system 100 includes a DMA engine 150, a system memory 120, and an accelerator 130. Computing system 100 may include other components not specifically shown, such as a host processor. Accelerator 130 can be a neural network accelerator (e.g., a neural network processor, tensor processing unit, etc.), and may include a processing engine array 132 (e.g., a systolic array), a state buffer 134, and a result buffer 136.) NOTE: Indicates a NN accelerator for performing the methods disclosed by Xu, said methods including execution of a layer of a DNN (as taught in claim 1). Thus, Xu teaches a DNN accelerator configured to execute a layer of a deep neural network (DNN). The remaining limitations are substantially similar and are taught using the same reasoning as in claim 1. Regarding claim 13; Claim 13 is a machine claim that is substantially similar to method claim 3, and is rejected using the same reasoning as in claim 3. Regarding claim 14; Xu in view of Liu teach; The DNN accelerator of claim 11 (Using the same reasoning from claim 11) Xu fails to teach but Liu teaches; wherein the input operand is a part of an input feature map of the layer, ([0041] Input feature maps 204 include four channels and one input data matrix for each channel, i.e., input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4... Convolutional layer calculation 200 convolves filter 202 with input feature maps 204 to produce output feature maps 206.) ([0042] Generally, input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4 form an input tensor) NOTE: Teaches the input operand (input tensor) is a part of an input feature map (the input tensor is formed from the input data matrices of the input feature map) of the layer. the input feature map comprises a plurality of channels, ([0041] Input feature maps 204 include four channels and one input data matrix for each channel, i.e., input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4) and the plurality of data elements in the input operand is in different channels of the plurality of channels. (([0041] Input feature maps 204 include four channels and one input data matrix for each channel, i.e., input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4... Convolutional layer calculation 200 convolves filter 202 with input feature maps 204 to produce output feature maps 206.) ([0042] Generally, input data matrices 204.sup.1, 204.sup.2, 204.sup.3 and 204.sup.4 form an input tensor) NOTE: Teaches the plurality of data elements in the input operand (four data matrices in the input tensor / operand) is in different channels of the plurality of channels (the input tensor / operand includes data matrices for each channel, ‘each’ indicating a plurality of channels). OBVIOUSNESS: Using the reasoning from claim one, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to perform the process of compressing and decompressing data taught by Xu on input feature map data as taught by Liu to address the issue of large amounts of zero activations in input feature maps to lower memory footprint, reduce power consumption, and increase throughput. Regarding claim 15; Claim 15 is a machine claim that is substantially similar to method claim 5, and is rejected using the same reasoning as in claim 5. Regarding claim 16, Claim 16 is a CRM claim that is substantially similar to method claim 1, except for the preamble, which is taught by Xu; One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions executable to perform operations for executing a layer of a deep neural network (DNN), the operations comprising: ([0096] Storage devices, the DRAM 1030, and any other memory component in the host system 1000 are examples of computer-readable storage media. Computer-readable storage media are physical mediums that are capable of storing data in a format that can be read by a device such as the host processor 1072. Computer-readable storage media can be non-transitory.) ([0097] In various examples, the data stored on computer-readable storage media can include program instructions, data structures, program modules, libraries, other software program components, and/or other data that can be transmitted within a data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transmission. The computer-readable storage media can, additionally or alternatively, include documents, images, video, audio, and other data that can be operated on or manipulated through the use of a software program.) NOTE: Teaches non-transitory computer readable media storing instructions executable to perform the methods disclosed by Xu, said methods including execution of a layer of a DNN (as taught in claim 1). The remaining limitations are substantially similar and are taught using the same reasoning as in claim 1. Regarding claim 17; Claim 17 is a CRM claim that is substantially similar to machine claim 12, and is rejected using the same reasoning as in claim 12. Regarding claim 18; Claim 18 is a CRM claim that is substantially similar to machine claim 14 except for one added limitation, which is taught by Liu; and the output operand comprises data elements in two or more of the different channels. ([0035] Generally, the output volumes of the convolutional and pooling layers may be described as feature maps) ([0041] Output feature maps 206 include four channels and one output data matrix for each filter or weight set, i.e., output data matrices 206.sup.1, 206.sup.2, 206.sup.3 and 206.sup.4.) NOTE: Teaches the output operand (the output feature map of the NN layer) comprises data elements in two or more of the different channels (output feature map includes 4 channels where each output data matrix of the feature map corresponds to a channel). The remaining limitations are substantially similar to claim 14 and are taught using the same reasoning. Regarding claim 20; Claim 20 is a CRM claim that is substantially similar to method claim 8, and is rejected using the same reasoning as in claim 8 . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 6, 7, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (“US 20220318604 A1” 10/06/2022) in view of Liu (“US 20220164663 A1”, 05/26/2022) further in view of Alessandro Aimar et al. (hereinafter Aimar) (“NullHop: A Flexible Convolutional Neural Network Accelerator Based on Sparse Representations of Feature Maps”, 03/06/2018) . Regarding claim 6, Xu in view of Liu teaches; The method of claim 1, (Using the same reasoning as claim 1) Xu and Liu fail to teach but Aimar teaches; further comprising: storing the output operand in the datastore; ([pg. 2] The output feature maps produced by the current layer are streamed off-chip to the external memory.) NOTE: Teaches storing the output operand (output feature maps) in the datastore (external memory). and writing a subset of the output operand from the datastore to a memory, the subset of the output operand comprising one or more nonzero-valued data elements in the output operand. ([pg. 3] NullHop uses a novel sparse matrix compression algorithm... The coding uses two elements: a Sparsity Map (SM) and a Non-Zero Value List (NZVL)... The SM is used to reconstruct the positions of the non-zero pixels. These non-zero pixel values are stored as the NZVL: an ordered, variable-length list containing all the non-zero values in the feature maps.) NOTE: The compressed format of the feature maps contains only the non-zero values (‘values’ is plural, indicating a plurality of non-zero values) of the feature maps, i.e., a subset. Thus, teaches the subset of the output operand (the aforementioned output feature map) comprising a plurality of nonzero-valued data elements in the output operand. ([pg. 3] They are then streamed back to the accelerator SRAM when the accelerator has finished processing the current layer. The feature maps are always stored in a compressed format) NOTE: Teaches writing a subset of the output operand (the compressed feature maps) from the datastore to a memory (streamed from the external memory to the SRAM). OBVIOUSNESS TO COMBINE AIMAR WITH XU AND LIU: Aimar is analogous to the present disclosure as it pertains to a neural network accelerator based on sparse representations of feature maps. Additionally, Aimar teaches exploiting output activation sparsity and storing / outputting feature maps in compressed form to reduce memory requirements and external memory transfers. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to write only the nonzero-valued portion of the computed output operand as taught by Aimar in order to reduce the amount of data written to memory. Regarding claim 7, Xu in view of Liu teach; The method of claim 1, (Using the same reasoning as in claim 1) Xu and Liu fail to teach but Aimar teaches; Further comprising: generating a new sparsity bitmap for the output operand, the new sparsity bitmap comprising one or more bits, each of which corresponds to a respective data element in the output operand and indicates whether the respective data element in the output operand is zero or nonzero. ([pg. 3] NullHop uses a novel sparse matrix compression algorithm... The coding uses two elements: a Sparsity Map (SM) and a Non-Zero Value List (NZVL). The SM is a 3D mask, having the same number of entries as number of pixels in the feature maps. Each binary entry in the SM is 1 if the corresponding pixel is non-zero, and 0 otherwise:) NOTE: Teaches generating a new sparsity bitmap for the output operand (a sparsity map is generated for the feature maps, which includes the aforementioned output feature map), the new sparsity bitmap comprising one or more bits, each of which corresponds to a respective data element in the output operand and indicates whether the respective data element in the output operand is zero or nonzero (the sparsity map has bits corresponding to each pixel of the output feature map indicating if the pixel is zero or nonzero). Regarding claim 19, Xu in view of Liu teach; The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 16, (Using the same reasoning as in claim 16) Xu and Liu fail to teach but Aimar teaches; wherein the operations further comprise: generating a new sparsity bitmap for the output operand, the new sparsity bitmap comprising a plurality of bits, each of which corresponds to a respective data element in the output operand and indicates whether the respective data element in the output operand is zero or nonzero. ([pg. 3] NullHop uses a novel sparse matrix compression algorithm... The coding uses two elements: a Sparsity Map (SM) and a Non-Zero Value List (NZVL). The SM is a 3D mask, having the same number of entries as number of pixels in the feature maps. Each binary entry in the SM is 1 if the corresponding pixel is non-zero, and 0 otherwise:) NOTE: Teaches generating a new sparsity bitmap for the output operand (a sparsity map is generated for the feature maps, which includes the aforementioned output feature map), the new sparsity bitmap comprising a plurality of bits (‘each binary entry’ is plural, and indicates a plurality of bits), each of which corresponds to a respective data element in the output operand and indicates whether the respective data element in the output operand is zero or nonzero (the sparsity map has bits corresponding to each pixel of the output feature map indicating if the pixel is zero or nonzero) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 2, 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu (“US 20220318604 A1” 10/06/2022) in view of Liu (“US 20220164663 A1”, 05/26/2022) further in view of Georgescu Bogdan et al. (hereinafter Bogdan) (US 9730643 B2, 08/15/2017) . Regarding claim 2, Xu in view of Liu teaches; The method of claim 1, (Using the same reasoning from claim 1) Xu and Liu fail to teach but Bogdan teaches; Further comprising: generating a new sparsity bitmap for the uncompressed data, the new sparsity bitmap comprising one or more bits, each of which has a value of one. PNG media_image2.png 349 539 media_image2.png Greyscale ([col. 27, lines 10-12] At 1504, the sparsity map s is initialized with all ones, representing that all of the weights remain at after the pre-training stage.) NOTE: Teaches generating a new sparsity bitmap for the uncompressed data (a sparsity map is generated for the uncompressed weight data), the new sparsity bitmap comprising one or more bits, each of which has a value of one (the sparsity map is initialized with all one bits, ‘ones’ being plural, indicating a plurality of bits). OBVIOUSNESS TO COMBINE BOGDAN WITH XU AND LIU: Bogdan is analogous art to the present disclosure as it pertains to sparse deep neural networks. Bogdan states; ([col. 27, lines 10-12] At 1504, the sparsity map s is initialized with all ones, representing that all of the weights remain at after the pre-training stage.) NOTE: Bogdan teaches that an all-ones sparsity map is a known way to denote that all elements remain present/active. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the decompression flow of Xu so that after the compressed tensor is expanded back to its full-length representation, the system generates a new sparsity bitmap having all bits set to one (as taught by Bogdan) to predictably simplify downstream validity control handling for later processing. Regarding claim 12, Xu in view of Liu teaches; The DNN accelerator of claim 11, (Using the same reasoning from claim 11) Xu and Liu fail to teach but Bogdan teaches; wherein the densifying module is further configured to: generate a new sparsity bitmap for the uncompressed data, the new sparsity bitmap comprising a plurality of bits, each of which has a value of one. PNG media_image2.png 349 539 media_image2.png Greyscale ([col. 27, lines 10-12] At 1504, the sparsity map s is initialized with all ones, representing that all of the weights remain at after the pre-training stage.) NOTE: Teaches generating a new sparsity bitmap for the uncompressed data (a sparsity map is generated for the uncompressed weight data), the new sparsity bitmap comprising a plurality of bits, each of which has a value of one (the sparsity map is initialized with all bits being set to one, ‘ones’ being plural, indicating a plurality of bits). OBVIOUSNESS: Using the same reasoning from claim 2, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the decompression flow of Xu so that after the compressed tensor is expanded back to its full-length representation, the system generates a new sparsity bitmap having all bits set to one (as taught by Bogdan) to predictably simplify downstream validity control handling for later processing. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Matthew Alan Cady whose telephone number is (571) 272-7229. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 7:30 am - 5:00 pm ET. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Cesar Paula can be reached on (571)272-4128. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /MATTHEW ALAN CADY/ Examiner, Art Unit 2145 /CESAR B PAULA/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 2 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 3 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 4 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 5 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 6 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 7 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 8 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 9 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 10 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 11 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 12 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 13 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 14 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 15 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 16 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 17 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 18 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 19 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 20 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 21 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 22 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 23 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 24 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 25 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 26 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 27 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 28 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 29 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 30 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 31 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 32 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 33 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 34 Art Unit: 2145 Application/Control Number: 18/184,921 Page 35 Art Unit: 2145
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Prosecution Timeline

Mar 16, 2023
Application Filed
May 03, 2023
Response after Non-Final Action
May 05, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §101, §103, §112 (current)

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