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 .
In response to the restriction requirement, Applicant elected claims 1, 4-6, and 9-10 for further examination. As a result, claims 2-3 and 7-8 are withdrawn from further prosecution.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
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.
Claims 1 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because:
The claim(s) is/are simply directed to a method/device for processing data from measurement by a water quality meter of a body in general without any specific and without including additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception (Abstract idea). The additional limitation of storing related data of the body or the meter is well known in the field of measuring and testing to identify the body containing the object under the measurement; as a result, this additional step does no more than adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception. In other words, this additional step is insufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception (Abstract idea) to transform the claimed subject matter into a patent-eligible application. Accordingly, the claim(s) is/are not patent eligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 9-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Schreiber et al. (US 2016/0033465).
Schreiber et al. discloses a water quality meter data processing device comprising:
a processor (FIG. 3, element 320) that processes measurement value data which is data pertaining to measurement values resulting from measurement by a water quality meter (FIG. 3, element 312 and paragraph [0030]) of a body (FIG. 3, element 302) being measured;
a measurement value data memory that acquires the measurement value data (FIG. 8, step 811: Receive measurement data obtained by water quality sensor. Paragraph [0086]: The obtaining of the measurement data comprises writing measurement data to a storage medium); and
a related data memory that stores related data which includes data related to at least
one of either the body being measured or the water quality meter (FIG. 7, step 707: Store identifying info. of water quality sample container and of water quality sample location).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Regarding to claim 4: The primary reasons for the indication of the allowability of the claim is the inclusions therein, in combination as currently claimed, of the limitation that wherein the related data is reagent preparation data for preparation of a reagent by causing a plurality of raw materials to be dispensed, the related data includes raw material type data which is data pertaining to types of the raw materials, dispense order data which is data pertaining to an order in which the raw materials are dispensed, dispense amount data which is data pertaining to amounts of the raw materials dispensed, and tolerance value data which is data pertaining to tolerance values for the measurement value data when the raw materials are dispensed; and the water quality meter data processing device comprises a reagent preparation data display unit that displays the reagent preparation data, and a measurement value data display unit that displays the measurement value data is neither disclosed nor taught by the cited prior art of record, alone or in combination.
Claims 5-6 are allowed because they depend directly/indirectly on claim 4.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAM S NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2151.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DOUGLAS RODRIGUEZ, can be reached on 571-431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LAM S NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853