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 .
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.
Claim [25] is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention
is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The claim recites, inter alia, "A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that is ..." After close inspection, the Examiner respectfully notes that the disclosure, as a whole, does not specifically identify what may be included as a computer readable storage medium and what is not to be included as a computer readable storage medium.
For example the current specification defines the computer readable storage medium broadly as a memory that is local and/or remote. In ¶0053.
An Examiner is obliged to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification during examination. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal, per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter.
Therefore, given the silence of the disclosure and the broadest reasonable interpretation, the computer readable storage medium of the claim may include
transitory propagating signals. As a result, the claim pertains to non-statutory subject matter.
However, the Examiner respectfully submits a claim drawn to such a computer-readable medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim. Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals perse. For additional information, please see the Patents' Official Gazette notice published February 23, 2010 (1351 OG 212).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims [1-3, 8-14 and 16-24] are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Reclaims [1 and 24] none of the prior art on the record either singularly or in combination teaches or reasonably suggests: A method comprising: determining, based on the received sensor data concerning the ambient conditions of the scene and using one or more image-capture devices of the mobile computing device, whether to (1) capture multiple images of the scene without use of a flash or (2) capture an image of the scene using the flash; responsive to determining to capture the multiple images of the scene without use of the flash, generating and providing a post-computational image using the multiple images of the scene; and responsive to determining to capture the image of the scene using the flash, generating and providing a flash-captured image; in conjunction with the other limitation of the claim.
Claims [2-3, 8-14 and 16-23] are allowed due to their direct or indirect dependency on claim [1].
Examiner note: in order to resolve the above 35 USC § 101 issue by examiner’s amendment, examiner tried to reach applicant’s representative via a phone call on 01/30/2026. However, no response has been received.
Conclusion
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 AHMED A BERHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5094. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00Am-5:00pm (MAX- Flex).
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/AHMED A BERHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639