DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-7, 9-10, 12-13 are pending. Claims 7 and 11 are cancelled.
Priority: 7/4/2022(FP)
Assignee: Denso Corporation; Toyota
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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/5/2026 has been entered.
Claim Interpretation
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.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
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: “area securement acceptance unit configured to”, “area determination unit configured to”, “area release unit configured to”, “area allocation unit configured to” claim(s) 1-10, 12-13.
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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 8-10, 12-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu(20220221998), in view of Zhao(20190065368), in view of Beniyama et al.(20080091748), and further in view of Erdmann et al.(20140019708).
As per claim 1 discloses, Xu discloses:
An electronic control unit that causes a plurality of applications to share a storage, the electronic control unit comprising at least one processor with a memory storing computer program code, the at least one processor with the memory being configured to cause the electronic control unit(Xu, [0168 -- The memory storage 120 may include Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read-Only Memory (ROM). The memory storage 120 may be used to store instructions, programs, codes, code sets or instruction sets. The memory storage 120 may include a program storage area and a data storage area. The program storage area may store instructions for implementing the operating system, instructions for implementing at least one function (such as touch function, sound playback function, and image playback function), and instructions for implementing the above various method embodiments, etc. ]) to implement:
an area securement request acceptance unit configured to accept an area securement request from an area securement request application(Xu, [0054 -- At block S301, a memory allocation request sent from an application is acquired, where the memory allocation request includes a target memory value required by the application.], [0096 -- At block S401, a memory allocation request sent from an application is acquired, where the memory allocation request includes a target memory value required by the application.]);
an area determination unit configured to determine whether a capacity of an unallocated area of the storage exceeds a request capacity specified by the area securement request upon acceptance of the area securement request from the area securement request application(Xu, [0027 -- After acquiring the memory allocation request, the operating system parses the memory allocation request to obtain the target memory value required by the application, and subsequently allocates, according to the target memory value, a memory space corresponding to the target memory value to the application.], [0029 -- After the remaining memory value is acquired, the estimated remaining memory value may be obtained according to the target memory value and the remaining memory value of the electronic device. Specifically, a difference between the remaining memory value and the target memory value may be obtained as the estimated remaining memory value.], [0040 -- an estimated remaining memory value is obtained according to the target memory value and a remaining memory value of the electronic device.], [0056 -- At block S303, it is determined whether the estimated remaining memory value is less than a specified value.], [0096 -- At block S401, a memory allocation request sent from an application is acquired, where the memory allocation request includes a target memory value required by the application.]);
an area release unit configured to release at least a part of an unused area of a previously allocated area previously allocated to an area-allocated application in response to a capacity of the unallocated area of the storage not exceeding the request capacity(Xu, [0056 -- At block S303, it is determined whether the estimated remaining memory value is less than a specified value.], [0064 -- The operation S306 may be specifically implemented as follows: the contents of the inactive file page corresponding to the identifier of an application currently running in the background are written to the disk, the inactive file page is deleted from the list of inactive file pages, and a memory page corresponding to the inactive file page is released.; occupied = all], [0104 -- At block S407, based on the acquired identifiers, a memory space occupied by a specified number of applications currently running in the background is released, and the specified number of applications currently running in the background are closed.]);
and an area allocation unit configured to allocate a total capacity of at least a part of the unallocated area and a capacity of the released unused area as an allocated area for the area securement request application in response to the area securement request(Xu, [0093 -- At block S307, a current remaining memory value of the electronic device is acquired, and an updated estimated remaining memory value is obtained according to the target memory value and the current remaining memory value of the electronic device.], [0105 -- At block S408, a current remaining memory value of the electronic device is acquired, and an updated estimated remaining memory value is obtained according to the target memory value and the current remaining memory value of the electronic device.]);
the electronic control unit further comprises the storage that is a non-volatile memory(Xu, [0168 -- The memory storage 120 may include Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read-Only Memory (ROM).], [0170 -- The computer-readable storage medium 1100 may be an electronic memory such as flash memory, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), EPROM, hard disk, or ROM.]);
and the electronic control unit is provided in a vehicle and is configured to cause the plurality of applications executed by one or more electronic control units to share the storage(Xu, [0065 -- The memory spaces occupied by different applications in different running states are not necessarily the same.], [0088 -- Then, the to-be-processed identifiers are selected from the identifiers of the applications of the specified type currently running in the background, the memory space occupied by a specified number of applications currently running in the background corresponding to the to-be-processed identifiers is released, and the specified number of applications currently running in the background are closed. Specifically, a specified number of identifiers are determined from the identifiers of the applications of the specified type currently running in the background, as the to-be-processed identifiers. ], [“vehicle” is intended use]).
Xu does not explicitly disclose the following in its entirety, however Zhao discloses:
wherein: the previously allocated area, which was previously allocated to the area- allocated application, includes the unused area and a used area(Zhao, [0081 -- It should be noted that a reclaimable virtual address space segment corresponding to each running state includes a reclaimable virtual address space segment corresponding to a running state of a higher priority. For example, for an application program in the background state, in addition to memory space that is in the less-freq memory segment and that is occupied by the application program, memory space that is in the least-freq memory segment and that is occupied by the application program may be reclaimed]);
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill at the time of filing to incorporate the features of Zhao into the system of Xu for the benefit of avoiding directly killing of the application program so as to reduce memory occupied by application data and application data loss and improve speed of restart of the application program.
Xu in view of Zhao does not explicitly disclose the following in its entirety, however Beniyama discloses:
the unused area is an area in which the area-allocated application has not yet written any data(Beniyama, [0086 -- It should also be noted that no value is stored in the unused allocation capacity 417 in the execution during the normal operation]);
the used area is an area in which the area-allocated application has written data(Beniyama, [0098 -- The used capacity 443 corresponds to a used capacity of the application program 122 identified by the application name 441 of the record at the date/time 442 of the record.]);
and the memory of the electronic control unit stores an allocation management table including, as a record unit(Beniyama, [0078 -- FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of the application management data table 41 stored in the management database 4 of the first embodiment of this invention.]), items of: a capacity of the used area, and a capacity of the unused area(Beniyama, [0098 -- The used capacity 443 corresponds to a used capacity of the application program 122 identified by the application name 441 of the record at the date/time 442 of the record.], [Fig. 5, 0085 -- The unused allocation capacity 417 corresponds to such a capacity of a storage area which is allocated to the application program 122 identified by the application name 411 of the record among the unused storage area of the storage pool 28.]).
and the memory of the electronic control unit stores an allocation management table(Beniyama, [0079 -- The application management data table 41 contains an application name 411, an application server address 412, a used volume number 413, an execution status 414, an execution target expiration 415, an executable prediction expiration 416, and an unused allocation capacity 417.]) including items of: an application name, a capacity of the used area, and a capacity of the unused area(Beniyama, [Fig. 5, 0085 -- The unused allocation capacity 417 corresponds to such a capacity of a storage area which is allocated to the application program 122 identified by the application name 411 of the record among the unused storage area of the storage pool 28.]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill at the time of filing to incorporate the features of Beniyama into the system of Xu for the benefit of executing in a case where the storage capacity required for operating the application computer for the predetermined time period is not present in the storage pool by using the management computer, thus properly operating and managing the storage pool.
Xu in view of Zhao and Beniyama does not explicitly disclose the following in its entirety, however Erdmann discloses:
and the memory of the electronic control unit stores an allocation management table including, as a record unit(Erdmann, [0030 -- If (at block 104) there are sufficient available memory resources 14, then the supplemental memory request 90 is granted (at block 108) and a supplemental memory allocation record 50 is created in the supplemental memory allocations 18 with all the accompanying information. A supplemental memory allocation record 50 is created (at block 110) to include in the supplemental memory allocations 18.]), items of: an application name(Erdmann, [Fig. 2, 0025 – application name]), a usage period(Erdmann, [Fig. 2, 0025 – assigned/requested duration]), a capacity of the allocated area(Erdmann, [Fig. 2, 0025 -- an amount of allocated memory]),;
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill at the time of filing to incorporate the features of Erdmann into the system of Xu for the benefit of enabling granting and revoking supplemental memory allocation requests in an effective manner. The method enables allocating memory resources to applications in an improved manner.
As per claim 2, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated, in addition, Xu discloses:
wherein the area release unit is configured to determine whether an application whose access frequency to the allocated area is less than a threshold exists, when determining that the application whose access frequency to the allocated area is less than the threshold exists, the area release unit selects the determined application as an area release application and releases, as the release area, at least a part of the unused area of the allocated area already allocated to the selected area release application(Xu, [0070 -- The usage record may include the usage frequency within a preset period of time. In this case, the usage frequency corresponding to the identifier of each of the applications currently running in the background is determined, and the identifiers of all the applications currently running in the background are arranged in an ascending order according to the usage frequencies thereof, to obtain a first usage sequence. In the first usage sequence, the lower the usage frequency of an application, the higher the identifier of the application is ranked.], [0071 -- The first N identifiers of the applications are selected from the usage sequence as the first to-be-processed identifiers, where N is a positive integer. Accordingly, when the memory recovering operation is performed, N applications that are less frequently used are closed,]).
As per claim 3, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated, in addition, Xu discloses:
wherein the area release unit is configured to select, as the area release application, a plurality of applications each whose access frequency to the allocated area is less than a threshold(Xu, [0070 -- The usage record may include the usage frequency within a preset period of time. In this case, the usage frequency corresponding to the identifier of each of the applications currently running in the background is determined, and the identifiers of all the applications currently running in the background are arranged in an ascending order according to the usage frequencies thereof, to obtain a first usage sequence. In the first usage sequence, the lower the usage frequency of an application, the higher the identifier of the application is ranked.).
As per claim 5, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated, in addition, Xu discloses:
wherein the area release unit is configured to determine whether an application whose access frequency to the allocated area is less than a threshold exists, when determining that the application whose access frequency to the allocated area is less than the threshold exists, the area release unit selects the determined application as an area release application and releases, as the release area, at least a part of the unused area of the allocated area already allocated to the selected area release application(Xu, [0070 -- The usage record may include the usage frequency within a preset period of time. In this case, the usage frequency corresponding to the identifier of each of the applications currently running in the background is determined, and the identifiers of all the applications currently running in the background are arranged in an ascending order according to the usage frequencies thereof, to obtain a first usage sequence. In the first usage sequence, the lower the usage frequency of an application, the higher the identifier of the application is ranked.], [0071 -- The first N identifiers of the applications are selected from the usage sequence as the first to-be-processed identifiers, where N is a positive integer. Accordingly, when the memory recovering operation is performed, N applications that are less frequently used are closed,]).
As per claim 8, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated, in addition, Xu discloses:
wherein the storage is a nonvolatile memory, and the plurality of applications share the nonvolatile memory(Xu, [0027 -- There are multiple applications installed in the electronic device.], [0170 -- The computer-readable storage medium 1100 may be an electronic memory such as flash memory, Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), EPROM, hard disk, or ROM.]).
Claim 9 is directed to method limitations that implement the system limitations of claim 1, therefore the corresponding citations are incorporated.
Claim 10 is directed to CRM limitations that implement the system limitations of claim 1, therefore the corresponding citations are incorporated.
As per claim 12, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated, in addition, Xu in view of Zhao does not explicitly disclose the following in its entirety, however Beniyama discloses:
wherein the area release unit, when releasing the part of the unused area of the previously allocated area of an area release application, updates the capacity of the unused area in a record corresponding to the area release application in the allocation management table(Beniyama , [0086 -- It should also be noted that no value is stored in the unused allocation capacity 417 in the execution during the normal operation. When the unused storage area of the storage pool 28 is allocated to the application program 122, a value is stored in the unused allocation capacity 417.], [0199 -- Thus, the management server 3 calculates an unused allocation capacity for each of the application programs 122 set to the highest priority. An unused allocation capacity of the application program 122 corresponds to a capacity distributed to the application program 122 within the unused capacity of the storage pool 28.]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill at the time of filing to incorporate the features of Beniyama into the system of Xu for the benefit of executing in a case where the storage capacity required for operating the application computer for the predetermined time period is not present in the storage pool by using the management computer, thus properly operating and managing the storage pool.
As per claim 13, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated, in addition, Xu in view of Zhao does not explicitly disclose the following in its entirety, however Beniyama discloses:
wherein the area allocation unit, when allocating an area in the storage in response to the area securement request from the area securement request application, adds, to the allocation management table, a record for the area securement request application including items of an application name, an initial capacity of the used area, and an initial capacity of the unused area(Beniyama, [0079 -- The application management data table 41 contains an application name 411, an application server address 412, a used volume number 413, an execution status 414, an execution target expiration 415, an executable prediction expiration 416, and an unused allocation capacity 417.], [0096 -- The application capacity history data table 44 includes an application name 441, a date/time 442, a used capacity 443, and a consumption speed prediction value 444.]);
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill at the time of filing to incorporate the features of Beniyama into the system of Xu for the benefit of executing in a case where the storage capacity required for operating the application computer for the predetermined time period is not present in the storage pool by using the management computer, thus properly operating and managing the storage pool.
Xu in view of Zhao and Beniyama does not explicitly disclose the following in its entirety, however Erdmann discloses:
wherein the area allocation unit, when allocating an area in the storage in response to the area securement request from the area securement request application, adds, to the allocation management table, a record for the area securement request application including items of, the usage period, the capacity of the allocated area(Erdmann, [0040 -- Described embodiments provide techniques to determine how to allocate supplement memory allocations to applications requesting additional memory resources after an initial memory allocation. To revoke a supplemental memory allocation, described embodiments consider various factors such as the amount of the allocation, the duration of the allocation, and an extent to which the allocation has been held beyond an assigned or requested duration]);
Therefore it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill at the time of filing to incorporate the features of Erdmann into the system of Xu for the benefit of enabling granting and revoking supplemental memory allocation requests in an effective manner. The method enables allocating memory resources to applications in an improved manner.
Claim(s) 4, 6-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu(20220221998), further in view of Zhao(20190065368), in view of Beniyama et al.(20080091748), in view of Erdmann et al.(20140019708) and further in view of Pauley et al.(20180335968).
As per claim 4, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated, in addition, Xu does not explicitly disclose the following, however Pauley discloses:
wherein when determining that the application whose access frequency to the allocated area is less than the threshold does not exist, the area release unit determines whether an application whose remaining use period of the allocated area is less than a threshold exists,(Pauley, [0024 -- According to some embodiments, the learning engine 112 can be triggered to analyze new user activity patterns when particular threshold time periods are satisfied (e.g., hours, days, months, years, etc.). According to some embodiments, the learning engine 112 can determine, based on user activity patterns collected for a specified threshold time period, that specific applications are utilized with greater frequencies relative to other applications.]);
when determining that the application whose remaining use period of the allocated area is less than the threshold exists, the area release unit selects the determined application as an area release application and releases, as the release area, at least a part of the unused area of the allocated area already allocated to the selected area release application(Pauley, [0037 -- For example, the frequencies depicted in FIG. 2A illustrate how often a user accessed different applications (e.g., applications 202, 204, and 206) over a period time. For example, the frequencies depicted in FIG. 2A can be measured over the course of several days, weeks, months, or other suitable amount of time, in order to accurately gauge how often the user expressed an interest in accessing the different applications.]);
Therefore it would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill at the time of filing, to incorporate the features of Pauley into the system of Xu for the benefit of eliminating the need for the at least one application to download the information each time it is accessed, thus enhancing energy efficiency and increasing the overall responsiveness of the at least one application. Effectively minimizes the occurrence of fluctuating memory storage conditions caused by applications prior to the performance of the cache data deletion procedures and memory reservation operations performed by computing device.
As per claim 6, the rejection of claim 5 is incorporated, in addition, Xu does not explicitly disclose the following, however Pauley discloses:
wherein the area release unit is configured to select, as the area release application, a plurality of applications each whose remaining use period of the allocated area is less than a threshold(Pauley, [0072 -- next, at step 418, the computing device 102 determines that the first application is assigned a higher priority rank in comparison to the second application, and deletes a portion of lower priority cache data for the second application.]);
Therefore it would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill at the time of filing, to incorporate the features of Pauley into the system of Xu for the benefit of eliminating the need for the at least one application to download the information each time it is accessed, thus enhancing energy efficiency and increasing the overall responsiveness of the at least one application. Effectively minimizes the occurrence of fluctuating memory storage conditions caused by applications prior to the performance of the cache data deletion procedures and memory reservation operations performed by computing device.
As per claim 7, the rejection of claim 5 is incorporated, in addition, Xu does not explicitly disclose the following, however Pauley discloses:
wherein when determining that the application whose remaining use period of the allocated area is less than the threshold does not exist, the area release unit determines whether an application whose access frequency to the allocated area is less than a threshold exists, when determining that the application whose access frequency to the allocated area is less than the threshold exists, the area release unit selects the determined application as an area release application and releases, as the release area, at least a part of the unused area of the allocated area already allocated to the selected area release application(Pauley, [0024 -- According to some embodiments, the learning engine 112 can be triggered to analyze new user activity patterns when particular threshold time periods are satisfied (e.g., hours, days, months, years, etc.). According to some embodiments, the learning engine 112 can determine, based on user activity patterns collected for a specified threshold time period, that specific applications are utilized with greater frequencies relative to other applications.]);
Therefore it would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill at the time of filing, to incorporate the features of Pauley into the system of Xu for the benefit of eliminating the need for the at least one application to download the information each time it is accessed, thus enhancing energy efficiency and increasing the overall responsiveness of the at least one application. Effectively minimizes the occurrence of fluctuating memory storage conditions caused by applications prior to the performance of the cache data deletion procedures and memory reservation operations performed by computing device.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/5/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding the claim interpretation under 35 USC 112(f), based on the language used, 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.
Regarding the rejections under 35 USC 103, the prior art combination discloses the claimed limitations. The amended limitations are also covered by the prior art combination. The new limitation using the term “vehicle” is supported in 0023 and 00086 in the spec, but this claim language qualifies as intended use. Please see MPEP 2111.02. All rejections are maintained.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ARVIND TALUKDAR whose telephone number is (303)297-4475. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 10 am-6pm EST.
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, Hosain Alam can be reached at 571-272-3978. 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.
Arvind Talukdar
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2132
/ARVIND TALUKDAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2132