DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Applicant’s amendment field 9 February 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 1-3, 7-12, and 17-20 have been amended, claims 10-20 remain withdrawn, and claims 1-20 remain pending.
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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Singapore on 30 November 2018. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the Singapore application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "the original identifiable unit" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-7 and 9 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Claim 1: The prior art, either taken alone or in combination, fails to teach:
injecting a second material into the unit of meltable material while the unit of meltable material is in liquid state to produce the identifiable unit having an exterior of the meltable material and containing the second material internally, the identifiable unit having a different density than that of the first unit of meltable material;
cooling the identifiable unit of material to solid form while retaining the change in density; and
recording the density of the identifiable unit so that the identifiable unit can be identified among other units also having an exterior of the meltable material but having a different density, in combination with the rest of the limitations of claim 1.
Claims 2-7 and 9: Depend either directly or indirectly from claim 1.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
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 STEVEN HA whose telephone number is (571)270-5934. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Keith Walker can be reached at 571-272-3458 . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/S.S.H/Examiner, Art Unit 1735 11 June 2026
/KEITH WALKER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1735
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