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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 28 May 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment, filed 11 December 2025, has been entered and carefully considered.
Claims 1-3, 13 and 14 are amended.
Claims 1-14 are currently pending.
The outstanding rejections of Claims 1-14 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) are withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to Claims 1, 13 and 14.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 is amended to recite the following claim language (emphasis added by the Office): “in a case where a third predetermined packet which is subsequent to the first predetermined packet is not received from the initial time synchronization master terminal within a predetermined time, change header information included in the second predetermined packet to header information included in the first predetermined packet received from the initial time synchronization master terminal”. Claims 13 and 14 contain similar limitations to Claim 1.
However, upon review of Applicant’s disclosure, as originally filed, this language constitutes new matter. Specifically, Figure 8A discloses the header modification (step s809-s810) is performed in one of three scenarios:
After receiving an announce packet (yes at s803) and the synchronization master is not currently set (no at s804);
After receiving an announce packet (yes at s803) and the synchronization master is currently set (yes at s804), determining that the announce packet is transmitted from the synchronization master (yes at s805); or;
After receiving an announce packet (yes at s803) and the synchronization master is currently set (yes at s804), if the announce packet is not received from the synchronization master (no at s805) and a synchronization master is switched as a result of BMCA processing (s806 and yes at s807).
A similar process is shown in Figure 13A, where the header modification step is performed at S1301 after a similar sequence of determinations as Figure 8A. However, as originally disclosed, there is no receipt of a third packet (in addition to two previously received packets) or a determination in the disclosed sequence as to performing header information change in a “case where a third predetermined packet which is subsequent to the first predetermined packet is not received from the initial time synchronization master within a predetermined time” as in Claims 1, 13 and 14. As shown in Figure 8A, the evaluation of whether to perform header modification is based on one of the received announce packets and not a packet subsequent to a received announce packet. Further, as shown in Figure 8A at s810, the ClockIdentity and PortID of the received announce packet are changed. A similar change is shown at s1301 of Figure 13A (inclusive of a change to SequenceID). However, neither figure shows that the header information of a second predetermined packet is changed to the header information included in a first predetermined packet, as newly claimed.
Noting Applicant’s citation to Figure 9A as providing support for the amended claim language (see page 6 of Applicant’s remarks filed 28 May 2026), the process depicted in this figure changes the header of a followup packet if the camera adapter is in a synchronized state. Similar to the Figures 8A and 13A, this process also does not provide support for receipt of a third packet or a determination to perform header information change if a third packet is not received within a predetermined time.
Paragraph 0176 of the specification is provided below (emphasis added by the Office):
“Therefore, in the first exemplary embodiment, a time information change function (header information change function) is used. More specifically, in a case where a synchronization master has disappeared (a case where a synchronous packet has not been able to be received within a predetermined time), a packet (header information change packet) having header information the content of which is the same as that of a packet which the synchronization master has transmitted before disappearing is transmitted to a synchronization slave. The synchronization slave (camera adapter 101) receiving the header information change packet is able to recognize as if the synchronization master before disappearing is transmitting a packet, and, therefore, does not detect disappearance of the synchronization master. Thus, the synchronization slave becomes able to recognize a new synchronization master which has started operating as the former synchronization master (the synchronization master which has disappeared), then continuing synchronization processing. Such a header information change is performed by, for example, the camera adapter 101a, and a synchronous packet including the changed header information is transmitted from the camera adapter 101a to the downstream-side camera adapters 101b to 101z. Therefore, in the camera adapters 101b to 101z, the occurrence of a synchronization error can be prevented or reduced.”
As shown in the highlighted section of this passage, the synchronization slave receives the synchronization packet with the header already having been changed. The specifics by which the change is performed are not provided. The language related to the synchronization master “disappearing” is not commensurate in scope with the claim language, which requires three distinct packets along with an order in which they are (or would be) received. Further, there is no determination of a third packet not being received subsequent to a first predetermined packet and a corresponding header change.
Therefore, the newly added claim language constitutes new matter.
Claims 2-12 are rejected by virtue of dependence on Claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Wan Geng (Japanese Publication 2017216563) discloses, at paragraphs 0031-0032, when a failure occurs in the master device 20, the master device 20 transmits to the slave device 30 a PTP message including information indicating that the master device 20 is not operating normally. The PTP message is transmitted from the master device 20 to the slave device 30 via the relay device 10 and the relay device 18. The PTP message including information indicating that the master device 20 is not operating properly may be, for example, an announce message transmitted and received in the time synchronization process using PTP. Upon receiving the announce message including information indicating that the master device 20 is not operating properly, the slave device 30 does not perform time synchronization using the synchronization packet transmitted from the master device 20. In other words, upon receiving an announce message including information indicating that the master device 20 is not operating properly, the slave device 30 performs time synchronization using the synchronization packet transmitted from the master device 25.
Kim et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20160149692) discloses updating ClockIdentity values (paragraph 0133).
Peng et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20250343614) discloses performing BMCA and determining whether reception of announce message from a PTP clock source is interrupted (Figure 4).
Lv et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20220337384) discloses when information of an announce message received by the slave port changes or the slave port fails to receive an announce message, a port status is recalculated and a status of each port is updated in the BMC source selection algorithm (paragraph 0066).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW W. CHRISS whose telephone number is (571)272-1774. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin Bates can be reached at (571) 272-3980. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ANDREW W CHRISS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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