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.
Claims 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to nonstatutory subject matter. Functional descriptive material, such as computer programs or data structures, are nonstatutory, per se, because they are not physical “things” and they are not capable of causing functional change in the computer. To qualify as statutory (MPEP §2106.01), the claimed functional descriptive material:
(1) Must be directed to functional descriptive material. In other words, the functional descriptive material must impart functionality when employed as a computer component by a computer system, and cannot be directed to nonfunctional descriptive material, such as but not limited to music, computer listings, and a compilation or mere arrangement of data; and
(2) Must be embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations), so as to define a structural and functional interrelationship between the functional descriptive material and a computer system which permits the functional descriptive material’s function to be realized. Moreover, the claims may only be directed to non-transitory storage medium, and the storage medium may not be directed to nonstatutory transitory embodiments such as signal waves, transmission media and the like. See: In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir. 2007).
Presently, claims 16-20 fail to comply with (2) above. Neither the computer program product nor the computer-readable program medium code necessitates a non-transitory medium.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-15 are allowed. Claims 16-20 would be allowed if amended to overcome the § 101 rejections set forth above.
Claims 1-12 and 13-15, and potentially claims 16-20, are allowable because the prior art of record does not teach or suggest a system, method, or CRM having all the combinations of steps or elements as recited in and required by independent claims 1, 13, and 16, particularly including, among other things, the following:
In claim 1 and similarly recited claims 13 and 16, wherein the first bump map indicates respective locations of a plurality of first bump structures of the first semiconductor die, and the second bump map indicates respective locations of a plurality of second bump structures of the second semiconductor die; wherein, in the first bump map, a first subset of the first bump structures configured for transmitting signals to the second semiconductor die and a second subset of the first bump structures configured for receiving signals from the second semiconductor die are disposed symmetrically to each other with respect to an X-axis or a Y-axis of the first bump map; and wherein, in the second bump map, a first subset of the second bump structures configured for transmitting signals to the first semiconductor die and a second subset of the second bump structures configured for receiving signals from the first semiconductor die are disposed symmetrically to each other with respect to an X-axis or a Y-axis of the second bump map.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Examiner SURESH MEMULA whose telephone number is (571)272-8046, and any inquiry for a formal Applicant initiated interview must be requested via a PTOL-413A form and faxed to the Examiner's personal fax phone number: (571) 273-8046. Furthermore, Applicant is invited to contact the Examiner via email (suresh.memula@uspto.gov) on the condition the communication is pursuant to and in accordance with MPEP §502.03 and §713.01. The Examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday: 9am-6pm. If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Jack Chiang, can be reached on 571-272-7483. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned (i.e., central fax phone number) is 571-273-8300.
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/SURESH MEMULA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2851
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