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 § 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.
Claims 1-6, 8-16, 18-20 are 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.
Regarding claims 1 and 11: The terms ““substantially” in claims 1 and 11 are relative terms which render the claim indefinite. The terms are not defined by the claims, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degrees, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Paragraph 25, applicant’s specification discussed “exhibiting substantially identical set of addresses within the PC 240”. However, the specification does not clearly describe the term “substantially identical” in a way that one of ordinary skill in the art would know what was meant by “substantially identical”.
Examiner suggests to have the term “substantially” removed from the claims to avoid the 112b rejection.
Regarding claims 2-6, 8-10, 12-16, 18-20: those claims directly or indirectly depend on rejected claims 1 and 11 and are rejected for the same reason.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-6, 8-16, 18-20 are allowable if the 112b rejection are avoided.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KING Y POON whose telephone number is (571)270-0728. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alexander Beck can be reached at 571-272-3750. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KING Y POON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2617
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