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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1 and 2, in the reply filed on December 5, 2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 3-19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on December 5, 2025.
It is noted that Applicant's response elected Group I without traverse. However, Applicant’s response later states that “Applicant traverses the Restriction Requirement…” Since Applicant has stated that the Applicant elects, without reverse, Group I, the election will be treated as an election without traverse.
It is further noted that even if Applicant’s response were an election with traverse, Applicant’s traversal on the ground that there is no undue burden would not be found persuasive because of the reasons recited in the Restriction Requirement dated October 7, 2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 and 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent App. Pub. No. 2021/0131962 to Berezhna et al.
As to claim 1, Berezhna discloses a device that can detect a cleanliness of a sample container (see Berezhna Abstract): comprising a light emitter element at a light incident side of the sample container, and configured to emit an emission light wherein the emission light becomes a detection light after traveling through the sample container (see Berezhna paragraphs [0027]-[0030], [0035] and Fig. 1 disclosing light source emitting a light beam, such as an external laser power with a laser path, into and through a flow cell); a detection-light receiver located at a position opposite the light emitter wherein the position is at a light output side of the sample container, and the detection-light receiver is configured to receive the detection light to obtain a detection-light intensity (see Berezhna Fig. 1 disclosing post-flow cell detector; paragraphs [0025]-[0027], [0038]); and a controller coupled to the light emitter and the detection-light receiver and configured to obtain a cleanliness of the sample container according to a variation of the detection light intensity (see Berezhna paragraphs [0011], [0022]-[0025], [0039]-[0040], [0060]).
As to claim 2, Berezhna discloses that the contamination detection device can further comprise: an emission-light receiver coupled to the controller, located at a light incident side of the sample container and configured to receive the emission light to obtain an emission-light intensity (see Berezhna Fig. 1 disclosing a beam splitter and pre-flow cell detector; paragraphs [0011], [0027]-[0028], [0036]-[0037], [0060]); the controller configured to compensate an error between an emission-light reference intensity and the emission-light intensity to obtain the cleanliness of the sample container according to the emission-light reference intensity or correct the emission-light intensity to approach the emission-light reference intensity to reduce the error before compensating (see Berezhna paragraphs [0011], [0022]-[0027], [0039]-[0044], [0060]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DOUGLAS LEE whose telephone number is (571)270-3296. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-4:30pm.
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/DOUGLAS LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1714