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 1-12 and 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.
Where applicant acts as his or her own lexicographer to specifically define a term of a claim contrary to its ordinary meaning, the written description must clearly redefine the claim term and set forth the uncommon definition so as to put one reasonably skilled in the art on notice that the applicant intended to so redefine that claim term. Process Control Corp. v. HydReclaim Corp., 190 F.3d 1350, 1357, 52 USPQ2d 1029, 1033 (Fed. Cir. 1999). The term “speculum region” in claims 1 and 18-20 is used by the claim to mean “a region (or end) within a micro Fabry-Perot laser cavity,” while the accepted meaning is “a medical instrument for opening body cavities (like the vagina) for examination.” The examiner in fact can find no usage of the term “speculum”, “speculum region”, “speculum end” or “speculum area” used in the sense of Fabry-Perot laser cavities, laser cavities in general, microscopes, or charged particle beam microscopes. This simply doesn’t seem to be a term or phrase used in the art. The term is indefinite because the specification does not clearly redefine the term. As dependent claims 2-12 fail to clarify this issue, and as these claims depend from rejected independent claim 1, claims 2-12 must likewise be rejected under 35 USC 112 second paragraph.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13-17 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: In regards to claims 13 and 17 (two independent claims of the instant application), though Chinese Patent Document CN 110071423 A as well as USPGPub documents 20220319803 and 20210096444 all teach some of the limitations of independent claims 13 and 17, these references fail to teach a standing wave, wherein a portion of the charged particle beam propagates through the standing wave and experiences an interaction with the standing wave in the beam column and capturing, by a charged particle detector of the charged particle microscope, a charged particle image resulting from the interaction (claim 13) and a micro Fabry-Perot laser cavity housed in the beam column and positioned between the upper polepiece and the lower polepiece, wherein the micro Fabry-Perot laser is configured to generate a laser beam that travels through the charged particle beam (claim 17). Claims 14-16 are allowed by virtue of their dependency on the allowed base claim 13.
Conclusion
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/NICOLE M IPPOLITO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2881