DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is responsive to Applicant’s remarks submitted July 8, 2026. Receipt is acknowledged of a request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) and a submission, filed on July 8, 2026. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . Claims 1-14 are currently pending.
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.
Claims 1, 11-14, and all dependent thereon, 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 11-14: each of these claims includes a limitation with insufficient antecedent basis. These limitations and their respective interpretation(s) for examination purposes are as follows:
“the volume of data received by said current relay node through the previous relay node” (claim 1, lines 12-13) is interpreted as “a volume of data received by said current relay node through the previous relay node”;
“the volume of data received from the source node for a relay node” (claim 11, lines 14-15) is interpreted as “a volume of data received from the source node for a relay node”;
“the number of hops i from the relay node” is interpreted as “a number of hops i from the relay node”;
“the volume of data received by said current relay node through the previous relay node” (claim 13, lines 16-17) is interpreted as “a volume of data received by said current relay node through the previous relay node”;
“the volume of data received from the source node for a relay node” (claim 14, lines 17-18) is interpreted as “a volume of data received from the source node for a relay node”
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
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/NICHOLAS SLOMS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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