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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed May 6, 2024 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein that has been lined through has not been considered.
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 6 and 13 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 6 and 13, “the immediate history” and “the part movement” lacks proper antecedent basis.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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, 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Torosian et al. (U.S. PGPUB 2014/0117216).
Regarding claim 1, Torosian et al. disclose (Fig. 20) a light curtain (16) which is configured for use with a machine (14), said light curtain configured to emit (18) and detect (20) light beams, wherein the light curtain is configured such that when the light curtain detects a broken light beam ([0015] “object.. comes between the columns 17, 19 at that or those positions”), the light curtain determines whether the break is acceptable or not acceptable, wherein if the light curtain determines that the break is acceptable, no stop signal ([0015] “continues to operate”) is sent to the machine, wherein if the light curtain determines that the break is unacceptable (“break in the light beams”), the light curtain sends a stop signal ([0014] “stop movement of the machine”) to the machine, wherein the light curtain determines whether the break is acceptable or unacceptable in light of historical data based on prior use ([0020] “supervised part processing cycle”, “During operation, the light curtain 10 learns when certain presence detectors 16… need to be blanked-out during the process for the part to be fabricated”) of the machine.
Regarding claim 2, Torosian et al. further disclose ([0026]) the light curtain is configured to compute and monitor a size and zone of blanking (“the effective size of the blanked-out area is automatically taken into account…”) of a workpiece.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-15 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THANH LUU whose telephone number is (571)272-2441. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Georgia Epps can be reached at 571-272-2328. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THANH LUU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2878
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