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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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, 2, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable by D’Costa et al US 2020/0400930.
[claim 1]
In regard to Claim 1, D’Costa et al discloses a system for digitizing a slide the system comprising:
a slide (Figure 2b);
an optical system (Paragraph 0044-0045); and
a computing device (Paragraph 0068) configured to:
identify metadata associated with the slide ({paragraph 0068-0072;
determine a first scanning parameter as a function of the metadata (Paragraph 0068); and
using the optical system, capture a z-stack as a function of the first scanning parameter (Paragraph 0073).
[claim 2]
In regard to Claim 2, D’Costa et al discloses identifying the metadata comprises:
capturing a first image of the slide (Paragraph 0068-0070); and
identifying the metadata as a function of the first image by performing optical character
recognition on the first image (Paragraph 0070-0073).
[Claim 4]
In regard to Claim 4, D’Costa et al discloses the computing device is further configured to determine a
volumetric image set of the slide as a function of the z-stack (Paragraph 0073).
[claim 6]
In regard to Claim 6, D’Costa et al discloses a system wherein: the first scanning parameter comprises a magnification (Paragraphs 0135-0142); and capturing the z-stack as a function of the first scanning parameter comprises capturing the Z-stack at the magnification (Paragraphs 0135-0142).
[claim 7]
In regard to Claim 7, D’Costa et al discloses the first scanning parameter comprises a z-stack size; and
capturing the z-stack as a function of the first scanning parameter comprises capturing the Z-
stack such that the z-stack comprises a number of images according to the z-stack size (Paragraphs 0073).
[claim 11]
In regard to Claim 11, the claim limitations have been addressed in Claim 1.
[claim 12]
In regard to Claim 12, the claim limitations have been addressed in Claim 2.
[claim 14]
In regard to Claim 11, the claim limitations have been addressed in Claim 4.
[claim 16]
In regard to Claim 16, the claim limitations have been addressed in Claim 6.
[claim 17]
In regard to Claim 17, the claim limitations have been addressed in Claim 7.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claimsare 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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMIE JO ATALA whose telephone number is (571)272-7384. The examiner can normally be reached 830am-500pm M-TH.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Colleen Fauz. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMIE J ATALA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2486