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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 07 November 2025 has been entered.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-25 are potentially allowable.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the aforementioned claims set forth a series of physical structures/configurations that are well beyond that which is disclosed within U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0073578 to Lowe et al. (“Lowe”), which was identified as a result of Applicants’ Information Disclosure Statement filed on14 November 2025. The Lowe reference is the prior art closest to Applicants’ claimed invention, and there would be no obvious reason to modify Lowe to the extent necessary to satisfy each of Applicants’ pertinent limitations (specifically with regard to the claimed combination of constituent layers and components, arrangements thereof, and functional capabilities thereof), as such modifications would be likely to render the Lowe assembly incapable of continuing to operate/behave in the particular manner set forth within the reference itself (given the particularly sensitive nature of such sophisticated multilayer transaction card assemblies), which would be strongly indicative of an application of improper hindsight reasoning.
Claims 1-25 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
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 1-25 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.
The claims 1 and 18 recitations of “perceptible to a human eye as a continuous opaque layer…” and the claims 2, 7 and 19 recitations of “pattern that is perceptible to a human eye” render the precise scope of the respective claims unclear, as neither the claims nor originally filed specification describe or otherwise suggest a particular resolution value that is desired. The Office notes that “perceptible to a human eye” is imprecise because a wide variety of individuals may have vastly different levels of vision strength. As such, the exact patterns/layers that Applicants call for within the claims is unknown. Please review/revise/clarify.
Claims 3-6, 8-17 and 20-25 are rejected as depending (directly or indirectly) from rejected independent claims 1-2, 7 and 18.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments have been considered but are moot because the grounds of rejection set forth in the instant Office Action do not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUSTIN V LEWIS whose telephone number is (571)270-5052. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30AM-5:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Daniel J. Troy can be reached at (571) 270-3742. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUSTIN V LEWIS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3637