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 .
Response to Amendment
Claims 12-15 are amended. Claim 11 is canceled. Claims 12-15 are pending in this application.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group III (claim 15) and the Amendment amending Claims 12-14 to depend on claim 15 in the reply filed on 06/18/2026 are acknowledged. Claims 1-10 and 16-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention. Since the restriction requirement properly made, the restriction requirement is now made final.
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 12-15 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.
Independent claim 15 recites the limitations “the plurality of nanorods” in line 18 and again in lines 19-20 without clear antecedent basis. The Examiner cannot determine whether these citations refer to “a plurality of nanorods” introduced in line 9 or to “a plurality of nanorods” in lines 13-14.
Dependent claims 11-14 are also rejected based on their dependency of the defected parent claim 15 above.
The prior art does not appear to teach or make obvious the subject matter of the claims.
However, the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection must be overcome.
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art made of record and considered pertinent to the applicant's disclosure, taken individually or in combination, does not teach the claimed invention having the following limitations, in combination with the remaining claimed limitations.
Regarding independent claim 15, the closest prior art does not teach or suggest the claimed invention having “determine a plurality of centers; set a correlation distance for each center; and set a plurality of nanorods based on the correlation distance and a center-to-center distance which is a distance between each pair of the plurality of centers, wherein the microscope is configured to capture an image of a network structure including a plurality of constituent elements approximated to a plurality of nanorods, and wherein the extraction device comprises: extract the plurality of nanorods based on the image, acquire an inter-nanorod distance and an angle between each pair of the plurality of nanorods, and determine a correlation distance based on a relationship between the inter-nanorod distance and the angle”, and a combination of other limitations thereof as recited in the claims.
Regarding dependent claims 12-14, the claims have been found allowable due to its dependencies to claims 15 above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VAN D HUYNH whose telephone number is (571)270-1937. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM-6PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Stephen R Koziol can be reached at (408) 918-7630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VAN D HUYNH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2665
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