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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office acknowledges receipt of the following items from the Applicant:
Papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) have been placed of record in the
file.
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed on 5/21/24 and 13/31/24 are considered.
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Double Patent Rejection
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the "right to exclude" granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. See In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970);and, In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent is shown to be commonly owned with this application. See 37 CFR 1.130(b).
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
Claim 1-20 are rejected under the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12027199. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because of the reasons set forth below.
Claim 1-20 discloses are rejected in view of claim of the ‘199* patent. Similar to the claimed invention, claim 1-20 of the patent recites “a method and device including a plurality of memory cell rows, the method comprising: monitoring a first row address, corresponding to a first address entry, with respect to a first memory cell row from among the plurality of memory cell rows during a row hammer monitoring time frame; selecting a second address entry having a second access number, which is the smallest access number in an address table, from the address table when there is no free space in the address table; performing a first swap operation related to the first address entry and the second address entry; randomly selecting a third address entry having a third access number, which does not have the greatest value in the address table, from the address table; performing a second swap operation related to the first address entry and the third address entry; and refreshing a memory cell row physically adjacent to another memory cell row corresponding to an address entry having the greatest access number stored in the address table during the row hammer monitoring time frame.
Claims also discloses a memory device comprising: a memory cell array including a plurality of memory cell rows accessed by multiple memory addresses; a control logic circuit configured to store a count of accesses to each of the multiple memory addresses within an address access table, identify a first count of accesses to a first memory address that is neither the highest nor the lowest count of accesses within the address access table, and swap the first count of accesses with the lowest count of accesses to a second memory address within the address access table; and a refresh control circuit configured to perform a refresh operation on memory cells of a third memory address disposed adjacent to a fourth memory address having the highest count of accesses within the address access table.
As can be seen, the patent protection for the claimed invention has already been granted to the earlier filed application
eTerminal Disclaimer
The USPT© internet Web site contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit http://www.uspto.gov/forms/. The filing date of the application will determine what form should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to
http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp.
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if an eTerminal Disclaimer signed and filed by an attorney or agent of record to overcome the obviousness-type double patenting rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CONNIE C YOHA whose telephone number is (571)272-1799. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00AM - 5:00PM.
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/CONNIE C YOHA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2825