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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-13 and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claims 1 and 16 recites a method / a computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions therein for correcting a metrology image for an out-of-band leakage signal contribution resultant from leakage of measurement radiation at suppressed wavelengths, comprising the steps of obtaining at least one correction image, obtaining a metrology image, using the at least one correction image to correct the metrology image. These steps are a mental process of gathering and analyzing information so as to characterize a target and therefore recite the judicial exception of an abstract idea.
Claims 1 and 16 recites a hardware computer system to perform the steps. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the generically recited computer element do not add a meaningful limitation to the abstract idea because they amount to simply
implementing the abstract idea on a computer.
Claims 1 and 16 does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the generic computer elements only provide for the implementing of mental process on a computer.
Dependent claims 2-13 and 17-20 fail to cure this deficiency of independent claims 1 and 16 (set forth above) and are rejected accordingly. Claims 2-13 and 17-20 recite limitations that represent (in addition to the limitations already noted above) either the abstract idea or an additional element that is merely extra-solution activity, mere use of instructions and/or generic computer component(s) as a tool to implement the abstract idea, and/or merely limits the abstract idea to a particular technological environment.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14 and 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/20/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the newly claimed subject matter “wherein the metrology image is in a physical form” adds significantly more since it refers to “a metrology image composed of electromagnetic radiation, a metrology image after capture/measurement that is in digital form in a memory”, see pages 6-7 of the remarks.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees. As defined in the remarks, “image is in a physical form”, refers to “a metrology image after capture/measurement that is in digital form in a memory”, which refers to a generic computer element for the abstract idea to be implemented on the generic computer element. Therefore, the limitation “image is in a physical form” do not add a meaningful limitation to adds significantly more.
As such, Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive and the rejection under 35 USC § 101 is maintained.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/DEORAM PERSAUD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2882