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 § 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 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 17, 18, 20 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.
Regarding claims 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 17, 18 the phrases “in particular” and “at least” renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations following the phrase are part of the claimed invention. For example, claim 4 recites several different values for N and it is unclear which is the intended scope of the claim. Claim 6 recites the minimum distance being at least 1MHz but then states it should be at least 0.4MHz. Similar rational is applied to the additionally rejected claims. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Additionally rejected claims are rejected at least for their dependence upon a rejected base claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-3, 5, 9, 13, 14, 21-26, 28, 30 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: the prior art fails to disclose or render obvious certain limitations of the present invention.
The closest prior art is found to be:
Cornic (US 2023/0194698), Fairley (US 9864045), Fudge (US 7436911) which disclose various radar sampling techniques for target detection using Nyquist zones.
Claims 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 17, 18, 20 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER M BYTHROW whose telephone number is (571)270-1468. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 830am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Kelleher can be reached at (571) 272-7753. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PETER M BYTHROW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648