DETAILED ACTION
1. This office action is in response to application 18/697,586 filed on 4/1/2024. The preliminary amendment filed on 4/1/2024 has been entered. Claims 1-10 have been cancelled and claims 11-22 have been added. Accordingly, claims 11-22 are pending in this office action.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
3. Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities: “ wherein the initialisation module” Examiner believes and will assume for the purposes of the office action claim 12 was meant to read “wherein the initialization module”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 16 is objected to because of the following informalities: “each path being characterised by a specific set ” Examiner believes and will assume for the purposes of the office action claim 16 was meant to read “each path being characterized by a specific set”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 17 is objected to because of the following informalities: “and having at least one opening to a neighbouring chamber, an opening allowing the movement of the magnetic domain wall between said chamber and said neighbouring chamber ” Examiner believes and will assume for the purposes of the office action claim 17 was meant to read “and having at least one opening to a neighboring chamber, an opening allowing the movement of the magnetic domain wall between said chamber and said neighboring chamber”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
4. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 11-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) as being anticipated by US 2020/0083434 (hereinafter Sasaki).
As for claim 11 Sasaki discloses: A classification device comprising a pre-processing stage, an identification stage, and a material system interposed between the pre-processing stage and the identification stage, wherein (See paragraphs 0074 note terminals are devices):
- the material system comprises an inhomogeneous magnetic medium subdivided into a
plurality of zones, each zone being in magnetic communication, directly or indirectly via one
or more intermediate zones, with only one so-called source zone, each zone being either in a
first magnetic state in which a magnetization of said zone is oriented in a first direction, or in
a second magnetic state in which the magnetization of said zone is oriented in a second
direction opposite to the first direction;- the material system comprises an initialization module for placing the plurality of zones of the inhomogeneous magnetic medium in a predefined initial magnetic configuration (See paragraphs 0075), wherein the plurality of zones is in the first magnetic state with the exception of the source zone, which is placed, at least partially, in the second magnetic state; the pre-processing stage is adapted to transform a signal of interest into an excitation signal; the material system comprises an excitation module adapted to generate, from the excitation signal, a physical excitation quantity adapted to excite the inhomogeneous magnetic medium so as to displace magnetic domain walls (See paragraphs 0075-0080), which are located at the interface between a portion of the inhomogeneous magnetic medium placed in the first magnetic state and a portion of the inhomogeneous magnetic medium placed in the second magnetic state, the excitation module applying the physical excitation quantity during a predefined time interval, so as to increase the number of zones in the second magnetic state from the source zone; the material system comprises a readout module adapted to measure, after application of the physical excitation quantity, the final magnetic configuration reached by the inhomogeneous magnetic medium, the final magnetic configuration being applied as an input to the identification stage (See paragraphs 0043, 0080); and the identification stage is adapted to determine a class to which the signal of interest belongs from a plurality of predetermined classes from the final magnetic configuration (See paragraph 0080 note terminals).
As for claim 12 the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein the initialization module allows the magnetic domain walls to be moved back to return the inhomogeneous magnetic medium to the initial magnetic configuration (See paragraphs 0054, 0074, 0075, 0101 and 0102 note walls start at a low threshold).
As for claim 13 the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein the initialization module comprises a reset module, for placing the plurality of zones of the inhomogeneous magnetic medium in the first magnetic state, and a nucleation module for placing, at least partially, the source zone(s) in the second magnetic state (See paragraphs 0074 and 0075 note each layer or domain are zones).
As for claim 14 the rejection of claim 13 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein the nucleation module is associated with a device for generating a local magnetic field, an intensity of which allows to switch, at least partially, the source zone(s) from the first magnetic state to the second magnetic state (See paragraphs 0077 and 0083 note magnetic state).
As for claim 15 the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: , wherein the inhomogeneous magnetic medium is structured to exhibit a tree-like topology from the source zone (See paragraphs 0051-0053 note the layers are structured tree like).
As for claim 16 the rejection of claim 15 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein, an end zone being defined as a leaf of the tree-like topology and a path being defined as an enfilade of zones in magnetic communication, there is only one path connecting the source zone and one end zone, each path being characterized by a specific set of local magnetic properties along its length (See paragraph 0076 note the size is used to determine the paths).
As for claim 17 the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: , wherein the inhomogeneous magnetic medium comprises a plurality of chambers, each chamber being bounded by a plurality of walls and having at least one opening to a neighboring chamber, an opening allowing the movement of the magnetic domain wall between said chamber and said neighboring chamber, a chamber constituting one zone of the plurality of zones (See paragraph 0074 note domains are chambers).
As for claim 18 the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein the inhomogeneous magnetic medium comprises a plurality of magnetic wires, each magnetic wire being subdivided into a plurality of sections, a section being separated from an adjacent section by a magnetic defect, a magnetic defect allowing the movement of the magnetic domain wall between said section and said adjacent section, a section constituting a zone of the plurality of zones (See paragraph 0074 note domains are chambers).
As for claim 19 the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein the physical excitation quantity generated by the excitation module is a magnetic field, an electric field, an electric current, or a combination thereof, modulated so as to encode the signal of interest (See paragraphs 0075-0076).
As for claim 20 the rejection of claim 19 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein the excitation module energized an electromagnet or a coil adapted to generate an excitation magnetic field over the whole inhomogeneous magnetic medium as a physical excitation quantity (See paragraph 0058).
As for claim 21 the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein the identification stage comprises an artificial neural network (See paragraph 0081).
As for claim 22 the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated and further Sasaki discloses: wherein the reading module comprises a plurality of sensors, preferably magnetic sensors, arranged in the vicinity of the inhomogeneous magnetic medium, each sensor allowing to determine the magnetic state of one or more zone(s) associated with said sensor (See paragraphs 0077-009 note the state of each layer is stored).
Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIYAH STONE HARPER whose telephone number is (571)272-0759. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm.
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/Eliyah S. Harper/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2166 August 16, 2026
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