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 .
Status of Claims
The present application is being examined under the claims filed 12/31/2025. Claims 1-9 are pending. Claims 1-9 are rejected.
Response to Arguments
I. Applicant's arguments filed 12/31/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
II. Applicant argues that “Zhang fails to teach or suggest ‘wherein the temperature difference value corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is an absolute value of a difference value obtained by subtracting a temperature signal collected later from the temperature signal collected earlier according to time sequence,’ as recited in amended claim 1” because “the signals triggered by the device putting- on action and the device taking-off action do not have the two adjacent signals relationship.” Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Zhang discloses that a “put-on action triggers an obvious rising edge value of readings of the first sensor, and a device take-off action triggers an obvious falling edge value of the readings of the first sensor” (Zhang par. 16). One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that detecting a rising edge or falling edge of a signal has an adjacent signal relationship. For example, in order to detect a falling edge of a signal, a difference between two adjacent readings would be compared and if the difference exceeded a threshold (in order to avoid false positives due to noise on the signal), the falling edge of the signal would be detected. Zhang also uses the terminology an “obvious” rising or falling edge, which indicates a very short time period, and would further suggest using adjacent signals to detect the sensor change, opposed to needing to detect a trend over a period of time.
Additionally, the claim language uses the terminology “wherein the temperature difference value corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is an absolute value of a difference value obtained by subtracting a temperature signal collected later from the temperature signal collected earlier according to time sequence.” A rising edge of sensor readings is comprised of adjacent signals, and determining the difference between adjacent collected signals would be required to identify a rising edge or falling edge. Therefore, the difference corresponds to two adjacent temperature signals.
Furthermore, Zhang discloses that the sensor used may be a temperature sensor (Zhang par. 50 and 133, different sensors may be used to implement the disclosure (“the first sensor is a capacitive sensor is merely used for description, but does not set a limitation on a type of the first sensor”), such as a body temperature detection sensor (“a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added”) [i.e., a body temperature signal may be used as the sensor reading disclosed]). Therefore, Zhang does suggest “wherein the temperature difference value corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is an absolute value of a difference value obtained by subtracting a temperature signal collected later from the temperature signal collected earlier according to time sequence.”
III. In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., “It is impossible in Itoh to select a temperature difference between two adjacent temperatures with very short time (1s before and 1s after as in the present invention) as a determination reference” [emphasis added]) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
The claim only requires “determining whether the physiological sign signal satisfies a first preset condition, wherein the first preset condition comprises at least that an absolute value of a temperature difference corresponding to two adjacent temperature signals is greater than a first threshold” (emphasis added), but is silent in regards to the timing between when the adjacent temperature signals are recorded. Therefore, the timing between the signals is irrelevant to satisfying the limitation in amended claim 1.
IV. Furthermore, applicant argues "since Itoh does not describe the first preset condition related to two adjacent temperature signals (specifically, an absolute value of a temperature difference corresponding to two adjacent temperature signals) in the present application, Itoh does not teach or suggest the feature ‘determining whether the physiological sign signal satisfies a first preset condition,’ and, ‘responsive to the determining that the physiological sign signal satisfies the first preset condition, controlling an operation mode of the current wearable device to be a low power consumption mode,’ as recited in amended claim 1.” Examiner respectfully disagrees.
On page 7 of the previous office action dated 10/01/2025, it is stated that Itoh does not explicitly teach “determining whether the physiological sign signal satisfies a first preset condition, wherein the first preset condition comprises at least that an absolute value of a temperature difference corresponding to two adjacent temperature signals is greater than a first threshold.” While the entire limitation is included for clarity, the untaught portion is bolded and underlined in the office action. The remaining limitations of the claim are mapped to Itoh on page 6 of the office action, and explained below:
Itoh discloses determining whether the physiological sign signal satisfies a first preset condition, wherein the first preset condition comprises at least that an absolute value of a temperature difference corresponding to two temperature signals is greater than a first threshold (Itoh FIG. 3 and par. 30, determination unit 31 determines whether the absolute value of the temperature change rate [i.e., difference corresponding to two temperature signals] is at or greater than a predetermined determination threshold). The determination unit of the control section calculates the temperature change rate of the wearer by using the temperature received from the temperature sensor and at least one temperature received in the past (Itoh par. 38), therefore two signals can be used for the determination. The change of the body temperature of the wearer detected by the temperature sensor is used to determine whether the user is sleeping or awake (Itoh par. 28), and the operation mode selecting unit selects a low power consumption mode as a current operation mode if the user is sleeping (Itoh par. 32). Zhang is used to explicitly teach using adjacent sensor signals, in combination with Itoh. Therefore, Itoh in view of Zhang disclose the limitation “determining whether the physiological sign signal satisfies a first preset condition, wherein the first preset condition comprises at least that an absolute value of a temperature difference corresponding to two adjacent temperature signals is greater than a first threshold.”
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 8, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Itoh (US 2018/0024617 A1) [previously cited] in view of Zhang et. al. (US 2019/0388027 A1) [previously cited].
Regarding Claim 1, Itoh discloses an operation mode control method for a wearable device (Itoh par. 5, a wearable computer includes an operation mode selecting unit that selects an operation mode from a high power consumption mode and a low power consumption mode), comprising:
acquiring a physiological sign signal collected by a sensor in a current wearable device, wherein the physiological sign signal comprises at least a temperature signal (Itoh FIG. 1 and par. 23-24, temperature sensor 16 acquires body temperature of the wearer);
determining whether the physiological sign signal satisfies a first preset condition, wherein the first preset condition comprises at least that an absolute value of a temperature difference corresponding to two […] temperature signals is greater than a first threshold (Itoh FIG. 3 and par. 30, determination unit 31 determines whether the absolute value of the temperature change rate [i.e., difference corresponding to two temperature signals] is at or greater than a predetermined determination threshold [also see par. 38, the calculation uses two temperature values]), responsive to the determining that the physiological sign signal satisfies the first preset condition, controlling an operation mode of the current wearable device to be a low power consumption mode (Itoh par. 30 and 32, if the determination is made that user is sleeping [i.e., preset condition is satisfied to determine sleeping state], operation mode selecting unit 32 selects a low power consumption mode as a current operation mode), wherein the operation mode comprises a normal operation mode and the low power consumption mode (Itoh FIG. 4 and par. 35, determination unit 32 selects between a high power consumption mode and the low power consumption mode [also see par. 40, high power mode is also referred to as normal mode]), and the number of components in an operating state in the low power consumption mode is less than the number of components in an operating state in the normal operation mode (Itoh par. 33 and 34, low power mode disables components such as display section 13 and the communication section 14, in high power mode these components are operational) and wherein the temperature difference value corresponding to the two […] temperature signals is an absolute value of a difference value obtained by subtracting a temperature signal collected later from the temperature signal collected earlier according to time sequence (Itoh par. 38, the calculation performed by the determination unit to find the temperature change rate of the wearer uses the current temperature received from the temperature sensor 16 and at least one temperature received in the past; [note: a rate of change calculation is conventionally known to use the difference between two points and the amount of time between them ([value1 – value2]/[time1-time2]), which in this case would be the difference in temperature over the sampling time]).
Itoh does not explicitly teach:
wherein the first preset condition comprises at least that an absolute value of a temperature difference corresponding to two adjacent temperature signals is greater than a first threshold.
wherein the temperature difference value corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is an absolute value of a difference value obtained by subtracting a temperature signal collected later from the temperature signal collected earlier according to time sequence.
In the analogous art of reducing power used in a wearable device (Zhang par. 3, a wearable intelligent device may need to determine worn/not worn status to change operating status [e.g., an exercise device heart rate measurement sensor is not started when the user does not wear the device]), Zhang teaches:
wherein the first preset condition comprises at least that an absolute value of a temperature difference corresponding to two adjacent temperature signals is greater than a first threshold (Zhang par. 16 and 45, the device put-on action and the device take-off action can be accurately detected by determining a rising edge or falling edge of the measurement value [a rising/falling edge detection would result from determining a difference of a set severity [i.e., threshold] corresponding to two adjacent readings in order to identify the rising/falling edge; one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that detecting a rising edge or falling edge of a signal has an adjacent signal relationship. For example, in order to detect a falling edge of a signal, a difference between two adjacent readings would be compared and if the difference exceeded a threshold (in order to avoid false positives due to noise on the signal), the falling edge of the signal would be detected. Zhang also uses the terminology an “obvious” rising or falling edge, which indicates a very short time period, and would further suggest using adjacent signals to detect the sensor change, opposed to needing to detect a trend over a period of time; additionally a rising edge of sensor readings is comprised of adjacent signals, and determining the difference between adjacent collected signals would be required to identify a rising edge or falling edge, therefore, the difference corresponds to two adjacent temperature signals]; and Zhang par. 50 and 133, different sensors may be used to implement the disclosure (“the first sensor is a capacitive sensor is merely used for description, but does not set a limitation on a type of the first sensor”), such as a body temperature detection sensor (“a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added”) [i.e., a body temperature signal may be used as the sensor reading disclosed]).
wherein the temperature difference value corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is an absolute value of a difference value obtained by subtracting a temperature signal collected later from the temperature signal collected earlier according to time sequence (Zhang par. 16 and 45, the device put-on action and the device take-off action can be accurately detected by determining a rising edge or falling edge of the measurement value [e.g., an operation of detecting a rising edge requires determining a difference corresponding to a signal collected at an earlier time and a later time, see explanation in claim 1]; and Zhang par. 50 and 133, different sensors may be used to implement the disclosure (“the first sensor is a capacitive sensor is merely used for description, but does not set a limitation on a type of the first sensor”), such as a body temperature detection sensor (“a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added”) [i.e., a body temperature signal may be used as the sensor reading disclosed]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious of one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Itoh and Zhang before him, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine Itoh’s wearable device with mode switching based on user state with Zhang’s detection of user behavior using the behavior of adjacent signals, the motivation being to more accurately detect user behaviors and save power by supporting different functions based on different statuses of the intelligent device (Zhang par. 3-5).
Regarding Claim 8, Itoh discloses a wearable device (Itoh FIG. 1 and par. 16, wearable computer 10), comprising:
an acquisition module (Itoh FIG. 1, temperature sensor 16);
a determination module (Itoh FIG. 2, determination unit 31);
a control module (Itoh FIG. 3, operation mode selecting unit 32);
The remaining limitations of claim 8 are regarding the above modules carrying out operations similar in scope to claim 1 as addressed above (see par. 30 and 32 for module functionality), and are thus rejected under the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 9, Itoh discloses a wearable device (Itoh FIG. 1 and par. 16, wearable computer 10), comprising:
a memory configured to store a computer program (Itoh FIG. 1 and par. 27, auxiliary storage device 22);
a processor configured to implement steps of the operation mode control method for the wearable device according to claim 1 when executing the computer program (Itoh FIG. 1 and par. 17 and 27, CPU 21).
The remaining limitations of claim 9 are similar in scope to claim 1 as addressed above and are thus rejected under the same rationale.
Claims 2-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso et. al. (US 2021/0186350 A1) [previously cited].
Regarding Claim 2, Itoh in view of Zhang disclose the operation mode control method for the wearable device according to claim 1. Itoh in view of Zhang further disclose:
wherein the physiological sign signal further comprises a heart rate signal (Zhang par. 64, a heart rate detection sensor can be used to determine if a device is in a worn or not worn state; also see Zhang par. 133, heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added to the device; or Itoh par. 50, pulse can be used as an additional metric for determining if a user is sleeping) […];
Itoh in view of Zhang does not explicitly disclose:
wherein the physiological sign signal further comprises a heart rate signal and the first preset condition further comprises a pulse signal generated within a first preset time by the heart rate signal is interrupted.
In the analogous art of reduce power consumption in a wearable device (Lesso par. 2), Lesso teaches:
wherein the physiological sign signal further comprises a heart rate signal (Lesso par. 94-100, determining a heart rate of the user) and the first preset condition further comprises a pulse signal generated within a first preset time by the heart rate signal is interrupted (Lesso par. 196, system pauses audio playback in response to the determination that the device is not being worn [preset condition is wearing/not wearing state, the pause occurs because pulse is no longer detected on the heartrate signal [i.e., interrupted], but was previously detected [based on previous functionality of the device]], and calculation details at FIG. 6 and par. 190, when the heart rate signal does not contain any significant peaks [i.e., pulse signals] that correspond to any heart rate, it can be determined that the earphone is not being worn [see par. 178, sample is broken into frames of a preset length [i.e., within preset time intervals]]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious of one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Itoh, Zhang, and Lesso before him, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine modified Itoh’s teaching to use heart rate as an additional way to verify a user’s state with Lesso’s teaching of a method to analyze heartbeat signals, the motivation being to implement signal processing to remove false spikes in data and receive a more accurate heartbeat reading (Lesso par. 168-189, on removing extraneous data from the signal).
Regarding Claim 3, Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso disclose the operation mode control method for the wearable device according to claim 2. Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso further disclose:
wherein when the absolute value of the temperature difference corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is greater than the first threshold (Zhang par. 16 and 45, the device put-on action and the device take-off action can be accurately detected by determining a rising edge or falling edge of the measurement value [e.g., an operation of detecting a rising edge requires determining a difference corresponding to two adjacent signals that is greater than a threshold, see explanation in claim 1]; and Zhang par. 50 and 133, different sensors may be used to implement the disclosure (“the first sensor is a capacitive sensor is merely used for description, but does not set a limitation on a type of the first sensor”), such as a body temperature detection sensor (“a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added”) [i.e., a body temperature signal may be used as the sensor reading disclosed] acquiring the heart rate signal to determine whether the pulse signal generated within the first preset time by the heart rate signal is interrupted (Zhang par. 8 and 131, using two sensors in a sequence allows for power savings by being able to use a lower power consumption sensor before using a higher power consumption sensor for verification [e.g., Zhang FIG. 5, an embodiment using a capacitance as a first sensor and infrared as a second sensor, showing a case for the first sensor value is evaluated to be greater than a first threshold, and then the second sensor is activated in response and its readings are evaluated]; and Zhang par. 133, the sensors may be, but not limited to, a CAP sensor, an IR sensor, and an A-sensor, a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor; and Lesso par. 196, system pauses audio playback in response to the determination that the device is not being worn [preset condition is wearing/not wearing state, the pause occurs because pulse is no longer detected on the heartrate signal [i.e., interrupted], but was previously detected [based on previous functionality of the device]; Zhang teaches the sensor sequence and ability to use a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor, Lesso teaches the detailed use of the heart rate sensor).
Regarding Claim 4, Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso disclose the operation mode control method for the wearable device according to claim 2. Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso further disclose:
when the physiological sign signal satisfies a second preset condition (Itoh FIG. 4, showing operational mode changes during “falling asleep detection” and “waking-up detection” [i.e., two preset conditions, also see Itoh par. 29 and 46, the wearable computer determines whether or not the wearer falls asleep or wakes up by using the body temperature of the wearer]; or Zhang par. 16, the device put-on action and the device take-off action can be accurately detected by determining a rising edge and a falling edge of the measurement value [i.e., two preset conditions]), controlling the operation mode of the current wearable device to be the normal operation mode (Itoh FIG. 4, showing operational mode changes during “falling asleep detection” and “waking-up detection”, normal operation mode in “during waking” state; or Zhang FIG. 4, worn and not worn states, also see Zhang par. 3, disabling user tracking sensor [e.g. heart rate sensor] when the device is not worn [i.e., low power state]), wherein the second preset condition comprises at least that the absolute value of the temperature difference corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is greater than a second threshold (Itoh par. 38, the calculation performed by the determination unit to find the temperature change rate of the wearer uses the current temperature received from the temperature sensor 16 and at least one temperature received in the past; [note: a rate of change calculation is conventionally known to use the difference between two points and the amount of time between them ([value1 – value2]/[time1-time2]), which in this case would be the difference in temperature over the sampling time], also see Itoh FIG. 3, showing detecting both modes; and Zhang par. 16 and 45, the device put-on action and the device take-off action can be accurately detected by determining a rising edge or falling edge of the measurement value [a rising/falling edge detection would result from determining a difference of a set severity [i.e., threshold] corresponding to two adjacent readings in order to identify the rising/falling edge, see explanation in claim 1]; and Zhang par. 50 and 133, different sensors may be used to implement the disclosure (“the first sensor is a capacitive sensor is merely used for description, but does not set a limitation on a type of the first sensor”), such as a body temperature detection sensor (“a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added”) [i.e., a body temperature signal may be used as the sensor reading disclosed]).
Regarding Claim 5, Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso disclose the operation mode control method for the wearable device according to claim 4. Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso further disclose:
wherein the physiological sign signal further comprises the heart rate signal (Zhang par. 64, a heart rate detection sensor can be used to determine if a device is in a worn or not worn state; also see Zhang par. 133, heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added to the device; or Itoh par. 50, pulse can be used as an additional metric for determining if a user is sleeping); or Itoh par. 50, pulse can be used as an additional metric for determining if a user is sleeping; and Lesso par. 94-100, determining a heart rate of the user), and the second preset condition further comprises a case that the absolute value of the temperature difference corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is greater than the second threshold (Itoh par. 38, the calculation performed by the determination unit to find the temperature change rate of the wearer uses the current temperature received from the temperature sensor 16 and at least one temperature received in the past; [note: a rate of change calculation is conventionally known to use the difference between two points and the amount of time between them ([value1 – value2]/[time1-time2]), which in this case would be the difference in temperature over the sampling time], also see Itoh FIG. 3, showing detecting both modes; and Zhang par. 16 and 45, the device put-on action and the device take-off action can be accurately detected by determining a rising edge or falling edge of the measurement value [e.g., an operation of detecting a rising edge requires determining a difference corresponding to two adjacent signals that is greater than a threshold, see explanation in claim 1]; Zhang par. 50 and 133, different sensors may be used to implement the disclosure (“the first sensor is a capacitive sensor is merely used for description, but does not set a limitation on a type of the first sensor”), such as a body temperature detection sensor (“a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added”) [i.e., a body temperature signal may be used as the sensor reading disclosed]) and the pulse signal generated within a second preset time by the heart rate signal is not interrupted (Lesso par 178, setting the length of the frame [i.e., preset time] used for processing to ensure collecting at least two heart beats (which may be a 1s), and a longer collection time of 1.5-2s [i.e., a second preset time]; and Lesso par. 191, autocorrelation can be used to identify signal components characteristic of a heartbeat, and hence can be used to determine that the sounds detected by the transducer include heartbeat sounds, and thus that the earphone is being worn, also see par. 194 and 196, if no heartbeat is detected the device is not being worn [i.e., a continuous heartbeat signal within the length of the frame results in an uninterrupted pulse signal generated within a second preset time]).
Regarding Claim 6, Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso disclose the operation mode control method for the wearable device according to claim 5. Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso further disclose:
wherein when the absolute value of the temperature difference corresponding to the two adjacent temperature signals is greater than the second threshold (Zhang par. 16 and 45, the device put-on action and the device take-off action can be accurately detected by determining a rising edge or falling edge of the measurement value [e.g., an operation of detecting a rising edge requires determining a difference corresponding to two adjacent signals that is greater than a threshold, see explanation in claim 1]; and Zhang par. 50 and 133, different sensors may be used to implement the disclosure (“the first sensor is a capacitive sensor is merely used for description, but does not set a limitation on a type of the first sensor”), such as a body temperature detection sensor (“a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor may be added”) [i.e., a body temperature signal may be used as the sensor reading disclosed]), acquiring the heart rate signal to determine whether the pulse signal generated within the second preset time by the heart rate signal is not interrupted (Lesso par 178, setting the length of the frame [i.e., preset time] used for processing to ensure collecting at least two heart beats (which may be a 1s), and a longer collection time of 1.5-2s [i.e., a second preset time]; and Zhang par. 8 and 131, using two sensors in a sequence allows for power savings by being able to use a lower power consumption sensor before using a higher power consumption sensor for verification [e.g., Zhang FIG. 5, an embodiment using a capacitance as a first sensor and infrared as a second sensor, showing a case for the first sensor value is evaluated to be greater than a first threshold, and then the second sensor is activated in response and its readings are evaluated]; and Zhang par. 133, the sensors may be, but not limited to, a CAP sensor, an IR sensor, and an A-sensor, a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor; and Lesso par. 196, system pauses audio playback in response to the determination that the device is not being worn [preset condition is wearing/not wearing state, the pause occurs because pulse is no longer detected on the heartrate signal [i.e., interrupted], but was previously detected [based on previous functionality of the device]; Zhang teaches the sensor sequence and ability to use a heart rate detection sensor and/or a body temperature detection sensor, Lesso teaches a detailed use of a heart rate sensor to detect whether the pulse [i.e., heartrate signal] is interrupted or not).
Regarding Claim 7, Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso disclose the operation mode control method for the wearable device according to claim 5. Itoh in view of Zhang, further in view of Lesso further disclose:
wherein the first preset time is greater than the second preset time (Lesso par. 178, set the length of the frame [i.e., preset time] used for processing to ensure collecting at least two heart beats (which may be a least a 1s, but preferably 1.5-2s) [i.e., multiple preset times], standard range for a heartbeat range from 60-120bpm (Lesso par. 168), which would affect required frame length; alternatively Lesso par. 193, two signal recordings of different lengths [i.e., preset times] are used: a signal is provided to a simple neural network to make a quick initial determination of whether a heartbeat is present, while an autocorrelation is also performed in order to produce a potentially more accurate result, that requires data to be gathered over a longer time).
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to COLE JIAWEI WENTZEL whose telephone number is (703) 756-4762. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30am-5:30pm (Mon-Fri).
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/C.J.W./Examiner, Art Unit 2175
/ANDREW J JUNG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2175
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