DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 15-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by the publication of DE 102016104662 [cited by applicant].
Regarding claim 15, the publication of DE 102016104662 discloses a device (figs 1-2) comprising a plurality of passive multifrequency electromagnetic resonators (figs 2a,7b,7d) each having a plurality of given resonance frequencies (para29), each of the resonators comprising a plurality of transmission lines (figs 7b,7d) galvanically isolated from one another, having different resonance frequencies from one another, and each forming a path that closes back in on itself and is interrupted by one or more splits (figs 7b,7d), the transmission lines being arranged spatially relative to one another such that, when the device is subjected to what is referred to as an incident field (C1), they share between them a common interaction region in which the field lines of the incident field interact with the plurality of transmission lines (para9, figs 7b,7d), the resonators being arranged, without electrical contact between them, so that they are sufficiently close to one another to form an array of resonators that interact with one another through inductive coupling (figs 7b,7d).
Regarding claims 16-28, the publication of DE 102016104662 further discloses wherein all or some of the resonators thereof each comprises one or more transmission lines which are each formed by a group of at least two interrupted tracks, arranged parallel to one another but without electrical contact between them and describing the same common path, wherein the one or more interruptions of each of the tracks of the group are each arranged facing a solid portion of another track of the group, and in particular of all of the other tracks of the group, wherein a plurality of the multifrequency resonators thereof each comprise a plurality of transmission lines nested within one another, in particular within a two-dimensional surface (figs 7a,7d), wherein a plurality of the multifrequency resonators thereof each comprise a plurality of transmission lines each formed by at least two tracks arranged on two opposite faces of a two-dimensional dielectric substrate, in particular the same substrate common to all or some of the transmission lines of the same multifrequency resonator (fig 9), wherein the multifrequency resonators are arranged, without electrical contact between them, in a spatially periodic structure arranged to form an electromagnetic metamaterial capable of interacting with an external electromagnetic field, referred to as an incident field (para9), wherein the resonators are designed and arranged so as to interact with an incident electromagnetic field in such a way as to filter or attenuate all or some of the frequencies other than the resonance frequencies of the resonators, wherein the resonators are designed and arranged so as to interact with an electromagnetic field passing therethrough in such a way as to amplify the intensity thereof in the resonance frequencies of the resonators, wherein the resonators are designed and arranged so as to interact with an incident electromagnetic field in such a way as to deflect, refract or reflect all or some of the intensity thereof in one or more frequencies, wherein the resonators are designed and arranged so as to interact with an electromagnetic field passing therethrough in such a way as to modify the impedance of an incident signal carried by the electromagnetic field or of an answer signal brought about by the field and passing through the device (figs 1-9), further comprising a flexible or rigid film bearing all or some of the resonators of the device, which film is arranged so as to envelop a living or non-living body, referred to as the target object, in order to modify the interaction thereof with the electromagnetic field, in particular in order to protect the target object or to optimize a treatment or an investigation carried out on the target object by means of the electromagnetic field (figs 3-6) and a method/system for modifying the interaction of a living body or of an object with an incident electromagnetic field (figs 2-3,6), a method for characterizing at least one region to be investigated within a medium to be characterized (figs 2-3), the method comprising at least the following steps: contactlessly inductively coupling a probe, simultaneously, to one or more multifrequency resonators (figs 2a,2b), referred to as probed resonators, constituting a subset of an array of resonators (figs 2a,2b), the array being located in the vicinity of the investigated region but without requiring contact with the investigated region, such that the resonators of the array interact with the region to be investigated (figs 3-4), measuring the variation in impedance of the probed resonators by means of a reader that interacts with the probe (fig 6), processing the measurement of variation in impedance, comprising a spectral analysis 200 (fig 5, para32) according to frequency, so as to determine a plurality of individual impedances measured for a plurality of measurement frequencies; processing one or more of the individual impedances in order to extract one or more electrical properties of the investigated region (paras34-35).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The patents to Xu, Patron, Smith, Weldon, Valayil and Latrach are cited as of interested and illustrated a similar structure to a device comprising a plurality of passive multifrequency electromagnetic resonators.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THO GIA PHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-1826. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F (8-430).
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dimary Lopez can be reached on (571) 270-7893. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THO G PHAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845