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 .
1. This office acknowledges receipt of the following item(s) from the Applicant:
Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) was considered.
2. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Double Patenting
3. The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the "right to exclude" granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. See In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970);and, In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent is shown to be commonly owned with this application. See 37 CFR 1.130(b).
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to
www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp.
4. Claims 1-20 are rejected under the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of Weingarten U.S. Patent No. 12039191. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claims as follows:
Claims 1-12 of the examined application are anticipated and the same scope of invention by claims 1-13 of the reference such as a method for performing operations on a flash memory, the method comprising: obtaining a first soft read sample by performing a first read operation on a location of the flash memory with a first reference voltage; determining a second reference voltage based on the first soft read sample; obtaining a second soft read sample by performing a second read operation on the location of the flash memory with the second reference voltage; generating soft information based on the first and second soft read samples; and decoding a result of a third read operation on the location of the flash memory based on the soft information.
Claims 13-17 of the examined application are anticipated and the same scope of invention by claims 14-19 of the reference such as a flash memory system comprising: a flash memory; and a circuit for performing operations on the flash memory, the circuit being configured to: obtain a first soft read sample by performing a first read operation on a location of the flash memory with a first reference voltage; determine a second reference voltage based on the first soft read sample; obtain a second soft read sample by performing a second read operation on the location of the flash memory with the second reference voltage; generate soft information based on the first and second soft read samples; and decode result of a third read operation on the location of the flash memory based on the soft information.
Claims 18-20 of the examined application are anticipated and the same scope of invention by claims 14 and 18-20 of the reference such as a method for performing operations on a flash memory, the method comprising: obtaining one or more soft read samples; estimating reference voltages from the one or more soft read samples; and performing read operations on locations of the flash memory with the estimated reference voltages, wherein estimating reference voltages comprises: determining a sampling range based on a first one of the one more soft read samples; determining a second reference voltage from within the sampling range; and generating a histogram based on the one or more soft read samples, wherein determining the sampling range comprises: updating the histogram based on the first soft read sample, and determining the sampling range based on the histogram.
5. When responding to the office action, Applicants are advised to provide the examiner with the line numbers and page numbers in the application and/or references cited to assist the examiner to locate the appropriate paragraphs.
6. A shortened statutory period for response to this action is set to expire 3 (three) months and 0 (zero) day from the date of this letter. Failure to respond within the period for response will cause the application to become abandoned (see MPEP 710.02 (b)).
7. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Hoai V. Ho whose telephone number is (571) 272-1777. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00 AM -- 5:30 PM from Monday through Thursday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amir Zarabian can be reached on (571) 272-1852. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)-273-8300.
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/HOAI V HO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2827