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 .
Response to Amendment
This is in response to Applicant’s Arguments/Remarks filed on July 16th, 2026 which has been entered and made of record.
Response to Arguments
Claim Rejections – 35 USC§ 102/103
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed July 16th, 2026, with respect to Claims 1-10 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of Claims 1-10 has been withdrawn. Particularly the arguments directed to the previously cited reference Themelis in light of the amendments, stating, “Themelis generates the patterned region based on the information of the region of interest only” (Remarks pg. 7), and “in contrast, as currently amended, claim 1 requires the operation [multiply accumulate operation including subtraction for a first spectral image] is performed based on color information set for each of the plurality of regions” (Remarks, pg. 8) is found to be persuasive.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-5, and 7-10 are pending. Claim(s) 1, 9, and 10 were amended. Claim 6 was canceled. No new claim(s) were added. Claims 1-5, and 7-10 are considered below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-5 and 7-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. The specification, while describing generation of a pseudo color image based on processing of generated R channel, G channel, and B channel images based on spectral image processing (see at least specification [0085], [0169] and Figs. 2, 6, and 10), does not reasonably provide description for generation of a pseudo color image based on processing of any channel image.
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 1-5 and 7-10 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. It is unclear what is meant by, “assigning a plurality of different spectral images to different channels” in Claims 1, 9, and 10. Does this mean each spectral image has to be assigned to a different channel i.e. channel image 1 formed by spectral image a, and channel image 2 formed by spectral image b? Does it mean no two channel images share the same spectral images i.e. image 1 formed by spectral image a and spectral image b, and image 2 formed by spectral image c and spectral image d? Does it mean spectral images can be assigned to individual channel images i.e. image 1 formed by spectral image a and spectral image b, and image 2 formed by spectral image a and spectral image b, as long as there exists spectral images that differ between each other i.e. spectral image a and spectral image b?
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JANICE VAZ whose telephone number is (703)756-4685. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00pm.
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/JANICE E. VAZ/Examiner, Art Unit 2667 /MATTHEW C BELLA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2667
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