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 office action is in response to the communications filed on 01/24/2026, concerning Application No. 18/832,077. The amendments to the claims filed on 01/24/2026 are acknowledged. Presently, claims 1-17 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 11/14/2025 fails to comply with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609 because cite no. 1 listed under the Foreign Patent Documents section seems to be cited with the wrong document number (i.e., cite no. 1 is listed as “WO 201908452”, however, it seems the corresponding foreign document is “WO 2019084526”). It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered as to the merits. Applicant is advised that the date of any re-submission of any item of information contained in this information disclosure statement or the submission of any missing element(s) will be the date of submission for purposes of determining compliance with the requirements based on the time of filing the statement, including all certification requirements for statements under 37 CFR 1.97(e). See MPEP § 609.05(a).
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 4, 6, and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1, lines 22-23, the limitation “wherein the raw radio-frequency data comp is deblended into individual ultrasound beam records by using the time-shared transmission and continuous recording (BLEND) design” should be changed to “wherein the raw radio-frequency data the individual ultrasound beam records by using the time-shared transmission and continuous recording (BLEND) design”;
Claim 4, lines 3-4, the limitation “the second row elements are dedicated to reception or transmission” should be changed to “the second row elements are dedicated to the reception function or the transmission function”;
Claim 6, line 2, the limitation “one or more analog-to-digital converters” should be changed to “one or more of the analog-to-digital converters”; and
Claim 16, line 9, the limitation “(v) resorting the processed raw beam records back to obtain the individual ultrasound beam records” should be changed to “(v) resorting the processed raw beam records back to obtain the individual ultrasound beam data”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-17 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.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “wherein the raw radio-frequency data comp is deblended into individual ultrasound beam records by using the time-shared transmission and continuous recording (BLEND) design” in lines 22-23. Similarly, claim 9 recites the limitation “deblend the raw radio-frequency data into individual ultrasound beam data by using the time-shared transmission and continuous recording (BLEND) design” in lines 21-22. However, it is unclear how the deblending step is done by using the BLEND design. Paragraphs [0039]-[0041] of the filed specification define “BLEND”, but it seems to be defined as a recording technique rather than a technique that is used to perform the deblending. Paragraph [0035] states that “The time share is designed in such a way that would permit us to de-blend the measured data to recover individual ultrasound beams”, but this seems to suggest that data can be recorded using the BLEND technique to “allow” for deblending, but not that the deblending process itself “uses” the BLEND design. Applicant mentioned paragraphs [0038]-[0047] for support for the current amendments, but these paragraphs do not seem to have support for “using” the BLEND design for the deblending step. Clarification is required.
Claims 2-8 and 10-17 are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) due to the dependency on the independent claims 1 and 9, respectively.
Examiner further notes that no reference has been found during the current search and consideration for teaching deblending by “using” the BLEND technique (which appears to be for recording data rather than for deblending data) as defined by Applicant, and therefore, there is not a prior art rejection at this time that rejects a teaching of a BLEND design that is defined as a recording technique and that is also used for deblending data. However, examiner notes that there is now this 112(a), written description issue, as set forth above, and that there is no prior art found due to the prior art not teaching the unsupported limitation as currently claimed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks filed 01/24/2026, with respect to the claim rejections have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Examiner notes that amended claims 1-17 are now currently rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
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/T.D./Examiner, Art Unit 3798
/PASCAL M BUI PHO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3798
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