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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 9/26/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Rechter et. al. (United States Patent Application US 2015/0037447 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Rechter et. al. discloses constructed by assembling a plurality of screw pieces, comprising: an acquisition unit (Rechter et. al. [0018]) that acquires appearance data indicating an appearance of the screw or the plurality of screw pieces aligned; and an arithmetic unit (Rechter et. al. [0018]) that infers an alignment position and a type for each of the plurality of screw pieces constituting the screw, based on the acquired appearance data.
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Regarding claim 2, Rechter et. al. discloses the screw construction inference device according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic unit generates alignment data in which an alignment order of the plurality of screw pieces constituting the screw is associated with a ratio of a length and a diameter, a lead or lead angle and the number of threads of each of the screw pieces, based on an inference result of an alignment position and a type of each of the plurality of screw pieces (Rechter et. al. [0018]).
Regarding claim 3, Rechter et. al. discloses the screw construction inference device according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic unit compares data related to a normal alignment position and a normal type of each of the plurality of screw pieces with data related to an alignment position and a type of each of the plurality of screw pieces to determine whether or not the construction of the screw to be determined is correct (Rechter et. al. [0018] and [0038], last sentence).
Regarding claim 4, Rechter et. al. discloses the screw construction inference device according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic unit compares data related to an alignment position and a type of each of a plurality of screw pieces constituting a first screw loaded in a twin-screw extruder with data related to an alignment position and a type of each of a plurality of screw pieces constituting a second screw loaded in the twin-screw extruder, to determine a presence or an absence of an assembly error of the first screw and the second screw (Rechter et. al. [0018] and [0038], last sentence, in the case of the double-screw extruder).
Regarding claim 5, Rechter et. al. discloses the screw construction inference device according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic unit inputs the appearance data acquired by the acquisition unit to an object detection learning model and outputs data indicating an alignment position and a type of each of the plurality of screw pieces, the object detection learning model being so trained as to output, if appearance data indicating an appearance of the screw or the plurality of screw pieces aligned is input, data indicating an alignment position and a type of each of the plurality of screw pieces (Rechter et. al. [0018] and [0038], last sentence).
Regarding claim 6, Rechter et. al. discloses the screw construction inference device according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic unit infers data indicating an alignment position and a type of each of the plurality of screw pieces by performing rule-based image processing on the appearance data (Rechter et. al. [0018] and [0038], last sentence).
Regarding claim 7, Rechter et. al. discloses the screw construction inference device according to claim 1, wherein the arithmetic unit extracts piece appearance data representing an appearance of each of the screw pieces constituting the screw from the appearance data acquired by the acquisition unit, and inputs the extracted piece appearance data to a type recognition learning model and infers a type of each of the plurality of screw pieces, the type recognition learning model being so trained as to output, if piece appearance data representing an appearance of a screw piece is input, data indicating a type of the screw piece (Rechter et. al. [0018] and [0038], last sentence).
Regarding claim 8, Rechter et. al. discloses the screw construction inference device according to claim 1, wherein the appearance data includes image data obtained by imaging the plurality of screw pieces or the screw, or point group data obtained by measuring distances from a plurality of points on a surface of the plurality of screw pieces or the screw (Rechter et. al. [0018] and [0038], last sentence, [0021]).
Regarding claim 9, which is a screw construction inference method inferring a construction of a screw used for an extruder constructed by assembling a plurality of screw pieces, which corresponds to claim 1, which the rejection analysis is incorporated herein.
Regarding claim 10, which is a non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing a computer program causing a computer to execute processing of inferring a construction of a screw used for an extruder constructed by assembling a plurality of screw pieces, the computer program causing the computer to execute the processing of the method corresponding to claim 9, which the rejection analysis is incorporated herein.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JESSICA YIFANG LIN whose telephone number is (571)272-6435. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00am-6:15pm, with optional day off.
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/JESSICA YIFANG LIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2668 May 28, 2026
/VU LE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2668
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