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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set
forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this
application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set
forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action
has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on
05/04/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The office action is responding to the arguments filed on 05/04/2026. Claims 1-
20 are pending. Foreign priority claim is acknowledged in Bib datasheet.
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, 10 and 16 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 added limitation in the amended claims 1, 10 and 16 “wherein the inactive area is not only an unused or not working area for data input or output but is also not included in storage capacity” does not have sufficient support in the specification. The specification discloses the "bad blocks in the seventh memory block 326 can have a size of 7% of the total capacity" in paragraph [0093] and also “the controller 210 can set an unused super block to 7% of the total capacity for each of the fourth memory die 318B” in paragraph [0106] for Fig 5 but not specifically bad blocks, unused blocks or area are not included in storage capacity. Claim 1, 10 and 16 are therefore rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph as failing to comply with the written description requirement. Dependent claims 2-9, 11-15 and 17-20 are rejected based on their dependency on rejected claims 1, 10 and 16.
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.
Claim 1, 10 and 16 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Claim 1, 10 and 16 amendment states “wherein the inactive area is not only an unused or not working area for data input or output but is also not included in storage capacity” where inactive area is defined by either unused or not working which is unclear and also examiner considers unused and not working are contrary to each other where unused can be used, reserved for future if it’s not bad but may be working fine whereas not working clearly means bad blocks. Dependent claims 2-9, 11-15 and 17-20 are rejected based on their dependency on rejected claims 1, 10 and 16.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 10 and 16 are allowable if the 35 U.S.C. 112(a) and 112(b) rejections set forth above are overcome. Examiner has conducted update search and given considerations to applicant’s arguments and/or requests. The prior art does not teach “wherein the inactive area is not only an unused or not working area for data input or output but is also not included in storage capacity; and a controller configured to check a bad block occurring or found in at least one of the plural memory dies and adjust an inactive area size in the at least one of the plural memory dies based on the bad block to equal a sum of a bad block size and the inactive area size in the at least one of the plural memory dies to another sum of a bad block size and an inactive area size in another memory die among the plural memory dies” limitations of claims 1, 10 and 16.
The closest prior art KIM et al. (US 20160148656 A1) does teach memory dies may include active and inactive regions where total active regions of memory dies may equal to memory capacity or in other words inactive regions may not be included in total memory capacity. Also, SHIN et al. (US 20180018091 A1) does teach controller may determine a reference value RV for selecting a victim block using valid page and bad
block information reflecting weight of bad blocks and inactive area and weight can be adjusted based on number of bad blocks included. But none of the prior arts appear to teach inactive area is not included in total storage capacity and controller may adjust an inactive area size in the at least one of the plural memory dies based on the bad block to equal a sum of a bad block size and the inactive area size in the at least one of the plural memory dies to another sum of a bad block size and an inactive area size in another memory die among the plural memory dies.
Therefore, claims 1, 10 and 16 and their dependent claims are allowed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 05/04/2026 have been fully considered and are
Persuasive. However, in the current action, Claim(s) 1, 10 and 16 have been rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) for failing to comply with the written description requirement and 35 U.S.C. 112(b) for contradicting language and unclear definition of inactive regions of memory. Claims 1, 10 and 16 would be allowed if the 35 USC 112(a) and 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejections are overcome.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUBIR K CHOWDHURY whose telephone number is (703)756-1207. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30 - 5:00 CST.
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/S.K.C./Examiner, Art Unit 2132
/HOSAIN T ALAM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2132
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