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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 1-21 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.
In claims 1, 18, it is unclear what the predetermined process is at line 2 respectively.
In claim 17, it is unclear what the step of assigning first information and second information. The step of manufacturing an article using the apparatus is unclear.
In claim 19, it is unclear how the printer is configured. Also it is unclear how the printer assign first information and the second information.
In claim 20, it is unclear what is assigning the first and second information and how the first and second information are being assigned to data.
In claim 21, it is unclear the claim does not recite that the computer readable medium is limited to non-transitory embodiments. A claim encompassing both transitory and non-transitory embodiments, such as applicant’s claimed computer readable medium, does not fall within one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (“A transitory, propagating signal like Nuitjen’s is not a process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter.’ … Thus, such a signal cannot be patentable subject matter.”).
Claims 2-16 are also rejected for incorporating the deficiencies of their base claim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Isozaki et al. (U.S. Pub No. 20060031695) disclose an information processing apparatus includes a first processor and second processors. The first processor includes an application-program execution controller controlling execution of an application program, an operation-information obtaining unit obtaining operation information regarding operation of the second processors, a distributed-processing controller controlling distributed processing assigned to the second processors so that processing jobs relating to the execution of the application program is integrated as a processing unit that provides a single function, and a clock-rate-ratio setting unit setting clock-rate ratios of current operating clock rates relative to maximum operating clock rates. The operation information includes the maximum operating clock rates, the current operating clock rates, and the numbers of cycles required in a predefined time for the processing assigned to the second processors. The distributed-processing controller controls the distributed processing corresponding to the processing unit based on the operation information.
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/GERTRUDE ARTHUR JEANGLAUDE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3661