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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. VN 2023-09259 file don December 26, 2023.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
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.
Claims 1 – 7 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.
The symbol Ω0 should be
Ω
0
. More importantly,
Ω
0
does not appear to be defined. See published Spec. Para. 31 (Google Patents) or Spec. Page 4. Because
Ω
i
is a threshold, it may be reasonable to assume
Ω
0
is an initial guess – however, this is just a guess.
Also, the claims state n can be 8, 16, 32, 64 – does this mean 64 is the max value of n? If not, applicant may want to indicate that n is the values for
2
n
with n greater than or equal to 3.
Language of “integer part of m/n + 1” is ambiguous as to whether m/n is simply ignored if m/n is not an integer or if the integer is a whole number of a mixed number consisting of whole number and a proper fraction.
Regarding claim 2, not all variables are defined. Also, language “region *” is confusing.
The claims should probably indicate that CDF stands for Cohen-Daubechies-Feauveau. See Published Spec. Para. 42 (Google Patents).
Regarding the variable “t” of claim 6, the subscript is not clear (legible).
Applicant should review the claims and check all of the variables and equations even if not mentioned here.
For reasons discussed supra, the metes and bounds of the full scope of the claims cannot be fully defined thus the claims are indefinite.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: Variable
Ω
0
does not appear to be defined as discussed supra.
Appropriate correction is required.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Fig. 2 is not legible. Applicant should review all other Figures for legibility (many of which the Examiner believed to be a close call). Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 – 7 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action. Dependent claims 2 – 7 are rejected also for dependency on a rejected base claim.
Many claimed features appear to be similar to concepts related to space-time adaptive processing STAP which is discussed in many of the references cited on the PTO-form 892.
The closest art is Sajwaj (US 20190025423 A1). Sajwaj teaches “This data is collected over successive time periods and analysed to detect any abnormal changes in the indicators within the area in the vicinity of the water network (Para. 84).” Sajwaj teaches “The filtering is achieved by averaging out the speckle by comparing the SAR data obtained over the different time periods (Para. 120).” Here, speckle filtering meets the scope of spatial noise filtering. Sajwaj teaches “The co-registered data are then processed by performing a multi-temporal filter 605 and clutter removal algorithms 607, such as clutter minimization (Para. 137).”
However, the prior art does not teach each and every feature of the claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL W JUSTICE whose telephone number is (571)270-7029. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30 - 5:30 M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Kelleher can be reached at 571-272-7753. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MICHAEL W JUSTICE/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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