DETAILED ACTION
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 21-40 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.
Initially, the following is noted.
“Though understanding the claim language may be aided by explanations contained in the written description, it is important not to import into claim limitations that are not part of the claim. For example, a particular embodiment appearing in the written description may not be read into a claim when the claim language is broader than the embodiment.” Superguide Corp. v. DirecTV Enterprises, Inc., 358 F.3d 870, 875, 69 USPQ2d 1865, 1868 (Fed. Cir. 2004). See also Liebel-Flarsheim Co. v. Medrad Inc., 358 F.3d 898, 906, 69 USPQ2d 1801, 1807 (Fed. Cir. 2004) (discussing recent cases wherein the court expressly rejected the contention that if a patent describes only a single embodiment, the claims of the patent must be construed as being limited to that embodiment); E-Pass Techs., Inc. v. 3Com Corp., 343 F.3d 1364, 1369, 67 USPQ2d 1947, 1950 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (“Interpretation of descriptive statements in a patent’s written description is a difficult task, as an inherent tension exists as to whether a statement is a clear lexicographic definition or a description of a preferred embodiment. The problem is to interpret claims ‘in view of the specification’ without unnecessarily importing limitations from the specification into the claims.”); Altiris Inc. v. Symantec Corp., 318 F.3d 1363, 1371, 65 USPQ2d 1865, 1869-70 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (Although the specification discussed only a single embodiment, the court held that it was improper to read a specific order of steps into method claims where, as a matter of logic or grammar, the language of the method claims did not impose a specific order on the performance of the method steps, and the specification did not directly or implicitly require a particular order). When an element is claimed using language falling under the scope of 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 6th paragraph (often broadly referred to as means- (or step-) plus- function language), the specification must be consulted to determine the structure, material, or acts corresponding to the function recited in the claim, and the claimed element is construed as limited to the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof. In re Donaldson, 16 F.3d 1189, 29 USPQ2d 1845 (Fed. Cir. 1994) (see MPEP § 2181- MPEP § 2186).
Phillips v. AWH Corp., 415 F.3d 1303, 1323 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (referring to “the danger” of importing claim limitations from the specification). See also Varco, L.P. v. Pason Sys. USA Corp., 436 F.3d 1368, 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2006) (stating how the Federal Circuit “will not at any time” bring in claim limitations from the specification); Comark Commc'ns, Inc. v. Harris Corp., 156 F.3d 1182, 1186-67 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (following that limitations from the specification are not to be read into the claims).
The claim fails to clearly and distinctly define the metes and bound of the inventive subject matter. Applicant appears to be attempting to incorporate limitations from the specification into the claims, which as noted above is improper.
Regarding claim 21, and similarly claims 27, 31, and 37, it unclear what “a first spatial location” is referenced to. How, in what manner, and based on what criteria/condition that such “a first spatial location” is determined is also unclear and not readily understood.
Regarding claim 23, and similarly claims 29, 33, and 39, it unclear what “a second spatial location” is referenced to. How, in what manner, and based on what criteria/condition that such “a second spatial location” is determined is also unclear and not readily understood.
Regarding claim 24, and similarly claim 34, how, in what manner, and based on what criteria/condition that “a first threshold” and “a second threshold” are determined are unclear and not readily understood. They lack any clarity as to what metes and bound of such encompass.
Other claims are also rejected based on their dependency of the defected parent claim(s).
It is Applicant’s responsibility to draft a clear and concise set of claims defining the metes and bounds of Applicant’s invention. Applicant should review all of the outstanding claims in response hereto. All of the claims should be reviewed for issues related to clarity and scope as the errors/issues are not constrained to those listed above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 21-40 are allowed over prior art. However, 35 USC 112(b) rejections must be overcome.
Conclusion
The cited prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 11,796,664 discloses a novel feedback design methodology to meet the emerging frontiers of beamforming radio frequency (RF) technology in the areas of machine learning and surveillance. The feasibility of developing adaptive waveform modulation schemes for spectrum management in radars via orthogonal wavelet concepts. With the increasing prevalence of RF spectrum bandwidth limitations, this approach of adaptive feedback waveforms addresses advanced signal processing beamforming technique for phase array RF improving overall sensing performance. The adaptive illumination waveform algorithms for enhancing detection, discrimination, and tracking is motivated from the analogy drawn between the cellular wireless communication systems and the general multi-static radar automotive systems. The present innovation has developed signal processing schemes of adaptive illumination waveforms for enhancing RF detection performance and have developed a unified system architecture of the adaptive radar waveform design for various scenarios including multi-static radars and multiple targets.
US 2023/0243949 discloses radar ranging method and apparatuses. In an implementation, a method comprises: sending a first radar signal through a first transmitter, receiving a first echo signal of the first radar signal through a first receiver, wherein the first echo signal comprises an echo signal of a first target, receiving a second echo signal of the first radar signal through a second receiver, wherein the second receiver is located outside a primary signal transmission path between the first transmitter and the first receiver, wherein the second echo signal is used to determine a target spurious echo signal corresponding to an obstacle, and wherein the echo signal of the first target and the target spurious echo signal are different signals, and performing ranging processing on the first target based on the first echo signal and the second echo signal.
US 12,523,740 discloses a method for supporting radar operations may involve providing, from a radar server, one or more transmit beam parameters, over one or more wired or wireless interfaces, to a first wireless communications system Transmission Reception Point (TRP) for configuring a transmit beam for sending a transmit signal from the first wireless communications TRP. The method may further involve providing, from the radar server, one or more receive beam parameters, over one or more wired or wireless interfaces, to a second wireless communications system TRP for configuring a receive beam for receiving, at the second wireless communications system TRP, an echo signal from one or more targets as a reflection of the transmit signal. The first wireless communications system TRP and the second wireless communications system TRP may be part of a wireless communications system.
US 11,280,899 discloses a method of identifying a target from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data without incurring the computational load associated with generating an SAR image. The method includes receiving SAR data collected by a radar system including RF phase history data associated with reflected RF pulses from a target in a scene, but excluding an SAR image. Range profile data is determined from the SAR data by converting the RF phase history data into a structured temporal array that can be applied as input to a classifier incorporating a recurrent neural network, such as a recurrent neural network made up of long short-term memory (LSTM) cells that are configured to recognize temporal or spatial characteristics associated with a target, and provide an identification of a target based on the recognized temporal or spatial characteristic.
WO 2025/232626 discloses a communication method and an apparatus. The method comprises: a first data collector acquires a first sensing parameter and a second sensing parameter, the first sensing parameter being used for indicating measurement information between a sensing node and a measurement target, and the second sensing parameter being used for indicating attribute information of the measurement target; and, during model processing in an intelligent wireless sensing scenario, the first data collector uses the first sensing parameter as input information of a model, and uses the second sensing parameter as ground-truth label information of the model. In this way, the first data collector can acquire the first sensing parameter and the second sensing parameter, and applies the acquired first sensing parameter and second sensing parameter to intelligent wireless sensing technology.
CN 114895306 discloses a high-resolution wide mapping belt imaging method, device and storage medium, belonging to the technical field of data processing. The method is applied to synthetic aperture radar, comprising: the synthetic aperture radar randomly selects the current pulse repetition frequency in the pre-determined value range of the pulse repetition frequency every preset interval, two adjacent current pulse repetition frequencies are different and discontinuous; according to the current pulse repetition frequency, the synthetic aperture radar emits the pulse signal and receives the echo signal reflected by the target; processing the echo signal reflected by the target through the fast iteration soft threshold algorithm to obtain the sparse reconstructed target imaging result. The purpose of the application is to solve the problem of high resolution wide surveying strip of single channel SAR system.
WO 2014/068081 discloses a radar imaging system comprises a radar transmitter configured to transmit radar at a target; an aperture comprising an array of physically independent airborne carriers, each of the carriers configured to receive radar echoes from the target; and a base station, which may be located at ground level, in communication with each of the airborne carriers to receive the radar echoes and determine an image of the target from the received radar echoes.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHUONG P NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-3445. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 10:00-10:00 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JACK KEITH can be reached at (571) 272-6878. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHUONG P NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3646
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