DETAILED ACTION
Examiner has received and accepted the amended claims and remarks filed on 22 October 2025. These amended claims and remarks are the claims and remarks being referred to in the instant Office Action.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 22 October 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to the New Matter Rejection have been fully considered but they are not persuasive and have been addressed in the 112(a) Rejection below.
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.
Claim(s) 6, 8 – 13, 15 – 19, 22 – 24, and 28 – 34 are 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.
Regarding Claim 28, the claim recites “a sensing device including a sensor element is printed on a surface of the package”. This limitation pertains to the embodiment of Figure 4. However, the remaining limitations pertain to the embodiment of Figure 15C. There is no disclosure of the embodiments of Figure 4 and 15C being combined. For example, the claim limits the sensing device as being printed on the surface of package and the sensing device being disposed in the conditioning chamber. The conditioning chamber appears only in the embodiment of Figure 15C where the sensing device is disposed in the conditioning chamber and the package (which according to the Claim has sensing device printed thereon) is located in the hardened enclosure. This disclosure is not in line with the claim limitations as the sensing device is not on both the package and in the conditioning chamber.
As such, 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 and rises to NEW MATTER.
Claims dependent upon a rejected claim are therefore rejected as well.
Conclusion
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ALEXANDER A. MERCADO
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2855
/ALEXANDER A MERCADO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855