DETAILED ACTION
Status
This Office Action is responsive to claims filed on 01/14/2015. Please note Claims 1-16 are pending and have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 16 describes a “computer readable storage medium”.
Further, Applicant's specification fails to explicitly define the scope of a “computer readable storage medium”. Thus, in giving the term its plain meaning (see MPEP 2111.01), the claimed “computer readable storage medium” is considered to include data signals per se. Data signals per se are not statutory as they fail to fall into one of the four statutory categories of invention.
As an additional note, a non-transitory computer readable medium having executable programming instructions stored thereon is considered statutory as non-transitory computer readable media excludes transitory data signals.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-15 are allowed. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regrading claim 1, Coyner (US 9563328 B2) and Hsu (US 20030058241 A1) are considered to be the closest art. However, the prior art failed to disclose all limitations of the claim or to show the obviousness of the claim as a whole to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention. Independent claim 15 recites similar features of claim 1, and is therefore allowed. Claims 2-14 are dependent from claim 1, and are therefore allowed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONG WU whose telephone number is (571)270-5207. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FRI: 9AM-5PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Xiao Wu can be reached at 571-272-7761. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHONG WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2613
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