DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to an application filed on February 27, 2025, in which claims 1 through 20 are pending, and ready for examination.
Acknowledgement is made of Applicant’s claim for benefit from Provisional Application No. 63/570,621 filed on March 27, 2024.
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 statements (IDS) submitted on March 19, 2025 and July 25, 2025 were filed before the mailing date of a first Office Action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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 10-12 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 10 recites, “The NFC IC device of claim 9…”.
However, claim 9 is directed to a near field communication (NFC) tag.
Thus, the claim is indefinite because the scope of the claim cannot be ascertained.
Claims 11 and 12 are each dependent from claim 10 and are therefore rejected under the same rationale as claim 10 based upon that dependency.
Claim 12 recites, “The NFC tag of claim 11…”.
However, claim 11 is directed to a device (itself indefinite for the reason(s) set forth above).
Thus, the claim is indefinite because the scope of the claim cannot be ascertained.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9 and 13-20 are allowed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Mondello, et al., U.S. Pub. No. 2020/0313909
Hoyer, et al., U.S. Pub. No. 2016/0205549
Lin et al., U.S. Pub. No. 2019/0058603
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to J. Brant Murphy whose telephone number is (571)272-6433. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8am - 4pm.
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, Amir Mehrmanesh can be reached at 571-270-3351. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/J. BRANT MURPHY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2435
June 10, 2026
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