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 .
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 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.
Claims 1 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 7 recite determining whether a control target is operating at a constant velocity in a "very low velocity region" and further recite "very low constant velocity operation." The term "very low" is a term of degree that renders the scope of the claims unclear because the claims do not provide objective boundaries by which one of ordinary skill in the art could determine, with reasonable certainty, whether a particular velocity falls within the recited "very low velocity region."
Although the claims further recite that the velocity is less than or equal to a predefined threshold value, the claims do not specify the value of the threshold, how the threshold is selected, who or what defines the threshold, or any objective criteria for establishing the threshold. As a result, substantially different threshold values could be selected by different practitioners, leading to substantially different scopes of the claimed invention.
Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the metes and bounds of the claimed "very low velocity region" or "very low constant velocity operation," and therefore the scope of claims 1 and 7 cannot be determined with reasonable certainty. The claims are therefore indefinite under 35 U.S.C. 112(b).
Dependent claims are also rejected based on the dependencies.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MASUD AHMED whose telephone number is (571)270-1315. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-8:30 PM PST with IFP.
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MASUD . AHMED
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3657A
/MASUD AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3657
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