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 .
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on August 04, 2026, disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of Patent Number US11611776 and US12341993 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Response to Arguments
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection has been withdrawn in view of the terminal disclaimer filed on August 04, 2026.
The rejection under 35 USC § 112 has been withdrawn in view of the amendments
.Newly added claims 10-12 raise new issues of patentability and is addressed in the rejections set forth below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Heo et al. (US20180288409A1), hereinafter referred to as Heo.
Regarding claim 10-12, these claims are directed to a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a data stream generated by the feature encoding method which is a product by process claim limitation where the product is the data stream and the process is the method steps to generate the data stream. MPEP §2113 recites “Product-by-Process claims are not limited to the manipulations of the recited steps, only the structure implied by the steps”. Thus, the scope of the claim is the non-transitory computer readable medium storing the data stream (with the structure implied by the method steps). The structure includes the information and samples manipulated by the steps.
To be given patentable weight, the printed matter and associated product must be in a functional relationship. A functional relationship can be found where the printed matter performs some function with respect to the product to which it is associated”. MPEP §2111.05(I)(A). When a claimed “computer-readable medium merely serves as a support for information or data, no functional relationship exists. MPEP §2111.05(III). The non-transitory computer readable medium storing the claimed data stream in these claims merely serves as a support for the storage of the data stream and provides no functional relationship between the stored data stream and storage medium. Therefor the data stream, which scope is implied by the method steps, is non-functional descriptive material and given no patentable weight. MPEP §2111.05(III). Thus, the claim scope is just a non-transitory computer readable medium storing data and is anticipated by Heo which recites a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a data stream (See Heo, ¶¶ [0078] and [0179]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9 are allowed.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/FABIO S LIMA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2486
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