DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Applicant’s Restriction Election and Response
Applicant’s 05/12/2026 election of Group I (Embodiment 1, reproduction.1) and accompanying amendments are acknowledged. Applicant's election does not state whether it is made with or without traverse so the election is understood to be made without traverse. See MPEP 818.01. All other embodiments are withdrawn from further consideration by the examiner, 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being for the nonelected design.
Specification Objection
The application contains at least one color drawing or color photograph. The specification must be amended to include the following language as the first paragraph of the brief description of the drawings section:
-- The file of this patent contains at least one drawing/photograph executed in color. Copies of this patent with color drawing(s)/photograph(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee. --
Refusal under 35 U.S.C. § 112(a) and (b)
The claim is refused under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) and (b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, first and second paragraphs, as the claimed invention is not described in such full, clear, concise and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the same, and fails 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.
The claim is indefinite and nonenabling because the scope and appearance of the claim cannot be determined from the inadequate quality of the drawings, which show the design with distorted, warped, and degraded line work, resulting in unclear and inconsistent surface contours throughout the claimed design. The visual degradation obscures the intended profile and contour transitions of the article and creates ambiguity as to whether the depicted irregularities represent the intended ornamentation or unintended reproduction defects. See below.
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Accordingly, the precise visual appearance and scope of the claimed design cannot be determined with reasonable certainty because the appearance of the surface configuration is indefinite and not clearly disclosed. One of ordinary skill in the art world therefore be unable to ascertain the precise visual characteristics of the claimed design from the present disclosure.
To overcome this refusal, applicant may submit replacement drawings in clean, high-resolution form with clear and consistent linework. The replacement drawings should eliminate the distorted, warped, fuzzy, and degraded visual presentation appearing in the figure so that the intended surface, and profile of the claimed design are clearly disclosed.
Particular attention should be directed to ensuring that:
The linework is straight, uniform, and consistently reproduced;
The surface contours and profile transitions are clearly defined;
No unintended gradient-like degradations or visuals appear in the figure; and
The drawings clearly distinguish intended ornamentation from reproduction defects.
Failure to provide corrected drawings may continue to render the scope of the claimed design indefinite and not adequately disclosed.
Replacement Drawings
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application.
Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as amended.
If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency.
Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. If all the figures on a drawing sheet are canceled, a replacement sheet is not required. A marked-up copy of the drawing sheet (labeled as "Annotated Sheet") including an annotation showing that all the figures on that drawing sheet have been canceled must be presented in the amendment or remarks section that explains the change to the drawings. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either "Replacement Sheet" or "New Sheet" pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d).
If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action.
Conclusion
The application is refused under 35 U.S.C. 112 (a) and (b). The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to inventor's or joint inventors' disclosure.
Contact Information
Direct any inquiry concerning any communication from the examiner to Andrew Golson whose telephone number is 703-756-1325. The examiner can normally be reached from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.
Examiner Interviews
Examiner interviews are available via telephone and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool.
A telephonic or in person interview may only be conducted with an attorney or agent registered to practice before the USPTO (“registered practitioner”) or with a pro se applicant (an applicant who is the inventor and who is not represented by a registered practitioner).
The registered practitioner may either be of record or not of record. To become “of record”, a power of attorney (POA) in accordance with 37 CFR 1.32 must be filed in the application. Form PTO/AIA /80 “Power of Attorney to Prosecute Applications Before the USPTO”, is available at:
https://www.uspto.gov/patent/forms/forms-patent-applications-filed-or-after-september-16-2012.
See MPEP 402.02(a) for further information.
Interviews may also be conducted with a registered practitioner “not of record” provided the registered practitioner can show authorization to conduct an interview by completing, signing and filing an “Applicant Initiated Interview Request Form” (PTOL-413A).
To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
Email Communications
If email communication is preferred, please email the examiner at andrew.golson@uspto.gov to arrange a time and date for the telephone interview. If both email and telephonic means are required, include preferred days and times for the proposed call. When proposing a day/time for the interview, please consider the examiner's work schedule indicated in the first paragraph of the contact information of this communication. The email should also be used to determine who will initiate the telephone call.
The merits of the application will not be discussed via email (or other electronic medium) unless appropriate authorization for internet communication is filed in the application. Form PTO/SB/439 “Authorization for Internet Communications in a Patent Application or Request to Withdraw Authorization for Internet Communications” may be used to provide such authorization and is available at the USPTO. The authorization may not be sent by email to the USPTO.
For acceptable ways to submit the authorization form to the USPTO, see “When Responding to Official USPTO Correspondence”: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/maintain/responding-office-actions. Also, see MPEP 502.03 II for further information.
Patent Center
Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov.
For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). For assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, reach out to the examiner’s supervisor, Richard Kearney whose telephone number is 571-272-8312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
/A.D.G./
Examiner, Art Unit 2936
/Richard Kearney/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2933
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