Question: Kat Forrest has been a famous golf prodigy since childhood and currently enjoys phenomenal success on the professional golf tour, having won four straight major titles. Kat conceived, constructed and successfully tested a golfer's aid to help less-skilled players. Briefly, the aid includes a distance-finder that determines the precise distance from the golfer's ball to a target such as a fairway landing area or the hole. The aid obtains data concerning playing conditions (e.g., wind speed and direction, soil moisture, etc.) from a series of sensors distributed throughout a golf course. A global positioning system provides accurate positional coordinates for the ball location and the target location. A user interface allows manual input of situational data (e.g., ball in divot) and permits the user to override system settings and sensor data. The golfer's aid also includes computer memory that stores performance data calibrated to a specific golfer. In use, a digital processor determines a suggested play based on playing conditions and golfer skill level, and automatically displays information concerning the suggested play (e.g., recommended golf club and preferred line of flight for the ball). Other information can be displayed in reply to user requests. Kat comes to you in September 2001 and asks you to prepare and file a patent application on her behalf. She informs you that she has shown the golfer's aid only to her caddie and only under terms of strict confidentiality, and that she finalized the design on June 5, 2001. Her golfer's aid has not been sold or offered for sale. She also informs you that she derived the general idea for the golfer's aid, in part, from (1) an article appearing in the July 2000 edition of a golf magazine concerning a commercial distance finder and (2) a customized personal digital assistant (PDA) she saw on a store shelf while traveling in Thailand in April 2001. The distance finder has been available for sale in the United States since August 2000. The customized PDA was first offered for sale in the United States on June 8, 2001, but has not been disclosed in any publication or patent document. You prepare a patent application with claims that you believe are likely to be found patentably distinct over the commercially available distance finder and the golf magazine article, either alone or in combination. The application is filed with the USPTO on September 17, 2001. 29.  A United States patent issued to Jack Nichols on September 18, 2001 based on an application filed in the USPTO in May 2000. The Nichols patent claimed priority from a German application that was filed in April 2000 and was first published in October 2001. The Nichols U.S. application was an exact translation of the German priority application, and fully anticipated the subject matter of Kat's broadest claims. The Examiner locates the Nichols U.S. patent and the Nichols published priority application during prosecution. Which of the following actions, if taken by the Examiner, would be most proper (keeping in mind that the Examiner has no evidence of Kat's activities prior to September 17, 2001)?
A. Reject Kat's broadest claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a) because Nichols' U.S. patent is evidence that the claimed subject matter was known by others prior to Kat's invention.
B. Reject Kat's broadest claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a) because the claimed subject matter was patented or described in a printed publication by Nichols before Kat's invention.
C. Reject Kat's broadest claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) because the claimed subject matter was patented or described in a printed publication by Nichols before Kat's invention.
D. Reject Kat's broadest claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102(d) because the claimed subject matter was first patented or caused to be patented in a foreign country on an application filed more than twelve months before Kat's filing date.
(category: patent，Chinese translation: 专利)