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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/09/2026 has been entered.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. Applicant has not complied with one or more conditions for receiving the benefit of an earlier filing date under 35 U.S.C. 120 as follows:
The later-filed application must be an application for a patent for an invention which is also disclosed in the prior application (the parent or original nonprovisional application or provisional application). The disclosure of the invention in the parent application and in the later-filed application must be sufficient to comply with the requirements of 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, except for the best mode requirement. See Transco Products, Inc. v. Performance Contracting, Inc., 38 F.3d 551, 32 USPQ2d 1077 (Fed. Cir. 1994)
The disclosure of the prior-filed application, Application No. 16/340,578, fails to provide adequate support or enablement in the manner provided by 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, first paragraph for one or more claims of this application. The prior filed application fails to provide support for segmenting separate intermediate denture models for each tooth as recited in independent claims 1 and 7, nor designing a coupling with a protrusion as recited in claim 7. As such these claims will only receive the priority date of 09/27/2019.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 06/09/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant has argued that Morales et al. (US 2016/0135931) is directed to an implant supported denture, however the new rejection is based on Morales et al. (US 2015/0182316 A1) which is for a tissue supported denture.
Applicant has further argued that the previous cited prior art does not provide for the scanned denture of the patient’s existing denture being the same digital model that is modified, however this limitation is addressed by the new prior art of Kanazawa et al. (US 2011/0236856 A1) which provides teaching of scanning a patient’s old/existing denture and using that scanned digital model as the basis to be digitally modified and updated for generating a replacement denture for a patient.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 and 7 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claims 1 and 7 both recite in their preamble “a method of generating a digital model of a denture” but have been amended to include a method step of “manufacturing a denture based on the digital file” which results in the preamble not matching the body of the claims and should be amended along the lines of “A method of generating a denture”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3-7, 11, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morales et al. (US 2015/0182316 A1) in view of Jesenko et al. (US 2020/0167994 A1-effectively filed date of 11/27/2018) and further in view of Kanazawa et al. (US 2011/0236856 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 7, Morales discloses a method (title and abstract disclosing automated computer methods, paragraph [0005]-[0007] all disclosing the method is by CAD/CAM) for generating a digital model of a denture comprising a digital model of a denture base and at least one digital model of denture teeth (paragraph [0053] all disclosing a digital data file of the denture being generated, paragraph [0068] disclosing an automated system for forming teeth and gingiva base from a virtual denture model of each), wherein the method comprises the steps of:
obtaining a digital model of a patients existing denture, based on an initial oral anatomy of a patient, by scanning the patient’s existing denture with a scanning device (paragraph [0062] lines 8-12 disclosing the scanning of the patient’s existing dentures and lines 1-8 disclosing that the scanning of the current patient’s existing dentures provides the current patients oral anatomy that are used as a base for the selecting and obtaining existing dentures from the library, Fig. 5 element 501 is a scanning device that are used as the basis to obtained the scanned digital model of the corresponding existing denture);
and providing a computer device comprising a computer readable medium (Fig. 5 element 500) and a processor (Fig. 5 element 503) wherein the computer device is configured to perform the method steps including (abstract disclosing automated computer methods, paragraph [0063] 8-18 disclosing CAD/CAM) software that accesses and use denture digital data):
receive the digital model from the scanning device (Fig. 5 element 500 receive digital scan data from scanner 501),
segment the digital model of an existing denture:
wherein segmenting comprises:
generating a gum-tooth border spline for each tooth of the digital model, thereby separating the digital model in to an intermediate denture base model and intermediate denture tooth models formed from at least a portion of the teeth which is less than multiple teeth and less than all teeth (paragraph [0048] lines 4-16 removing teeth from base gingiva, paragraph [0050] lines 13-15 segmenting by removing the gingiva base from the digital denture, paragraph [0064] lines1-29 forming a border spline between teeth and gums, paragraph [0056] lines 31-33 disclosing only a portion of the teeth as distinguished from all teeth paragraph [0056] lines 29-31 and further distinguished as multiple teeth but not all teeth paragraph [0056] lines 33-39 disclosing multiple teeth but less than all teeth)
and modifying the anatomy of the at least one fitted denture base model to improve the fit between the fitted existing denture and a modified oral anatomy of a patient’s gums (paragraph [0049] lines 13-15, paragraph [0056] lines 10-12 modifying the outer gingival surfaces which are based on the anatomy of the patient as it currently is which is a modified anatomy from when they had originally been fitted for the previous dentures , paragraph [0014] lines 3-7 disclosing modifying the topography of the digital model of the existing denture to enhance the fit to the gingiva and soft palate characteristics, paragraph [0064] lines 8-17 disclosing modifying the anatomy of the intermediate base to better make the patient’s anatomy or to add root eminence),
design a coupling arrangement between the modified intermediate denture base model and the at least one intermediate denture teeth model, wherein the coupling comprises at least one recess formed in the modified intermediate denture base model (Fig. 3 showing the virtual teeth with protrusions beyond the gingival line 34 and that are each received within a corresponding digital region of a recess in the digital gingiva, paragraph [0104] lines 18-26 disclosing the planned final denture was to have protrusion portions of the denture teeth embedded in a material thus requiring recesses for each tooth protrusion, Fig. 2 protrusion 26 is imbedded in a surrounded recess in material 24),
convert the modified intermediate denture base model into a final denture base model based on the designed coupling arrangement and generate a digital data file of at least one final denture teeth model based on the at least one intermediate denture teeth model (paragraph [0064] all disclosing the generation thus conversion of the intermediate to a final virtual denture teeth and virtual gingiva base),
and transmit the digital file of the final denture base model and the digital file of the final denture tooth models to a computer aided manufacturing device and manufacturing the denture based on the transmitted digital file of the bae and tooth models (paragraph [0068] all computer aided automatic manufacturing device, paragraph [0073] disclosing transmitting data, paragraph [0122] all transmitting the virtual denture files to a 3d printing system and printing the dentures).
Morales discloses structure substantially identical to the instant application as discussed above but fails to explicitly disclose where the at least a portion of teeth includes the denture tooth models are separate intermediate tooth models formed for each tooth.
However, Jesenko discloses a computer implemented method for detecting 3d geometries of real intraoral structures (title and abstract) including where the real intraoral structures include existing dentures (paragraph [0026] and [0029] disclosing the real structures include dentures) and segmenting individual teeth as separate intermediate denture tooth models formed from each individual tooth (Fig. 1 elements S1.1, S1.2, S1.3, S1.4 etc. being individual separately segmented intermediate tooth models form for each individual tooth, paragraph [0063] lines 1-14 “not only are the teeth as a whole considered as a separate segment S1, but also each tooth is considered as a separate segment S1.1, S1.2, S1.3, S1.4.”).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate each tooth being segmented as a separate intermediate denture model formed from each tooth as taught by Jesenko into the segmenting of the at least a portion of teeth models as taught by Morales for the purpose of providing for allowing enhanced modelling by masking out individual teeth or allowing for individual virtual teeth to be moved as part of the simulation as taught by Jesenko (paragraph [0065] lines 1-5).
Further regarding claims 1 and 7, Morales/Jesenko discloses structure substantially identical to the instant application as discussed above but fails to explicitly disclose where digital model used in the segmenting and modifying is also the same digital model of the patient’s own existing denture instead of a denture selected based of the digital model of their scanned existing denture.
However, Kanazawa discloses a method for producing a removable denture (title and abstract) that scans the patient’s own existing denture that is in need of updating by scanning the patient’s existing denture with a scanning device (Fig. 6 showing the scanning of the initial anatomy and the denture being worn by the patient during the scanning, paragraph [0036] the scanning of the patient fit with their old/existing dentures); and using the same scanned old/existing denture digital model itself as the basis for the creation of the replacement denture (paragraph [0024] all disclosing the old denture is scanned and used as the basis for the new denture “carrying out imaging of an old denture, and acquiring imaging data of the old denture; displaying a three-dimensional image of the old denture on the basis of the imaging data of the old denture, and displaying a three-dimensional image of artificial teeth on the basis of data of only the artificial teeth, and acquiring three-dimensional shape information of a new denture on the basis of a three-dimensional image of the new denture that is displayed by the three-dimensional image of the old denture “).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the digital model of the patient’s same old/existing denture to be the basis for the segmenting and modifying for the creation of a new denture as taught by Kanazawa into the method of using the digital model of an existing denture as taught by Morales/Jesenko for the purpose of providing for a method that would be able to correct for the forms of the artificial teeth arrays and the mucosal surfaces of the of a patient’s old dentures to fabricate new dentures as taught by Kanazawa (paragraph [0005] lines 7-14).
Regarding claim 3, Morales further discloses where the intermediate denture teeth model includes at least two or three models (fig. 3 elements 36 and two elements 37 being at least three intermediate teeth models).
Regarding claim 4, Morales further discloses where the denture teeth in the final denture tooth models are interproximally connected ( paragraph [0063] lines 22-35 disclosing the final denture tooth digital models move as single units without independent movement or rotation of the individual virtual teeth and thus are virtually interproximally connected).
Regarding claims 5 and 6, Morales further discloses where a continuous recess is provided in the final denture model base for receiving one of the at least one final denture teeth model and the model includes a plurality of teeth with the continuous recess is one of a plurality of continuous recesses each configured to receive a corresponding one of the plurality of final denture teeth models (Fig. 3 showing the virtual teeth with protrusions beyond the gingival line 34 and that are each received within a corresponding digital region of a recess in the digital gingiva, paragraph [0104] lines 18-26 disclosing the planned final denture was to have protrusion portions of the denture teeth embedded in a material thus requiring recesses for each tooth protrusion, Fig. 2 protrusion 26 is imbedded in a surrounded recess in material 24).
Regarding claim 11, Morales further discloses where the modifying comprises sculpting a virtual papilla (paragraph [0056] lines 8-18 disclosing the forming a virtual papilla).
Regarding claim 25, Morale further discloses where the segmenting comprises automatically generating a gum-tooth border spline for each tooth of the digital model (paragraph [0056] lines 5-29 disclosing gum-tooth boundary line is automatically generated by the programming)
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morales et al. (US 2015/0182316 A1)) in view of Jesenko et al. (US 2020/0167994 A1-effectively filed date of 11/27/2018) in view of Kanazawa et al. (US 2011/0236856 A1) as applied above and further in view of Clausen et al. (US 2013/0060532 A1).
Regarding claim 12, Morales/Jesenko/Kanazawa discloses methods substantially identical to the instant application as discussed above but fails to explicitly disclose where the step of designing a coupling arrangement comprises providing a cement gap between the at least one recess and the corresponding protrusion in the shape of an offset between a digital model of the at least one recess and a digital model of the at least one protrusion.
However, Clausen discloses a method of designing a set of digital teeth (title and abstract) for coupling with a denture base (paragraph [0112] lines 5-8 a denture with teeth inserted in a gingival part) where the denture has a coupling arrangement with the denture teeth having protrusions that are inserted into a recess in a denture base (paragraph [0115] lines 1-9 disclosing the artificial teeth are design with a part that protrudes to be arranged inside the gingival part), and the anatomy of the base part is modified to have a cement gap of an offset between the inside of the denture base and the protrusion part of the artificial teeth (paragraph [0111] lines 5-9).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the modifying of anatomy for a offset-spaced cement gap after the segmenting and provision of a protrusion on the dental teeth models that matches the modified anatomy as taught by Clausen into the method steps as taught by Morales/Jesenko/Kanazawa for the purpose of providing for a known bonding or joining method and to provide for a better quality design of teeth for a denture as taught by Clausen (paragraph [0013] lines 4-5 ).
Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Morales et al. (US 2015/0182316 A1) in view of Jesenko et al. (US 2020/0167994 A1-effectively filed date of 11/27/2018) in view of Kanazawa et al. (US 2011/0236856 A1) as applied above and further in view of Keustermans et al. (US 2019/0147666 A1, effectively filed 06/21/2016)
Regarding claim 26, Morales/Jesenko/Kanazawa discloses methods substantially identical to the instant application as discussed above but fails to explicitly disclose where the step of segmenting comprises identifying and segmenting each tooth by one or neural networks, machine learning, and deep learning.
However, Keustermans discloses a method of obtaining digital scan of teeth and gums (paragraph [0150] lines 1-4, Fig. 12 showing digital data of teeth and gums) and using machine learning to segment each tooth (paragraph [0188] lines 1-5 disclosing the use of machine learning and training the machine learning for the method, paragraph [0017] lines 17-19 disclosing each tooth is individual identified and segmented)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the use of machine learning for the method of segmenting the teeth as taught by Keustermans into the method of Morales/Jesenko/Kanazawa for the purpose of allowing virtual manipulation of the position and orientation of the individual teeth and to provide a more accurate assessment by the algorithm for segmenting as taught by Clausen (paragraph [0017] lines 1-23).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW P SAUNDERS whose telephone number is (571)270-3250. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Edelmira Bosques can be reached at (571) 270-5614. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/M.P.S/Examiner, Art Unit 3772 06/24/2026
/EDELMIRA BOSQUES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3772
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