DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 26 June 2026 has been considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed 26 May 2026 has been entered. Claim 23 is currently amended. Claims 3-25 are pending in the application. Applicant’s amendment to claim 23 has overcome the objection previously set forth in the Non-Final Office Action mailed 27 February 2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 3-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) the method steps of receiving bioelectrical information from a cardiac catheter and using the information to define/determine an optimal placement of at least one ablation lesion in the cardiac tissue (claim 3) and identify/detect locations of fractionated electrograms/localized defects/reentrant circuits/circuit cores in the cardiac tissue (claims 12 and 20), which are processes that can be performed in the human mind and are therefore mental processes.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional elements recited in claims 3, 12, and 20 are directed to data gathering steps of measuring and displaying bioelectrical data for evaluation, which are a form of insignificant extra-solution activity. Accordingly, the additional elements do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. In claim 12 specifically, the generically recited computer elements (that is, “a processing system”) also do not add a meaningful limitation to the abstract idea, since they amount to simply implementing the mental process on a computer.
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the steps of navigating a catheter into a heart of a patient, recording bioelectrical signals from cardiac tissue, and constructing a map corresponding to the bioelectrical signals are well-known, routine, and conventional method steps for evaluating cardiac signals, and there is no indication that the processing system is anything other than a generic, off-the-shelf computer component. For these reasons, the additional elements do not add an inventive concept to the exception, and the claims are therefore ineligible. Dependent claims 4-11, 13-19, and 21-25 are necessarily rejected as depending upon rejected base claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 26 May 2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 3, 12, and 20 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The prior art rejection of 27 February 2026 has been withdrawn.
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVINA E LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-5765. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday between 8:00 AM and 5:30 PM (ET).
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/D.E.L./Examiner, Art Unit 3794
/JOANNE M RODDEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3794
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