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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 03/12/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-6 and 8-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 6,214,033) in view of Kobayashi et al. (US 2012/0010558) and Bukesov et al. (US 2021/0044079)
Li et al. discloses a treatment support apparatus (Figs. 2 and 4-5) comprising: an excitation light source (21; 31; 51a; 51b) configured to irradiate a fluorescent substance of a drug (6) administered into a body of a subject (5) with excitation light in a specific waveband, which is pulsed radiated with the irradiation time (col. 1, lines 52-62) having energy that excites the fluorescent substance but does not kill a cancer cell before or after treatment to kill the cancer cell based on irradiating the drug containing the fluorescent substance with light in a specific waveband (col. 1, lines 23-40; col. 2, lines 28-39); a storage configured to store an irradiation time and an irradiation intensity of the excitation light corresponding to the drug (55; col. 16, lines 56-63); a controller configured to retrieve the irradiation time and the irradiation intensity stored in the storage (7; col. 6, lines 47-54; col. 10, lines 19-24), and control the excitation light source to irradiate the drug with the excitation light with the irradiation time and the irradiation intensity retrieved from the storage (7; col. 6, lines 47-54; col. 10, lines 19-24); a fluorescent detector (25; 35; 37; 38) configured to detect fluorescence emitted by the fluorescent substance of the drug due to excitation by the excitation light (col. 2, lines 7-27; col. 7, lines 13-15); and an image generator (26; 35; 36) configured to generate a fluorescence distribution image, which is an image showing a distribution state of the fluorescence emitted by the fluorescent substance, based on the fluorescence from the fluorescent substance detected by the fluorescence detector (col. 2, lines 7-27; col. 8, lines 4-19). The Examiner’s position is that the claims recite the apparatus and the limitations of excitation of the particular drug or substance (e.g. IRDye 700DX) is considered intended use. However, Kobayashi et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor using IRDye 700DX ([0069]; [0156]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with IRDye 700DX as taught by Kobayashi et al. as it is a well-known substance for fluorescence imaging of cancer cells.
Li et al. discloses the subject matter substantially as claimed except for an operation unit configured to receive an operation of a user. However, Bukosov et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor an operation unit wherein the user may control activation of the pulse via an actuator ([0186]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with user controlled actuator as taught by Bukosov et al. in order for the user to control activation of the pulse.
With respect to claims 2-5, Li et al. discloses controlling the integrated energy (col. 17, line 66 to col. 18, line 32).
With respect to claims 6 and 8-9, Li et al. discloses controlling a limit to an irradiation intensity, an irradiation time, and a number of times of irradiation of the excitation light (col. 18, lines 23-32 and 39-57).
With respect to claim 10, Li et al. discloses a treatment support apparatus (Figs. 2 and 4-5) comprising: an excitation light source (21; 31; 51a; 51b) configured to irradiate a fluorescent substance of a drug (6) administered into a body of a subject (5) with excitation light in a specific waveband having energy that excites the fluorescent substance but does not kill a cancer cell before or after treatment to kill the cancer cell based on irradiating the drug containing the fluorescent substance with light in a specific waveband (col. 1, lines 23-40; col. 2, lines 28-39); a fluorescent detector (25; 35; 37; 38) configured to detect fluorescence emitted by the fluorescent substance of the drug due to excitation by the excitation light (col. 2, lines 7-27; col. 7, lines 13-15); and a distribution information output generator (26; 35; 36) configured to output information about a distribution of the fluorescence distribution emitted by the fluorescent substance, based on the fluorescence from the fluorescent substance detected by the fluorescence detector (col. 2, lines 7-27; col. 8, lines 4-19). The Examiner’s position is that the claims recite the apparatus and the limitations of excitation of the particular drug or substance (e.g. IRDye 700DX) is considered intended use. However, Kobayashi et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor using IRDye 700DX ([0069]; [0156]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with IRDye 700DX as taught by Kobayashi et al. as it is a well-known substance for fluorescence imaging of cancer cells. Li et al. discloses the subject matter substantially as claimed except for an operation unit configured to receive an operation of a user. However, Bukosov et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor an operation unit wherein the user may control activation of the pulse via an actuator ([0186]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with user controlled actuator as taught by Bukosov et al. in order for the user to control activation of the pulse. Li et al. discloses the subject matter substantially as claimed except for a single pulse. However, Perelman et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor single pulse excitation is used in order to avoid motion artifacts (col. 11, lines 2-4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with single pulse excitation as taught by Perelman et al. in order to reduce motion artifacts.
With respect to claim 11, Li et al. discloses an image generation method comprising: irradiating a fluorescent substance of a drug (6) administered into a body of a subject (5) with excitation light in a specific waveband having energy that excites the fluorescent substance but does not kill a cancer cell before or after treatment to kill the cancer cell based on irradiating the drug containing the fluorescent substance with light in a specific waveband (col. 1, lines 23-40; col. 2, lines 28-39); storing an irradiation time and an irradiation intensity of the excitation light corresponding to the drug (55; col. 16, lines 56-63); retrieving the irradiation time and the irradiation intensity stored (7; col. 6, lines 47-54; col. 10, lines 19-24); controlling the excitation light source to irradiate the drug with the excitation light with the irradiation time and the irradiation intensity retrieved (7; col. 6, lines 47-54; col. 10, lines 19-24);detecting fluorescence emitted by the fluorescent substance of the drug due to excitation by the excitation light (col. 2, lines 7-27; col. 7, lines 13-15); and generating a fluorescence distribution image, which is an image showing a distribution state of the fluorescence emitted by the fluorescent substance, based on the fluorescence from the fluorescent substance detected by the fluorescence detector (col. 2, lines 7-27; col. 8, lines 4-19). Li et al. does not teach IRDye 700 DX and an antibody. However, Kobayashi et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor using IRDye 700DX and an antibody ([0069]; [0156]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with IRDye 700DX and an antibody as taught by Kobayashi et al. as it is a well-known substance for fluorescence imaging of cancer cells. Li et al. discloses the subject matter substantially as claimed except for an operation unit configured to receive an operation of a user. However, Bukosov et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor an operation unit wherein the user may control activation of the pulse via an actuator ([0186]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with user controlled actuator as taught by Bukosov et al. in order for the user to control activation of the pulse. Li et al. discloses the subject matter substantially as claimed except for a single pulse. However, Perelman et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor single pulse excitation is used in order to avoid motion artifacts (col. 11, lines 2-4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with single pulse excitation as taught by Perelman et al. in order to reduce motion artifacts.
With respect to claim 12, Li et al. discloses controlling the integrated energy (col. 17, line 66 to col. 18, line 32).
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 6,214,033) in view of Kobayashi et al. (US 2012/0010558), Bukesov et al. (US 2021/0044079), and Perelman et al. (US 6,922,583) as applied to claim 1, further in view of Wu et al. (US 2013/0053699).
Li et al. discloses the subject matter substantially as claimed except for further comprising a visible light detector and an image synthesizer configured to generate a composite image. However, Wu et al. teaches in the same field of endeavor comprising detecting white light image and synthesizing a composite image to superimpose the white light image and the fluorescent image ([0017]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have provided Li et al. with the composite image as taught by Wu et al. as superimposing white light and fluorescent images are well known in the art.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/27/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues the reference does not teach excitation light which is pulsed radiated with the irradiation time. However, the Examiner respectfully disagrees with the applicant. Li et al. discloses pulsed light sources (31; 32; col. 1, lines 52-65).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER LUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-1609. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-6.
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/PETER LUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3797