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 .
35 USC § 101
Examiner Comment on Streamlined Subject Matter Eligibility
Examiner finds the instant claims are eligible subject matter under §101 as directed
towards improvements to computer technology, when viewed as a whole. The claims recite
using mathematical concepts in various limitations, but are not directed towards claiming math
per se. Other portions have a user interacting with a device, in order to accomplish a function. Overall, the claim as a whole is not directed to a mental process, math
concept, or organizing human activity, since claims are directed to producing a 3D model of an orthodontic aligner by manipulating a patient’s 3D dentition virtually. Therefore, the claim is considered to be eligible.
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.
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 1-11, 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chishti et al., US 6,783,360 B2(Chishti) in view of Anderson et al., US 9,610,140 B2 (Anderson)
Claim 1
Chishti teaches A method for producing a three-dimensional model of an orthodontic aligner, the method comprising: receiving a digital data set representative of the dentition of a patient, wherein the digital data set is a three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient, and wherein the digital data set includes a virtual tooth representing at least one tooth of the patient; (Chishti Col 5 Lines 57-63 “As a first step, an initial digital data set representing an initial tooth arrangement is obtained (step 202). The initial data set may be obtained in a variety of ways. For example, the patient's teeth may be scanned or imaged using X-rays, three dimensional X-rays, computer-aided tomographic images or data sets, or magnetic resonance images, among others.”)
displaying, on a graphical user interface, the three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient; (Chishti Col 14 Lines 1-4 “User interface output devices may include a printer and a display subsystem, which includes a display controller and a display device coupled to the controller.”)
receiving input from a user representing a desired movement of the at least one tooth of the patient; (Chishti Col 9 Lines 59-62 “The tooth model manipulation process can be done subjectively, i.e., the user may simply reposition teeth in an aesthetically and/or therapeutically desired manner based on observations of the final position or based on the simulation of contacts.”)
calculating at least one specific force to be applied to the at least one tooth to accomplish the desired movement; (Chishti Col 13 Kubes 39-41 “For each tooth, a differential distance vector is calculated by taking the difference between the distance vectors for the tooth”) {EXAMINERS NOTE: Calculating the vectors that the teeth will take inherently involves calculating specific forces to be applied.}
Chishti does not inherently teach, but Anderson teaches removing a portion of the virtual tooth representing the at least one tooth of the patient from the three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient, wherein the shape of the removed portion of the virtual tooth is determined based on the calculated specific force to be applied to the at least one tooth to accomplish the desired movement. (Anderson Col 14 Lines 45 -52 “A CAD technician can form a virtual depression, similar to a divot or the depression associated with a bump 20, but sized and shaped to accommodate the nose of a tack. Such a geometrically discrete depression will be formed on the lingual side of the virtual tooth near its incisal edge. The CAD technician will form the depression in the lingually inclined lower incisor with a depth corresponding exactly to the amount of correction needed, in this case 1 mm deep.”)
Chishti and Anderson are analogous to the claimed invention because they are from the same field of orthodontic positioning.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Chishti and Anderson before him or her, to modify the alignment and positioning methods of Chishti with the virtual tooth removal of Anderson to provide minimizing excessive tooth stripping as state in Anderson Col 1 Lines 63-65.
Claim 2.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the received digital data set representative of the dentition of the patient is based on at least one of the following: an intraoral scan of the mouth of the patient, an impression kit of the mouth of the patient, a photo of the mouth of the patient, and a video of the mouth of the patient. (Chishti Col 5 Lines 57-63 “The initial data set may be obtained in a variety of ways. For example, the patient's teeth may be scanned or imaged using X-rays, three dimensional X-rays, computer-aided tomographic images or data sets, or magnetic resonance images, among others.”)
Claim 3.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the received digital data set representative of the dentition of the patient is based on an STL file or a CAD file. (Anderson Col 5 Lines 39-42 “The OrthoPlex scanner and its associated software, creates a three-dimensional (3D) digital model that can be accessed by a computer or the like, and is stored as an STL file.”)
Claim 4.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the input received from the user is input using a mouse or a stylus. (Chishti Col 13 Lines 61-66 “The user interface input devices typically include a keyboard and may further include a pointing device and a scanner. The pointing device may be an indirect pointing device such as a mouse, trackball, touchpad, or graphics tablet, or a direct pointing device such as a touchscreen incorporated into the display”)
Claim 5.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the desired movement of the at least one tooth of the patient includes at least one of the following: a torque to apply to the at least one tooth, an extrusion for the at least one tooth, an intrusion for the at least one tooth, a bodily translation for the at least one tooth, and a rearrangement layout for a jaw of the at least one tooth. (Chishti Col 4 Lines 16-19 “At least some of these teeth may be moved by the methods of the present invention from an initial tooth arrangement to a final tooth arrangement . . . each tooth may be moved in orthogonal directions represented by axes 104, 106, and 108 (where 104 is the centerline). The centerline may be rotated about the 25 axis 108 (root angulation) and the axis 104 (torque) as indicated by arrows 110 and 112, respectively.”)
Claim 6.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one specific force is calculated based on at least one of the following: input from the user specifying the specific force, and the features of the dentition of the patient. (Chishti Gif 9 Step 470 “Move teeth in response to user input”)
Claim 7.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one specific force is calculated as a minimum force required to accomplish the desired movement. (Chishti Col 2 Lines 25-28 “and calculating a difference between the first and second distances. The first and second distances can be the minimum distances between the teeth”)
Claim 8.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one specific force is calculated as a maximum force that will safely accomplish the desired movement. (Chishti Col 4 Lines 30-33 “FIG. 2B shows how the magnitude of any tooth movement may be defined in terms of a maximum linear translation of any point P on a tooth”)
Claim 9.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one specific force includes a magnitude value for the specific force or a direction of the specific force. (Chishti Col 4 Lines 30-33 “FIG. 2B shows how the magnitude of any tooth movement may be defined in terms of a maximum linear translation of any point P on a tooth”)
Claim 10.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein, upon removing the portion of the virtual tooth, the display of the three-dimensional model is updated to visually represent the location of the removed portion. (Chishti Col 6 Lines 1-4 “The initial data set is then manipulated using a computer having a suitable graphical user interface (GUI) and software appropriate for viewing and modifying the images. Individual tooth and other components may be segmented or isolated in the model to permit their individual repositioning or removal from the digital model.”)
Claim 11.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the amount of removed tooth corresponds to an amount of inward offset desired in an orthodontic aligner. (Anderson Col 14 Lines 45 -52 “A CAD technician can form a virtual depression, similar to a divot or the depression associated with a bump 20, but sized and shaped to accommodate the nose of a tack. Such a geometrically discrete depression will be formed on the lingual side of the virtual tooth near its incisal edge. The CAD technician will form the depression in the lingually inclined lower incisor with a depth corresponding exactly to the amount of correction needed, in this case 1 mm deep.”)
Claim 15.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the modified three- dimensional model to a 3D printer for printing. (Anderson Col 5 Lines 43-45 :” An STL file is a conventional format often used by stereolithography software to generate information needed to produce 3D models on stereolithography machines.”) and Col 6 Lines 2-5 “The rapid prototyping technique should be understood to be all techniques whereby an object is built layer by layer or point per point by adding or hardening material (also called free-form manufacturing).”)
Claim 16.
Chishti teaches A system for producing a three-dimensional model of an orthodontic aligner, the system comprising: a computing device having a processor configured for: (Chishti Col 2 Lines 54-57 “In yet another aspect, a computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, for producing appliances to treat teeth, includes instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:”)
receiving a digital data set representative of the dentition of a patient, wherein the digital data set is a three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient, and wherein the digital data set includes a virtual tooth representing at least one tooth of the patient; (Chishti Col 5 Lines 57-63 “As a first step, an initial digital data set representing an initial tooth arrangement is obtained (step 202). The initial data set may be obtained in a variety of ways. For example, the patient's teeth may be scanned or imaged using X-rays, three dimensional X-rays, computer-aided tomographic images or data sets, or magnetic resonance images, among others.”)
Displaying on a graphical user interface, the three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient; (Chishti Col 14 Lines 1-4 “User interface output devices may include a printer and a display subsystem, which includes a display controller and a display device coupled to the controller.”)
receiving input from a user representing a desired movement of the at least one tooth of the patient; (Chishti Col 9 Lines 59-62 “The tooth model manipulation process can be done subjectively, i.e., the user may simply reposition teeth in an aesthetically and/or therapeutically desired manner based on observations of the final position or based on the simulation of contacts.”)
calculating at least one specific force to be applied to the at least one tooth to accomplish the desired movement; (Chishti Col 13 Kubes 39-41 “For each tooth, a differential distance vector is calculated by taking the difference between the distance vectors for the tooth”) {EXAMINERS NOTE: Calculating the vectors that the teeth will take inherently involves calculating specific forces to be applied.}
Modified Chishti teaches with Anderson teaches and removing a portion of the virtual tooth representing the at least one tooth of the patient from the three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient, wherein the shape of the removed portion of the virtual tooth is determined based on the calculated specific force to be applied to the at least one tooth to accomplish the desired movement. (Anderson Col 14 Lines 45 -52 “A CAD technician can form a virtual depression, similar to a divot or the depression associated with a bump 20, but sized and shaped to accommodate the nose of a tack. Such a geometrically discrete depression will be formed on the lingual side of the virtual tooth near its incisal edge. The CAD technician will form the depression in the lingually inclined lower incisor with a depth corresponding exactly to the amount of correction needed, in this case 1 mm deep.”)
Chishti and Anderson are analogous to the claimed invention because they are from the same field of orthodontic positioning.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Chishti and Anderson before him or her, to modify the alignment and positioning methods of Chishti with the virtual tooth removal of Anderson to provide minimizing excessive tooth stripping as state in Anderson Col 1 Lines 63-65.
Claim 17.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The system of claim 16, further comprising: an intraoral scanner, wherein the received digital data set representative of the dentition of the patient is based on an intraoral scan of the mouth of the patient by the intraoral scanner. (Anderson Col 9 Lines 49-53 “In an alternate embodiment, the digital file may be created directly from an intra-oral scan of the patient's dentition, providing the original maloccluded dentition in a digital format without having to create and scan a stone model 10.”)
Claim 18.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The system of claim 16, further comprising: a dental model printer, the dental model printer configured for: receiving the modified three-dimensional model from the computing device; and printing a physical model based on the modified three-dimensional model. (Anderson Col 5 Lines 43-45 :” An STL file is a conventional format often used by stereolithography software to generate information needed to produce 3D models on stereolithography machines.”) and Col 6 Lines 2-5 “The rapid prototyping technique should be understood to be all techniques whereby an object is built layer by layer or point per point by adding or hardening material (also called free-form manufacturing).”)
Claim 19.
Modified Chishti with Anderson teaches The system of claim 16, further comprising: a thermoforming device for creating the orthodontic aligner based on the printed physical model. (Anderson Col 3 Lines 19-23 “In another embodiment there is an aligner tray for repositioning teeth according to an orthodontic treatment plan. 20 The aligner tray includes a tray portion defining a tooth receiving compartment within the tray portion and formed from a thermoformable plastic sheet”)
Claim 20.
Modified Chishti teaches A computer-implemented method comprising instructions stored on a non- transitory computer-readable storage medium and executed on a computing device provided with a hardware processor and a memory (Chishti Col 2 Lines 54-57 “In yet another aspect, a computer program product, tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium, for producing appliances to treat teeth, includes instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to:”)
for producing a three-dimensional model of an orthodontic aligner via Software as a Service (SaaS), the method comprising: receiving a digital data set represent alive of the dentition of a patient, wherein the digital data set is a three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient, and wherein the digital data set includes a virtual tooth representing at least one tooth of the patient; (Chishti Col 5 Lines 57-63 “As a first step, an initial digital data set representing an initial tooth arrangement is obtained (step 202). The initial data set may be obtained in a variety of ways. For example, the patient's teeth may be scanned or imaged using X-rays, three dimensional X-rays, computer-aided tomographic images or data sets, or magnetic resonance images, among others.”)
displaying, on a graphical user interface, the three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient; (Chishti Col 14 Lines 1-4 “User interface output devices may include a printer and a display subsystem, which includes a display controller and a display device coupled to the controller.”)
receiving input from a user representing a desired movement of the at least one tooth of the patient; (Chishti Col 9 Lines 59-62 “The tooth model manipulation process can be done subjectively, i.e., the user may simply reposition teeth in an aesthetically and/or therapeutically desired manner based on observations of the final position or based on the simulation of contacts.”)
calculating at least one specific force to be applied to the at least one tooth to accomplish the desired movement; (Chishti Col 13 Kubes 39-41 “For each tooth, a differential distance vector is calculated by taking the difference between the distance vectors for the tooth”) {EXAMINERS NOTE: Calculating the vectors that the teeth will take inherently involves calculating specific forces to be applied.}
Chishti does not inherently teach, but Anderson teaches and removing a portion of the virtual tooth representing the at least one tooth of the patient from the three-dimensional model of the dentition of the patient, wherein the shape of the removed portion of the virtual tooth is determined based on the calculated specific force to be applied to the at least one tooth to accomplish the desired movement. (Anderson Col 14 Lines 45 -52 “A CAD technician can form a virtual depression, similar to a divot or the depression associated with a bump 20, but sized and shaped to accommodate the nose of a tack. Such a geometrically discrete depression will be formed on the lingual side of the virtual tooth near its incisal edge. The CAD technician will form the depression in the lingually inclined lower incisor with a depth corresponding exactly to the amount of correction needed, in this case 1 mm deep.”)
Chishti and Anderson are analogous to the claimed invention because they are from the same field of orthodontic positioning.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Chishti and Anderson before him or her, to modify the alignment and positioning methods of Chishti with the virtual tooth removal of Anderson to provide minimizing excessive tooth stripping as state in Anderson Col 1 Lines 63-65.
Claims 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chishti et al., US 6,783,360 B2(Chishti) in view of Anderson et al., US 9,610,140 B2 (Anderson) in further view of Matov et al., US 9,107,722 B2 (Matov)
Claim 12.
Modified Chishti with Anderson does not inherently teach, but Matov teaches The method of claim 11, wherein the amount of inward offset is approximately 0.1 mm in depth. (Matov Col 20 Lines 13-19 “In one aspect, to compensate for the undesirable force (for example, as shown in FIG. 11B by the arrow), a predetermined relief (for example, but not limited to, 0.1 to 0.3 mm) may be provided such that the contact between the aligner and the tooth that resulted in the undesirable force vector is avoided, but still retaining the desired force, for example, along the x-axis as discussed above.”)
Chishti, Anderson, and Matov are analogous to the claimed invention because they are from the same field of orthodontic positioning.
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Chishti, Anderson, and Matov before him or her, to modify the alignment and positioning methods of Chishti with the virtual tooth removal of Anderson, and the offset depth, of Matov to better account for factoring in the root of the tooth or other anatomical structures as suggested in Matov Col 2 Lines 1-5.
Claim 13.
Modified Chishti with Anderson, and Matov teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the removed portion has a surface area, the surface area being a force determinant of the at least one specific force to be applied to the at least one tooth. (Matov Col 21 Lines 21-45 “That is, the amount of surface area perpendicular to the desired line of movement ( or to the direction of the movement vector) may be insufficient for the aligner to deliver the necessary force . . . a dental attachment may be added or provided on the tooth to improve the amount of surface area perpendicular to the desired direction of tooth movement. . . . the cross section of the surface area may be determined for a particular tooth, and the dental attachment may be positioned thereon, to enhance or improve upon the necessary surface area to cooperate or engage with the dental appliance to effect the desired movement vector or the predetermined level of force upon the tooth in the accurate direction for the treatment stage.”)
Claim 14.
Modified Chishti with Anderson, and Matov teaches The method of claim 11, further comprising calculating a total clearance between an aligner and the teeth, wherein the amount of inward offset is based on the calculated total clearance. (Matov Col 20 Lines 15-20 “ a predetermined relief (for example, but not limited to, 0.1 to 0.3 mm) may be provided such that the contact between the aligner and the tooth that resulted in the undesirable force vector is avoided, but still retaining the desired force, for example, along the x-axis as discussed above.”)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN DAVID HAGLER whose telephone number is (703)756-1339. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10am- 6pm.
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/JOHN DAVID HAGLER/ Examiner, Art Unit 2189
/REHANA PERVEEN/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2189