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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 11/21/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks pg. 8-16, filed 11/21/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive in view of the argument that Leabman (US 2020/0006988) does not teach or suggest the device is powered remotely by extracting of power for the device from electromagnetic radiation transmission received from a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular or low-power wide-area network power source. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Pugh et al. (US 2017/0358942). See rejection below.
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, 13-15, 24, 28, 34, 49-50, 53, 57, 73, and 83-85 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bhushan et al. (US 2017/0347899) (hereinafter Bhushan) in view of Pugh et al. (US 2017/0358942) (hereinafter Pugh) in view of Ingersoll (US 2008/0272918), further in view of Sokol et al. (US 2018/0325422) (hereinafter Sokol).
Regarding claim 1, Bhushan discloses a device for monitoring a plurality of physiological characteristics of a patient (Abstract) including: a first biosensor layer including a biodata collection element for sensing the physiological characteristics (Fig. 2, bottom layer includes electrical sensors 101, temperature sensor 104, optical sensor 103); and an adhesive layer for maintaining contact between the biosensor layer and the skin surface of the patient (Fig. 4, sticker 114; para. 16); an electromagnetic radiation receiver for receiving electromagnetic radiation; circuit for extracting power for the device from the received electromagnetic radiation (Fig. 2, wireless charging receiver chip 113 and associated circuitry; para. 30); wherein the biodata collection element includes two or more sensors responsive to different physiological inputs (Fig. 2, electrical sensors 101, temperature sensor 104, optical sensor 103) and wherein the physiological inputs include heart rate, blood pressure, pulse (para. 8), SpO2 (para. 55), body temperature (Fig. 2, temperature sensor 104), electrical activity of the heart (ECG) (para. 8), and/or audio output (para. 56).
Bhushan does not disclose the device is powered remotely by extracting power for the device from electromagnetic radiation transmission received from a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, or low-power wide-area network power source, wherein the sensors are activated and deactivated remotely and the device includes a receiver for controlling a circuit to activate and/or deactivate the sensors at a command of a remote server.
Pugh, however, teaches methods and apparatus for wireless biomedical device charging (Abstract) wherein ubiquitous sources such as a Wi-Fi carrier signal of electromagnetic energy may beam energy sufficient for a level of charging into the general environment (para. 4). A similar wireless energy transmission method also being developed may use a Wi-Fi router with a boosted signal as both an emitter of power and of signal, rather than having an additional dedicated power emitter. Using a Wi-Fi router as a power emitter may have many benefits, including the fact that significant amounts of Wi-Fi routers have already been installed and employed in many buildings and locations throughout the world; as such, the installation and support hardware for this method is already installed in many situations and the existing routers may be replaced with a unit built to emit power (para. 162). Referring to FIG. 11C, an illustration of a power broadcasting scheme which broadcasts to an area is illustrated. The various exemplary biomedical devices may be the same as previous illustrations, but the power emitter 1150 may broadcast power via an area broadcast 1151. The area broadcast 1151 may occur over already dedicated frequencies such as those used for Wi-Fi broadcast (para. 168).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this invention to modify Bhushan such that the device is powered remotely by extracting power for the device from electromagnetic radiation transmission received from a Wi-Fi power source. Making this modification would be useful because Wi-Fi is a ubiquitous source of electromagnetic energy and significant amounts of Wi-Fi routers have already been installed and employed in many buildings and locations throughout the world, as taught by Pugh.
Furthermore, Ingersoll teaches remote alert system for preventing falls (Abstract) wherein it may be desirable to activate and/or deactivate one or more sensors using a wireless receiver so that the caregiver can activate or deactivate one or more sensors as desired (para. 36). Additionally, Sokol teaches systems and methods for respiratory health management (Abstract) wherein a processor located on a server that is remote to the user may be used to selectively activate or deactivate at least one sensor (para. 10).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this invention to modify Bhushan the sensors are activated and deactivated remotely and the device includes a receiver for controlling a circuit to activate and/or deactivate the sensors at a command of a remote server. Making this modification would be useful so that a caregiver can remotely and selectively activate or deactivate one or more sensors as desired, as suggested by the teachings of Ingersoll and Sokol.
Regarding claim 13, Bhushan discloses the physiological inputs are recorded by the biodata collection element (Fig. 2 depicts multiple physiological sensors for measuring physiological inputs; para. 8).
Regarding claim 14, Bhushan discloses the device includes a radio frequency transmitter (Fig. 2, Bluetooth antenna 107).
Regarding claim 15, Bhushan discloses the recorded physiological inputs are transferred to a database (para. 43).
Regarding claim 24, Bhushan discloses the device is formed from flexible materials (para. 25).
Regarding claim 28, Bhushan does not explicitly disclose that the adhesive layer maintains contact with the skin surface of the user for between approximately 1 to 30 days. The Examiner submits that Bhushan’s adhesive layer would be capable of maintaining skin contact for between approximately 1 to 30 days because there is no claimed structural difference between the adhesive layer of claim 1 and the adhesive layer of Bhushan.
Regarding claim 34, modified Bhushan teaches a method for monitoring the physiological characteristics of a patient (Bhushan Abstract) including: applying to the patient one or more devices for sensing a plurality of physiological inputs (Bhushan Fig. 5), the one or more devices including: a first biosensor layer including a biodata collection element; and an adhesive layer; wherein the adhesive layer maintains contact between the biosensor layer and the skin surface of the patient; and an electromagnetic radiation receiver for receiving electromagnetic radiation; circuit for extracting power for the one or more devices from the received electromagnetic radiation; and wherein the one or more devices is powered remotely by extracting of power for the device from electromagnetic radiation transmission received from a Wi- Fi, Bluetooth, cellular or low-power wide-area network power source; wherein the sensors are activated and deactivated remotely and the one or more devices comprises a receiver for receiving a signal for controlling a circuit to activate and/or deactivate the sensors at a command of a remote server; wherein the biodata collection element comprises two or more sensors responsive to different physiological inputs and wherein the recorded physiological inputs are selected from heart rate, blood pressure, pulse, SpO2, body temperature, electrical activity of a heart (ECG), audio output; and wherein upon activation the one or more devices senses one or more physiological inputs from the patient (see rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 49, Bhushan discloses notifying a secondary device of the recorded physiological inputs (Abstract; para. 43).
Regarding claim 50, Bhushan discloses determining whether a change in the recorded physiological input(s) reaches a predefined threshold (para. 74-75 & 79).
Regarding claim 53, Bhushan discloses the secondary device includes a data module configured to receive, monitor and/or analyse the physiological inputs recorded by the first biosensor layer (Abstract; para. 43).
Regarding claim 57, modified Bhushan teaches a system for monitoring the physiological characteristics of a patient including: a device for recording a plurality of physiological inputs, the device including: a first biosensor layer including a biodata collection element for sensing the physiological characteristics; and an adhesive layer for maintaining contact between the biosensor layer and the skin surface of the patient; an electromagnetic radiation receiver for receiving electromagnetic radiation; circuit for extracting power for the one or more devices from the received electromagnetic radiation; and wherein the one or more devices is powered remotely by extracting of power for the device from electromagnetic radiation transmission received from a Wi- Fi, Bluetooth, cellular or low-power wide-area network power source; wherein the sensors are activated and deactivated remotely and the one or more devices comprises a receiver for receiving a signal for controlling a circuit to activate and/or deactivate the sensors at a command of a remote server; wherein the biodata collection element comprises two or more sensors responsive to different physiological inputs and wherein the recorded physiological inputs are selected from heart rate, blood pressure, pulse, SpO2, body temperature, electrical activity of a heart (ECG), audio output (see rejection of claim 1 above); and a server for receiving the recorded physiological inputs from the device and for and storing the received physiological inputs (para. 19 & 43).
Regarding claim 73, Bhushan discloses the system includes a means for notifying a secondary device of the recorded physiological inputs (Fig. 2, Bluetooth antenna 107; Abstract; para. 43).
Regarding claims 83-85, Bhushan does not disclose at least one of the physiological inputs comprises a fall detection sensor.
Ingersoll, however, teaches a medical device and method for preventing falls wherein a medical device is beneficial to protect a patient in a care facility from a fall by remotely alerting a caregiver of patient's unsafe mobility before the fall using a motion sensor having an alarm. The medical device uses an operating module with a wireless transmitter integrated into the motion sensor for broadcasting the alarm as an alert signal to notify the caregiver of patient's unsafe motion. A wireless receiver with the caregiver receives the alert signal from the wireless transmitter. The alert signal identifies the motion sensor that was activated so the caregiver can respond to prevent the patient from falling (Abstract).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this invention to modify Bhushan such that at least one of the physiological inputs comprises a fall detection sensor. Making this modification would be useful for preventing falls and thereby protecting a patient, as taught by Ingersoll.
Conclusion
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/A.A.G./Examiner, Art Unit 3792
/NIKETA PATEL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3792