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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of claims 1-12 in the reply filed on December 17, 2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that search and examination of all of the claims can be made without serious burden. This argument is NOT persuasive because the inventions were restricted based on PCT practices, which does not account for burden. Rather, the restriction is based on the inventions lacking unity of invention, which Applicant did not traverse.
For the foregoing reason, the requirement is deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL. Claims 13-19 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on December 6, 2022 is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-12 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In line 8 of claim 1, the limitation “its” should be amended. Grammatically, the subject of the clause is “holes” so the limitation “its” refers to holes. Based on context, it appears that “its” intends to refer to the tube.
The last two lines of claim 1 alter the number of tips/tubes involved in the claimed act. The claim previously refers to multiple tips and multiple tubes.
The limitation “according to which” in the dependent claims should be amended to “wherein”.
In claim 7, the limitation “its flanges on the lid” is redundant. The limitation “its” appears to refer to the lid. The limitation should be changed to “flanges on the lid”.
Appropriate corrections are required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA (or as subject to pre-AIA ) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the rationale supporting the rejection would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Independent claim 1 recites the limitation “similar”, which is considered indefinite due the abstract nature of the limitation.
Claim 1 recites “the inner wall of the bottom of the tubes”. The limitation “the inner wall” impermissibly presumes the existence of a single wall. The limitation should be changed to “an inner wall…”
The last clause of claim 1, “when the lid…bottom of the tubes” is grammatically incoherent. The “when” conveys a condition, yet, the clause does not specify a result/consequence of the condition being met. Consequently, it is unclear what the clause intends to convey.
In claim 4, it is unclear whether the limitation “bearing on the lid” should be “bearing on the tray”.
Claims not explicitly rejected are rejected due to dependency.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 9 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sampson et al. (“Sampson”) (US 2015/0132841 A1).
With respect to claim 1, Sampson teaches a device comprising (see Fig. 1):
a support tray 42 for tubes 84 (see Fig. 6) receiving samples to be analyzed and into which the tip of a pipette is intended to be introduced*, the tray 42 including a plate having a upper face and a lower face and holes 44 arranged according to a determined distribution by opening out into these two faces and adapted to each receive a tube 80 bearing on the upper surface and with the bottom of the tube protruding from the lower face of the tray (see Fig. 6), the plate of the tray 42 being delimited by two longitudinal flanged edges 90/92 parallel to each other and connected to each other by two transverse flanged edges (sidewalls along the length of the tray 42) parallel to each other (see annotation below identifying flanges);
a lid 20 including a plate having an upper face and a lower face, the lid 20 provided with chimneys 24 arranged according to a distribution identical to the distribution of the holes 44 of the tray 42 and provided with abutments (upper surface 22) for limiting the depression for pipette tips, the plate of the lid being delimited by two longitudinal flanged edges 32 parallel to each other and connected to each other by two transverse flanged edges (attachment members 32 along length of the lid 20) parallel to each other;
the tray 42 and the lid 20 including a removable assembly system including two elastically deformable legs (pair of legs 50 at the ends of tray 42) arranged in the flanged edges of the support tray 42 and each cooperating with a complementary housing (pair of protrusions 32 at ends of lid 20) arranged in each of the flanged edges of the lid 20 to achieve an elastic interlocking (see [0048] and [0058]);
wherein the lid 20 occupies a position of superposition above the tray 42 and bearing through its flanged edges on the tray 42 to form a unitary assembly for holding the tubes and to position the chimneys 24 above the tubes 80 (see Fig. 8) in order to guide the pipette tips penetrating inside the tubes and to stop them by the abutments so that distal ends of the pipette tips substantially reach inner walls of the bottoms of the tubes*.
The device illustrated in the Figures of Sampson comprises legs 50 arranged on the tray 42 and housings 32 arranged on the lid 20, which is opposite of the claimed arrangement of legs and housing. However, Sampson explicitly teaches that the device can comprise an opposite arrangement of legs and housings (i.e. tray 42 comprises housings 32 that accommodate complementary legs 50 of lid 20, see [0063]), which anticipates the claimed assembly system.
*The limitations are recitation of intended use. Consequently, prior art need not teach the limitations to reject the claim. The prior art need only be capable of performing the intended use to anticipate the limitations. In this instance, because the lid 20 comprises apertures (chimneys 24), the device allows access to the bottoms of tubes 80 by pipette tips. Moreover, depending on the dimensions of the pipette tips and/or the pipette holding the pipette tips, the abutments 22 would limit downward movement of the pipette tips.
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With respect to claim 2, because the arrangement of the chimneys 24 correspond to the arrangement of the holes 44, the lid 20 is designed to occupy a position of superposition below the tray so that the chimneys hold the bottoms of the tubes protruding from the lower face of the tray*.
*The limitations are recitation of intended use. As discussed above, the limitations are anticipated if the device of the prior art can be used in the claimed manner. In this case, the lid 20 can be placed under the tray 42 such that the chimneys 24 support the bottom of the tubes 80.
With respect to claim 4, the flanged edges of the lid 20 delimit a border that bears on the tray 42 when the lid 20 occupies a position of superposition above the tray 42 (see Fig. 8).
With respect to claim 5, the flanged edges of the lid 20 and the flanged edges of the tray 42 include nesting parts (legs 50 and housing 32 on sides of tray 42 and lid 20) intended to be nested together (see Fig. 8) so that when the lid 20 is assembled above the tray 42, the footprint (arrangement of chimneys) of the lid delimited by the lid’s flanged edges is equal to the footprint (arrangement of holes) of the tray delimited by the tray’s flanged edges (see Fig. 8).
With respect to claim 6, the nesting parts of the lid 20 and of the tray 42 are arranged with a foolproof system to ensure a direction of mounting of the lid on the tray (see abstract disclosing that a tool may be required to detach the lid from the tray).
With respect to claim 9, as discussed above, the chimneys 24 include abutments (top surface 22) for limiting the depression of the pipette tips so that the tips substantially reach the inner walls of the bottoms of the tubes*.
*As discussed above, the limitations constitute recitation of intended use. Depending on the dimensions of the pipette tips and the pipette holding the tips, the abutments 22 enable the claimed intended use.
With respect to claim 12, the tray includes bearing ribs (elements 32 situated along the length of the tray 42, see [0063]) protruding from the upper face of the tray 42 to serve as a bearing for a bearing element of an analysis machine*.
*Absent the claim specifying the structure of the claimed “bearing ribs” and/or how they interact with the bearing element, the broadest reasonable interpretation of the limitation “bearing ribs” encompasses elements 32 taught by Sampson.
Claims 1, 2, 4 and 7-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hovatter (US 2006/0045815 A1).
With respect to claim 1, Hovatter teaches a device comprising (see Figs. 7 and 14):
a support tray (bottom element 402 illustrated in Fig. 14) for tubes 226 (see Fig. 7) receiving samples to be analyzed and into which the tip of a pipette is intended to be introduced*, the tray including a plate 220 having a upper face and a lower face and holes 224 arranged according to a determined distribution by opening out into these two faces and adapted to each receive a tube 226 bearing on the upper surface and with the bottom of the tube protruding from the lower face of the tray (see Fig. 10), the plate 220 of the tray being delimited by two longitudinal flanged edges (bottom edges 218 of the widths of the tray) parallel to each other and connected to each other by two transverse flanged edges (bottom edges 218 of the lengths of the tray) (see Fig. 7);
a lid (upper element 402 illustrated in Fig. 14) including a plate 220 having an upper face and a lower face, the lid provided with chimneys (see annotation below) arranged according to a distribution identical to the distribution of the holes 224 of the tray and provided with abutments (upper surface) for limiting the depression for pipette tips (see annotation below), the plate 220 of the lid being delimited by two longitudinal flanged edges (bottom edges 218 of the widths of the lid) parallel to each other and connected to each other by two transverse flanged edges (bottom edges 218 of the lengths of the lid) parallel to each other (see Fig. 7);
the tray and the lid including a removable assembly system 400 including two elastically deformable legs arranged in the flanged edges of the lid and each cooperating with a complementary housing arranged in each of the flanged edges of the tray to achieve an elastic interlocking (see Figs. 11, 13 and 15);
wherein the lid occupies a position of superposition above the tray (see Fig. 14) and bearing through its flanged edges on the tray to form a unitary assembly for holding the tubes 226 and to position the chimneys above the tubes in order to guide the pipette tips penetrating inside the tubes and to stop them by the abutments so that distal ends of the pipette tips substantially reach inner walls of the bottoms of the tubes*.
*As discussed above, the limitations are recitation of intended use. In this instance, the support tray allows accommodation of tubes having the same dimensions as pipette tips 226, and the device allows access to bottoms of said tubes by pipette tips accommodated in the chimneys of the lid.
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With respect to claim 2, because the support tray and the lid are structurally identical and stackable, the lid is designed to occupy (i.e. capable of occupying) a position of superposition below the tray so that the chimneys hold the bottoms of the tubes protruding from the lower face of the tray.
With respect to claim 4, the flanged edges of the lid delimit a border that bears on the tray when the lid occupies a position of superposition above the tray (see Fig. 15).
With respect to claims 7 and 8, the lid includes, from its upper face, a centering system for the tray bearing through the flanged edges on the lid (see annotation below), the height of the flanged edges of the tray being adapted to ensure the engagement of the chimneys by the bottoms of the tubes*, wherein the centering system is set laterally back from the flanged edges of the lid to receive the flanged edges of the tray so that the footprint of the lid delimited by its flanged edges is equal to the footprint of the tray delimited by its flanged edges (see annotation below).
*The limitations constitute recitation of intended use. Depending on the dimensions of the tubes, the intended use is enabled by the device of Hovatter.
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With respect to claim 9, as discussed above, the chimneys include abutments (top surface) for limiting the depression of the pipette tips so that the tips substantially reach the inner walls of the bottoms of the tubes*.
*As discussed above, the limitations constitute recitation of intended use. Depending on the dimensions of the pipette tips, the pipette holding the tips, and the tubes, the abutments enable the claimed intended use.
With respect to claim 10, the chimneys each protrude from the plate of the lid (see annotation for rejection of claim 1).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hovatter.
While Hovatter does not explicitly disclose that the lid and the tray are made of translucent or transparent materials, Hovatter discloses that cover 204 is made from a transparent material to allow the contents of the device (pipette tips) to be readily seen, and further discloses that the material of the lid and the tray can be made from any conventional material that is inexpensive and does not significantly outgas or shed particles, for example glass-filled polypropylene (see [0041]). In light of the disclosure, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have made the tray and the lid from clear polypropylene, which would enable visual inspection of the contents of the device.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sampson in view of Kilcoin et al. (“Kilcoin”) (WO 0010707 A1).
With respect to claim 11, Sampson does not disclose that the chimneys 24 each delimit a frustoconical-shaped opening having its largest section on the upper face of the lid.
Kilcoin discloses an analogous device for facilitating insertion of a pipette tip into a tube via a septum situated in a chimney (see Fig. 3A), wherein the chimney comprises a frustoconical-shaped opening having its largest section at the top to minimize entry of contaminants into the tube (see lines 10-16, p. 9). In light of the disclosure of Kilcoin, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have provided the chimneys 24 of Sampson with a frustoconical-shaped opening having its largest section on the upper face of the lid.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PAUL S HYUN whose telephone number is (571)272-8559. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00.
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/PAUL S HYUN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1796