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
Claims 2-23, and 27-54 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 02/12/2026.
Applicant's election with traverse of species X in the reply filed on 02/12/2026 is acknowledged. Applicant’s arguments are rebutted in the order presented. The species restriction was sent to enable applicant to elect a single species or a single grouping of patentably indistinct species. As stated by applicant each species concerns an aspect that no other species concerns. This describes each individual species as patentably distinct. Applicant cites page 61 of the specification describing that features are not mutually exclusive, however, this does not overcome the search burden of 29 different species or the statement that each species is patentably distinct from one another (as stated by applicant). Each species requires different fields of search, different applicable prior art. Applicant does not provide any rational regarding the search burden to the examiner in view of the 29 different species identified. In order to provide a focused, clear prosecution record, with compact prosecution an election is required.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipate by Posse (US 2003/0201773 A1).
With respect to Claim 1, Posse’773 shows a method of scanning an object in a field of view (FOV) by acquiring an MRI signal from the object in the FOV at a plurality of different projections of a spatially encoding magnetic field (paragraphs [0048]-[0049] using a echo-planar imaging (EPI) (type of MRI), paragraphs [0010]-[0011] and paragraph [0033] Spatial encoding takes place within the shortest possible time span that is repeated several times during one signal decay and normally ranges from 10 ms to 100 ms. The multiple repetition of the echo-planar encoding during one signal decay depicts the course of the signal decay in the sequence of reconstructed individual images), using one or more receiving antennas, and reconstructing an MRI image of the object in the FOV comprising a plurality of voxels (paragraphs [0009]-[0014] reconstructing the desired image in pixels and voxels), the method comprising:
a) at each of the projections, acquiring the MRI signal from the receiving antennas, and recording data of the signal (paragraphs [0014] and [0104] recording means and/or the transformation means is designed in such a way that they record measurement signals within a different resolution at different times and/or at different locations and/or they transform the measurement signals differently);
b) filtering the received signal with a signal filter, for at least some of the projections, by applying different time windows or different frequency windows to at least some different components of the signal in different frequency bands, or received by different receiver antennas, or both (paragraph [0014] transformation means is designed in such a way that they record measurement signals within a different resolution at different times and/or at different locations and/or they transform the measurement signals differently, paragraph [0027] signals are recorded and/or transformed are varied in terms of the time and/or location), resulting in a filtered received signal vector whose components describe the filtered received signal as a function of time, or as a function of frequency, at each projection, for one or more receiver antennas (paragraphs [0033]-[0037] detect changes in the relaxation with the greatest possible level of sensitivity, a criterion has been found for the optimal selection of the measuring-time window as a function of the relaxation time constants, of the encoding time for a single image and of the type of data processing); and
c) reconstructing an image as a vector whose components describe a weighted or unweighted net magnetization at each voxel in the FOV, that would be expected to produce the filtered received signal vector (paragraphs [0030] and [0049] reconstructed slice images or volume data sets are ascertained from the measurement signals from at least one sample, paragraph [0066] and figure 2 using various data evaluation methods: summation of the individual measurements, exponentially weighted summation, optimally weighted summation, weighted filter as well as for a curve adaptation (fitting)).
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 24 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Posse (US 2003/0201773 A1) in view of Xiang (US 2024/0164695 A1).
With respect to Claim 24, Posse’773 does not specifically shows a method according to claim 1, wherein, for those projections for which the received signal is filtered, when the signal is filtered with a time window then the time window has a standard deviation that is narrower, on average, and when the signal is filtered with a frequency window then the frequency window has a standard deviation that is wider, on average, for frequency component and receiver antenna combinations that have a characteristic magnetic field gradient magnitude that is higher than an average magnetic field gradient magnitude in the FOV, than for frequency component and receiver antenna combinations that have a characteristic magnetic field gradient magnitude that is lower than the average magnetic field gradient magnitude in the FOV.
Xiang’695 shows method according to claim 1, wherein, for those projections for which the received signal is filtered, when the signal is filtered with a time window then the time window has a standard deviation that is narrower, on average, and when the signal is filtered with a frequency window then the frequency window has a standard deviation that is wider, on average, for frequency component and receiver antenna combinations that have a characteristic magnetic field gradient magnitude that is higher than an average magnetic field gradient magnitude in the FOV, than for frequency component and receiver antenna combinations that have a characteristic magnetic field gradient magnitude that is lower than the average magnetic field gradient magnitude in the FOV (paragraph [0045] Sigma values could also be experimentally determined. κ.sub.σ represents the admissibility and C.sub.σ represents a normalized constant. σ represents the standard deviation of the Gaussian curve in the time domain if signals appeared in the given sensitive time (a small sigma value) and sensitive frequency (a large sigma value) ranges, they would be enhanced. Paragraph [0050]-[0051] generates multi-frequency datasets by processing data with filter or wavelet transforms. Signals in multi-frequency datasets are in a set of frequency ranges, computing the lead field norm (or magnitude) and ranking the norm for each source for all sensors).
At the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claim invention to modify Posse’773 to include received signal is filtered, when the signal is filtered with a time window then the time window has a standard deviation that is narrower, on average, and when the signal is filtered with a frequency window then the frequency window has a standard deviation that is wider, on average, for frequency component and receiver antenna combinations that have a characteristic magnetic field gradient magnitude that is higher than an average magnetic field gradient magnitude in the FOV, than for frequency component and receiver antenna combinations that have a characteristic magnetic field gradient magnitude that is lower than the average magnetic field gradient magnitude in the FOV method taught by Xiang’695. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to improve the system’s ability to be able to analyze better signals (paragraphs [0048]-[0049]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 24-25 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Frinking et al. (US 2013/0060135 A1): shows in paragraph [0138] it is possible to filter each echo signal by applying a Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) algorithm (which holds the echo signal at its maximum over time), and then monitoring the filtered echo signal so obtained to detect its peak instant as soon as the filtered echo signal remains constant for a predefined stability time-window.
DE ROCHEFORT (US 2018/0136300 A1): shows in paragraphs [0116], paragraph [0187] The action of repeated RF pulses spaced out over a time TR is considered here (FIG. 1). As in most of the SSFP sequences, a gradient is applied which produces a spatial shift between the pulses characterized by a spatial frequency, where γ is the gyromagnetic ratio, a is a characteristic distance corresponding to the inverse of a spatial frequency Δk.sub.z and G(t) is the gradient waveform. Without loss of generality, the net dephasing is represented in an arbitrary direction that will be denoted z. The variable Z=exp(−i2πΔk.sub.zz) represents the resulting spatial modulation between two excitations, characterized by the total area of the gradients between the RF pulses.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IRIANA CRUZ whose telephone number is (571)270-3246. The examiner can normally be reached 10-6.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Akwasi M. Sarpong can be reached at (571) 270-3438. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/IRIANA CRUZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681
Prosecution Insights