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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed February 02, 2026 has been entered. Claims 1 and 3 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks page 4, filed February 02, 2026, with respect to the section 101 rejections have been fully considered and are persuasive. The recited structure is more than generic sensors for data gathering/output. The section 101 rejections of claims 1 and 3 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed February 02, 2026, have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. With respect to the arguments regarding the section 102 rejections, the arguments are not persuasive. Tables 1 and 2 of Sharma, which is including in the teachings of the Parkinson’s disease testing and framework, show dyskinesia as a measured phase. Table 2 shows explicitly the “off” state, the “on” state and the “dys” state. Thus, the arguments are not persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 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 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sharma et al., SPARK: Personalized Parkinson Disease Interventions through Synergy between a Smartphone and a Smartwatch, Design, User Experience, and Usability. User Experience Design for Everyday Life Applications and Services 103-114 (2014) (“Sharma”).
Regarding claim 1, Sharma discloses A system for an objective characterization of symptoms of Parkinson's disease (Abstract and entire document), comprising
determining a motor status of a patient affected by Parkinson's disease (Section 3.1 Smartwatch/Smartphone System on p. 108, teaching on an integrated smartphone and smartwatch mobile health system for monitoring Parkinson disease to place a patient on a rating scale (treated as synonymous to a phase),
wherein said motor motion status can be in one of the following phases: - OFF phase, wherein symptoms of Parkinson's disease, comprising one or more of rigidity, tremor and bradykinesia, emerge; - ON phase, wherein said symptoms of Parkinson's disease markedly improve; - DYS phase, wherein involuntary movements emerge, called dyskinesias (Section 4.3 Personalized Interventions on p. 110 (teaching on predicting an "OFF phase" when medication is not effective/movement symptoms, including bradykinesia or tremors, are not controlled and an "ON phase" when medication is effective/movement symptoms are controlled. Table 1-2 showing ON, OFF, DYS. dyskinesias);
wherein said system comprises: - an electronic bracelet, equipped with an accelerometer, a magnetometer and a gyroscope, for continuously collecting data about tremor and movement (Section § 5.3 Active Monitoring of Movements on p. 1111, 4.2 Multidimensional Diagnostic Monitoring (Layer 2) on p. 109-110, and § 2.2 Survey on the Use of Wearable Technology in PD Interventions (teaching on a patient smartwatch for passively monitoring motor movements equipped with an accelerometer, gyroscopes, magnetic motion trackers (treated as synonymous to a magnetometer));
- a photo-camera to collect data about face expressions, configured to be actuated upon request of the patient (Section 5.1 Facial Tremors on p. 111 and 4.2 Multidimensional Diagnostic Monitoring (Layer 2) on p. 109-110 (teaching on a front facing camera to record facial videos for patient tremor analysis utilizing the patient's smartphone via active monitoring (treated as synonymous to actuated upon request of a patient));
- a recorder to collect data about the patient voice, configured to be actuated upon request of the patient (Section 5.2 Speech Analysis on p. 111 and 4.2 Multidimensional Diagnostic Monitoring (Layer 2) on p. 109-110 (teaching on a smartphone microphone monitoring patient speech signals for voice impairments via active monitoring (treated as synonymous to actuated upon request of a patient));
- a processing device, equipped with a suitable software which, using a suitable algorithm, integrates data about movement, tremor, face and voice to identify a motor status of the patient affected by the Parkinson's disease, comprising ON, OFF, and DYS (Section 4.1 and 4.2 discussing analyzing the data to determine motor status of a patient/analyze the features of the symptoms. See also rejection for claim 1 above, discussing the phases. See further 4.3 Personalized Interventions on p. 110 (teaching on the patient smartphone with corresponding hardware providing a recommendation of a medication change utilizing a software algorithm implementing a hidden Markov model to analyses the input to minimize the OFF phase for a patient. Table 1-2 showing ON, OFF, DYS.);
- a display on which the motor status of the patient is displayed (Figure 2 on p. 109 (teaching on a patient smartphone with a display).
Regarding claim 3, Sharma discloses The system for the objective characterization of symptoms of Parkinson's disease according to claim 1, wherein said photo-camera, said recorder, said processing device, said display and related software are integrated in a handheld computer/smartphone comprising the display, so that the electronic bracelet sends combined data about analysis of movement and tremor directly to said handheld computer/smartphone, to display the motor status of the patient: ON, OFF, DYS (Section 5.3 Active Monitoring of Movements on p. 1111, 4.2 Multidimensional Diagnostic Monitoring (Layer 2) on p. 109-110, and § 2.2 Survey on the Use of Wearable Technology in PD Interventions (teaching on a patient smartwatch for passively monitoring motor movements equipped with an accelerometer, gyroscopes, magnetic motion trackers (treated as synonymous to a magnetometer) see further section 3.1 Smartwatch/Smartphone System and section 4.3 Personalized Interventions on p. 110 (teaching on the patient smartphone with corresponding hardware receiving patient input data from the patient smartwatch over a network and providing a recommendation of a medication change utilizing a software algorithm implementing a hidden Markov model to analyses the input to minimize the OFF phase for a patient via the smartphone display) Table 1-2).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Broderick et al. (US 2019/0110736 A1) (“Broderick”). Broderick additionally teaches using similar data sets such as voice/video/facial/motion to determine symptoms of Parkinson’s such as on/off/dys. Broderick further discloses classifying the symptoms by using machine learning to output the severity such as the phase of on/off/dys.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
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/J.A.T./Examiner, Art Unit 3791
/TSE W CHEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3791