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 without traverse of Group I, claims 1, 4-6, 8-12, and 24 in the reply filed on December 10, 2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 13-17 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on December 10, 2025.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 7/21/2023. These drawings are accepted.
Claim Objections
Claim1 is objected to because of the following informalities: Line 6 should recite “…generating an airflow…” instead of “generating the airflow”. Appropriate correction is required.
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 (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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 6, 8-12, and 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Moriyama et al (WO 2020/196635 A1; provided by applicant in IDS dated 7/21/2023) (reference will be made to US PG Pub. 2022/0170826 A1 – provided by applicant in IDS dated 10/7/2025).
The applied reference has a common applicant with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2). This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B) if the same invention is not being claimed; or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed in the reference and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement.
With respect to claim 1 Moriyama discloses a manipulating method of an organism, comprising:
forming an air bubble (air bubble 211) by arranging an end part (end portion 231 of tubular portion 230) of a flow channel (tubular portion 230) in a liquid including the organism (adherent cells 510 cultured on a surface of a culture vessel 500), introducing gas (gas 210) into the flow channel, and maintaining the air bubble on the end part (See Paras. 0045-0051 and Figs. 5A-C);
attaching the organism to the air bubble (See Paras. 0050-0051); and
controlling an airflow by generating the airflow in the air bubble and manipulating a position of the organism (See Para. 0050 for discussion of changing the size of the air bubble to detach the adherent cells in a line shape having a desired thickness; Para. 0047 discusses the introduction of gas into the flow path 220 of the cell detaching device 200).
With respect to claim 4 Moriyama discloses that the controlling comprises generating the airflow in the air bubble by moving a relative position between the flow channel and a surface of a vessel storing the liquid that is in contact with the organism, in a direction within a range of ±20° from a horizontal direction (See Figs. 5A-B and Para. 0045 for discussion of how a gas/liquid interface is brought into contact with adherent cells on a surface of a solid phase and moving the gas/liquid interface along the surface; the figures depict that the tubular portion 230 is moved parallel to the interior surface of the culture vessel 500).
With respect to claim 6 Moriyama discloses that the liquid and the organism are contained in a vessel (culture vessel 500), and
The controlling comprises moving the relative position between the flow channel and the liquid, in a state where the air bubble is contact with a surface (See Para. 0047 for discussion of the contact surface) that is in contact with the organism among contents of the vessel (Para. 0047 discusses how an interface between the gas and the liquid, around a contact surface between the air bubble and the culture vessel, comes into contact with the adherent cells).
With respect to claim 8 Moriyama discloses that the controlling comprises generating the airflow in the air bubble by increasing the volume of the air bubble (See Para. 0031 for discussion of how the cell detaching device 200 is connected to a control unit 250 which manually or automatically control a volume of the air bubble 211 by controlling an amount of gas 210 introduced or discharged into the flow path 220).
With respect to claim 9 Moriyama discloses that the controlling comprises generating the airflow in the air bubble by decreasing the volume of the air bubble (See Para. 0031 for discussion of how the cell detaching device 200 is connected to a control unit 250 which manually or automatically controls a volume of the air bubble 211 by controlling an amount of gas 210 introduced or discharged into the flow path 220).
With respect to claim 10, Moriyama discloses that the flow channel comprises a gas supply flow channel for supplying the gas (second flow path 260, See Figs. 3A-C and Paras. 0036-0038) and a gas recovery flow channel (first flow path 220, See Figs. 3A-C and Paras. 0036-0038), and
the controlling comprises generating an airflow where the gas supplied from an end part of the gas supply flow channel passes through the air bubble, and flow toward an end part of the gas recovery flow channel (See Para. 0038 for discussion of how the gas 210 is introduced or discharged into the first flow path 220 and the detached cells are collected using the second flow path 260 in the example described above, the gas 210 may be introduced or discharged into the second flow path 260 and the cells may be collected using the first flow path 220. If the cell detaching device 300 is compared with the cell detaching device 200, the cell detaching device 300 and the cell detaching device 200 mainly differ in that the first flow path 220 through which the gas 210 flows to form an air bubble and the second flow path 260 through which cells are collected are independently provided).
With respect to claim 11 Moriyama discloses wherein
the flow channel comprises a double tube structure (See Figs. 3A-C and Para. 0036 for discussion of how the tubular portion 230 of a cell detaching device 300 has a double structure of an outer cylinder 221 and an inner cylinder 261)
the gas supply flow channel (second flow path 260) is one flow channel on an inner side or an outer side in the double tube structure, and
the gas recovery flow channel (first flow path 220) is another flow channel on the inner side or the outer side in the double tube structure (See Figs. 3A-C.
With respect to claim 12 Moriyama discloses recovering the organism from the liquid after the controlling (See Fig. 5C and Para. 0051 for depiction and discussion of how the cells are collected by suctioning the gas 210 of the flow path 220).
With respect to claim 24 Moriyama discloses that the controlling comprises generating the airflow in the air bubble by changing a volume of the air bubble (See Para. 0031 for discussion of how the cell detaching device 200 is connected to the con troll unit 250 which manually or automatically control a volume of the air bubble by controlling an amount o the gas introduced or discharged into the flow path).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The closest cited prior art of reference fails to disclose or fairly teach generating the airflow in the air bubble by moving a relative position between the flow channel and a surface of a vessel storing the liquid that is in contact with the organism, in a direction within a range of ±20° from a vertical direction (claim 5). Moriyama discloses moving the flow channel in a direction parallel to the floor surface of the vessel, but a pump is used to aspirate adhered cells into the flow channel.
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Barbee et al (US 2013/0011880 A1) teaches an apparatus for automated liquid sample manipulation, wherein a mechanical stage or arm has a mount for holding a transfer device (e.g. a pipette), a pump connected to the transfer device, and control unit that is adapted to cause the mechanical stage or arm and pump to carry out various tasks, which include picking up and positioning the pipette (See Para. 0063); and
Hatcher et al (Us 6,694,197 B1) teaches a single channel reformatter ("SCR") 200, which includes x-y positioner 201, z-positioner 206, optional integrated wash station 208, liquid transfer vehicle 2100 fluid control device 212, and processing and control electronics 214. The x-y positioner 201 comprises x-y drive 204 that is operable, when actuated, to precisely and accurately move x-y stage 202 in the x-y plane. In the illustrated embodiment, x-y stage 202 comprises a surface that is suitable for receiving source container 250 from which liquid is aspirated. Stage 202 is also suitable for receiving destination container 260 into which the aspirated liquid is dispensed. In the embodiments described herein, source container 250 is a micro-titer plate having a plurality of wells 152 and destination container 260 is a micro-titer plate having a plurality of wells 162. It should be understood, however, that other types of containers may suitably be used in conjunction with the present invention. With source plate 250 and destination plate 260 disposed on x-y stage 202, x-y positioner 201 is operable to: (1) position any of the wells 152 of plate 250 under working syringe 210 so that liquid contained in such wells can be aspirated into working syringe 210, and (2) position any of the wells 162 of plate 260 under working syringe 210 so that liquid that has been aspirated into syringe 210 can be dispensed into such wells (See Col. 4, line 45 – Col. 5, line 19).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRITTANY I FISHER whose telephone number is (469)295-9182. The examiner can normally be reached IFP.
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/BRITTANY I FISHER/Examiner, Art Unit 1796 January 3, 2026