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 .
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.
Claim Objections
Claims 2 objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2 in line 1 includes “the health.” It is believed to be in error for - - a health. - -
Claim 7 in line 1 includes “the health.” It is believed to be in error for - - a health. - -
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
(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.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Barbeyrac (US 2022/0020485) .
Regarding claim 1, Barbeyrac teaches an infusion pump (1, Fig. 1) for pumping fluid through a tube 2, the infusion pump comprising: a pump motor 13 configured to pump a fluid through the tube (¶50); a power source 15 for the pump motor; and a controller 12 for controlling the pump motor, the controller comprising multiple controller cores 120, 121 and 122 (¶39, ¶40) adapted to ensure proper operation of the pump motor (¶50, ¶53, each of the cores can stop operation of the motor in response to error condition), wherein each controller core controls specific operations of the infusion pump (¶42-¶44) and is interconnected with each other controller core to monitor operation of the other controller cores (¶45, failsafe state machine 122 monitors 120 and 121, ¶50, 120 and 121 monitor each other, ¶55, 120, 121 monitor 122), the multiple controller cores including a supervisor controller core 122 that is adapted to stop power flow to the pump motor from the power source if any one of the other multiple controller cores is determined to be behaving improperly (¶53, ¶54, when 122 detects error in 120 or 121, motor is stopped, which stops power flow to the motor).
Regarding claim 2, Barbeyrac teaches the invention as claimed above and Barbeyrac further teaches the supervisor controller core 122 monitors the health of all other controller cores of the multiple controller cores in the infusion pump (¶45, ¶53, ¶54, 122 monitors 120 or 121.)
Regarding claim 3, Barbeyrac teaches the invention as claimed above and Barbeyrac further teaches the supervisor controller core monitors the health of other controller cores of the multiple controller cores in the infusion pump by monitoring electrical keepalive pulses at a predetermined frequency and determines that a controller core is behaving improperly when a keepalive signal has a frequency outside of a predetermined tolerance (¶48, watchdog circuits 123, 124, generate signals at regular intervals to indicate cores 120 and 121 are working, a failure signal is triggered when the signal is received too late, too early or not at all, ¶54, the supervisor controller 122 can monitor both watchdog devices 123, 124).
Regarding claim 4, Barbeyrac teaches the invention as claimed above and Barbeyrac further teaches a pump controller core that controls movement of the pump motor (¶43, the portion of 120 that controls actor devices 13, which includes the motor, to perform a real-time mechanical action in the delivery of the medical fluid, is a pump controller core. The mechanical action is the control of the motor.).
Regarding claim 5, Barbeyrac teaches the invention as claimed above and Barbeyrac further teaches the multiple controller cores include a system controller core 122 and a user interface controller core (portion of 122 that can cause the display of the human machine interface to turn off or generate a visual/audio alarm, ¶54) that control operations of the infusion pump including at least one of graphical user input/output (turning off the display affects the graphical input/output), infusion state logic, alarms (generation of visual or audio alarm), or configurations.
Regarding claim 6, Barbeyrac teaches a method of providing control safeguards for an infusion pump (1, Fig. 1) including a pump motor 13 configured to pump a fluid through a tube (¶50), a power source 15 for the pump motor, and a controller 12 for controlling the pump motor, the controller comprising multiple controller cores 120, 121 and 122 (¶39, ¶40) adapted to ensure proper operation of the pump motor (¶50, ¶53, each of the cores can stop operation of the motor in response to error condition), each controller core controlling specific operations of the infusion pump (¶42-¶44) and being interconnected with each other controller core, comprising :each controller core monitoring operation of the other controller cores of the multiple controller cores (¶45, failsafe state machine 122 monitors 120 and 121, ¶50, 120 and 121 monitor each other, ¶55, 120, 121 monitor 122); and a supervisor controller core stopping power flow to the pump motor from the power source if any one of the other multiple controller cores is determined to be behaving improperly (¶53, ¶54, when 122 detects error in 120 or 121, motor is stopped, which stops power flow to the motor).
Regarding claim 7, Barbeyrac teaches the invention as claimed above and Barbeyrac further teaches the supervisor controller core 122 monitoring the health of all other controller cores of the multiple controller cores in the infusion pump (¶45, ¶53, ¶54, 122 monitors 120 or 121.).
Regarding claim 8, Barbeyrac teaches the invention as claimed above and Barbeyrac further teaches monitoring the health of other controller cores of the multiple controller cores in the infusion pump comprises monitoring electrical keepalive pulses at a predetermined frequency and determining that a controller core is behaving improperly when a keepalive signal has a frequency outside of a predetermined tolerance (¶48, watchdog circuits 123, 124, generate signals at regular intervals to indicate cores 120 and 121 are working, a failure signal is triggered when the signal is received too late, too early or not at all, ¶54, the supervisor controller 122 can monitor both watchdog devices 123, 124).
Regarding claim 9, Barbeyrac teaches the invention as claimed above and Barbeyrac further teaches controlling movement of the pump motor using a pump controller core of the multiple controller cores (¶43, the portion of 120 that controls actor devices 13, which includes the motor, to perform a real-time mechanical action in the delivery of the medical fluid is a pump controller core. The mechanical action is the control of the motor.).
Regarding claim 10, Barbeyrac teaches the invention as claimed above and Barbeyrac further teaches controlling operations of the infusion pump including at least one of graphical user input/output(¶38, human machine interface), infusion state logic (¶44, infusion routine) alarms (video/audio alarm ¶54), or configurations using at least one of a system controller core 122 or a user interface controller core portion of 122 that can cause the display of the human machine interface to turn off or generate a visual/audio alarm, ¶54 is the user interface controller core) of the multiple controller cores.
Regarding claim 11, Barbeyrac teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium (CPLD or FPGA, ¶46, delivery processor, application processor ¶47, ¶13-¶15) including instructions for providing control safeguards (Fig. 2, Fig. 3) for an infusion pump 1 including a pump motor 13 configured to pump a fluid through a tube (¶50), a power source 15 for the pump motor, and a controller 12 for controlling the pump motor, the controller comprising multiple controller cores 120, 121 and 122 (¶39, ¶40) adapted to ensure proper operation of the pump motor (¶50, ¶53, each of the cores can stop operation of the motor), each controller core controlling specific operations of the infusion pump (¶42-¶44) and being interconnected with each other controller core (Figs, 2 and 3 show each of the cores engaging in bi-direction communication), the instructions, when executed by the multiple controller cores, performing the following: each controller core monitoring operation of the other controller cores of the multiple controller cores(¶45, failsafe state machine 122 monitors 120 and 121, ¶50, 120 and 121 monitor each other, ¶55, 120, 121 monitor 122); and a supervisor controller core 122 stopping power flow to the pump motor from the power source if any one of the other multiple controller cores is determined to be behaving improperly (¶53, ¶54, when 122 detects error in 120 or 121, motor is stopped, which stops power flow to the motor).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID OLYNICK whose telephone number is (571)272-2355. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:30 am-5 pm (ET).
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/DAVID P. OLYNICK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3741