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
Claim 10 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 02/19/2026. Claims 1-9 are currently pending and under examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1, 3, and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2002/0054055 (Sone hereinafter) in view of US 2021/0116468 (Sugimoto hereinafter).
Regarding claim 1, Sone teaches an analyzing device that discloses a storage section which holds information concerning measurement conditions and information concerning data-analysis methods for each of a plurality of known compounds as well as information (Figure 1 reference number 3 details the analyzer information storage for the analyzer information 2); a display section (Display 1 per ¶ 30); a measurement controller configured to obtain measurement data of a sample containing one or a plurality of the plurality of known compounds by performing a measurement based on information concerning one or a plurality of the measurement conditions held in the storage section (Measurement control routine 9 per 32); and a display controller configured to display, on the display section, a first data-analysis screen for displaying measurement data of the data-analysis target compounds extracted from the measurement data of the sample and a second data-analysis screen for displaying all measurement data (Figure 2 of Sone shows the measurement routine 9 obtaining data at 11 then analyzing the data at 12 and producing the final analysis at 13 per ¶ 32-33 where this data is able to be shown on the display unit of Sone).
Sone is silent with respect to the storage section having information concerning a plurality of data filters each of which extracts a subset of the plurality of known compounds; a filter selection receiver configured to receive an input for selecting one of the plurality of data filters as a data-analysis filter to be applied to an analysis of the measurement data of the sample; an analysis-target-compound extractor configured to extract, as data-analysis target compounds, a subset of the plurality of known compounds by the data-analysis filter.
However, Sugimoto teaches analysis system that discloses a storage section having information concerning a plurality of data filters each of which extracts a subset of the plurality of known compounds (¶ 79 detailing filtering for a specific compound/group that is stored int the analyzer); a filter selection receiver configured to receive an input for selecting one of the plurality of data filters as a data-analysis filter to be applied to an analysis of the measurement data of the sample (¶ 79); an analysis-target-compound extractor configured to extract, as data-analysis target compounds, a subset of the plurality of known compounds by the data-analysis filter (Resultant combination of ¶ 79 of Sugimoto as applied to the analyzing device of Sone).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the filters of Sugimoto into the analyzer of Sone to allow for the user to specifically target specific compounds or groups.
Regarding claim 3, Sone’s modified teachings are described above in claim 1 where the combination of Sone and Sugimoto would further disclose that the filter selection receiver is further configured to receive an input for selecting one of the plurality of data filters as a measurement filter to be applied to the measurement of the sample (¶ 79 of Sugimoto where the filters selected would be compared to the stored values and the analyzed sample provided); the sample analyzing device further includes a measurement-target-compound extractor configured to extract a subset of the plurality of known compounds as measurement target compounds by using the measurement filter (Resultant combination where the filtered data of Sugimoto as applied to Sone would then be extracted per Sone ¶ 32-33); and the measurement controller obtains the measurement data of the sample by performing a measurement using the information concerning measurement conditions of the measurement target compounds held in the storage section (¶ 32-33 of Sone).
Regarding claim 6, Sone’s modified teachings are described above in claim 1 where the combination of Sone and Sugimoto would further disclose an analysis-target-compound changer configured to receive an addition and removal of the data-analysis target compounds (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, the changing of filters by Sugimoto as applied to Sone would constitute “an addition and removal of the data-analysis target compounds”), wherein: the display controller may display, on the first data-analysis screen, the measurement data of the data-analysis target compounds after a change received by the analysis-target-compound changer is applied (Sone ¶ 32-33 allows for the obtained data to be displayed which would include the various filters and obtained data by Sugimoto as applied to Sone).
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2002/0054055 (Sone) in view of US 2021/0116468 (Sugimoto) and further in view of US 2020/0086312 (Hiddessen hereinafter).
Regarding claim 2, Sone’s modified teachings are described above in claim 1 but are silent with respect that the plurality of known compounds are partially or entirely metabolites, and the plurality of data filters are prepared according to an attribute of samples.
However, Hiddessen teaches a detection device and method of operation that discloses plurality of known compounds are partially or entirely metabolites, and the plurality of data filters are prepared according to an attribute of samples (¶ 183).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the stored filterable compounds of Sone/Sugimoto to include metabolites as taught by Hiddessen to increase the usable ranges of Sone and increase the applicability of the device of Sone.
Claims 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2002/0054055 (Sone) in view of US 2021/0116468 (Sugimoto) and further in view of US 2018/0032666 (Sun hereinafter).
Regarding claim 4, Sone’s modified teachings are described above in claim 1 but are silent with respect that the plurality of data filters includes a first filter for extracting a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section and a second filter for extracting a subset of the known compounds extracted by the first filter.
However, Sun teaches an analyzing device for filtering a plurality of sets and subsets of data that discloses a plurality of data filters that include a first filter for extracting a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section and a second filter for extracting a subset of the known compounds extracted by the first filter (¶ 101-102 details the ability to filter an already filtered set of data).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the filtering commands and results of Sone/Sugimoto with the additional filtering of Sun to allow for a user to obtain a more specific set of data from an initial set of data.
Regarding claim 5, Sone’s modified teachings are described above in claim 3 but are silent with respect that the plurality of data filters include a first filter for extracting a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section and a second filter for extracting a subset of the known compounds extracted by the first filter; and the filter selection receiver receives a selection of the first filter or the second filter as the data-analysis filter when the first filter is selected as the measurement filter, as well as receives a selection of the second filter as the data-analysis filter when the second filter is selected as the measurement filter.
However, Sun teaches an analyzing device for filtering a plurality of sets and subsets of data that discloses a plurality of data filters that include a first filter for extracting a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section and a second filter for extracting a subset of the known compounds extracted by the first filter (¶ 101-102 details the ability to filter an already filtered set of data); and the filter selection receiver receives a selection of the first filter or the second filter as the data-analysis filter when the first filter is selected as the measurement filter, as well as receives a selection of the second filter as the data-analysis filter when the second filter is selected as the measurement filter (Resultant combination when adding the teachings of Sun into the combination of Sone/Sugimoto for the 2 level filtering of Sun to be present in the filter selection of Sugimoto within Sone).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the filtering commands and results of Sone/Sugimoto with the additional filtering of Sun to allow for a user to obtain a more specific set of data from an initial set of data.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2002/0054055 (Sone) in view of US 2021/0116468 (Sugimoto) and further in view of US 2016/0004820 (Moore hereinafter).
Regarding claim 7, Sone’s modified teachings are described above in claim 1 but are silent with respect to a filter creator configured to create a new filter according to an input of information identifying the filter as well as a selection of a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section, and to save the new filter in the storage section.
However, Moore teaches a data pool management and analysis system that discloses a filter creator configured to create a new filter according to an input of information identifying the filter as well as a selection of a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section, and to save the new filter in the storage section (¶ 382 discloses a filter creation tool which when applied to Sone/Sugimoto would allow for the creation of custom filters).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the analyzer of Sone/Sugimoto with the custom filters of Moore to allow for the user to create specific filters as new data needs develop.
Claims 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2002/0054055 (Sone) in view of US 2021/0116468 (Sugimoto) in view of US 2016/0004820 (Moore) and further in view of US 2018/0032666 (Sun).
Regarding claim 8, Sone’s modified teachings are described above in claim 7 but are silent with respect that the filter creator selects a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section, based on a result of an analysis performed for identifying compounds in a sample by analyzing, by the data-analysis methods, the measurement data of the sample obtained by the measurement controller.
However, Sun teaches an analyzing device for filtering a plurality of sets and subsets of data that discloses creating a secondary filter to already filtered data sets (¶ 101-102 details the ability to filter an already filtered set of data). The resultant combination would be such that the filter creator selects a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section, based on a result of an analysis performed for identifying compounds in a sample by analyzing, by the data-analysis methods, the measurement data of the sample obtained by the measurement controller.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the filtering commands and results of Sone/Sugimoto/Moore with the additional filtering of Sun to allow for a user to obtain a more specific set of data from an initial set of data.
Regarding claim 9, Sone’s modified teachings are described above in claim 8 where the combination of Sone, Sugimoto, Moore, and Sun would further disclose that the filter creator selects a subset of the plurality of known compounds held in the storage section, by receiving an input which specifies a subset of the identified compounds, and excluding the specified compounds from the identified compounds (The newly created filter would utilize the teachings of Sun to create a filter subset from an already filtered subset of data per Sun ¶ 101-102).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CONNOR J. TREMARCHE whose telephone number is (571)272-2175. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 0700-1700 Eastern.
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/CONNOR J TREMARCHE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3762
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