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 .
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: line 13 of claim 1 should recite: “outer telescoping member and operatively coupled thereto;”. 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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, and 10-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Spenser (US 2015/0025502).
Regarding claim 1, Spenser et al. (henceforth Spenser) discloses (Figures 1 and 4A-4C) a system for fluid delivery comprising: a syringe body (20) having proximal and distal ends, a syringe interior, and a syringe flange (at syringe holder 9; seen engaging syringe flange in Figure 3) at the proximal end thereof (Figure 1); a fluid disposed in the syringe interior (within syringe barrel 13; ¶ [0063] discloses dose delivery); a finger flange (10 comprising 7; Figure 1) coupled to the syringe flange (the syringe cradle 10 is formed from the finger flange and associated housing structure forming cradle 10); a stopper member disposed in the syringe interior (at distal end of plunger 12); a plunger member (12, 5, 31) coupled to the stopper member and having a ratchet portion (combination of elements 5 and 31); a push member (35, 45 which cooperate to repeatedly depress the plunger to deliver incremental doses) disposed coaxially around at least a portion of the plunger member and operatively coupled thereto (elements 35 and 45 extend along the external surface of the syringe body and are therefore disposed coaxially around at least part of the external surface of the syringe), the push member having an outer telescoping member (45) disposed at a proximal end thereof (Figures 3-4, outer member extends along the cradle length including to the proximal end); an inner telescoping member (35) disposed slidably (it moves relative to the outer member and slides within element 5 to advance the plunger; ¶ [0053] discloses that the rack 36, part of inner member 35 retracts after moving one step) and at least partially in the outer telescoping member and operatively couple thereto (via engagement teeth between inner member, element 5, and outer member 45; Figure 4A, element 5 connects members 36 and 46 via teeth 41 and 43); and a thumbpad (4) disposed coupled to a proximal end of the inner telescoping member (Figure 3; ¶ [0047]).
Regarding claim 2, Spenser further discloses wherein the finger flange (7, 10) comprises a proximally projecting tubular member (forming the proximal end of body 10), and wherein a distal end of the push member is disposed in the proximally projecting tubular member (the distal ends of both elements 36 and 46, as parts of 35 and 45, are disposed in the cradle as depicted in Figure 3).
Regarding claim 10, Spenser further discloses wherein the push member (combination of 35, 45) comprises a distally extending pawl (32) in contact with and operatively coupled to the ratchet portion (5, 31) of the plunger member (pawls 32 interact with teeth 31 on the plunger element portion 5; Figure 4A; ¶ [0046]).
Regarding claim 11, Spenser further discloses wherein the ratchet portion of the plunger member (e.g., teeth 31 on element 5) comprises a plurality of teeth (e.g., Figure 4A; ¶ [0050] discloses two teeth for engaging serrations 32).
Regarding claim 12, Spenser further discloses wherein a full depression of the thumbpad (4) relative to the finger flange advances the plunger member (12, 5, 31) distally relative to the syringe body by a distance of one tooth of the plurality of teeth (e.g., ¶ [0052] discloses that the serrations 32 are separated to release fixed dosages; see also ¶ [0063] which sets forth that the method of use comprises one depression of the push button to deliver one dose).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-9 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art made of record and relied upon does not anticipate or render obvious, alone or in combination, the features of claim 3. The closest prior art is considered to be Spenser which discloses the coaxially aligned incremental dose delivery device. The finger flange of Spenser is considered as the entire body 10 to which finger flanges 7 are attached as depicted in Figure 1. Claim 3 requires the finger flange to comprise a proximally extending tubular member (upper body portion of 10) which defines a proximally facing surface, and wherein the outer telescoping member (e.g., 45 comprising rack 46) of the push member (35, 45) defines a distally facing surface configured to interfere with the proximally facing surface of the proximally projecting tubular member of the finger flange to limit distal movements of the push member relative to the finger flange. The outer telescoping member of Spenser is fixed to the cradle 10, and fails to engage and abutment surface within the cradle apart from the engagement of prong 43 of element 5. There would be no motivation to modify the cradle in the manner claimed or to limit relative movement between two elements which do no move relative to one another. The prior art fails to sufficiently teach the coaxial abutting structure of claim 3 and for this reason, including the totality of the claimed structure, the claim is allowable over the prior art of record. Claims 4-9 would be allowable due to their dependence from claim 3.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JUSTIN L ZAMORY whose telephone number is (571)270-1238. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30am-4:30pm ET.
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/JUSTIN L ZAMORY/Examiner, Art Unit 3783
/MICHAEL J TSAI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3783