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 in the reply filed on February 2nd, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claim 11 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 February 2nd, 2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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, 3-4, 6-7 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamura (US 2023/0050537) in view of Matsumura et al. (US 2023/0087706).
Regarding claim 1, Tamura discloses a treatment system comprising a treatment instrument (¶55 “electrosurgical knife or forceps”) configured to cut living tissue in a liquid; an endoscope (200, figure 2) configured to capture an endoscopic image that includes an image of the treatment instrument and an image of the living tissue (¶58, ¶69); a support data storage (130, figure 2) configured to store, as support data to assist in a cutting treatment (¶65-67); a support data generator (120) configured to generate support data to be displayed on a display (400, figure 2) based on the support data stored; a turbidity detector (110, ¶79 and/or 120, ¶174) configured to detect a degree of cloudiness of the liquid (¶79, ¶174); and a controller (110) configured to: control the display to display the support data together with the endoscopic image (¶61); and switch a display form of the support data generated by the support data generator based on the degree of cloudiness of the liquid detected by the turbidity detector (¶61, ¶135).
Tamura fails to expressly teach or disclose the support data storage configured to assist in at least one of data relating to a posture of the treatment instrument and image data on a location of a treatment section of the treatment instrument.
Matsumura et al. disclose a treatment system having a treatment instrument (21), an endoscope (31) and a support data storage (32, figure 1) configured to store as support data to assist in a cutting treatment, at least one of data relating to a posture of the treatment instrument and image data on a location of a treatment section of the treatment instrument (¶56, figures 6A-6B). The data assists the user with a clear field of view at the target site and the current status of the tissue material currently being removed from the target site (¶56).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have constructed the support data storage of Tamura to be at least one of data relating to a posture of the treatment instrument and image data on a location of a treatment section of the treatment instrument as the data assists the user with a clear field of view at the target site and the current status of the tissue material currently being removed from the target site.
Regarding claim 3, Tamura discloses an image processing unit (120, ¶61, ¶89) configured to extract image data of at least a part of the treatment instrument from the image captured to perform enhancement processing, wherein: the support data storage is configured to temporarily store the image data extracted for the enhancement processing, and the support data generator is configured to generate, as support data, display data based on the image data extracted for the enhancement processing (¶61, ¶63, ¶65-67).
Regarding claim 4, Tamura discloses the treatment instrument includes a marker section (the distal working end of knife, ¶55) that is provided on a side where the living tissue is cut and emits scattered light (210, ¶56), and information indicating a position of the treatment instrument with respect to the living tissue is obtained using a reflected image of light in the marker section (¶172).
Regarding claim 6, Tamura discloses an image processing unit (110 + 120) configured to extract image data of the marker section from an image captured by the endoscope to generate an enhanced image of the marker section based on the image data extracted for enhancement processing (¶92-93), wherein the controller is configured to control the display to display the enhanced image (¶92-93).
Regarding claim 7, Tamura discloses the support data generator generates a guide image including an image captured by the endoscope, an entire circumferential image obtained by capturing an entire circumference of the living tissue, and the support data (figure 1).
Regarding claim 8, Tamura in view of Matsumura disclose the treatment instrument is an ultrasound treatment instrument (21, figure 1 ¶38 of Matsumura).
Regarding claim 9, Tamura discloses when the treatment instrument cuts the living tissue, turbidity occurs in the liquid (¶151, ¶174, ¶179), and the turbidity in the liquid is caused by bone powders generated when a bone is cut with ultrasound (¶53, ¶151).
Regarding claim 10, Tamura discloses when the treatment instrument cuts the living tissue, turbidity occurs in the liquid (¶151, ¶174, ¶179), and the turbidity in the liquid is due to white particles generated from cutting the living tissue (¶53, ¶151).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tamura (US 2023/0050537) in view of Matsumura et al. (US 2023/0087706) in further view of Aoki et al. (US 2016/0345867).
Regarding claim 5, Tamura in view of Matsumura disclose the claimed invention except for a process of emitting scattered light is retroreflection processing.
Aoki et al. disclose emitting scattered light through a retroreflection process (¶47) as retroreflection allows for illumination and marking of the marker even in low light conditions (¶47) and in other light conditions can increase contrast to the portion other than the marker and thus is an effective marker for clearly distinguishing parts from one another (¶47). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have constructed the system to include emitting scattered light through a retroreflection process as retroreflection allows for illumination and marking of the marker even in low light conditions and in other light conditions can increase contrast to the portion other than the marker and thus is an effective marker for clearly distinguishing parts from one another.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 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: With respect to claim 2 none of the cited art (see attached PTO-892) teach, disclose or render obvious “display data being based on: each piece of positional information regarding the current position and a cutting completion position of the treatment instrument, and a depth cut by the treatment instrument.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW JAMES LAWSON whose telephone number is (571)270-7375. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 6:30-3:00.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anita Coupe can be reached at 571-270-3614. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MATTHEW J LAWSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619
Prosecution Insights