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 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, 6-12, 14, 16, 18, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020/106330 to Lebrun et al in view of Mayrhofer1.
In the specification and figures, Lebrun discloses the apparatus substantially as claimed by Applicant. With regard to claims 1-3, 11, 16, 18, and 19, Lebrun discloses a sensor apparatus (smart cap) for attachment to a medicament container, wherein the cap comprises an accelerometer, an interface for wireless transmission to a computer (radio transmitter), and an electronic connection device (Bluetooth chip) (see ¶0004, 0016, 0018). Lebrun further discloses that the sensor may be configured to “wake up” based on an accelerometer signal to trigger communication between the sensor and the computing apparatus, but does not disclose an initial pairing via accelerometer (see ¶0016, 0098).
Mayrhofer discloses an apparatus and method for using a pattern of movements from a device with an accelerometer to pair with a secondary device via construction of a shared key to authenticate the devices to communicate with one another (ShaCK method, see Abstract, §3.3). After the secure pairing, further data may be exchanged between the devices. The spontaneous pairing allows for the two devices to exchange information without prior knowledge of each other (see §1, Introduction). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to use the pairing protocol and subsequent data exchange disclosed by Mayrhofer in the medicament container disclosed by Lebrun in order to create a pairing and communicate between two devices without prior knowledge of each other, as taught by Mayrhofer.
With regard to claims 6-10, Lebrun discloses that a shaking motion may trigger a function (such as a refill request, missed dose, connection error, dose access event) other than connecting to a computer (see ¶0016, 0096, 0098, 0099). With regard to the recitations drawn to the number or temporal nature of the movements, such limitations are a recitation of the intended use of the claimed device. It has been held that a recitation with respect to the manner in which a claimed apparatus is intended to be employed does not differentiate the claimed apparatus from a prior art apparatus satisfying the claimed structural limitations. See MPEP § 2114.
With regard to claim 12, Lebrun discloses that an alarm may be used to trigger audio and visual cues between the packaging and a remote computer (see at least ¶0063, 0067).
With regard to claim 14, Lebrun discloses that the sensor apparatus may comprise a memory to store movement records (see ¶0016, 0017).
With regard to claims 25, 27, see the rejection of claims 4-10 above. Lebrun further discloses providing a text message or haptic feedback to a user (see ¶0096, 0098).
With regard to claim 35, Applicant discloses that the retrofit kit comprises an accelerometer and a computer monitor, both of which are disclosed by Lebrun (see ¶0016, 0017).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LESLIE R DEAK whose telephone number is (571)272-4943. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9am to 5:30pm.
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/LESLIE R DEAK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3799 5 February 2026
1 R. Mayrhofer and H. Gellersen, "Shake Well Before Use: Intuitive and Secure Pairing of Mobile Devices," in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 792-806, June 2009, doi: 10.1109/TMC.2009.51.