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 . The instant application with Application Number 18/275,049 filed on 07/31/2023. As per the preliminary amendments of 07/31/2023, claims 3-5, 7-9, 12 and 14 have been amended. Claims 1-14 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statment
The Information Disclosure Statements dated 07/31/2023 and 03/04/2026 are acknowledged and the cited references have been considered in this examination.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 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.
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Iyer et al. (US 2020/0001095).
With respect to claim 1, Iyer discloses a charging device (Fig. 10, 206) for contactlessly charging an energy storage (Fig. 7, 210) of an implant (Fig. 10, 15) implanted in a body of a living being (Para. # 201), comprising: at least one self-supporting coil (Para. # 209) extending along a coil axis and configured to generate alternating magnetic field (Para. # 208);
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wherein during intended use of the charging device (Para. # 209: power being applied to a recharging coil or a pair of coils located externally to IMD 15 and generating the magnetic field or fields being imposed on IMD 15), the body is arranged relative to the coil (Para. # 0030, 215/216:receive coil 216 may be configured as a flat spiral-wound coil that is positioned within the interior cavity of an implantable medical device) so that the alternating magnetic field extending in the area inside the coil along the coil axis penetrates the body for charging the energy storage (Para. # 0040: Fast recharge of small, deeply implanted devices such as the Medtronic® Micra™ Pacemaker via transdermal, magnetic induction when the device is implanted for example within a chamber of the heart of a patient presents many challenges. These challenges include providing an adequate magnetic field intensity and frequency at the implant location such that rapid recharge can be accomplished without exceeding electric field and magnetic field exposure safety limits for a patient).
With respect to claim 2, Iyer discloses the charging device for contactlessly charging the energy storage of the implant device as described above, further discloses
wherein the charging device is configured to rotate a vector of the alternating magnetic field for charging at least two- dimensionally (Para. # 162 and 163).
With respect to claim 3, Iyer discloses the charging device for contactlessly charging the energy storage of the implant device as described above, further discloses wherein the charging device is configured to rotate the vector of the alternating magnetic field for charging without changing the corresponding amplitude(Para. # 238: he representative waveforms 251, 261 may be generated by a signal generator, such as signal generator included in recharging circuitry 231 as illustrated and described with respect to FIG. 12, and applied to the coil (e.g., coil 232, or a pair of coils 232 and 233 of FIG. 12), coupled to recharging circuitry).
With respect to claims 4 and 5, Iyer discloses the charging device for contactlessly charging the energy storage of the implant device as described above, further discloses wherein during the intended use of the charging device, the body is arranged relative to the self- supporting coil in such a way that a longitudinal axis of the body runs in the direction of the coil axis and is located within the coil, wherein the alternating magnetic field reaches the location of the implant (Para. # 252: loop of the coil winding is orientated so that a central axis of the coil windings of the third loop corresponds to a longitudinal axis of the implantable medical device and lies in a plane or a set of coplanar planes that is/are perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the device).
With respect to claim 6, Iyer discloses the charging device for contactlessly charging the energy storage of the implant device as described above, further discloses wherein the mount supporting the coil is displaceable relative to the body and/or a body support for supporting the body is displaceable relative to the coil; and wherein the charging device is adapted to displace the mount and/or the body support to bring the coil into a specific position relative to the body for optimizing the charging of the energy storage (Para. # 0254/255).
With respect to claim 7, Iyer discloses the charging device for contactlessly charging the energy storage of the implant device as described above, further discloses wherein the charging device comprises a receive unit configured to either receive or request a quality signal generated in the implant reflecting the efficiency of the charging; and the charging device is configured to pivot and/or move the coil to the specific orientation and/or position as a function of the quality signal to optimize charging (Para. # 238/239: FIG. 13 illustrates graphs 250, 260 of representative waveforms 251, 261 that may be generated by a signal generator and applied to the recharging coil or coils of a recharging system; power amplifier being driven by the waveform 251 is a fixed amplification power amplifier, capable of providing a 400-Watt output signal based on a variable input signal having a peak-to-peak amplitude 10-200 mV).
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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 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 present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 8-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iyer as described above in view of Chen (US 2019/0312452).
With respect to claims 8, 12 and 13, Iyer discloses Iyer discloses the charging device for contactlessly charging the energy storage of the implant device as described above, but does not expressly disclose wherein a magnetic flux density of the alternating magnetic field along the coil axis has a value B, wherein 1.OmT <= B <= 20.OmT
Chen, on the other hand, discloses a magnetic flux density of the alternating magnetic field along the coil axis has a value B, wherein 1.OmT <= B <= 20.OmT (Para. # 0033: the magnetic field of each source coil is a space-varying vector field providing a magnetic flux defined by physical and design parameters of the driven source coil. The overall magnetic field in the space surrounding the source coil(s) is a spatially-dependent vector field representing the superposition of each coil and other magnetic field source).
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IYER and Chen are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor namely coil configurations for implantable medical device and multi-coil wireless charging.
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to have added/modified a magnetic flux density of the alternating magnetic field along the coil axis of Lyer in view of Chen for the known benefit that as magnetic flux density of an alternating magnet is a time-varying vector mainly used for medical devices’ accuracy, such as MRI and other imaging systems rely on precise control of alternating B fields for signal generation and image quality, and a stronger the value of B is the better preference.
With respect to claims 9-11 and 14, the combined references of Iyer and Chen disclose the charging device for contactlessly charging the energy storage of the implant device as described above, further Chen discloses wherein the coil is formed from two pulled apart sub-coils arranged at a distance R1 from one another on the same axis, which cooperate in such a way that the alternating magnetic field passes, along the coil axis, through the sub-coils and an area located between the sub-coils (Para. # 106: s shown in FIG. 3A the upper-most portion of ferrite sheet 56 near first radial position 60 extends slightly further along the inner surface 51 of the antenna window 40 relative to the upper-most portion of receive coil 55 that is closest to the first radial position 60; wherein preferably R1 is equal to D/2 (Helmholtz coil) and, during intended use of the charging device, the body is arranged relative to the sub coils in such a way that the alternating magnetic field located between the sub-coils penetrates the body for charging the energy storage (Para. # 0048, 0058 and 0061: antennas located within an implanted medical device, and provided for charging of these internal, and in some instances deeply implanted medical device, such as IMD 15A, IMD 15B, and/or sensor circuits 18).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YALKEW FANTU whose telephone number is (571)272-8928. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00AM-4:00PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DREW A DUNN can be reached at 571-272-2312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YALKEW FANTU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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