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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 4/27/2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/9/2026 was filed after the mailing date of the final Office action on 1/27/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
This Office action is in response to amendment filed 4/27/2026. Accordingly, claims 1, 6 and 8 were amended and claims 1-8 are pending for examining.
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.
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 1-5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aoyama (US 2022/0012878 A1) in view of Arakita et al. (US 2018/0357767 A1, hereinafter Arakita) and Imamura et al. (US 2019/0274542 A1, hereinafter Imamura).
Regarding claim 1, Aoyama discloses a medical image processing apparatus (figure 1, 100), comprising: processing circuitry (figure 1, 155) configured to: obtain a medical image related to a heart ([0055], the medical image processing apparatus is configured to extract a degree of a disease related to the heart, from the medical image); generate a polar map indicating myocardial function information based on the obtained medical image ([0113], display controlling function may display the FFR and/or the WSS by using polar coordinate display of segments of the myocardia); display, on a display, a plurality of blood vessel images respectively indicating a plurality of forms of blood vessels included in the heart so as to be superimposed on the polar map (figures 22-23 and [0209], when displaying the IVUS image or the intravascular OCT image, the display controlling function may display, in a superimposed manner, colors each indicating a corresponding WSS or FFR value in various positions in the blood vessel so as to be positioned around the blood vessel rendered in the IVUS image or the intravascular OCT image); receive an operation to select a blood vessel image from the plurality of blood vessel images on the polar map displayed on the display ([0117], the display controlling function receives, from the user, the operation to select the type of information to be displayed on the display from between the FFR and the WSS). Aoyama also teaches display controlling function identifies a blood vessel corresponding to the segment ([0113]), Aoyama differs from the claimed invention in not specifically teaching to identify information associated with the blood vessel designated by the operation; and cause the display to display the information associated with the blood vessel. However, Arakita teaches that detection function acquires morphological information regarding the heart of the subject from FFR image data and the display control function displays a display image illustrating an ischemic region and a value of FFR on the display such that the display control function may display label information, an area of the left ventricle, the core axis of the left ventricle, the direction of the right ventricle, and the like ([0047]) to improve an accuracy of morphological information about the heart of the subject. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Aoyama to identify information associated with the blood vessel designated by the operation; and cause the display to display the information associated with the blood vessel, as per teaching of Arakita, in order to improve an accuracy of morphological information about the heart of the subject. The combination of Aoyama and Arakita does not explicitly teach receive an operation to select a blood vessel image from the plurality of blood vessel images superimposed on the polar map displayed on the display to thereby designate a blood vessel, of the plurality of blood vessels, corresponding to the selected blood vessel image. However, Imamura teaches an image processing apparatus including a display control unit (figure 1, 101-05) configured to cause a display unit to display at least one of the luminance en face image and the motion contrast en face image with the information on the identified lamina cribrosa region superimposed on the displayed image such that the display control unit causes the display unit to select a blood vessel image from the plurality of blood vessel images superimposed on the polar map displayed on the display to thereby designate a blood vessel, of the plurality of blood vessels, corresponding to the selected blood vessel image (figure 12A, [0091] and [0285]) in order to improve an operator ability. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Aoyama and Arakita in receiving an operation to select a blood vessel image from the plurality of blood vessel images superimposed on the polar map displayed on the display to thereby designate a blood vessel, of the plurality of blood vessels, corresponding to the selected blood vessel image, as per teaching of Imamura, in order to improve operator ability.
Regarding claim 2, Aoyama teaches to identify whether or not treatment has been applied to the designated blood vessel, and the processing circuitry is configured to further display information indicating whether or not the treatment has been applied, together with the information associated with the blood vessel (figure 11 and [0129]-[0130], identifying function is configured to identify whether the imaging time of the coronary artery CT image of the subject obtained by the obtaining function was before the subject was treated or after the subject was treated).
Regarding claim 3, Aoyama teaches to further identify a type of a disease occurring in the designated blood vessel, and the processing circuitry is configured to further display information indicating the type of the disease, together with the information associated with the blood vessel ([0034], an extracting unit is configured to extract a degree of a disease related to the heart from a medical image and the display controlling unit is configured to display a first index value related to a blood vessel and calculated from one of blood pressure and a blood flow and configured to display when the degree of the disease related to the heart is high).
Regarding claim 4, Aoyama teaches to further obtain an intravascular image related to the designated blood vessel, and the processing circuitry is configured to further display the intravascular image together with the information associated with the blood vessel ([0209], the display controlling function may display, in a superimposed manner, colors each indicating a corresponding WSS or FFR value in various positions in the blood vessel so as to be positioned around the blood vessel rendered in the IVUS image or the intravascular OCT image when displaying the IVUS image or the intravascular OCT image).
Regarding claim 5, Aoyama teaches to obtain intravascular images before and after treatment, and the processing circuitry is further configured to display the intravascular images before and after the treatment, together with the information associated with the blood vessel ([0207] and [0129]-[0130], an intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) image taken by an ultrasound diagnosis apparatus, and identifying function is configured to identify whether the imaging time of the image of the subject obtained by the obtaining function was before the subject was treated or after the subject was treated).
Regarding claim 8, the limitations of the claim are rejected as the same reasons as set forth in claim 1.
Claims 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aoyama (US 2022/0012878 A1) in view of Arakita et al. (US 2018/0357767 A1, hereinafter Arakita) and Imamura et al. (US 2019/0274542 A1, hereinafter Imamura) as applied in claim 1 above, and further in view of Min et al. (US 2021/0209757 A1, hereinafter Min).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Aoyama, Arakita and Imamura differs from the claimed invention in not specifically disclosing to further determine a position of the designated blood vessel, and the processing circuitry is further configured to identify information associated with the designated blood vessel by comparing the determined position of the blood vessel with information in which positions of a plurality of blood vessels included in the heart are kept in correspondence with pieces of information associated with the plurality of blood vessels. However, Min teaches such (figures 6B and 6F, [0340] and [0345], the views in the other panels can be automatically updated to also show the vessel at that the selected location in the respective views when a location on the vessel in one panel is selected and information of the three-dimensional (3D) rendering of the coronary artery tree on the first panel that allows a user to view the vessels and modify the labels of a vessel) in order to enhance the information presented to a user and increase the efficiency of the analysis. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention in modify the combination of Aoyama, Arakita and Imamura to further determine a position of the designated blood vessel, and the processing circuitry is further configured to identify information associated with the designated blood vessel by comparing the determined position of the blood vessel with information in which positions of a plurality of blood vessels included in the heart are kept in correspondence with pieces of information associated with the plurality of blood vessels, as per teaching of Min, in order to enhance the information presented to a user and increase the efficiency of the analysis.
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Aoyama, Arakita and Imamura differs from the claimed invention in not specifically disclosing the information associated with the blood vessel that is identified by the processing circuitry is a blood vessel name of the blood vessel. However, Min teaches generating and displaying on the user interface a panel having a list of vessel segment names and indicating the current name of the selected vessel segment ([0018]) to enhance the information presented to a user. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention in modify the combination of Aoyama, Arakita and Imamura in having the information associated with the blood vessel that is identified by the processing circuitry is a blood vessel name of the blood vessel, as per teaching of Min, in order to enhance the information presented to a user.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-8 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Nishioka et al. (US 2020/0113450 A1) discloses a medical information processing system including processing circuitry with control function for displaying a display image in which the coronary artery and the target region for which the capillary resistance indices have been calculated are superimposed on the polar map in which the entire myocardium is displayed in polar coordinates (figure 9 and [0105]-[0116]).
Ishii et al. (US 2018/0082445 A1) discloses a medical image diagnostic apparatus including a display for displaying a plurality of superposed images obtained by superposing a plurality of color maps and a plurality of morphological images corresponding in phase to the plurality of color maps extracted by an image selection circuitry (abstract and [0033]-[0034]).
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 GEORGE ENG whose telephone number is (571)272-7495. The examiner can normally be reached Flex M to F, 7 am to 3 pm.
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, James A Kramer can be reached at (571) 272-6783. 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.
/GEORGE ENG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2699
Prosecution Insights