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 .
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: On page 11, line 9, “curbed” should read --curved--. On page 12, line 7, “is” should be replaced by --are-- in order to provide proper grammatical syntax. 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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being clearly anticipated by Duran, US 5,258,021. Figures 12-15 illustrate an artificial blood vessel complex comprising an artificial blood vessel tube member 20 defining an artificial blood vessel tube portion and a lounge tube portion separated into three pieces and having an end formed in a curved shape to match an artificial blood vessel ring member 1 for suturing an aortic root through a suture (column 4, lines 26-40; column 5, lines 7-12; column 8, lines 19-23) and having a curved shape with inflection portions to correspond to a shape of an aortic root edge (abstract; column 3, lines 44-65).
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 3-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Duran, US 5,258,021. Regarding claims 3 and 9, “the stent is covered with biocompatible cloth”, and Duran indicates that such a cloth enclosing “various plastic and/or metal members [is] known in the art” (column 4, lines 8-12; emphasis added); to incorporate an elastic part surrounding a titanium alloy core part (column 5, lines 62-68) of ring member 1 would thus have been obvious to the ordinary practitioner at the effective filing date of the present invention in order to impart cushioning and/or sufficient volume for suturing (column 8, lines 19-28), with the outer skin or fabric part being rather thin (column 4, lines 13-15). Regarding claims 4-6, convexity would then be formed in all directions along a cross-section of ring member 1 (Figures 14-15) and is capable (MPEP § 2114) of being sutured at different portions of such a cross-section. Regarding claims 7-8, Duran appears to favor respective ratios of about 0.75 (Figure 4; column 6, lines 31-59), but proportions “can be varied” (column 6, lines 31-32), and ratios of 0.8 or more would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art under routine experimentation and/or analysis in order to accommodate patients of varying anatomies and physiologies (column 4, lines 5-7; column 6, lines 43-45 and 57-59).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure:
US 5,607,471: elastomeric material 7 (Figure 5); Figures 6-10;
US 2011/0166644 A1: drawings.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David H. Willse, whose telephone number is 571-272-4762. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Thursday. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor Thomas Barrett can be reached at telephone number 571-272-4746. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DAVID H WILLSE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3774