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 .
Examiner Notes
Examiner cites particular columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
Priority
As required by M.P.E.P. 201.14(c), acknowledgement is made of applicant’s claim for priority based on the applications filed on May 7th, 2021 (x2) (EP21 172 758.1 & EP21 172 759.9) and December 21st, 2021 (EP21 216 369.5). 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.
Information Disclosure Statement
As required by M.P.E.P. 609, the applicant’s submissions of the Information Disclosure Statements dated January 20th, 2024 and May 15th, 2026 are acknowledged by the examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of invention II (claims 2, 8, and 19) in the reply filed on February 23rd, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 1, 3-7, and 10-22 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 23rd, 2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 8, the limitation “wherein the illumination and/or the image capture additionally can be set based on a pose-specific intensity generated by the field of view illumination device” is unclear and renders the claim indefinite. Specifically, “can be set” is optional language and it is not clear if the setting is required for the invention or not. Accordingly, for the purpose of examining the claims currently pending, this limitation will be interpreted to mean “wherein the illumination and/or image capture is related to a pose-specific intensity generated by the field of view illumination device”.
Further, claim 8 recites “the field of view illumination device” which lacks antecedent basis. Appropriate correction is required.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
Claim(s) 2, 8, and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Alton et al. (US 2015/0355521 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Alton teaches a microscopy system, comprising:
at least one tracking camera configured to detect a pose of at least one object to be captured (See, e.g., eye tracking cameras 534B in Fig. 5, here the object is the eye and the pose is the orientation);
at least one tracking illumination device (See, e.g., eye tracking illumination unit 534A in Fig. 5); and
at least one controller configured to control the at least one tracking illumination device or the tracking camera (See, e.g., processor 510 in Fig. 5),
wherein information about the position and orientation of the object relative to at least one illumination device is determined, with the illumination by the tracking illumination device or an image capture by the at least one tracking camera being set based on the information about the position and orientation of the object relative to the at least one illumination device (Note this is how the device works as the tracking elements necessarily track the position and the orientation of the eye relative to the illumination device during normal operation, even if this is not directly shown as an output. Further, the tracking cameras capturing an image necessarily is related to the position and orientation of the object relative to the illumination device, even if not explicitly stated as an output).
Regarding claim 8, Alton teaches the device set forth above and further teaches wherein the pose information of the object is information about the pose of the object to be captured (Note this has been cited to be the position and orientation of a patient’s eye), relative to at least one field of view illumination device with an intensity distribution in its illumination region that is known in advance (Note the pose information necessarily is relative to the illumination device, as relative is a very broad term, and the illumination device necessarily provides an intensity distribution, and the illumination region would have been known in advance because the target is the user’s eye), and wherein the illumination and/or the image capture additionally can be set based on a pose-specific intensity generated by the field of view illumination device (Note this limitation is met in light of the 112 rejection above because there is a pose-specific intensity).
Regarding claim 19, Alton teaches the device set forth above and further teaches a method for operating a microscopy system as claimed in claim 2 (See, e.g., the rejection of claim 2 above), the method comprising: determining information about the position and orientation of the object relative to at least one illumination device (Note this is how the tracking cameras and tracking illumination unit cited above work in normal operation, the position an orientation of the patient’s eye is the information determined by the cited tracking elements); and setting an illumination by the tracking illumination device or an image capture by the at least one tracking camera based on the information about the position and orientation of the object relative to the at least one illumination device (Note that the tracking cameras 534B in Fig. 5 capture images based on the position/orientation of the object relative to the at least one illumination device necessarily because the tracking unit determines information about the position/orientation, the illumination unit illuminates the target, and the tracking cameras capture images accordingly).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mitchell Oestreich whose telephone number is (571)270-7559. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00-11:00 MT.
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, Bumsuk Won can be reached at 571-272-2713. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MITCHELL T OESTREICH/Examiner, Art Unit 2872
/BUMSUK WON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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