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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of the invention corresponding to group I (claims 1-10) in the reply filed on November 11, 2025 is acknowledged.
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 1-3, 5, 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2008/0303728).
Lee, in figure 1 and paragraph [0037], discloses:
Claim 1: An implantable medical device (10) comprising: a housing (104) including electronic devices (EMA) within the housing; a header (102) attached to the housing and including one or more bores (132, fig. 6); an antenna (108, fig. 16) extending from the housing into the header; and an antenna clip (101, 122, 120a; fig. 16) configured to position and retain the antenna relative to the header (para. [0056]).
Claim 2: wherein the antenna clip includes a channel (122) having an overhang (120a, 120b) to retain the antenna.
Claim 3: wherein the antenna clip includes the overhang (120a) on only one side of the channel.
Claim 5: wherein the overhang includes a protrusion extending from a wall of the channel (fig. 16).
Claim 8: wherein the antenna clip includes a separate retaining member (133, fig. 13) that is attached to the antenna clip so as to overhang a channel in the antenna clip.
Claim 10: wherein the antenna includes a single wire (fig. 16) extending from a feedthrough assembly (149, fig. 5).
Claims 1, 6 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kane et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2013/0150937).
Kane, in figures 8 and 9, discloses:
Claim 1: An implantable medical device (800) comprising: a housing (802) including electronic devices (electronic modules, para. [0070]) within the housing; a header (810) attached to the housing and including one or more bores (812); an antenna (808) extending from the housing into the header; and an antenna clip (826, fig. 8; 1526, fig. 15; 1626, fig. 16; 1726, fig. 17) configured to position and retain the antenna relative to the header (para. [0081]-[0083]).
Claim 6: wherein the antenna clip attaches to a post (posts engaging header shell 840, fig. 9) extending from a top of the housing (figure 9 shows antenna attachment feature 826 indirectly attached to posts via header shell 840).
Claim 7: wherein the post includes a retention head (fig. 9).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 9 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT KARACSONY whose telephone number is (571)270-1268. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Monday - Friday.
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/Robert Karacsony/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845