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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on February 9, 2024 and August 13, 2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1 and 5-6 (and 2-4 for inheriting and failing to cure the deficiency of the rejected base claim) are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Where applicant acts as his or her own lexicographer to specifically define a term of a claim contrary to its ordinary meaning, the written description must clearly redefine the claim term and set forth the uncommon definition so as to put one reasonably skilled in the art on notice that the applicant intended to so redefine that claim term. Process Control Corp. v. HydReclaim Corp., 190 F.3d 1350, 1357, 52 USPQ2d 1029, 1033 (Fed. Cir. 1999). The term “reduced” in claims 1 and 5-6 is used by the claim to mean “reducing the resolution” for reducing storage capacity (paragraph 0003), while the accepted meaning is “to make smaller or less in amount.” The term is indefinite because the specification does not clearly redefine the term. It is unclear if the applicant intends to claim that the reduced images are images with less resolution or images with less parts. For the sake of examination, the examiner interprets reduced, when applied to images, as images of lower resolution. Applicant should clarify in claim language what “reduced” when used along with images is supposed to claim.
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) 1, 3 and 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 9,891,804 to Henderson et al. (hereinafter Henderson).
Regarding independent claim 1, Henderson discloses An image generation method of generating an observation image from a plurality of partial images (column 1, line 29, “In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, a computer-implemented method is provided for displaying expression levels of one or more biomarkers in a field of view of a biological specimen. ”) obtained by segmenting an imaging region including an object to be observed into a plurality of regions (Figure 26) and capturing images of the plurality of regions (column 6, line 11, “Images of each stained field of view of a biological specimen are generated using known techniques, such as with a digital camera coupled to an appropriate microscope and appropriate quality control routines. ”), the observation image being a composite image of an observation region that is smaller than the imaging region (column 32, line 17, “The field of view represented in main image panel 2502 typically corresponds to a portion of the entire image of a biological specimen, but may desirably show a region about the capture region selected in panel 2504;” column 32, line 45, “In some embodiments, the image navigation component 2508 is smaller than the main image panel 2502 and provides a lower resolution display of the biological specimen.”), the image generation method causing a computer including memory to execute (column 2, line 21, “The non-transitory computer-readable media have encoded thereon one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed on a computing device, perform a method for displaying expression levels of one or more biomarkers in a field of view of a biological specimen”):
(a) generating a plurality of reduced partial images by reducing the plurality of partial images (column 7, line 5, “In creating a tiled multi-resolution data structure, an image corresponding to a single channel of data (e.g., a single biomarker) may be processed by a computing device to generate two or more versions of the same image at different resolutions. Any conventional technique for generating lower resolution versions of images may be used;” the tiles in the lower resolution level are read as the reduced partial images);
(b) combining the plurality of reduced partial images into a reduced composite image (column 32, line 17, “The field of view represented in main image panel 2502 typically corresponds to a portion of the entire image of a biological specimen, but may desirably show a region about the capture region selected in panel 2504;” column 32, line 45, “In some embodiments, the image navigation component 2508 is smaller than the main image panel 2502 and provides a lower resolution display of the biological specimen.”);
(c) detecting a reduced observation region that corresponds to the observation region from the reduced composite image (column 33, line 4, “ The main image panel 2502 also includes a capture region indicator component 2540 (e.g. a reticle or any other suitable component) for delineating the location of each capture region within the field of view displayed in the main image panel 2502. ”);
(d) calculating the observation region that is not reduced, in accordance with the reduced observation region (column 34, line 27, “They can double click on the desired ROI and it is highlighted on the right hand region manager panel 2504. They can then expand the desired ROI to see all of the different visualization types and biomarkers that are available to review. Simply clicking on the thumbnail 2505 for one of the images will open it on the main image panel 2502. FIG. 27 shows this functionality, where an ROI has been double-clicked to be made active. The ROI shown by box 2540 is then outlined with a different-colored box 2550 and its corresponding tab 2503 is highlighted on the panel 2504.”); and
(e) generating the observation image by combining, among the plurality of partial images, partial images that correspond to the observation region (column 14, line 20, “In this case, the computing device running a user interface may determine the tiles of data that are selectively required for its purposes, and may request only the selective tiles from the server. That is, image data on the entire biological specimen may not be requested or preloaded into the user interface in some embodiments; but, rather, only those sets of image data that are required at a given time may be requested from the server. This minimizes server overhead in servicing the requests and reduces the amount of image data that needs to be transferred to the computing device for its user interface, thereby making the user interface rapid and efficient and highly responsive to user input and requests. In response to the request for data, the server may access the requested tiles of data and, in some cases, perform analysis or validation of the data. The server may then transfer the tiles of data to the computing device in a streaming manner. That is, data corresponding to a sequence of one or more tiles may be sent by the server and received by a computing device requesting the data;” column 32, line 13, “As shown in FIG. 27, when a user selects a particular tab 2503, panel 2504 will display under that selected tab 2503 a number of thumbnail images 2505 which each depict the biomarker expression associated with a region in the field of view of the biological specimen for that capture region. The field of view represented in main image panel 2502 typically corresponds to a portion of the entire image of a biological specimen, but may desirably show a region about the capture region selected in panel 2504.”).
Regarding dependent claim 3, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein. Additionally, Henderson further discloses wherein the operation (e) includes:
(e-1) segmenting the observation region into a plurality of regions including a first segmented region and a second segmented region (column 33, line 4, “The main image panel 2502 also includes a capture region indicator component 2540 (e.g. a reticle or any other suitable component) for delineating the location of each capture region within the field of view displayed in the main image panel 2502. Once the additional high-resolution images from the selected capture regions have been acquired and loaded into the GUI 2500, the region manager panel 2504, e.g., as is shown in FIG. 27, is configured to include a set of one or more thumbnail images 2505 that represent the newly acquired capture region images;” column 34, line 27, “They can double click on the desired ROI and it is highlighted on the right hand region manager panel 2504. They can then expand the desired ROI to see all of the different visualization types and biomarkers that are available to review;” see Figure 26 also where multiple ROIs are selected and within the main image of 2510);
(e-2) combining, among the plurality of partial images, partial images that correspond to the first segmented region into a composite image of the first segmented region (Figure 26; each area at the specific resolution/level); and
(e-3) combining, among the plurality of partial images, partial images that correspond to the second segmented region into a composite image of the second segmented region (column 33, line 4, “The main image panel 2502 also includes a capture region indicator component 2540 (e.g. a reticle or any other suitable component) for delineating the location of each capture region within the field of view displayed in the main image panel 2502. Once the additional high-resolution images from the selected capture regions have been acquired and loaded into the GUI 2500, the region manager panel 2504, e.g., as is shown in FIG. 27, is configured to include a set of one or more thumbnail images 2505 that represent the newly acquired capture region images;” column 34, line 27, “They can double click on the desired ROI and it is highlighted on the right hand region manager panel 2504. They can then expand the desired ROI to see all of the different visualization types and biomarkers that are available to review;” see Figure 26 also where multiple ROIs are selected and within the main image of 2510), and
the operation (e-3) is executed after completion of the operation (e-2) (The images are generated in an order that allows for a designation of the first region, then a second region).
Regarding dependent claim 5, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein. Additionally, Henderson further discloses wherein
the operation (c) further includes detecting a reduced region of interest that corresponds to a region of interest from the observation region (column 7, line 11, “The images corresponding to the single channel of data may then be stored in a pyramidal format in an order of increasing or decreasing resolution;” each region is read as being stored in the levels of the pyramid; if there is an ROI it can be viewed from different resolutions), and
the operation (d) further includes calculating the region of interest that is not reduced, in accordance with the reduced region of interest (reducing one ROI is read as not reducing the rest of the entire image; said differently viewing one ROI at a specific pyramid level, doesn’t affect the rest of the image at another level).
Regarding dependent claim 6, the rejection of claim 5 is incorporated herein. Additionally, Henderson further discloses wherein
in the operation (a), the partial image is reduced to 1/N times (column 7, line 11, “The images corresponding to the single channel of data may then be stored in a pyramidal format in an order of increasing or decreasing resolution.”), and
in the operation (d), a region that is larger than a region obtained by enlarging the reduced region of interest to N times is determined as the region of interest (column 7, line 11, “ The images corresponding to the single channel of data may then be stored in a pyramidal format in an order of increasing or decreasing resolution;” column 32, line 12, “As shown in FIG. 27, when a user selects a particular tab 2503, panel 2504 will display under that selected tab 2503 a number of thumbnail images 2505 which each depict the biomarker expression associated with a region in the field of view of the biological specimen for that capture region. The field of view represented in main image panel 2502 typically corresponds to a portion of the entire image of a biological specimen, but may desirably show a region about the capture region selected in panel 2504.”).
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.
Claim(s) 2 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Henderson as applied to claim 1 and 3 respectively above, and further in view of U.S. Publication No. 2022/0292721 to Yasuda (hereinafter Yasuda).
Regarding dependent claim 2, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated herein. Additionally, Henderson fails to explicitly disclose wherein
after the operation (d), among the plurality of partial images, partial images that do not correspond to the observation region are deleted from the memory.
However, Yasuda discloses wherein
after the operation (d), among the plurality of partial images, partial images that do not correspond to the observation region are deleted from the memory (paragraph 0078, “Here, an expression “to release the image data from the memory” means that a necessity to save the image data as effective data in the memory is caused to extinguish substantially. Accordingly, this image data may be, for example, deleted from the memory. ”).
Henderson is directed toward “Embodiments provide a user interface including an image panel for displaying a field of view corresponding to an image, or a portion of an image, of a biological specimen, and a biomarker panel for displaying thumbnail images for simultaneously viewing different aspects of a region within the field of view (abstract).”
Yasuda is directed toward “An imaging method according to the invention includes storing image data corresponding to an original image in a memory every time one original image is obtained and calculating positional deviation amounts between the original images (abstract).” As can be easily seen by one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, Henderson and Yasuda are directed toward similar methods of endeavor of image processing and display. Further, Henderson discloses a desire for, “maximizes the speed and efficiency of data access and transmission (column 6, line 62).” Additionally, one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would be well aware that retaining data which is not needed can fill up storage, and cause a slower system. Thus, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the teaching of Yasuda to ensure only necessary data is stored, making an overall more efficient system.
Regarding dependent claim 4, the rejection of claim 3 is incorporated herein. Additionally, Henderson fails to explicitly disclose wherein after the operation (e-2), the partial images that correspond to the first segmented region are deleted from the memory.
However, Yasuda discloses wherein after the operation (e-2), the partial images that correspond to the first segmented region are deleted from the memory (paragraph 0078, “Here, an expression “to release the image data from the memory” means that a necessity to save the image data as effective data in the memory is caused to extinguish substantially. Accordingly, this image data may be, for example, deleted from the memory. ”).
Yasuda is directed toward “An imaging method according to the invention includes storing image data corresponding to an original image in a memory every time one original image is obtained and calculating positional deviation amounts between the original images (abstract).” As can be easily seen by one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention, Henderson and Yasuda are directed toward similar methods of endeavor of image processing and display. Further, Henderson discloses a desire for, “maximizes the speed and efficiency of data access and transmission (column 6, line 62).” Additionally, one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would be well aware that retaining data which is not needed can fill up storage, and cause a slower system. Thus, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to incorporate the teaching of Yasuda to ensure only necessary data is stored, making an overall more efficient system.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
U.S. Publication No. 2014/0292813 to Takayama discloses, “An image processing apparatus includes: an adjusting section configured to detect, when a plurality of observation targets are included in a slide, regions of images of the observation targets from an image of the slide and continuously arrange the regions to thereby generate data of a reconfigured slide image in which arrangement of the observation targets is adjusted (abstract)”
U.S. Publication No. 2015/0241686 to Abe discloses, “an image processing unit configured to perform, on at least two images, image composite processing and image restoration processing based on the degradation information, the at least two images having been acquired, by the imaging unit, by moving a same observation region in different directions (abstract).”
Contact
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Courtney J. Nelson whose telephone number is (571)272-3956. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00 - 4:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, John Villecco can be reached at 571-272-7319. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/COURTNEY JOAN NELSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2661