DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the communication dated 08 December 2025 concerning Application No. 18/487,760 filed on 16 October 20223.
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 .
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 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.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-5 are pending and currently under consideration for patentability; claims 1-5 have been amended.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement submitted on 08 December 2025 has been acknowledged and considered by the Examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments dated 08 December 2025 have been fully considered, but they are not persuasive or 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.
Applicant has amended the claims to recite that the device designates a section of high-quality information of the electrocardiographic waveform with little noise. The Examiner has addressed the amended limitations in the updated text of the rejection below.
Applicant argues that previously applied reference of Deno, which was used to reject claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. §102, describes excluding detection results determined to be noise and therefore teaches away from designating a section with little noise. Assuming arguendo that there is a patentable difference between a device which excludes data with noise and a device which selects high-quality data with little noise, the Examiner respectfully submits that Deno, while not explicitly disclosing the pending claims, nonetheless obviates them under 35 U.S.C. §103. Both Deno’s device and Applicant’s device have the goal of retaining high-quality electrocardiographic data with as little noise as possible. Whereas Applicant’s claim recites that the high-quality information contains “little noise,” Deno provides a solution in which the noise components are removed altogether. Deno therefore provides the best case scenario of Applicant’s claims, particularly that the “little noise” is so little as to be essentially zero. Therefore, assuming that a difference remains between “little noise” and “no noise,” the Examiner respectfully submits that the skilled artisan, upon reading Deno’s disclosure, would be motivated to retain information of high quality and little to no noise.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-3 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deno et al. (WO 2020/039830 A1). The Examiner notes that Deno shares a common assignee with the instant application and qualifies as prior art based on its publication date of 27 February 2020 being more than one year prior to the effective filing date of the instant application, which is 28 May 2021. The Examiner has also provided a copy of the Deno reference in its original Japanese as well as an English translation, with the citations made herein referring to the English translation.
Regarding claim 1, Deno describes a biometric information measuring device (p. 7: “blood pressure measurement device 1 is an example of a measurement device that can measure a user's blood pressure and electrocardiogram”) comprising
a blood pressure measurement unit including a cuff configured to compress a target measurement site of a subject (p. 7: “pressing cuff”), a pump configured to supply a gas into the cuff (p. 7: “a pump that supplies a fluid to the press cuff”), an exhaust valve configured to adjust discharge of the gas from within the cuff (p. 7: “an exhaust valve provided in the press cuff”), a pressure detection unit configured to detect a cuff pressure that is a pressure in the cuff (p. 7: “the pressure acquisition unit 2 acquires pressure information from, for example, a pressure sensor provided on the pressing cuff”), a cuff pressure control unit configured to control the pump and the exhaust valve (p. 7: “the press cuff control unit 3 controls the state of the press cuff by controlling, for example, a pump that supplies a fluid to the press cuff and an exhaust valve provided in the press cuff”), and a blood pressure calculation unit configured to calculate a blood pressure of the subject (p. 7: “blood pressure calculation unit 4 calculates the blood pressure of the user based on the pressure information”), the blood pressure measurement unit being configured to measure the blood pressure of the subject in at least one of a pressurization process of increasing the cuff pressure and a depressurization process of decreasing the cuff pressure (p. 7: “the blood pressure calculation unit 4 calculates the blood pressure based on, for example, a change in the pressure in the pressing cuff during the pressing process of the pressing cuff…may calculate the blood pressure based on, for example, a change in the pressure in the pressing cuff during the depressurizing process of the pressing cuff”)
an electrocardiographic measurement unit (p.7: “electrocardiogram measuring unit”) configured to process an electrical signal acquired through a plurality of electrodes contactable to a skin of the subject to measure an electrocardiographic waveform (p. 12: “in a state where each of the first electrode 30 and the second electrode 31 is in contact with the skin of the user”)
and an electrocardiographic storage unit configured to store information of the measured electrocardiographic waveform in association with a time (p. 9: “the blood pressure measurement device 10 has a clock function, and can transmit the blood pressure information and the electrocardiogram information to the mobile terminal 11 in association with the measurement date and time…the mobile terminal 11 can store the received blood pressure information and electrocardiogram information together with the measurement date and time”)
wherein the biometric information measuring device further includes a section designation unit configured to designate a section of high-quality information of the electrocardiographic waveform in at least one of the pressurization process and the depressurization process based on a progress of measurement of the blood pressure of the subject in parallel with measurement of the electrocardiographic waveform from the information of the electrocardiographic waveform stored in the electrocardiographic storage unit (p. 5: “in the measurement device according to the above example, the electrocardiogram detection information acquisition unit acquires the detection information from the pressurization process to the decompression process, the generation unit generates an electrocardiographic waveform that reflects only the detection information obtained in the pressurized state holding process among the obtained detection information;” p. 7: “the electrocardiogram measurement unit 5 measures the user's electrocardiogram from the time when the pressing of the pressing cuff is stopped to the time when the depressing of the pressing cuff is started…the electrocardiograph 5 maintains the press cuff in a pressurized state in the pressurized state holding process)
Specifically regarding the designation of a section of the electrocardiographic waveform with little noise, the Examiner respectfully notes that, although Deno later describes that the electrocardiographic waveform generation unit removes the electrocardiographic waveform data generated during the pressurization and depressurization processes (p. 16: “the electrocardiographic waveform generation unit 66 acquires detection information from the pressurizing process to the depressurizing process…electrocardiogram waveform generation unit 66 determines that the detection results in the pressurizing process and the depressurizing process among the acquired detection information are noise”), Deno’s device nonetheless identifies these sections of the electrocardiographic data, thereby reading on the claim limitations of designating a section of high-quality electrocardiographic waveform information during the pressurization or depressurization processes. Deno also describes that the electrocardiographic waveform generation unit excludes detection results determined to be noise, which the Examiner respectfully submits is analogous to designating high-quality information with little noise. However, to the extent that any modification would be required of Deno’s device in order to meet the pending limitations of designating high-quality information as being that information with little noise, the Examiner respectfully submits that such modification would be obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed, as doing so advantageously allows the noise component of the data to be minimized and the higher-quality electrocardiographic data to be used for further analysis.
Regarding claim 2, Deno describes wherein the section designation unit is configured to designate the section of the information of the electrocardiographic waveform based on the cuff pressure in the measurement of the blood pressure (p. 7).
Regarding claim 3, Deno describes wherein the section designation unit is configured to designate the section of the information of the electrocardiographic waveform based on a time progressing in the measurement of the blood pressure (pp. 18-19).
Regarding claim 5, Deno describes wherein the section designation unit is configured to designate the section of the information of the electrocardiographic waveform based on the blood pressure of the subject calculated by the blood pressure calculation unit (p. 7).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deno in view of Usuda et al. (US 2016/0029908 A1).
Regarding claim 4, Deno suggests the biometric information measuring device according to claim 1, including use of the oscillometric method for detecting blood pressures (p. 7), but Deno does not explicitly disclose a pulse wave amplitude calculation unit configured to calculate a pulse wave amplitude from the cuff pressure detected by the pressure detection unit, wherein the section designation unit is configured to designate the section of the information of the electrocardiographic waveform based on the pulse wave amplitude. However, Usuda also describes a biometric information measuring device ([0023]), including a pulse wave amplitude calculation unit configured to calculate a pulse wave amplitude from the cuff pressure detected by the pressure detection unit ([0034] - [0035]). As Usuda is also directed towards measuring biometric information and is in a similar field of endeavor, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to incorporate a pulse wave amplitude determination step similar to that described by Usuda when using the device described by Deno, as doing so advantageously allows the resulting device to determine the systolic and diastolic phases of the oscillating blood pressure waveform more accurately. The Examiner respectfully submits that, as Deno already describes wherein the section designation unit is configured to designate the section of the information of the electrocardiographic waveform based on the pulse wave (pp. 5, 7), an obvious combination of the references would result in the section being designated based on the amplitude of the pulse wave, as determined by Usuda.
Statement on Communication via Internet
Communications via Internet e-mail are at the discretion of the applicant. Without a written authorization by applicant in place, the USPTO will not respond via Internet e-mail to any Internet correspondence which contains information subject to the confidentiality requirement as set forth in 35 U.S.C. 122. Where a written authorization is given by the applicant, communications via Internet e-mail, other than those under 35 U.S.C. 132 or which otherwise require a signature, may be used. USPTO employees are NOT permitted to initiate communications with applicants via Internet e-mail unless there is a written authorization of record in the patent application by the applicant. The following is a sample authorization form which may be used by applicant:
“Recognizing that Internet communications are not secure, I hereby authorize the USPTO to communicate with the undersigned and practitioners in accordance with 37 CFR 1.33 and 37 CFR 1.34 concerning any subject matter of this application by video conferencing, instant messaging, or electronic mail. I understand that a copy of these communications will be made of record in the application file.”
Please refer to MPEP 502.03 for guidance on Communications via Internet.
Conclusion
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 Ankit D. Tejani, whose telephone number is 571-272-5140. The Examiner may normally be reached on Monday through Friday, 8:30AM through 5:00PM EST. 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, Carl Layno, can be reached by telephone at 571-272-4949. 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 at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (in USA or Canada) or 571-272-1000.
/Ankit D Tejani/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3792