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 .
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.
Claim 18 recites the limitation "the pump” in line 11. The Examiner is interpreting the claim to refer to the “pump for conveying dialysis liquid” in line 2. The Examiner suggests renaming the pump in line to as a “dialysis pump” and amending the second reference to refer to the “dialysis pump.”
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 18-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2013/0030344 to Gronau et al.
In the specification and figures, Gronau teaches the method and apparatus as claimed by Applicant.
With regard to claims 18-21, 23, Gronau discloses a method for removing gas accumulations from an extracorporeal circuit comprising the steps of stopping or reversing the blood pump against a closed venous clamp, which, when the clamp is released (after generation of a predetermined maximum pressure), generates a negative transmembrane pressure of the clot catcher/filter 100, and the air bubbles are carried away (see ¶0074). Gronau does not explicitly teach the step of detecting air bubbles, but such a step is implied by the reference—there’s no reason to perform the procedure unless bubbles are present. Gronau further discloses an embodiment wherein the blood pump may be reversed and the treatment apparatus (hydraulics of the treatment apparatus 4) may continue running, creating a negative transmembrane pressure at the clot catcher (see ¶0079). Taken together, the embodiments suggest a method of clearing bubbles from a membrane by changing the direction and pressure of flow through the membrane.
With regard to claim 22, Gronau discloses that use of the substitute pump is not necessary.
With regard to claim 24, Gronau does not disclose the desired transmembrane pressure. However, It has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation. See MPEP § 2144.05(II)(A).
With regard to claim 25, Gronau does not disclose stopping the negative transmembrane pressure operation after a certain amount of time, but it is within the skill of a worker in the art to stop a procedure when it is not needed.
With regard to claims 26 and 31, Gronau does not disclose an ultrafiltration pump. However, the term “ultrafiltration pump” does not distinguish from a pump that pushes fluid towards a filtration medium, such as a membrane. As such, the pumps in the Gronau reference, that move fluids toward a filtration medium, satisfy the limitations of the claims.
With regard to claim 27, Gronau discloses a control device 29 capable of performing the method of claim 18.
With regard to claims 28-30, 32, Gronau discloses an apparatus for gas removal comprising a blood pump 11, air bubble detectors 25a, 25b, pump for conveying dialysis (hydraulics of treatment apparatus 4), a control device, extracorporeal circuit 1, and blood filter 19 (see FIG 2, ¶0079, 0068, 0069).
With regard to claims 33-35, Gronau discloses a digital storage medium, and a computer with a program code (see ¶0011-0013).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.:
US 2017/0296733
Method of draining an extracorporeal circuit
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LESLIE R DEAK whose telephone number is (571)272-4943. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9am to 5:30pm.
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/LESLIE R DEAK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3799 17 November 2025