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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/22/2026 has been entered.
Claims status
Claims 1-4 and 6-21 amended on 05/22/2026.
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) 1-4 and 6-21 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pysnik (WO 2008/057952 Published: 15 May 2008, CPC G16H 10/60) in view of PUJOL, CN 102933251 A, Date Published: 2013-02-13, CPC A61M 16/205.
Regarding claim 1:
Pysnik described a system comprising one or more servers configured to: transmit a first graphical layout over a network to a computing device for display (page 8, display patient identification data 64), wherein the first graphical layout comprises a search field; receive a search query entered into the search field for (a) one or more patients (page 9, search parameter), each of which is associated with a respiratory therapy device (page 9, respiration to identify breathing patterns), or (b) one or more of the respiratory therapy devices associated with the one or more patients; transmit a list of patients or a list of respiratory therapy devices over the network to the computing device for display in the first graphical layout in response to receiving the search query (page 9, the listing of patient data 80); transmit a second graphical layout over the network to the computing device for display, wherein the second graphical layout comprises (a) information about a selected respiratory therapy device that is (i) in the list of respiratory therapy devices (fig. 5, ACME24, ACME 8) or (ii) associated with a patient in the list of patients and (b) current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (fig. 5, Aaron Ginifer P-Acme24 , Adam Judi-Acme 6 ), wherein the information about the selected respiratory therapy device comprises a model number or a serial number (page 12, serial number), and wherein the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device comprise a pressure setting (page 12, pressure setting), a humidity setting, a temperature setting, an automatic start setting, or an automatic stop setting; receive an adjustment request entered through the second graphical layout for adjusting at least one of the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (page 14, adjusted by user 14); and transmit a command to the selected respiratory therapy device in response to receiving the adjustment request (page 20, selects send button 140, fig. 15, send 140).
Pysnik does not described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting.
PUJOL described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting (page 8, controlled desired humidification level), to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions. (page 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify Pysnik to have the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting taught by PUJOL to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions.
Regarding claim 19:
Pysnik described a method comprising: transmitting a first graphical layout over a network to a computing device for display (page 8, display patient identification data 64), wherein the first graphical layout comprises a search field ;receiving a search query entered into the search field for (a) one or more patients (page 9, search parameter), each of which is associated with a respiratory therapy device (page 9, respiration to identify breathing patterns), or (b) one or more of the respiratory therapy devices associated with the one or more patients; transmitting a list of patients or a list of respiratory therapy devices over the network to the computing device for display in the first graphical layout in response to receiving the search query (page 9, the listing of patient data 80);
transmitting a second graphical layout over the network to the computing device for display, wherein the second graphical layout comprises (a) information about a selected respiratory therapy device that is (i) in the list of respiratory therapy devices (fig. 5, ACME24, ACME 8) or (ii) associated with a patient in the list of patients and (b) current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (fig. 5, Aaron Ginifer P-Acme24 , Adam Judi-Acme 6 ), wherein the information about the selected respiratory therapy device comprises a model number or a serial number (page 12, serial number), and wherein the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device comprise a pressure setting (page 12, pressure setting), a humidity setting, a temperature setting, an automatic start setting, or an automatic stop setting; receiving an adjustment request entered through the second graphical layout for adjusting at least one of the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device(page 14, adjusted by user 14); andtransmitting a command to the selected respiratory therapy device in response to receiving the adjustment request (page 20, selects send button 140, fig. 15, send 140), wherein the command instructs the selected respiratory therapy device to implement the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings (page 12 ,the features of Fig. 15: In particular, once the appropriate settings are selected, prescription data 102 can be sent to a Smartcard 22 or directly to patient device 16 by selecting send button 140”).
Pysnik does not described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting.
PUJOL described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting (page 8, controlled desired humidification level), to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions. (page 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify Pysnik to have the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting taught by PUJOL to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions.
Regarding claim 20:
Pysnik described a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to (page 2, a computer-implemented system with data): transmit a first graphical layout over a network to a computing device for display (page 8, display patient identification data 64), wherein the first graphical layout comprises a search field (page 9, search parameter); receive a search query entered into the search field for (a) one or more patients, each of which is associated with a respiratory therapy device (page 9, respiration to identify breathing patterns), or (b) one or more respiratory therapy devices associated with the one or more patients; transmit a list of patients or a list of respiratory therapy devices over the network to the computing device for display in the first graphical layout in response to receiving the search query (page 9, the listing of patient data 80); transmit a second graphical layout over the network to the computing device for display, wherein the second graphical layout comprises (a) information about a selected respiratory therapy device that is (i) in the list of respiratory therapy devices (fig. 5, ACME24, ACME 8) or (ii) associated with a patient in the list of patients and (b) current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (fig. 5, Aaron Ginifer P-Acme24 , Adam Judi-Acme 6 ), wherein the information about the selected respiratory therapy device comprises a model number (page 12, serial number) or a serial number, and wherein the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device comprise a pressure setting (page 12, pressure setting), a humidity setting, a temperature setting, an automatic start setting, or an automatic stop setting;receive an adjustment request entered through the second graphical layout for adjusting at least one of the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (page 14, adjusted by user 14); and transmit a command to the selected respiratory therapy device in response to receiving the adjustment request, wherein the command instructs the selected respiratory therapy device to implement the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings (page 12 ,the features of Fig. 15: In particular, once the appropriate settings are selected, prescription data 102 can be sent to a Smartcard 22 or directly to patient device 16 by selecting send button 140”).
Pysnik does not described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting.
PUJOL described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting (page 8, controlled desired humidification level), to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions. (page 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify Pysnik to have the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting taught by PUJOL to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions.
Regarding claim 2, Pysnik further described wherein the second graphical layout is transmitted in response to receiving identifying information for the selected respiratory therapy device (fig. 5, AEME 24, ACME 6, fig. 13, device model).
Regarding claim 3, Pysnik further described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the pressure setting (page 3, adjusts the pressure).
Regarding claim 4, Pysnik further described wherein adjusting the pressure setting comprises setting an expiratory pressure level (page 4, 6, level pressure).
Regarding claim 6, Pysnik further described wherein adjusting the humidity setting comprises increasing or decreasing a humidity of a flow of breathable gas delivered to a patient by the selected respiratory therapy device (page 4, increased compliance monitoring, page 12, humidifier data).
Regarding claim 7, Pysnik further described adjusting the temperature setting (page 2, environment in the area of patient, page 19, adjustment).
Regarding claim 8, Pysnik further described increasing or decreasing a temperature of a flow of breathable gas delivered to a patient by the selected respiratory therapy device (page 4, increased compliance monitoring, page 3, flow of fluid to the airway of the patient).
Regarding claim 9, Pysnik further described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises enabling or disabling at least one of the automatic start setting or the automatic stop setting (page 17, automatically or selectively).
Regarding claim 10, Pysnik further described wherein the automatic start setting causes the selected respiratory therapy device to automatically begin a treatment when a patient puts on a patient interface of the selected respiratory therapy device, and wherein the automatic stop setting causes the selected respiratory therapy device to automatically end the treatment when the patient takes off the patient interface (page 17, automatically or selectively downloading process).
Regarding claim 11, Pysnik further described information about a detected fault
associated with the selected respiratory therapy device (page 8, the system may examine the data associated with respiration to identify breathing patterns
such the patient), and wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings addresses the detected fault (page 17, auto error/alert window).
Regarding claim 12, Pysnik further described wherein the one or more servers are further configured to receive diagnostic data relating to the detected fault after a patient has stopped using the selected respiratory therapy device for a predetermined period of time (page 17, auto error/alert window , page 21, plan name, expiration time period).
Regarding claim 13, Pysnik further described wherein one or more fault icons are displayed in the first graphical layout for one or more of the respiratory therapy devices in the list of respiratory therapy devices that have experienced a fault (page 26, icons, page 28, therapy and error information from remote devices).
Regarding claim 14, Pysnik further described wherein the one or more servers are further configured to transmit a log of diagnostic data to the computing device in response to receiving a selection of one of the fault icons (page 21, log, page 26, icons, page 28, therapy and error information from remote devices).
Regarding claim 15, Pysnik further described wherein one or more usage icons are displayed in the first graphical layout for one or more of the respiratory therapy devices in the list of respiratory therapy devices (page 21, patient device 16, page 26, icons, page 28, therapy and error information from remote devices).
Regarding claim 16, Pysnik further described wherein at least one of the usage icons indicates whether an air leak was detected (page 25, leak notifications).
Regarding claim 17, Pysnik further described wherein the one or more servers are further configured to transmit a third graphical layout over the network to the computing device for display, and wherein the third graphical layout comprises a log of activities that have occurred on the selected respiratory therapy device during a predetermined period of time (fig, 44, AME24 multiple graphical layout time graph).
Regarding claim 18, Pysnik further described wherein the third graphical layout comprises a date, a time, and a description of each activity (fig. 44, date time of ACEM44 therapy data).
Regarding claim 21, Pysnik further described information about ambient conditions of the selected respiratory therapy device (page 12, pressure setting).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to the amended claims have been fully considered the argument as follow:
Applicant argues:
fail to teach or suggest receiving, through a remotely transmitted graphical layout, an adjustment request for modifying a current humidity setting of a selected respiratory therapy device and transmitting a corresponding command to the device to implement the adjustment. (page 8 of the remarks section)
The actual language in claim 1 is different from the argument, the actual being claim in claim 1 is:
Regarding claim 1:
Pysnik described a system comprising one or more servers configured to: transmit a first graphical layout over a network to a computing device for display (page 8, display patient identification data 64), wherein the first graphical layout comprises a search field; receive a search query entered into the search field for (a) one or more patients (page 9, search parameter), each of which is associated with a respiratory therapy device (page 9, respiration to identify breathing patterns), or (b) one or more of the respiratory therapy devices associated with the one or more patients; transmit a list of patients or a list of respiratory therapy devices over the network to the computing device for display in the first graphical layout in response to receiving the search query (page 9, the listing of patient data 80); transmit a second graphical layout over the network to the computing device for display, wherein the second graphical layout comprises (a) information about a selected respiratory therapy device that is (i) in the list of respiratory therapy devices (fig. 5, ACME24, ACME 8) or (ii) associated with a patient in the list of patients and (b) current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (fig. 5, Aaron Ginifer P-Acme24 , Adam Judi-Acme 6 ), wherein the information about the selected respiratory therapy device comprises a model number or a serial number (page 12, serial number), and wherein the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device comprise a pressure setting (page 12, pressure setting), a humidity setting, a temperature setting, an automatic start setting, or an automatic stop setting; receive an adjustment request entered through the second graphical layout for adjusting at least one of the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (page 14, adjusted by user 14); and transmit a command to the selected respiratory therapy device in response to receiving the adjustment request (page 20, selects send button 140, fig. 15, send 140).
Pysnik does not described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting.
PUJOL described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting (page 8, controlled desired humidification level), to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions. (page 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify Pysnik to have the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting taught by PUJOL to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions.
Regarding claim 19:
Pysnik described a method comprising: transmitting a first graphical layout over a network to a computing device for display (page 8, display patient identification data 64), wherein the first graphical layout comprises a search field ;receiving a search query entered into the search field for (a) one or more patients (page 9, search parameter), each of which is associated with a respiratory therapy device (page 9, respiration to identify breathing patterns), or (b) one or more of the respiratory therapy devices associated with the one or more patients; transmitting a list of patients or a list of respiratory therapy devices over the network to the computing device for display in the first graphical layout in response to receiving the search query (page 9, the listing of patient data 80);
transmitting a second graphical layout over the network to the computing device for display, wherein the second graphical layout comprises (a) information about a selected respiratory therapy device that is (i) in the list of respiratory therapy devices (fig. 5, ACME24, ACME 8) or (ii) associated with a patient in the list of patients and (b) current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (fig. 5, Aaron Ginifer P-Acme24 , Adam Judi-Acme 6 ), wherein the information about the selected respiratory therapy device comprises a model number or a serial number (page 12, serial number), and wherein the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device comprise a pressure setting (page 12, pressure setting), a humidity setting, a temperature setting, an automatic start setting, or an automatic stop setting; receiving an adjustment request entered through the second graphical layout for adjusting at least one of the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device(page 14, adjusted by user 14); andtransmitting a command to the selected respiratory therapy device in response to receiving the adjustment request (page 20, selects send button 140, fig. 15, send 140), wherein the command instructs the selected respiratory therapy device to implement the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings (page 12 ,the features of Fig. 15: In particular, once the appropriate settings are selected, prescription data 102 can be sent to a Smartcard 22 or directly to patient device 16 by selecting send button 140”).
Pysnik does not described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting.
PUJOL described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting (page 8, controlled desired humidification level), to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions. (page 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify Pysnik to have the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting taught by PUJOL to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions.
Regarding claim 20:
Pysnik described a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to (page 2, a computer-implemented system with data): transmit a first graphical layout over a network to a computing device for display (page 8, display patient identification data 64), wherein the first graphical layout comprises a search field (page 9, search parameter); receive a search query entered into the search field for (a) one or more patients, each of which is associated with a respiratory therapy device (page 9, respiration to identify breathing patterns), or (b) one or more respiratory therapy devices associated with the one or more patients; transmit a list of patients or a list of respiratory therapy devices over the network to the computing device for display in the first graphical layout in response to receiving the search query (page 9, the listing of patient data 80); transmit a second graphical layout over the network to the computing device for display, wherein the second graphical layout comprises (a) information about a selected respiratory therapy device that is (i) in the list of respiratory therapy devices (fig. 5, ACME24, ACME 8) or (ii) associated with a patient in the list of patients and (b) current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (fig. 5, Aaron Ginifer P-Acme24 , Adam Judi-Acme 6 ), wherein the information about the selected respiratory therapy device comprises a model number (page 12, serial number) or a serial number, and wherein the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device comprise a pressure setting (page 12, pressure setting), a humidity setting, a temperature setting, an automatic start setting, or an automatic stop setting;receive an adjustment request entered through the second graphical layout for adjusting at least one of the current settings of the selected respiratory therapy device (page 14, adjusted by user 14); and transmit a command to the selected respiratory therapy device in response to receiving the adjustment request, wherein the command instructs the selected respiratory therapy device to implement the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings (page 12 ,the features of Fig. 15: In particular, once the appropriate settings are selected, prescription data 102 can be sent to a Smartcard 22 or directly to patient device 16 by selecting send button 140”).
Pysnik does not described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting.
PUJOL described wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting (page 8, controlled desired humidification level), to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions. (page 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify Pysnik to have the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings comprises adjusting the humidity setting taught by PUJOL to have consistent humidifying quantity to the user to meet user requirement, environmental conditions.
b. Applicant also argued the combination is improper hindsight reasoning in the rejection (page 10)
In response to applicant's argument that the examiner's conclusion of obviousness is based upon improper hindsight reasoning, it must be recognized that any judgment on obviousness is in a sense necessarily a reconstruction based upon hindsight reasoning. But so long as it takes into account only knowledge which was within the level of ordinary skill at the time the claimed invention was made, and does not include knowledge gleaned only from the applicant's disclosure, such a reconstruction is proper. See In re McLaughlin, 443 F.2d 1392, 170 USPQ 209 (CCPA 1971).
Regarding claim 11 (page 11 of remarks)
Regarding claim 11, Pysnik further described information about a detected fault
associated with the selected respiratory therapy device (page 8, the system may examine the data associated with respiration to identify breathing patterns such the patient), and wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings addresses the detected fault (page 17, auto error/alert window).
In page 17 Pysnik described:
“the appropriate data will be obtained from Smartcard 22 and a "successful acquisition" message will be displayed to user 14. If patient data 80
and the device data 114 do not match, an error/alert window will be displayed, as seen in FIG. 37. As illustrated, the window will display a message that the information does not match in order to inform user 14 of the error.”
This to be understood as wherein the adjustment to the at least one of the current settings addresses the detected fault
In view of the evidence, applicant's arguments with respect to the amended claims have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. See the examiner’s position as discussed above.
Contact information
5. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Tung Lau whose telephone number is (571)272-2274, email is Tungs.lau@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached on Tuesday-Friday 7:00 AM-5:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, TURNER SHELBY, can be reached on 571-272-6334. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TUNG S LAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857
Technology Center 2800
June 1, 2026
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