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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application.
Drawings
Color photographs and color drawings are not accepted in utility applications unless a petition filed under 37 CFR 1.84(a)(2) is granted. Any such petition must be accompanied by the appropriate fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(h), one set of color drawings or color photographs, as appropriate, if submitted via the USPTO patent electronic filing system or three sets of color drawings or color photographs, as appropriate, if not submitted via the via USPTO patent electronic filing system, and, unless already present, an amendment to include the following language as the first paragraph of the brief description of the drawings section of the specification:
The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawing(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.
Color photographs will be accepted if the conditions for accepting color drawings and black and white photographs have been satisfied. See 37 CFR 1.84(b)(2).
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 1-18 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.
Claim 1 recites “the fluidic connection” on lines 9-10 where there is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation, as no fluidic connection has been recited prior.
Is it referring to the connection between the second reservoir and the fluidic channel? Or based on claim 19 lines 9-10 was it meant for it to be “the fluidic channel”?
Claims 2-18 are rejected by virtue of being dependent on a rejected claim.
Please note that claim 5 recites “the fluidic connection” where this would need to be changed depending on claim 1.
Claim 5 recites “the inlet reservoir, the outlet reservoir” where there is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation, as no inlet reservoir or outlet reservoir have been previously recited.
Claim 10 recites “the outlet-side fluid with respect to the inlet-side fluid.” where there is insufficient antecedent basis for “the outlet-side fluid” and “the inlet-side fluid” as neither have been recited prior.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 19-20 are allowed.
Claims 1-18 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claims 1 and 20, the closest prior art of record is Thorslund (US-2011/0217771-A1). Thorslund teaches where a fluidic culture device is generated by using soft lithography using PDMS (Throslund; [0129]). The fluidic culture device 100 seen in Figure 3 includes a substrate 101 that includes an open culture chamber 110 (Throslund; [0045], [0046]). It is described by [0047] that fluid channels 120 and 130 have respective inlets 140 and 150, and that instead of the common outlet 160 seen in Figure 3 that each channel 120 and 130 may have a dedicated outlet 160. [0079] describes where respective fluid reservoirs 240 and 250 are attached to inlets 140 and 150, [0080] describes where there may also be an outlet reservoir connected to outlet 160.
It is evidenced by Orrick (WO-2008/100559-A2) that PDMS is a semi-permeable material (Orrick; page 53 lines 19-21).
However, Thorslund does not teach or even suggest a plug positioned between the second reservoir and the fluidic channel, taking the second reservoir to be the reservoir connected to the outlet 160 and the channel to be fluid channel 120 as best seen in Figure 4. It would not have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify Thorslund to include a plug.
Additionally, even if the culture chamber 110 which is described to hold a gel/matrix in [0012] of Thorslund is mapped to the plug, the location of the culture chamber 110 is not “between” the reservoir connected to the outlet 160 and the fluid channel 120. Rather, the culture chamber 110 is seen in Figure 4 to be along the fluid channel 120.
Schaffer (US-2023/0132012-A1) does teach a typical two-chamber, airway barrier bioreactor 300 with gravity perfusion, however Schaffer does not describe the material used to form the bioreactor chambers and does not teach or suggest the usage of a plug (Schaffer; [0127], Figures 3A-B).
Conclusion
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/S.Y.L./Examiner, Art Unit 1796
/MELVIN C. MAYES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1759
