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 § 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 5-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yeh et al. (US 11344400).
Yeh et al. discloses in figures 1-5, a delivery catheter (120) having a lumen (125); an elongate delivery wire assembly (300,350) at least partially disposed within the delivery catheter lumen (125), the delivery wire assembly (300,350) being translatable relative to the delivery catheter and having an implant (200) loading region configured for seating the implant when a distal portion of the delivery wire assembly (300,350) including the implant (200) is constrained within the delivery catheter lumen and the implant is in the compressed delivery configuration; and an implant distal protection feature (500) comprising a central portion coupled to the delivery wire assembly distally of the implant loading region, and a peripheral portion comprising a plurality of circumferentially spaced elongated stems (located along ref 500) with petal-like members (520) that extend proximally from the central portion and at least partially cover a distal end portion of the implant (200) when the implant and implant distal protection feature (500) are constrained within the delivery catheter lumen (125), wherein the peripheral portion is configured to remain extending proximally from the central portion when the implant is released from the delivery catheter lumen and assumes the expanded deployed configuration, wherein the stems (located along ref 500) and petal-like members (520) are substantially evenly circumferentially spaced around the delivery wire assembly, wherein the petal-like members (520) comprise an arcuate (fig 3, 4), wherein the central portion of the implant distal protection feature is rotatably coupled to the delivery wire assembly, wherein the implant distal protection feature (500) appears covering up to about twenty percent of a total length of the implant (200) when the implant and implant distal protection feature (500) are constrained within the delivery catheter lumen (125) (see col. 2, line 43 – col 3, line 5), and wherein the peripheral portion of the distal protection feature (500) comprises more than three stems with petal-like members (see col. 7, lines 27-34).
The applied reference has a common Assignee with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2). This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B) if the same invention is not being claimed; or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed in the reference and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN THAO TRUONG whose telephone number is (571)272-4705. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7am-4pm.
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/KEVIN T TRUONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3775
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