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 .
Priority
This application is a national stage entry under 35 USC 371 of PCT/CN2022/112967 filed 17 August 2022 which claims the benefit of foreign priority from Chinese Application no. 202111681706.5 filed 29 December 2021.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 8, 11, and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu et al. (US Patent no. 10,188,497).
In regard to claim 1, Liu et al. disclose a detachment mechanism for enabling delivery and detachment of an implant 1, comprising a detacher 3 (lock 3 is considered equivalent to the detacher), a first control member 4 (control wire) and a second control member 11 (connecting wire) (col 4 lines 15-45),
a distal end of the detacher 3 configured for engagement of the implant 1 therewith e.g. as shown in any of figures 3, 4 or 6-8, lock 3 is at distal end of catheter 5 and is configured to engage closure head 2 of implant 1),
the detacher 3 defining a through hole 7 (col 4 lines 22-27, lock hole 7 defined in lock 3 is considered to comprise the claimed through hole, col 6 lines 46-49), the first control member 4 and the second control member 11 detachably engaged with or directly joined to each other (as shown in either of figures 3, 4, or 6-8), a distal end of the first control member 4 and a distal end of the second control member 11 configured to be inserted into the through hole (col 4 lines 25-27 and 42-47),
wherein when the distal end of the first control member 11 and the distal end of the second control member 11 are passed through the through hole 7 and engaged with each other (col 4 lines 25-27 and 42-47), the first control member 4 and the second control member 11 are locked against the detacher, and wherein when the first control member is pulled (via control component 21), the first control member 4 is removed from the through hole 7 (col 7 lines 18-25), the second control member 11 is unlocked from the detacher 3 with the removal of the first control member 4, thereby detaching the first control member and the second control member from the detacher (col 5 lines 13-20).
In regard to claim 2, wherein in Liu et al. the through hole 7 of the detacher 3 comprises a straight hole and an interconnected hole in communication with the straight hole 8/14 (col 6 lines 46-49, the hole 7 is designed as a through hole and necessarily comprises these structures, also see col 5 lines 53-60, the lock hole 7 is the interconnected hole and the inner cavity 8 and hole 14 is the straight hole, wherein element 4 moves through the cavity 8 and hole 14), wherein the distal end of the second control member 11 is inserted in the interconnected hole (figures 6-8), wherein the distal end of the first control member 4 is inserted in the straight hole 8, and wherein the first control member 4 and the second control member 11 are detachably engaged with each other at a location where the interconnected hole comes into communication with the straight hole (col 5 lines 53-60).
In regard to claim 3, in Liu et al., the distal end of the second control member 11 defines a control hole, wherein the first control member 4 is passed through the control hole (col 4 lines 46-47), thereby engaging the first control member and the second control member with each other, and wherein when the first control member is removed from the control hole, the first control member and the second control member are disengaged from each other (this is shown in figures 6 and 7 where control wire 4 passes through connection wire 11).
In regard to claim 8, in Liu et al., the through hole 7 of the detacher 3 is a straight hole (as in figures 6-8), an axis of the straight hole is perpendicular to an axis of the detachment mechanism (such as cavity 8 with hole 14 also shown in figures 6-8).
In regard to claim 11, in Liu et al., the detachment mechanism further comprises a push tube (e.g., catheter 5), and wherein the first control member 4 and the second control member 11 are passed through the push tube and engaged with the detacher (figures 7 and 8 show that the wires 4 and 11 pass through inner cavity 8 and hole 14 of the catheter 5).
In regard to claim 15, Liu et al. describes a delivery catheter 6 according the limitations of the detachment mechanism of claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-7, 9, 10, and 12-14 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the claims recite structural limitations that depart from the teachings of Liu et al. such that the modification to Liu et al. in this manner is not considered to be sufficiently taught or suggested by the prior art.
Conclusion
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/BRIAN T GEDEON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3796 6 January 2026