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 the national stage entry under 35 USC 371 of PCT/US2002/053531 filed 20 December 2022 which claims the benefit of domestic priority of US Provisional Application nos. 63/344,224, 63/330,437, and 63/292,761 respectively filed 20 May 2022, 13 April 2022, and 22 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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Rajagopalan et al. (US Publication no. 2017/0333122).
In regard to claim 1, Rajagopalan et al. discloses a method of treating a medical condition of a patient (para 3), the method comprising (referring to figure 2, para 214):
selecting a patient with a medical condition (para 214, In Step 510, a patient is selected for treatment); and
performing a tissue treatment procedure 570 comprising treating target tissue (para 236), wherein the target tissue comprises one or more segments of the selected patient's intestinal tissue, and wherein the tissue segments comprise duodenal mucosal tissue and/or duodenal submucosal tissue (para 10, 11, and 236 wherein the tissue treated can comprise one or more mucosal layers of the duodenum; treatment includes RF or microwave ablation (para 169)); wherein
the method treats a medical condition of the patient selected from the group consisting of:
mucosal dysfunction (e.g. Crohn’s disease para 163, celiac disease para 164; para 18, patients with impaired insulin resistance);
mucosal hyperplasia;
mucosal hypoplasia;
duodenal dysfunction, such as duodenal mucosal dysfunction (para 154, configured to counteract duodenal mucosal changes that cause an intestinal hormonal impairment leading to insulin resistance in patients; para 157, a list is provided of other disorders that are considered related to the duodenal mucosal dysfunction or may be improved by treatment of duodenal mucosal tissues)
diet-induced intestinal maladaptation; and
combinations thereof.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN T GEDEON whose telephone number is (571)272-3447. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 am to 5:30 PM ET.
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/BRIAN T GEDEON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3796 13 February 2026
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