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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 18-20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 18, change “reducing a clock speed of the at least one processing device” to “reducing a clock speed of the computing device”.
Claim 19, change “the speed of at least one processing device” to “the speed of the computing device”.
Claim 20, change “reducing the clock speed of the at least one processing device” to “reducing the clock speed of the computing device”.
Appropriate changes are required.
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.
Claims 1 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312).
As per claim 1, ‘312 discloses a medical device for capturing one or more physiological variables of a patient (e.g., See ‘312; [0011], which discloses a handheld diabetes management device that measures blood glucose), the medical device comprising:
a housing (e.g., See ‘312; [0068] and [0075], which discloses that the handheld diabetes management device and the enclosure of the handheld diabetes management device);
a display device mounted on the housing (e.g., See ‘312; [0037], which discloses that the handheld diabetes management device includes a display device);
ports on the housing for connecting one or more peripheral sensors (e.g., See ‘312; [0034] and [0037], which disclose that healthcare devices can communicate personal health information to the handheld diabetes management device through a USB port or other interfaces);
at least one processing device (e.g., See ‘312; [0037], which discloses a processing module 408); and
at least one computer readable data storage device storing software instructions that, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to (e.g., See ‘312; [0024] and [0038], which disclose processor-executable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and memory 410 used for processing and storing data):
receive data from the peripheral sensors (e.g., See ‘312; [0034], which discloses the handheld diabetes management device receiving personal health information from healthcare devices though USB or other interfaces);
process the data to calculate at least one physiological variable (e.g., See ‘312; [0030], which discloses the handheld diabetes management device computing glucose levels from the received CGM data);
display the at least one physiological variable on the display device (e.g., See ‘312; [0037] and [0038], which disclose the handheld diabetes management device includes a display device and the processing device outputting data to the display device);
monitor an internal temperature inside the housing (e.g., See ‘312; [0046], which discloses sensing temperatures and estimating an internal temperature of the handheld diabetes management device);
determine whether the internal temperature exceeds a predefined threshold (e.g., See ‘312; [0066], which discloses determining if the internal temperature of the handheld diabetes management device exceeds a threshold temperature); and
when the internal temperature exceeds the predefined threshold, perform one or more actions to lower the internal temperature (e.g., See ‘312; [0052] and [0066], which disclose deactivating one or more components of the handheld diabetes management device when the internal temperature exceeds the threshold temperature).
As per claim 9, ‘312 further discloses a temperature sensor for monitoring the internal temperature inside the housing (e.g., See ‘312; [0042] and [0046], which disclose temperature sensors in the handheld diabetes management device that are used to monitor the internal temperature of the handheld diabetes management device).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), as applied to claim 1, from above, in view of obviousness.
As per claim 16, ‘312 does not explicitly disclose that the housing does not include a fan for lowering the internal temperature inside the housing.
However, since ‘312 discloses that the handheld diabetes management device is battery powered and that internal temperature is controlled through power management, including clock control and deactivating one or more components when the internal temperature exceeds a threshold temperature (e.g., See ‘312; [0009], [0045], [0052] and [0066]), it would have been to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have omitted the use of a fan because ‘312 provides thermal management using power management, clock control, and component deactivation, and omitting a fan would have saved battery power, space, and internal structure complexity in the handheld diabetes management device.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), as applied to claim 1, from above, in view of Javitt, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0391105 A1 (‘105).
As per claim 2, although ‘312 discloses deactivating components when internal temperature exceeds a threshold (e.g., See ‘312; [0066), ‘312 does not specifically disclose that the one or more actions include at least one of reducing a clock speed of the at least one processing device and reducing a clock speed of a graphics processing unit of the display device.
‘105 discloses at least one of these missing features by disclosing clock speed control of a microcontroller 320 to control temperature (e.g., See ‘105; [0048]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘105 into ‘312 for the purpose of reducing heat generated by active circuitry and helping keep the internal temperature within an acceptable range, thereby preventing problems associated with the temperature rising too high.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), as applied to claim 1, from above, in view of MITTAL, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0124476 A1 (‘476).
As per claim 5, although ‘312 in view of ‘105 discloses deactivating components when the internal temperature exceeds a threshold (e.g., See ‘312; [0066), ‘312 in view of ‘105 does not specifically disclose that the one or more actions include at least one of reducing the clock speed of the at least one processing device to zero and reducing the clock speed of the graphics processing unit to zero.
‘476 discloses this missing feature by disclosing CPU or GPU cores and turning off a core by clock gating or power collapse, including reducing power consumption when the temperature of a core exceeds a mitigation temperature threshold (e.g., See ‘476; [0022], [0029], [0040] and [0041]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘476 into ‘312 in view of ’105 for the purpose of further reducing heat generated by active circuitry and helping keep the internal temperature within an acceptable range when the internal temperature exceeds a maximum threshold, thereby preventing problems associated with the temperature rising too high.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), as applied to claim 1, from above, in view of Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0338288 A1 (‘288).
As per claim 6, although ‘312 discloses deactivating components when internal temperature exceeds a threshold (e.g., See ‘312; [0066), and ‘312 discloses the use of a rechargeable battery (e.g., See ‘312; [0038]), ‘312 does not specifically disclose that the one or more actions include reducing a charge current for recharging the battery in response to the internal temperature exceeding the threshold.
‘288 discloses these missing features by disclosing selecting a reduced maximum charging current when a first temperature inside the housing is outside a temperature range (e.g., See ‘288; [0035] and [0040]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘288 into ‘312 for the purpose of reducing battery self-heating during charging, thereby avoiding temperature errors that interfere with analyte testing.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), as applied to claim 1, from above, in view of KIM, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0131541 A1 (‘541).
As per claim 7, although ‘312 discloses deactivating components when internal temperature exceeds a threshold (e.g., See ‘312; [0066), ’312 does not specifically disclose that the one or more actions include reducing a brightness of the display device.
‘541 discloses this missing feature by disclosing reducing display brightness in a heat generation suppressing mode when the internal temperature is too high (e.g., See ‘541; [0031], [0044] and [0053]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘541 into ‘312 for the purpose of reducing heat caused by the display device, thereby preventing overheating of the handheld diabetes management device.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), as applied to claim 1, from above, in view of MITTAL, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0124476 A1 (‘476).
As per claim 8, although ‘312 discloses monitoring an internal temperature inside the housing (e.g., See ‘312; [0046] and [0066]), ‘312 does not specifically disclose that the at least one processing device includes an internal temperature sensor, and the internal temperature sensor of the at least one processing device is used to monitor the internal temperature.
‘476 discloses the missing feature by disclosing a processor 112 having CPU and GPU cores, temperature sensors placed proximate to the cores and monitored by a thermal control module, and using the measured temperature of a core to perform thermal mitigation when the temperature exceeds a threshold (e.g., See ‘476; [0022], [0024], and [0029] – [0030]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘476 into ‘312 for the purpose of sensing temperature close to the processor and helping the handheld diabetes management device detect processor heating and take action before the internal temperature rises too high.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), as applied to claim 1, from above, in view of Al-Ali, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0357966 A1 (‘966).
As per claim 14, although ‘312 discloses that the handheld diabetes management device communicates with other healthcare devices, including a thermometer, that obtain and communicate personal health information of the patient (e.g., See ‘312; [0034]), ‘312 does not specifically disclose a thermometer module integrated with the handheld diabetes management device, wherein the thermometer module includes a handheld probe for taking a temperature reading of the patient.
‘966 discloses this missing feature by disclosing a thermometer module in the form of a patient body temperature module and an oral temperature probe for taking a temperature reading of a patient (e.g., See ‘966; [0031], [0040] and [0046]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘966 into ‘312 for the purpose of allowing the handheld diabetes management device to accurately capture additional patient vitals, thereby forming a more versatile handheld diabetes management device.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), as applied to claim 1, from above, in view of Robinson, U.S. Patent No. 6,771,172 B2 (‘172).
As per claim 15, although ‘312 discloses determining whether the internal temperature exceeds the predefined threshold and performing one or more actions when the internal temperature exceeds the predefined threshold (e.g., See ‘312; [0066]), ‘312 does not specifically disclose an illuminations unit positioned on a top portion of the housing, or generating an alarm on the illumination unit to indicate that the internal temperature exceeds the predefined threshold.
‘172 discloses this missing feature by disclosing a portable instrument having a housing, a handle attached to the housing, an electrically activatable source of light installed inside the handle, and a processor that activates the source of light in response to detecting an alarm condition, wherein the alarm light is integrated into the top of the monitor handle so that the alarm light can be clearly seen from multiple directions around the monitor (e.g., See ‘172; claim 1, summary, and Figures 1 and 3 and their corresponding textual descriptions).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘172 into ‘312 for the purpose of providing a highly visible alarm on the handheld diabetes management device to notify a user when the internal temperature exceeds the predefined threshold, thereby improving visibility of the alarm around the handheld diabetes management device.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), in view of Butler, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0307952 A1 (‘952).
As per claim 17, the rejection rationale as applied to claim 1, from above, is incorporated herein. However, ‘312 does not specifically disclose generating an alarm identifying the one or more actions performed to lower the internal temperature.
‘952 discloses the missing feature by disclosing alerts that notify a user when charging has been suspended or reduced in response to a temperature threshold being exceeded (e.g., See ‘952; [0024], [0025] and [0031]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘952 into ‘312 for the purpose of notifying a user of the action being taken to lower the internal temperature, thereby improving user awareness of the thermal management status of the handheld diabetes management device.
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), in view of Butler, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0307952 A1 (‘952), as applied to claim 17, from above, in further view of Javitt, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0391105 A1 (‘105).
As per claim 18, although ‘312 in view of ‘952 discloses deactivating components when internal temperature exceeds a threshold (e.g., See ‘312; [0066), ‘312 in view of ‘952 does not specifically disclose that the one or more actions include at least one of reducing a clock speed of the at least one processing device and reducing a clock speed of a graphics processing unit of the display device.
‘105 discloses at least one of these missing features by disclosing clock speed control of a microcontroller 320 to control temperature (e.g., See ‘105; [0048]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘105 into ‘312 in view of ‘952 for the purpose of reducing heat generated by active circuitry and helping keep the internal temperature within an acceptable range, thereby preventing problems associated with the temperature rising too high.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ramey, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0095312 A1 (‘312), in view of Butler, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0307952 A1 (‘952), in further view of Javitt, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0391105 A1 (‘105), as applied to claim 18, from above, in further view of MITTAL, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0124476 A1 (‘476).
As per claim 20, although ‘312 in view of ‘952, in further view of ‘105, discloses deactivating components when internal temperature exceeds a threshold (e.g., See ‘312; [0066), ‘312 in view of ‘952, in further view of ‘105, does not specifically disclose that the one or more actions include at least one of reducing the clock speed of the at least one processing device to zero and reducing the clock speed of the graphics processing unit to zero.
‘476 discloses this missing feature by disclosing CPU or GPU cores and turning off a core by clock gating or power collapse, including reducing power consumption when the temperature of a core exceeds a mitigation temperature threshold (e.g., See ‘476; [0022], [0029], [0040] and [0041]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to have incorporated the teachings of ‘476 into the combination of ‘312 in view of ‘952, in further view of ‘105, for the purpose of further reducing heat generated by active circuitry and helping keep the internal temperature within an acceptable range when the internal temperature exceeds a maximum threshold, thereby preventing problems associated with the temperature rising too high.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4, 10-13 and 19 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.
As per claim 3, the prior art of record fails to teach or adequately suggest the clock speed of the processing device specifically being reduced from 1200 MHz to 800 MHz, in combination with the other claimed features and or limitations as claimed.
As per claims 4 and 19, the prior art of record fails to teach or adequately suggest the clock speed of the graphics processing unit being reduced from 800 MHz to 625 MHz, or from 625 MHz to 250 MHz, or from 250 MHz to 62.6 MHz, in combination with the other claimed features and or limitations as claimed.
As per claims 10-13, specifically with respect to dependent claim 10, the prior art of record fails to teach or adequately suggest the intake vents and exhaust vents being positioned in the manner claimed, in combination with how they are used, in combination with the other claimed features and or limitations as claimed.
References Considered but Not Relied Upon
The following references were considered but were not relied upon with respect to any prior art rejections:
(1) US 11,714,481 B2, which discloses a thermal mitigation management system for electronic devices that use temperature, usage and current data to reduce component performance or shut down;
(2) US 11,408,778 B2, which discloses a portable device temperature system that senses internal component locations and uses temperature data for processor and display control; and
(3) US 6,377,223 B1, which discloses a portable patient monitor with patient connection ports, processor, display, using rechargeable battery power, with visual or audible alarms.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RONALD D HARTMAN JR whose telephone number is (571)272-3684. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 - 4:30 EST.
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/RONALD D HARTMAN JR/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2119 June 19, 2026
/RDH/
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