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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election of group 1 and species b in the reply filed on 04/08/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Applicant asserts that this election reads on claims 1-9 and 14-15.
Claim 14 recites inter alia, “the umbilicus includes a flexible circuit located in an end of the umbilicus that is closest to the handle when connected.” This is not found in the elected embodiment of FIG. 2, but rather the non-elected embodiment of FIG. 3, as evidenced at paragraph [0041] of the published specification. Therefore claim 14 and all dependent claims thereof is withdrawn from consideration.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are pending, claims 10-20 have been withdrawn from consideration, and claims 1-9 are currently under consideration for patentability under 37 CFR 1.104
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/22/2024 and 11/12/2024 have been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the magnet (claim 7) must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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(s) 1, 2, and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Klinker (U.S. 2022/0095902) in view of Knapp II et al. (U.S. 2006/0114986).
With respect to claim 1, Klinker teaches a medical device, comprising:
a first part having a handle(15/15”), a shaft attached to the handle (154), and a distal assembly at a distal end of the shaft (para [0026]); and
an umbilicus (170/370’ and 500/600) attached to the handle of the first part (FIG. 3A).
While Klinker refers to reference 156 as a port and teaches the umbilicus 170 is connected to the port, which would suggest some sort of removable relationship, Klinker does not explicitly state the umbilicus is releasably attached to the handle.
With respect to claim 1, Knapp et al. teaches an umbilicus (230) releasably attached to a handle of a first part (FIG. 3).
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date to modify the umbilicus of Klinker to be releasable in the manner taught by Knapp et al. in order to allow for a less expensive endoscope by moving processor components to the adapters (para [0033]-[0034] of Knapp et al.).
With respect to claim 2, Klinker in view of Knapp et al. teaches the umbilicus includes a tether (500/600 of Klinker) that branches off from a main body of the umbilicus (230,234,236 of Knapp et al.).
With respect to claim 3, Klinker teaches the tether includes at least one button (251) at an end of the tether furthest from the main body of the umbilicus (FIG. 1, 3A), wherein the at least one button is configured to control an imaging function of the medical device (wherein actuating controls imaging direction and therefore field of view).
With respect to claim 9, Knapp et al. teaches the umbilicus is configured to connect to the handle at a connection point via a mating, physical and electrical connection that securely and releasably attaches the umbilicus to the handle. (FIG. 3).
Claim(s) 4-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Klinker (U.S. 2022/0095902) in view of Knapp II et al. (U.S. 2006/0114986) as applied to claim 2 above and further in view of Yoshinaga et al. (U.S. 2020/0214542).
Klinker in view of Knapp et al. teaches a medical device as set forth above. However, Klinker in view of Knapp et al. does not teach an engagement feature.
With respect to claim 4, Yoshinaga et al. teaches an analogous device an end of the tether furthest from the main body includes an engagement feature (16) for securably and releasably engaging the handle of the first part.
With respect to claim 5, Yoshinaga et al. teaches the engagement feature is configured to securably and releasably engage multiple different positions of the handle (16).
With respect to claim 6, Yoshinaga et al. teaches the tether has a shape or a protrusion to engage a correspondingly-shaped portion in a body of the handle, wherein the protrusion is a snap-fit engagement, a friction-fit engagement, or a relative sliding engagement that securely holds the tether to the handle and permits release after use (para [0043]).
With respect to claim 7, Yoshinaga et al. teaches the engagement feature includes a magnet that attaches to the handle via a metal feature of the handle (para [0043]).
With respect to claim 8, Yoshinaga et al. teaches the engagement feature includes a c-shaped connector (para [0043]).
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date to modify Klinker to utilize an engagement feature in the manner taught by Yoshinaga et al. so that a surgeon can smoothly perform an inspection and a treatment using the mother-baby endoscope apparatus and hence, an inspection time period and a treatment time period can be shortened (para [0100] of Yoshinaga et al.).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Alexandra Newton Surgan whose telephone number is (571)270-1618. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-4pm EST.
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/ALEXANDRA L NEWTON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3799
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