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 Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 and 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Traneus et al. (EP 3881895).
Regarding claims 1 and 14, Traneus teaches an apparatus (800) for radiotherapy or a machine-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored, that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform, comprising:
at least one first radiation source (FLASH) configured to provide one or more ultra-high dose rate charged particle beams (para 8);
at least one second radiation source (Non-FLASH) configured to provide one or more intensity-modulated beams (para 8); and
a controller configured to: control the at least one first radiation source to generate the one or more ultra-high dose rate charged particle beams and control the at least one second radiation source to generate the one or more intensity-modulated beams such that the one or more ultra-high dose rate charged particle beams and the one or more intensity-modulated beams provide a substantially uniform total dose distribution across the target region (para 21-23).
Regarding claim 15, Traneus teaches the machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 and having computer-executable instructions stored, that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform the functionalities of the apparatus according to claim 1 (para 21-23).
Claim(s) 1 and 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Bourhis et al. (EP 3928833).
Regarding claims 1 and 14, Bourhis teaches an apparatus (800) for radiotherapy or a machine-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored, that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform, comprising:
at least one first radiation source configured to provide one or more ultra-high dose rate charged particle beams; at least one second radiation source configured to provide one or more intensity-modulated beams (beam lines 8 and 9, para 12, 20 and 94); and
a controller configured to: control the at least one first radiation source to generate the one or more ultra-high dose rate charged particle beams and control the at least one second radiation source to generate the one or more intensity-modulated beams such that the one or more ultra-high dose rate charged particle beams and the one or more intensity-modulated beams provide a substantially uniform total dose distribution across the target region (figure 3, para 27 and 96).
Regarding claim 15, Bourhis teaches the machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 and having computer-executable instructions stored, that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to perform the functionalities of the apparatus according to claim 1 (para 12, 20 and 94).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-13 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:
Regarding claims 2-13, the prior art fails to teach the controller (830) is further configured to control the at least one first radiation source (810) to generate the one or more ultra-high dose rate charged particle beams (812) and control the at least one second radiation source (820) to generate the one or more intensity-modulated beams (820) such that a first dose distribution of the one or more ultra-high dose rate charged particle beams (812) and a second dose distribution of the one or more intensity-modulated beams (820) combine in the target region (TV) to provide the substantially uniform total dose distribution across the target region (TV), in particular across substantially the entire target region (TV) as claimed in claim 2.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOON K SONG whose telephone number is (571)272-2494. The examiner can normally be reached M to Th 10am to 7pm.
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/HOON K SONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2884
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