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 .
Rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)
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 1-4, 8-13 and 15-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Davies et al. (5,405,781).
Davies et al. (5,405,781) discloses, in figs. 1-6, an ion mobility spectrometer apparatus and/or method for detecting a substance of interest, which includes
Regarding claims 1, 9, 15, 16,
a chamber 7 through which a number of sample ions travel from an ion gate 8 to a collector electrode 11 (see fig. 1);
a detector, connected to the collector electrode 11 for detecting arrival of sample ions at the collector electrode 11 (see fig. 1); and
a controller 14 (see fig. 1) configured to:
control parameters of the spectrometer to selectively increase or decrease the number of sample ions which pass into the chamber 7 upon each opening of the ion gate 8 which discriminates between ions based on their travel time to the collector electrode (see the ion gate controlled to be open or close is for controlling the number of sample ions which pass into the chamber 7, Pa. 9),
operate the spectrometer according to first parameters, and detecting arrival of the sample ions at the collector electrode 11 to obtain first detection signals associated with the first parameters (see each signal of detection windows according to each operation parameter of the gate, abstract, figs. 4a, 4b, Pa. 16, Pa. 19-Pa. 21, Pa. 26-Pa. 29, Pa. 32, Pa. 33),
operating the spectrometer according to second parameters, and detecting arrival of the sample ions at the collector electrode to obtain second detection signals associated with the second parameters wherein the first parameters are different from the second parameters (see each signal of detection windows according to each operation parameter of the gate, abstract, figs. 4a, 4b, Pa. 16, Pa. 19-Pa. 21, Pa. 26-Pa. 29, Pa. 32, Pa. 33), and
analyzing the first detection signals according to first detection criteria (detection windows), and analyzing the second detection signals according to second detection criteria (detection windows), wherein the first detection criteria are different from the second detection criteria (different windows) (see abstract, figs. 4a, 4b, Pa. 15, Pa. 16, Pa. 17, Pa. 19-Pa. 26, Pa. 32, Pa. 33);
detect arrival of the sample ions at the collector electrode 11 to obtain detection signals during a set of time windows following opening of the ion gate 8 (see abstract, figs. 4a, 4b, Pa. 9, Pa. 16, Pa. 20-Pa. 27. Pa. 32), and
analyze the detection signals in the time windows according to the parameters of the spectrometer to detect the presence of the substance of interest (see abstract, figs. 1, 3-6, Pa. 2, Pa. 14, Pa. 15, Pa. 16, Pa. 19, Pa. 20, Pa. 21, Pa. 25, Pa. 26, Pa. 27, Pa. 28, Pa. 32).
Regarding claims 2, 17, wherein the parameters comprise at least one of:
(i) gate width (see fig. 4a, Pa. 15),
(ii) quantity of sample vapor introduced to a reaction region comprising an ionizer 5, 6 (see Pa. 18, Pa. 20, Pa. 24, Pa. 3, Pa. 5, Pa. 9, Pa. 10, Pa. 11, Pa. 12, Pa. 13), and
(iii) a duration for which ions are kept in the reaction region before opening of the ion gate (see the ion gate 8 controlled by a duration of a pulse wave form in fig. 1).
Regarding claim 3, wherein analyzing the detection signals according to the parameters comprises:
selecting at least one detection criterion (detection window) based on the parameters (operation parameter of the gate) (see abstract, figs. 4a, 4b, 5, 6, Pa. 15-Pa. 29), and
identifying the presence of the substance of interest based on the detection signals and the at least one detection criterion (see abstract, figs. 3-6, Pa. 22, Pa. 2, Pa. 10, Pa. 30, Pa. 31).
Regarding claims 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, wherein the at least one detection criterion comprises
a detection threshold 58, 65, in at least one of the time windows (see fig. 6, Pa. 30, Pa. 31, Pa. 32)
wherein the at least one detection criterion comprises a signature associated with a substance of interest (see abstract, Pa. 5, Pa. Pa. 12, Pa. 22, Pa. 27, Pa. 2, Pa. 15, Pa. 17, Pa. 19, Pa. 20, Pa. 21, Pa. 32), and
wherein the signature comprises an expected peak shape (see figs. 3, 4a, 4b, Pa. 27, Pa. Pa. 29, Pa. 30, Pa. 13, Pa. 16, Pa. 20, Pa. 21, Pa. 22, Pa. 24, Pa. 25, Pa. 26, Pa. 30-Pa. 33).
Regarding claim 8, wherein the controller 14 is configured to select the time windows according to the parameters (see the micro-processor 14 controlling the parameters of the ion gate 8 to select one of the detection windows according to detecting substance, figs. 1, 4a, 4b, abstract, Pa. 29, Pa. 2, Pa. 15, Pa. 16, Pa. 19, Pa. 20, Pa. 21-Pa. 26, Pa. 32, Pa. 33).
Rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103(a)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 7 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Davies et al. (5,405,781) in view of Procino et al. (2017/0356878).
Davies et al. (5,405,781) discloses all the features as discussed above except a presence of at least one of a monomer peak and a dimer peak as recited in claims 7 and 23.
Using the at least one of a monomer peak and a dimer peak for analyzing monomer ions is considered to be obvious variation in design, since it is well known in the art, as Procino et al. (2017/0356878) discloses, in figs. 1-4, an ion mobility apparatus for analyzing monomer ions, which detects the monomer ions and produces a spectrum having two monomer peaks (see figs. 1-4, abstract, [0018], [0026], [0031], [0042], [0045], [0046], [0047], [0058], thus would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to use the monomer peaks in the spectrum for analyzing the monomer ions in the Davies et al. (5,405,781) ion mobility spectrometer apparatus and/or method for detecting a substance of interest. Since, the analyzing monomer ions is considered to be intended use.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
1) Griffin et al. (7,078,680) and Remes et al. (11,594,404) disclose an ion mobility spectrometer using an ion gate for controlling ions in drift region and thresholds for detecting peaks.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIET TUAN NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2479. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8-6.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Robert H. Kim can be reached on 571-272-2293. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 703-872-9306.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/KIET T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2881
