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
Claims 1-12 & 19-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 6 January 2026.
In particular, Applicant contends that the restriction is improper because “the required search burden to necessitate restriction is missing” and cites MPEP § 803(1) and (II) in support. The Office disagrees. The claims lack unity under PCT Rule 13, therefore US restriction practice as laid out in MPEP § 803 does not apply. Applicant is directed to MPEP § 1850 for unity of invention before the International Searching Authority practice. It should be appreciated that search burden is not a rationale for lack of unity; therefore, a counterargument citing “search burden” is illogical. For at least this reason, Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Regardless, Applicant purports that “The distinction seems to be the MRI system. However, claims 14-18 include the MRI system that is also reflected in claims 1-12. Thus, when the whole claim set is considered, as is required, the scope is co-extensive.” The Office disagrees. It should be appreciated that under Rule 13 of the PCT, “Unity of invention has to be considered in the first place only in relation to the independent claims in an international application and not the dependent claims.” For at least this reason Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Accordingly, the Office deems the restriction under PCT lack of unity practice final.
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 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) 13-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by van der Meer et al. (“Carbon-wire loop based artifact correction outperforms post-processing EEG/fMRI corrections—A validation of a real-time simultaneous EEG/fMRI correction method,” (January 2016), NeuroImage, Volume 125, 15 January 2016, Pages 880-894; hereinafter "VDM").
With regards to Claim 13, a system for acquiring electroencephalogram (EEG) data and position data from a subject, the system comprising:
a substrate configured to engage a head of the subject (four carbon wire loops (CWL) {i.e. coils} with an internal resistance of 160Ω/m, sewn into the outer surface of an 32-channel EEG {i.e. electrodes} cap {i.e. substrate}; see VDM pg. 882, ¶ 3 & FIG. 1A);
a plurality of EEG electrodes coupled to the substrate to be positioned about the head of the subject to acquire EEG data (four carbon wire loops (CWL) {i.e. coils} with an internal resistance of 160Ω/m, sewn into the outer surface of an 32-channel EEG {i.e. electrodes} cap {i.e. substrate}; see VDM pg. 882, ¶ 3 & FIG. 1A);
a coil arranged proximate to each of the plurality of EEG electrodes to receive induced voltage caused by changes in magnetic fields proximate to each of the plurality of EEG electrodes (four carbon wire loops (CWL) {i.e. coils} with an internal resistance of 160Ω/m, sewn into the outer surface of an 32-channel EEG {i.e. electrodes} cap {i.e. substrate}; see VDM pg. 882, ¶ 3 & FIG. 1A); and
a controller configured to receive an electrical signal corresponding to the induced voltage and use the electrical signal to reduce motion artifacts in the EEG data (regression algorithm {i.e. controller} for compensating for motion artifacts in EEG signals based on the CWL motion signals; see VDM 883, ¶ 2-4).
With regards to Claim 1413, wherein the controller is configured to communicate with a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system to determine a gradient field applied by the MRI system proximate to each of the plurality of EEG electrodes (the EEG data acquired simultaneously with the fMRI data were corrected for artifacts related to the gradient switching {i.e. determine a gradient field applied by the MRI system proximate to each of the plurality of EEG electrodes}, following a previously published template subtraction procedure that takes into account head motions; see VDM pg. pg. 883, ¶ 7-8; the gradient field must be determined to compensate for the resultant motion; see VDM pg. 883, ¶ 8).
With regards to Claim 1514, wherein the controller is configured to register the EEG data with MRI data acquired by the MRI system or register the MRI data with the EEG data (hardware synchronization of the EEG system with the MRI clock; see ref VDM; see also VDM pg. 881, ¶ 1 for EEG clock & MRI clock synchronization).
With regards to Claim 1614, wherein the controller is configured to filter movement determined from the induced voltage from the EEG data (FIG. 7 of VDM illustrates CWL compensation of EEG data) or MRI data acquired by the MRI system (FIG. 8 of VDM illustrates CWL compensation of MRI data).
With regards to Claim 1714, wherein the substrate forms a cap configured to be attached to the subject to position the EEG electrodes and respective coils about the head of the subject (four carbon wire loops (CWL) {i.e. coils} with an internal resistance of 160Ω/m, sewn into the outer surface of an 32-channel EEG {i.e. electrodes} cap {i.e. substrate}; see VDM pg. 882, ¶ 3 & FIG. 1A).
With regards to Claim 1814, wherein each coil surrounds a respective one of the plurality of EEG electrodes (FIG. 1A of VDM clearly illustrates the 4 CWLs surrounding the various electrodes; see also VDM pg. 881, ¶ 9).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Bhuiyan et al. (“Tracking head movement inside an MR scanner using electromagnetic coils,” (April 2017) Conference: The 25th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) At: Honolulu, Hawaii, USA Volume: Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 25, 0965); and
Laustsen et al. (“Tracking of rigid head motion during MRI using an EEG system,” (25 April 2022), Magn Reson Med. 2022 Aug;88(2):986-1001.).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ASHISH S. JASANI whose telephone number is (571) 272-6402. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 am - 5:00 pm (CST).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Keith Raymond can be reached on (571) 270-1790. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ASHISH S. JASANI/Examiner, Art Unit 3798
/KEITH M RAYMOND/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3798
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