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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 8/24/2026 has been entered.
In view of the amendments, the 112(b) rejection is withdrawn. However, in view of the amendments, an updated search was conducted resulting in the Meguro references. Therefore, a new 103 Rejection is set forth below in view of the reference.
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) 1-3, 8-10, and 15-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meguro (2022/0313067).
With respect to claims 1, 8, and 15, Meguro discloses an endoscopic examination support system, method and non-transitory storage medium for storing a program for causing a computer to execute a process of causing an examination time period evaluator to acquire an evaluation index for each state in observation step in an endoscopic examination, a state specific evaluation index for each state of an examination target organ in the endoscopic examination or a predetermined length of time set for medical observation of a specific part of the target organ in time-series medical images [0018-0022]. Meguro teaches an endoscopic image acquisitor 22 that acquires a time-series endoscopic image 18B of the examination as an implementation record of the examination [0118]. Meguro teaches an image identifier that detects a state of the examination target organ based on the endoscopic image corresponding to the observation step included in the time-series endoscopic image or such as the observation of the upper gastric body or part of the rectum or antrum or cardia (fig. 5-13, 0141, 0147). Meguro teaches of observing the state of different target organs including the stomach, esophagus, and duodenum [0191, 0192]. Meguro teaches of an image classifier that the classifies the state of the examination target organ detected by the image identifier or performing an image classification process of recognizing a scene of the endoscopic image 18 and assigning a label to the part that is in the image [0120]. Meguro teaches of the observation completion determination unit 24 detecting a target mark form the image 18, recognizing a position of the mark in the image and the classification of the part and determining whether the mark is present in the central portion of the image including classifying various parts of the stomach [0172, 0192]. Meguro teaches of an examination time period classifier or observation completion determination units 24 that calculates an actual time for each state in the observation step based on the classification result from the image classifier for each state or determining whether observation is completed or the time for each state in the observation step and displaying the observation completed part [0119, 0120] or performs a process of recognizing a part and determining whether observation is completed for each frame image of some or all of frame images acquired in time series [0121]. Meguro teaches if a predetermined time elapses without any input of a correction instruction by the user, the observation completion information of the target organ is confirmed to be correct where the predetermined time may be about several seconds [0151, 0171]. Under broadest reasonable interpretation, Meguro therefore teaches of evaluating how long different parts of an endoscopic examination is spent in observation with time-series endoscopic images with identification of the state of the intestinal tract, measurement of the time spent in observation step, displaying the output as to whether the exam met the benchmark or measurement of meaningful observation time with respect to each state.
With respect to claims 2, 9, and 16, Meguro teaches of comparing the predetermined time for each state with the observation completion time for each state where if a predetermined time elapses without any input of a correction instruction by the user, observation completion information is configured for that state of the target organ is confirmed to be correct and the display indicates that observation is completed for that state [0151, 0171].
With respect to claims 3, 10, and 17, Meguro teaches of a display controller 26 that displays on a display apparatus 400 the observation completion time status for each state [0122, 0123, fig. 5-13]. Meguro teaches if a predetermined time elapses without any input of a correction instruction by the user, the observation completion information of the target organ is confirmed to be correct the display color changes from orange to blue [0151].
Meguro does not teach of all the claimed elements in a single embodiment. It would have therefore been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the elements from the different embodiments to reduce erroneous determination or omission in the observation of a target region of the intestinal tract by the doctor [0008].
Claim(s) 6, 7, 13, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meguro in view of Watanabe (2024/0029404). Meguro teaches of observing the state of different target organs of the intestinal tract including the stomach, esophagus, and duodenum [0191, 0192] but do not explicitly specify the claimed state of fold and presence/absence of diverticula. In a related field of endeavor Watanabe teaches of an endoscope system and method that determines a lesion evaluation value based on the presence or absence of certain regions of interest including colonic diverticulum or folds in the intestinal tract [0110]. It would have therefore been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the teaching by Watanabe to modify Meguro for improved detection accuracy of the different regions of interest of the intestinal tract.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 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.
The prior art of record does not teach of combined elements of the above listed claims including “causing the examination time period evaluator to set the evaluation index for each state in accordance with the accumulated time length for each state and a type of state of the examination target organ”.
Conclusion
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BR
/BAISAKHI ROY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3797
