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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Seeber (US 6,664,465).
Re claim 1, Seeber disclose a receive cable comprising:
a signal line (16);
a tubular shield conductor (26) that accommodates the signal line and has at least one non-conductive cutout portion (28) (Fig 1) at an intermediate portion in an axial direction (Fig 2); and
a tubular conductor (34) that overlaps with the cutout portion and a part of each of two shield conductors located on both sides across the cutout portion (Fig 2), and is disposed with respect to the shield conductor via a gap portion (62b) in a radial direction of the shield conductor (Fig 6).
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) 2-4, 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seeber (US 6,664,465) in view of Chen et al (US 2025/0104887).
Re claim 2, wherein the gap portion is formed of a dielectric (col. 6, line 40) but does not disclose the dielectric being a thermoplastic resin having a relative permittivity of less than 3.5.
Re claim 4, the gap portion is formed of air or a dielectric (col. 6, line 40), a case (56) but does not disclose the dielectric being low relative permittivity and the case where an axial length of the tubular conductor is 120 mm to 320 mm,
The teaching as discussed above does not disclose wherein the dielectric is made of polytetrafluoroethylene or polyimide (re claim 3), the tubular shield conductor is a flexible mesh member (re claim 6).
Chen et al teach the use of dielectric which is made of a thermoplastic resin (PTFE) having a relative permittivity of less than 3.5 (2.1 F/M) and the dielectric is made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), the dielectric has low relative permittivity (2.1 F/M) [0023], tubular shield conductor is a flexible mesh member (woven layer of metal braid wires)[0009]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to use thermoplastic resin or PTFE of the dielectric of Seeber and use metal mesh member for the tubular shield of Seeber for achieving stably transmitting signals.
As to axial length of the tubular conductor, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to select the specific length for the case of Seeber for intended use, since such a modification would have involved a mere change in the size of a component. A change in size is generally recognized as being within the level of ordinary skill in the art. In re Rose, 105 USPQ 237 (CCPA 1955).
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seeber (US 6,664,465) in view of Chang et al (US 2015/0108983).
The receive cable (Fig 1), but does not disclose a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus.
Chang et al teach the use of a receive cable (770) and a MRI apparatus (700) (Fig 12)[0093]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to include the MRI apparatus with the cable of Seeber for forming an MRI system.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 7-8 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.
Communication
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUNG V NGO whose telephone number is (571)272-1979. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5:30 M-F.
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/HUNG V NGO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2841
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