Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/14/2025 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 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, 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 negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-20 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Tofflemire (2,502,902) in view of Bouman (2007/0233114)
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Regarding claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17 Tofflemire discloses a medical apparatus/device (e.g. fig. 1) including a first plate (shown above) configured/capable to match a mandible contour, the first plate having and a first hook/hooks (shown above) having a first open part (e.g. open to allow hook the wire) configured to receive a first wire.
Tofflemire fails to disclose a first elongate slot or slots defined by a plurality of first lateral supports, the first elongate slot configured to overly the mandible and receive a first fastener to directly affix the first plate to the mandible; however,
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Bouman teaches a medical device (e.g. fig. 1-9B) having a first plate (or a plate) having elongated slots (e.g. 20) that receives fasteners (e.g. screws seen in the figure above) for treating fractures.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify the medical device of Tofflemire by providing bone plate with elongated slots as taught by Bouman in order to treat fractures by directly securing the plate to the bone, this way no bands are needed securing onto the teeth or absent of anchor tooth/teeth.
Regarding Claim 2, 11, 18 Tofflemire discloses a second plate (shown above) configured to match a maxilla contour, the second plate having, a second elongate slot/slots defined by a plurality of second lateral supports, the second elongate slot(s) configured to overly the maxilla and receive a second fastener to directly affix the second plate to the maxilla; and a second hook having a second open part configured to receive the first wire.
Regarding Claim 4, Tofflemire discloses the first wire (shown above) received in the first and second open parts; wherein the first and second plates are bendable matching patient’s bone contour.
Regarding Claims 8, 15, 19 Tofflemire discloses the first and second hooks are formed monolithically with the first and second plates, respectively (see fig. above).
Regarding claim 9, 16, 20 Bouman shows the first and second fasteners are movable within the first and second elongate slots, respectively (see fig. above).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Examiner Patel Yogesh whose telephone number is (571) 270-3646. The examiner can normally be reached between 9 AM – 5:30 PM on Monday, Thursday and Friday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, please contact the examiner’s supervisor, SPE Bosques Edelmira, at (571) 270-5614.
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/YOGESH P PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3772
