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 § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vogel et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2015/0164689) in view of Raksi (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2014/0350531).
Regarding claim 1, Vogel et al. disclose an apparatus comprising:
a femtosecond laser source (“laser 1,” see [0012]-[0016], [0021], and [0070] –[0071] and figures 5a-5b) configured to emit a Gaussian laser beam (see [0026]-[0027], [0031]-[0032], [0038], [0056]) in the form of pulses (see [0058]-[0059], and [0063]-[0067] for example);
a processing device comprising:
a shaping system positioned on the trajectory of the Gaussian laser beam, to modulate the phase of the wavefront of the Gaussian laser beam, the shaping system comprising a spatial light modulator (see [0024], and “mode conversion 3 and the spatial filter 4,” see [0075] and figures 5a, and 5b) and being configured to produce a modulated laser beam from the Gaussian laser beam,
a sweeping optical scanner (“deflection unit 20 (scanner),” see [0072] and figures 5a, and 5b) disposed downstream of the shaping system to move the modulated laser beam,
an optical focusing system (“an expanding telescope 21 and focused by a cutting lens 22,” see [0072] and figures 5a, and 5b) downstream of the shaping system, configured to focus the modulated laser beam in a focal plane of the cutting apparatus and configured to move the focal plane of the cutting apparatus into a plurality of positions along an optical axis of propagation of the modulated laser beam, and
a programmed control unit (“control unit 30 normally operates programmatically, i.e. it generally comprises a programmable computing unit such as a PC,” see [0072] and figures and figures 5a, and 5b).
Yet Vogel et al. fail to recite the control unit is configured to:
1) control the creation of a first horizontal cutting plane;
2) control the creation of a first plurality of vertical cutting planes above the first horizontal cutting plane;
3) control the creation of a second horizontal cutting plane above the first plurality of vertical cutting planes, the first horizontal cutting plane being deeper in the tissue than the second horizontal cutting plan; and
4) control the creation of a second plurality of vertical planes above the second horizontal plane, wherein the second plurality of vertical cutting planes is laterally offset relative to the first plurality of vertical planes.
Like Vogel et al., Raksi discloses a pulsed femtosecond laser for cutting the eye lens with a control unit (module) and teach providing a cutting pattern defined by:
1) the creation of a first horizontal cutting plane;
2) the creation of a first plurality of vertical cutting planes above the first horizontal cutting plane;
3) the creation of a second horizontal cutting plane above the first plurality of vertical cutting planes, the first horizontal cutting plane being deeper in the tissue than the second horizontal cutting plan; and
4) the creation of a second plurality of vertical planes above the second horizontal plane, wherein the second plurality of vertical cutting planes is laterally offset relative to the first plurality of vertical planes;
See [0053] and figure 4b;
in order to provide a known and workable pattern for the photodisruption and fragmentation of an eye lens.
Therefore, at the time of the of invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Vogel et al., as taught by Raksi, to provide a pattern cutting pattern defined by 1) the creation of a first horizontal cutting plane; 2) the creation of a first plurality of vertical cutting planes above the first horizontal cutting plane; 3) the creation of a second horizontal cutting plane above the first plurality of vertical cutting planes, the first horizontal cutting plane being deeper in the tissue than the second horizontal cutting plan; and 4) the creation of a second plurality of vertical planes above the second horizontal plane, wherein the second plurality of vertical cutting planes is laterally offset relative to the first plurality of vertical planes in order to provide a known and workable pattern for the photodisruption and fragmentation of an eye lens.
Regarding claim 2, Vogel et al. show the invention above but fail to explicitly recite the
second plurality of vertical cutting planes is laterally offset relative to the first plurality of vertical cutting planes by a distance comprised between 5 μm and 500 μm.
Like Vogel et al., Raksi discloses a pulsed femtosecond laser for cutting the eye lens with a control unit (module) and teach providing a treatment pattern having an array of cells separated by photodisrupted tissue wherein the cell sizes have dimensions ranging from 50 microns (μm) to 300 microns (μm) (see [0079]) in order to provide a known and workable pattern for the photodisruption and fragmentation of an eye lens.
Therefore, at the time of the of invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Vogel et al., as taught by Raksi, to provide a treatment pattern having an array of cells separated by photodisrupted tissue wherein the cell sizes have dimensions ranging from 50 microns (μm) to 300 microns (μm) in order to provide a known and workable pattern for the photodisruption and fragmentation of an eye lens.
Regarding claim 3, Vogel et al. show the invention above but fail to explicitly recite the second plurality of vertical cutting planes is laterally offset relative to the first plurality of vertical cutting planes along first and second axes perpendicular to the optical axis, the first and second axes being orthogonal to each other.
Like Vogel et al., Raksi discloses a pulsed femtosecond laser for cutting the eye lens with a control unit (module) and teach providing a treatment pattern having an array of cells separated by photodisrupted tissue in the form of a plurality of vertical and horizontal planes wherein the plurality of horizontal planes and wherein the second plurality of vertical cutting planes is laterally offset relative to the first plurality of vertical cutting planes along first and second axes perpendicular to the optical axis, the first and second axes being orthogonal to each other (see figure 4b) in order to provide a known and workable pattern for the photodisruption and fragmentation of an eye lens.
Therefore, at the time of the of invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Vogel et al., as taught by Raksi, to provide a treatment pattern having an array of cells separated by photodisrupted tissue in the form of a plurality of vertical and horizontal planes wherein the plurality of horizontal planes and wherein the second plurality of vertical cutting planes is laterally offset relative to the first plurality of vertical cutting planes along first and second axes perpendicular to the optical axis, the first and second axes being orthogonal to each other in order to provide a known and workable pattern for the photodisruption and fragmentation of an eye lens.
Regarding claim 4, Vogel et al. disclose the claimed:
the multipoint phase mask (interpreted as pattern with multiple target points) having at least two impacts points (claim 9);
control the movement of the focusing system to make the focal plane of the cutting apparatus coincide with the desired depth for the horizontal cutting plane (see [0032], and [0056]),
drive the sweeping optical scanner to move the impact points of the single multipoint modulated laser beam along a first movement path (see [0042], [0047], and [0072]), and
activate the femtosecond laser source (see [0046], and [0058]-[0059] for example).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AARON F ROANE whose telephone number is (571)272-4771. The examiner can normally be reached generally Mon-Fri 8am-9pm.
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/AARON F ROANE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3792
