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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 11-23 are pending and currently under consideration for patentability under 37 CFR 1.104
Foreign Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). The certified copies have been received.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on07/18/2025 has been considered by the examiner.
Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
The current application has been granted participation in the Patent Prosecution Highyway (PPH) program.
Any claims amended or added after the grant of the request for participation in the Global/IP5 PPH pilot program must sufficiently correspond to one or more allowable/patentable claims in the OEE application. The applicant is required to submit, along with the amendment, a statement certifying that the amended or newly added claims sufficiently correspond to the allowable/patentable claims in the OEE application. If the certification statement is omitted, the amendment will not be entered and will be treated as a non-responsive reply.
A claim is considered to sufficiently correspond where the claim is of the same or similar scope as an allowable claim in the related OEE application. A claim that is narrower in scope than an allowable OEE claim will also sufficiently correspond if it presented as a claim dependent upon a claim that is of the same or similar scope to an allowable OEE claim.
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) 11-15, 17-21, and 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gardosh et al. (U.S. 2026/0215667) in view of Gaworski et al. (U.S. 2024/0023795).
With respect to claim 11, Gardosh et al. teaches a circuit structure, applied to a front-end assembly of an endoscope, and comprising a connecting unit and a mounting unit, wherein the mounting unit is connected to a distal end of the connecting unit (see below;
the connecting unit comprises a first extension segment, a bending segment, and a second extension segment connected sequentially; an extension direction of the first extension segment is parallel to an extension direction of the second extension segment; and the bending segment extends along a circumferential direction of the front-end assembly, such that the first extension segment and the second extension segment are distributed in a staggered manner in a circumferential direction of the mounting unit (FIG. 4A); and
the mounting unit forms an arc-shaped plate-like structure or an arc-shaped ribbon-like structure, such that a radial inner side of the mounting unit forms an instrument tube avoidance area (FIG. 4A); the mounting unit comprises an imaging module mounting area (204); the mounting unit is provided with an illumination module mounting area located on at least one side of the imaging module mounting area (216);
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However, Gardosh et al. does not teach and the first extension segment is connected between the imaging module mounting area and the illumination module mounting area.
With respect to claim 11, Gaworski et al. teaches a circuit structure, applied to a front-end assembly of an endoscope the mounting unit comprises an imaging module mounting area (111); the mounting unit is provided with an illumination module mounting area (115) located on at least one side of the imaging module mounting area (FIG. 1B,2)
Therefore, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date to modify the shape of the mounting unit of Gardosh et al. to have the illumination module mounting area located on a separate elongated arm from the imaging module mounting area because Gaworkski et al. teaches it is an obvious alternative to having the camera and lighting elements all mounted on the same portion of flexible circuit (para [0037] of Gaworski et al.). and further because it allows for more even illumination of the surgical scene. Modifying Gardosh et al. in this manner would result in the first extension segment being connected between the imaging module mounting area and the illumination module mounting area.
With respect to claim 12, Gardosh et al. teaches the connecting unit is a flexible circuit board, and the mounting unit is a flexible circuit board or a rigid circuit board (para [0093]).
With respect to claim 13, Gardosh et al. teaches a front-end assembly, comprising an active bending section and the circuit structure according to claim 11, wherein the active bending section is provided with a traction wire mounting unit (202); and the second extension segment corresponds to the traction wire mounting unit (FIG. 4E,F).
With respect to claim 14, Gardosh et al. teaches wherein a distal portion of the second extension segment protrudes from a distal end surface of the active bending section (FIG. 2 for example).
With respect to claim 15, Gardosh et al. teaches the front-end assembly further comprises a lens base (218); the lens base is connected to a distal end of the active bending section; and a distal end of the circuit structure is located in the lens base (FIG. 8 for example).
With respect to claim 17, Gardosh et al. teaches the lens base is internally provided with a wire groove, and the first extension segment is provided in the wire groove (912 for example).
With respect to claim 18, Gardosh et al. in view of Gaworski et al. teaches an endoscope, comprising the front-end assembly according to claim 13 (see above).
With respect to claim 19, Gardosh et al. teaches in the circuit structure, the connecting unit is a flexible circuit board, and the mounting unit is a flexible circuit board or a rigid circuit board (para [0093]).
With respect to claim 20, Gardosh et al. teaches in the front-end assembly, a distal portion of the second extension segment protrudes from a distal end surface of the active bending section (FIG. 2 for example).
With respect to claim 21, Gardosh et al. teaches in the front-end assembly, the front-end assembly further comprises a lens base (218); the lens base is connected to a distal end of the active bending section; and a distal end of the circuit structure is located in the lens base (FIG. 8 for example).
With respect to claim 23, Gardosh et al. teaches in the front-end assembly, the lens base is internally provided with a wire groove, and the first extension segment is provided in the wire groove (912 for example).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16 and 22 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
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/ALEXANDRA L NEWTON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3799
