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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/19/2025, 07/29/2025 is/are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 21-36, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The method steps of –
transferring the radiation from the emitter to a distal end of the emitter and transferring a signal corresponding to the fluorescence from the tissue material of interest within the local field of view to the detector, are not recited in a sequential manner with other method steps which makes the claim unclear regarding in which order the method of claim 21 performed.
Claim 31 encompasses similar defects as claim 21.
Claims 22-30, 32-36 are rejected for being dependent on a rejected base claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 21, 31 would be allowable if these claims overcome 112 (b) rejection set for the above.
Claim 21
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The prior art of record fails to explicitly teach or fairly suggest, alone or in combination, a method for locally stimulating fluorescence in a surgical region, and locating fluorescing areas in the surgical region for detection, comprising:
placing a probe having a distal end in contact or near contact with tissue material of interest; detecting, via a detector, fluorescence from the tissue material of interest within a local field of view from at least a portion of the probe;
detecting fluorescence from the tissue material of interest within a wide field of view using a camera separate from the probe; and modulating the radiation from the emitter via a modulator, and demodulating the signal corresponding to the fluorescence detected with the camera via a demodulator, wherein the signal corresponding to the fluorescence detected with the camera is demodulated by the demodulator on a pixel-by-pixel basis, along with the remaining features of claim 21.
The closest art Johnston (US 20090135280) could not be modified to have both local field of view and wide field of view of the same tissue material of interest. Optical fiber 192 capture wide field of view for different area of materials (FIG. 9A).
Another art Abbas (US 20170236022) provides IR camera and NIR lase (FIG. 3), but does not teach the method step of placing a probe having a distal end in contact or near contact with tissue material of interest; detecting, via a detector, fluorescence from the tissue material of interest within a local field of view from at least a portion of the probe.
Another closest art Seibel (US 20010055462) teaches local field of view detecting of the fluorescence. Seibel could not be modified to have both the local field of view and wide field of view of the tissue material of interest.
Accordingly, claim 21 is considered to include allowable subject matter.
Claim 31 encompasses similar inventive features as claim 21.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO – 892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHANKAR R GHIMIRE whose telephone number is (571)272-0515. The examiner can normally be reached 8 AM - 5 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anhtuan Nguyen can be reached on 571-272-4963. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHANKAR RAJ GHIMIRE/Examiner, Art Unit 3795
/ANHTUAN T NGUYEN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3795 07/26/2026
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