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
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 7-8, 10-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sharifi-Mehr et al. (US 2020/0281608).
Regarding claim 1, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose a screw implantation device, comprising a driving motor (¶108 “motor of end effector 2000”); a central shaft (3141) driven by the driving motor (¶108, ¶110); a transmission assembly including a hollow transmission shaft (3134), wherein the hollow transmission shaft is sleeved around and arranged coaxially with the central shaft (figures 31-34), the hollow transmission shaft is driven by the driving motor, the hollow transmission shaft has a first end and a second end (figure 32), and the driving motor is disposed at the second end; a guide pin assembly (see figure below) detachably assembled to the first end of the hollow transmission shaft and including: a socket member (3149) connected to the central shaft; a coupling member (3181) having a hollow structure (“aperture” ¶113), wherein the coupling member is detachably connected to the socket member (¶113); and a guide pin (3180) passing through and connected to the socket member; wherein the hollow transmission shaft is sleeved around the socket member and is connected to the coupling member (figure 32, ¶113-114); a reducer assembly (figure 7) disposed at the second end of the hollow transmission shaft (figures 31, 37), wherein the reducer assembly is connected to the driving motor and the hollow transmission shaft (figure 32); and a pedicle screw assembly (3300) including a hollow pedicle screw (103, figures 1, 38-40), wherein the pedicle screw assembly is detachably assembled to the first end of the hollow transmission shaft and is connected to the guide pin assembly (figure 35).
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Regarding claim 2, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the reducer assembly includes a reducer (3127/3129) and an output shaft (3136) that is connected to the reducer, the reducer is connected to the driving motor, and the output shaft is connected to the hollow transmission shaft. Regarding claim 3, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the output shaft, the hollow transmission shaft, the coupling member, and the hollow pedicle screw are arranged coaxially with each other (figure 37). Regarding claim 4, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the central shaft, the socket member, and the guide pin are arranged coaxially with each other (figure 37, ¶110). Regarding claim 5, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the guide pin is indirectly connected to the driving motor (¶113-114). Regarding claim 7, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the pedicle screw assembly further includes a U-shaped connecting member (104, figure 1), the U- shaped connecting member has an opening (figure 11, ¶75), and the hollow pedicle screw passes through the opening and is movably engaged with the U-shaped connecting member (¶7). Regarding claim 8. Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the guide pin assembly and the pedicle screw assembly are assembled to the first end of the hollow transmission shaft, the guide pin passes through the hollow pedicle screw, and the coupling member abuts against the hollow pedicle screw (figures 35, 38). Regarding claim 10, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose a retaining member (3144) that is sleeved around the transmission assembly and connected to the U-shaped connecting member (¶111, figure 35). Regarding claim 11, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the driving motor drives the central shaft to rotate in a first rotational direction, such that the central shaft drives the socket member and the guide pin to move forward, and both the socket member and the guide pin simultaneously rotate in the first rotational direction (¶117). Regarding claim 12, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the driving motor drives the central shaft to rotate in a second rotational direction, such that the hollow transmission shaft drives the coupling member and the hollow pedicle screw to move forward, and both the coupling member and the hollow pedicle screw simultaneously rotate in the second rotational direction; wherein the second rotational direction is opposite to the first rotational direction (¶118). Regarding claim 13, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the hollow pedicle screw moves forward and simultaneously rotates in the second rotational direction, the guide pin moves backward relative to the hollow pedicle screw and retracts into the hollow pedicle (¶118).
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sharifi-Mehr et al. (US 2020/0281608) in view of Leff et al. (US 2025/0221743).
Regarding claim 9, Sharifi-Mehr et al. disclose the transmission assembly further includes a hollow connecting shaft (3144), the hollow connecting shaft is sleeved around the hollow transmission shaft (figure 35, ¶111), an outer wall of the hollow connecting shaft is provided with flanges (¶111), and an inner wall of the U-shaped connecting member is provided with recess for receipt of the flanges (¶111); wherein, when the guide pin assembly is assembled to the first end of the hollow transmission shaft (figures 35, 38), the hollow connecting shaft is engaged with the U-shaped connecting member through engagement between the flange and the recesses (¶111). However, claim 9 requires the connection between the hollow connecting shaft and the U-shaped connecting member is a threaded connection between the two. Wherein the U-shaped connecting member has an internal wall with internal threads and the hollowing connecting shaft has an external thread which is threadedly engaged with the U-shaped connecting member through engagement between the internal threads and the external threads.
Leff et al. disclose the use of internal (34, figure 1) threads on an inner wall of a U-shaped connecting member (figure 1) and external threads (340) on a hollow connecting shaft (330, figure 18A) as it is a known alternative connection mechanism to joint a tubular insertion tool to the tulip of a pedicle screw (¶111).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have constructed the hollowing connecting shaft to have external threads and the inner wall of the U-shaped connecting member to have internal threads that matingly couple to one another as it is a known alternative connection mechanism to join a tubular insertion tool to the tulip of a pedicle screw.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 is 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. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Regarding claim 6, the prior art of Sharifi-Mehr et al. discloses that their socket member is a pin (3149) which couples to the guide pin assemblies aperture (¶113). Modifying the pin to have internal threads and the guide pin to have external threads which provided a threaded engagement between the two would destroy the function of the pin/opening relationship. As the pin would require internal threading and is a solid pin with zero internal surfaces and the aperture of the guide pine is an internal surface and reversing it to have an external threaded surface would yield it unable to work with the pin.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW JAMES LAWSON whose telephone number is (571)270-7375. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 6:30-3:00.
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/MATTHEW J LAWSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619
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