Ex Parte Desjardins et alDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardJun 13, 201613142485 (P.T.A.B. Jun. 13, 2016) Copy Citation UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR 13/142,485 07/18/2011 Adrien Emmanuel Desjardins 24737 7590 06/15/2016 PHILIPS INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & STANDARDS 465 Columbus A venue Suite 340 Valhalla, NY 10595 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www .uspto.gov ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 2009P00378WOUS 3856 EXAMINER GILLMAN, AMELIE R ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3737 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 06/15/2016 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address( es): marianne.fox@philips.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte ADRIEN EMMANUEL DESJARDINS, MARTINUS BERNARDUS VAN DER MARK, BERNARDUS HENDRIKUS WILHELMUS HENDRIKS, and GERT 'T HOOFT Appeal2014-006543 Application 13/142,485 Technology Center 3700 Before DONALD E. ADAMS, JEFFREY N. FREDMAN, and JACQUELINE T. HARLOW, Administrative Patent Judges. PER CURIAM DECISION ON APPEAL 1 This Appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) involves claims 1-14 (App. Br. 5). Examiner entered rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b ). We AFFIRM. 1 Appellants identify the Real Party in Interest as Koninklijke Philips N. V. (App. Br. 3). Appeal2014-006543 Application 13/142,485 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants' invention "relates to an optical examination device adapted to be at least partially inserted into a turbid medium" (Spec. 1 :2-3). Independent claim 1 is representative and reproduced in the Claims Appendix of Appellants' Appeal Brief. Claims 1--4, 8-11, 13, and 14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over the combination of Goldberger2 and Wiklof. 3 Claims 5-7 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over the combination of Goldberger, Wiklof, and Wang. 4 Claim 12 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over the combination of Goldberger, Wiklof, Peng5 and Hoyer. 6 ISSUE Does the preponderance of evidence relied upon by Examiner support a conclusion of obviousness? FACTUAL FINDINGS (FF) FF 1. Goldberger suggests A tool for nonactive interrogation of the tissue including a light source emitter and detector which may be mounted directly on the surgical tool in a tissue contacting surface for interrogation or mounted remotely and guided to the surgical field with fiber 2 Goldberger et al., US 5,772,597, issued June 30, 1998. 3 Wiklof et al., US 2005/0020926 Al, published Jan. 27, 2005. 4 Wang et al., US 7,831,298 Bl, issued Nov. 9, 2010. 5 Leilei Peng et al., Fourier transform emission lifetime spectrometer, 4 OPTICS LETTERS 32, 421--423 (2007). 6 Hoyer, US 2002/0118356 Al, published Aug. 29, 2002. 2 Appeal2014-006543 Application 13/142,485 optic cables. The light source may be broadband and wavelength differentiation can be accomplished at the detector via filters or gratings, or using time, frequency, or space resolved methods. Alternatively, n discrete monochromatic light sources may be provided which are subsequently multiplexed into a single detector by time or by frequency multiplexing. The optical sensing elements can be built into a surgical tool end effector tip such as a tissue grasping tool which has cooperating jaws (bivalve or multi-element). (Goldberger Abstract; see also Ans. 2-3.) FF 2. Goldberger suggests that "temporal variation of the emitted light intensity, such as phase-modulation or time-of-flight analysis, both known in the study of tissue optics, can be used to help separate out the effects of absorbance and scattering" (Goldberger 5:30-34; see also Ans. 2-3). FF 3. Goldberger suggests that "[t]he light control signal thus can be suitable to operate a single light source (broadband or discrete)" (Goldberger 9:18-19; see also Ans. 2-3). FF 4. Goldberger's Figure 4A is reproduced below: FIG. 4A 45 Figure 4A shows in one embodiment of tip 40, tip 40 includes a broadband filament light source 43, ... photodetector 47 may include four discrete photodetectors, each having a wavelength selective filter 3 Appeal2014-006543 Application 13/142,485 interposed to filter the coupled light. In this illustrative example, four electric signals corresponding to the four wavelengths of the spectra characteristics are transmitted to spectrometer 24 on path 25. (Goldberger 13:4--24; see also Ans. 2-3.) FF 5. Goldberger suggests In a different structure, in which the light source is a plurality of discrete wavelength LED's mounted in tip 40 as light source 43 to launch multiplexed lights into tissue, the aforementioned multi-element photodetector arrangement could be used when there is a frequency multiplexed system, and a single photodetector could be used when there is a synchronous multiplexing system. Other variations are believed apparent to those skilled in the art, subject to space and cost considerations in constructing tip 40. (Goldberger 13:26-35; see also Ans. 2-3.) FF 6. Goldberger suggests that semiconductor lasers or broadband light sources (e.g., filament bulbs) combined with wavelength selective filters also may be used or combinations thereof, e.g., one broadband light source, and one infrared LED with one ultraviolet source (for fluorescent applications). Hence, when a broadband light source is used without wavelength filtering, it is to be understood that fibers 945 and 946 typically will carry light that is other than monochromatic light. The term monochromatic also should be understood to allow some variation of wavelength within a small bandwidth. (Goldberger 25:19-30; see also Ans. 2-3.) FF 7. Wiklof suggests A scanning endoscope, amenable to both rigid and flexible forms, scans a beam of light across a field-of-view, collects light scattered from the scanned beam, detects the scattered light, and produces an image. The endoscope may comprise one or more bodies housing a controller, light sources, and detectors; and a separable tip housing the scanning mechanism. The light sources 4 Appeal2014-006543 Application 13/142,485 may include laser emitters that combine their outputs into a polychromatic beam. Light may be emitted in ultraviolet or infrared wavelengths to produce a hyperspectral image. (Wiklof Abstract; see also Ans. 3.) FF 8. Wiklof suggests that "a plurality of light sources may be combined into a beam that is not color-balanced per se .... it is not necessary to use multiple colored light sources, but rather one or more relatively broadband sources may be used" (Wiklofi-f 14; see also Ans. 3). FF 9. Wiklof suggests that "the POV may be illuminated with a variable- intensity source. The variable intensity source may be formed, for instance, by scanning one or more beams of light across at least portions of the field- of-view while modulating the intensity of the beam or beams" (Wiklofi-f 24; see also Ans. 3). 5 Appeal2014-006543 Application 13/142,485 FF 10. Wiklof's Figure 21 is reproduced below: ' '"~.IE,§'.'~~1 ..... ~~ .. Lj=~~r:~-11~ .... ~ . \"~~~:~~'O·~~;~ii~~~,]. l:--t!'l<'t~,. ' , : l>Ul{,L, iS .·'' 14. ;' ......................................... ' / '· ·~ .. r2r}·~'b t i'so2···,,,.,f ~~:iiRi;] 211~'¢ / : L?;·l{S .. l!;.~2···· ' ~ : ......... ~ ...... ll:lfb i .· .... i .. /i .• ': : (~· ·: - ~ Clo ............ ~ ,i.~?..f:. ... ' .. o!lo • -~\ .... .,:-i ...... ·t!~-i: , """i" ~-r~.·~ 2u.l ·~·1 ·1 --(ti;i~~t~ .. 51 ... ~···if,01~0 "i"" . ' l ................ f:i:).{i)i} t""': : I f"""~j·~ Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation