13408334 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 5, 2016)

Ex Parte Brown

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardAug 5, 2016

13408334 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 5, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE APPLICATION NO. 13/408,334 60683 7590 Robert Bosch LLC FILING DATE 02/29/2012 08/05/2016 1800 W. Central Road Mount Prospect, IL 60056 FIRST NAMED INVENTOR Stephen J. Brown 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. 1576-1235 I 7553.00030C2 9944 EXAMINER HARWARD, SOREN T ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 1631 MAILDATE DELIVERY MODE 08/05/2016 PAPER 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. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte STEPHEN J. BROWN1 Appeal2014-008918 Application 13/408,334 Technology Center 1600 Before MELANIE L. McCOLLUM, TINA E. HULSE, and JACQUELINE T. HARLOW, Administrative Patent Judges. McCOLLUM, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. Â§ 134 involving claims to a method for generating groups of individuals. The Examiner has rejected the claims as obvious. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. Â§ 6(b). We affirm. 1 Appellant identifies the real party in interest as Robert Bosch Healthcare Systems, Inc. (App. Br. 1.) Appeal2014-008918 Application 13/408,334 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Claims 1-8 are on appeal (App. Br. 4). 2 Claim 1 is representative and reads as follows: 1. A method for generating groups of selected individuals useful in researching influence of a disease on said selected individuals, comprising: selecting individuals having a risk factor for a disease; providing to each selected individual a communications apparatus; transmitting a computer program containing queries and predefined response choices to said communications apparatus, wherein said computer program when executed causes said communications apparatus to present said queries and predefined response choices to each selected individual via a touch sensitive display of said communications apparatus and collect responses to said queries, including at least one of the predefined response choices presented on the display of the communications apparatus, from each selected individual via said touch sensitive display of the communications apparatus; receiving said responses to the queries from the selected individuals through the apparatus, said responses communicating information about the selected individuals; storing the responses of each selected individual in a database; defining a plurality of groups by categorizing the selected individuals having similar profiles based on the responses, wherein categorizing the selected individuals into groups includes one or more phenotypic classifications; after defining said groups, receiving genotype information representative of selected individuals in each of said groups; comparing said genotype information between said groups; and generating a report for presentation on a display that represents a subset of said genotype information associated with each of said groups, wherein differences in said genotype information between said groups is expressed in terms of phenotypic classifications. 2 Claims 9-20 are also pending but have been withdrawn from consideration (Final Act. 1 ). 2 Appeal2014-008918 Application 13/408,334 Claims 1-8 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. Â§ 103(a) as obvious in view oflliff,3 Lichter,4 Yang,5 and Altman6 (Ans. 2). The Examiner relies on Iliff for teaching: a. selecting patients showing symptoms of a serious medical condition ... , which constitutes "having a risk factor for a disease" b. the selected patients are provided with a computer system (i.e. a communications apparatus) ... c. providing software to the user for use in their computer system ... , the software containing customized screening questions with predefined responses . . . , which are presented to the user using a display screen ... d. receiving responses to the questions through an input device ... e. storing responses from the patient in a database .... (Final Act. 3.) The Examiner also finds that "Iliff teaches that the computer system may be 'a handheld, pen-driven computer', but does not teach that it includes 'a touch sensitive display"' (id. at 4). However, the Examiner finds that "Lichter teaches a handheld computer system by which a patient can input biological data for medical recording" and that, "[i]n this system, 'a 3 Iliff, US 5,660, 176, Aug. 26, 1997. 4 Lichteretal., US 5,827,179, Oct. 27, 1998. 5 Quanhe Yang & Muin J. Khoury, Evolving Methods in Genetic Epidemiology. III. Gene-Environment Interaction in Epidemiologic Research, 19 Epidemiologic Reviews 33--43 (1997). 6 Russ B. Altman, Informatics in the Care of Patients: Ten Notable Challenges, 166 West. J. Med. 118-122 (1997). 3 Appeal2014-008918 Application 13/408,334 pointing device, held by the hand of a user, may be used to input data into the host personal computer via a touch sensitive display'" (id.). In addition, the Examiner finds that "Iliff teaches analyzing medical data from patients ... , but does not teach using genotypic data in the analysis; i.e. Iliff does not teach the steps of 'defining a plurality of groups ... ' and performing genotypic analysis on individuals in those groups" (id.). However, the Examiner finds that "Yang teaches defining groups of individuals by disease incidence and exposure to an environmental risk factor" and "identifying the genotype of these individuals ... , comparing the genotypes of the groups, and reporting genetic markers that are correlated with incidence of disease" (id.). The Examiner also finds that "Altman teaches that a valuable application of a database of medical data for a patient is that it can be combined with genetic data for the patient and analyzed to identify new links between genetics and disease" (id.). The Examiner concludes: At the time of invention, said practitioner would have followed the teachings of Lichter - that a computer device with which a person interacts using a pen or stylus should include a touch- sensitive display . . . - and combined these features with the medical computer system of Iliff. Said practitioner would further have been motivated to combine the features of analyzing medical and environmental phenotypic and genotypic data to identify disease associations, as taught by Yang, with the computer system of Iliff, because Altman teaches that mining medical and genetic data is a valuable use for a system that acquires and stores patient medical data. Given the similarities among the methods - they are all directed to acquisition of medical data using computer devices, and analysis of that data - said practitioner would have readily predicted that the combination would result in a method of acquiring medical, 4 Appeal2014-008918 Application 13/408,334 phenotypic, and genotypic data from an individual using a computer device, and analyzing that data to identify genotypes associated with environmental risk factors and disease incidence. (Id. at 5.) FINDINGS OF FACT We incorporate the Examiner's findings of fact and conclusions of law as set forth in the Final Office Action and the Examiner's Answer. We include the following findings of fact (FF) for emphasis and for ease of reference: 1. Iliff discloses "a computerized medical diagnostic and treatment advice (MDAT A) system that is a medical knowledge-based system designed to give medical advice to the general public over the telephone network" (Iliff, col. 2, 11. 59---63). 2. Iliff also discloses that the "computer-driven dialogue consists of simple yes/no and multiple choice questions" (id. at col. 7, 11. 21-23). 3. In addition, Iliff discloses that, "[a]s another embodiment of the MDAT A system, a person desiring medical advice and having access to a personal computer (PC) loads a program into the PC to produce a stand- alone medical diagnostic and treatment advice (SA-MDATA) system" (id. at col. 4, 11. 18-22). 4. Iliff also discloses: [The] second embodiment of the MDAT A system entails a major shift of how the questions and responses are delivered to the patient. Rather than the use of a telephone, the voice processing and voice response technology, the system software is published via media such as floppy disks, CD ROM, or PCMCIA cards for use on a patient's personal computer. 5 Appeal2014-008918 Application 13/408,334 (Id. at col. 65, 11. 20-25.) 5. Yang discloses that the "concept of gene-environment interaction has long been recognized by geneticists ... and occupies an essential place in ecogenetic studies which examine the genetically determined differences among individuals in their susceptibility to environmental risk factors" (Yang 34 ). 6. Yang also discloses that, "[i]n a simple gene-environment interaction model, in which both the susceptibility genotype at a single locus and the environmental exposure are considered dichotomous, one can construct an extended 2-by-2 table incorporating genetic and environmental factors in studying disease etiology" (id.). 7. In particular, Yang discloses that the following "Table 1 shows a simple gene-environment interaction model in the context of epidemiologic studies": Sl~~.iiUily ~.,.,, .. l ,,, ~ '"' pmoont; 0 ;;,. a.boont. C:ilOOc~ :dW~ ., .. ,-. 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