Ex Parte Poulo

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Sep 29, 2016

12748782 (P.T.A.B. Sep. 29, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
121748,782 03/29/2010 Louis Poulo
23266 7590 10/03/2016
DRIGGS, HOGG, DAUGHERTY & DEL ZOPPO CO,, LPA
38500 CHARDON ROAD
DEPT. DLBH
WILLOUGBY HILLS, OH 44094
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.
ANA1056-US
(ANA106893)
CONFIRMATION NO.
5924
EXAMINER
HENKEL, DANIELLE B
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
1799
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
10/03/2016 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):
usptocommunications@driggslaw.com
carole@driggslaw.com
mwheeler@driggslaw.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE
THE PA TENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte LOUIS POUL01
Appeal2015-003820
Application 12/748,782
Technology Center 1700
Before MARK NAGUMO, JAMES C. HOUSEL, and GEORGE C. BEST,
Administrative Patent Judges.
NAGUMO, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Louis Poulo ("Poulo") timely appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from
the Final Rejection2 of claims 1-20, which are all of the pending claims. We
have jurisdiction. 35 U.S.C. § 6.
We reverse the rejection over prior art and we enter a new ground of
rejection of all claims as indefinite under 35 U.S.C. § 112 ,-i 2 pursuant to our
authority under 37 C.F.R. §41.50(b).3
1 The real party in interest is identified as Analogic Corporation. (Appeal
Brief, filed 18 August 2014 ("Br."), 2.)
2 Office action mailed 17 March 2014 ("Final Rejection"; cited as "FR").
Appeal2015-003820
Application 12/748,782
A. Introduction4
OPINION
The subject matter on appeal relates to temperature control of a
sample carried by a micro channel device. (Spec. 1, 11. 3--4.) Micro channel
devices are said to be used, inter alia, in biochips, labs-on-a-chip, and inkjet
printheads (id. at 11. 1. 8), where temperature control may be desired for
"processing, analysis, and/or other purposes" (id. at 11. 9-10). Standard
methods of controlling the temperature of a micro channel device, such as
using a Peltier thermoelectric heat pump, are said to require good
mechanical/thermal contact between the Peltier device and the micro
channel device, with concomitant accurate and precise mechanical alignment
and pressure. (Id. at 11. 12-22.) Increase in the size of the micro channel
device, non-uniformity of heat transfer, and increased thermal mass, which
requires increased power to implement thermal cycling, are said to result.
(Id. at 11. 22-26.)
Poulo seeks patent protection for a heating/cooling device that
controls the temperature of the micro channel device by placing it in a
chamber and bringing a heating/cooling fluid into thermal contact with the
micro channel device. (Id. at 3, 11. 1820.) An embodiment of the claimed
micro channel device processing apparatus is illustrated in Figure 1,
reproduced below.
3 We refer to the pre-AIA version of the statute because this application was
filed before 16 March 2013.
4 Application 12/748,782, Micro channel device temperature control,
filed 29 March 2010. We refer to the '"782 Specification," which we cite as
"Spec."
2
Appeal2015-003820
Application 12/748,782
{Figure 1 is shown below}
PROCESSING APP/IRA TUS
!02~
____ \ !QC'
(f--tiifr-RO ------1 -------------- _J-,, MICRO
: : CHANNEL DEVICE : ~------------- -1./ CHANNEL OEllICE ' 1---------------.J
...:::~----~----~--- .......
HEA TI NG/COOU NG
CHAMBER
!04
FLUJO
CONTROL SYSTEM
114
{Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a processing apparatus}
IOO
Micro channel device processing apparatus 100 receives (in this case
the entirety of) micro channel device 102 in heating/cooling chamber 104.5
Heating/cooling fluid 200 circulates through heating/cooling chamber 104,
as shown in Figure 3, below.
{Figure 3 is shown below.}
{
•.• !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:
~ i:::::::::::::::::::::~:::::::::::::::::i
.. :·
{Figure 3: circulation of heating/ coo ling fluid 200 through chamber 104}
5 Throughout this Opinion, for clarity, we present labels to elements in
figures in bold font, regardless of their presentation in the original document.
3
Appeal2015-003820
Application 12/748,782
In the words of the '782 Specification,
[i]n FIGURE 3, the fluid control system 108 (FIGURE 1)
moves the fluid 200 into the chamber 104 and around the
micro channel device 102, and out of the chamber 104
through the same side as the fluid is moved into the
chamber 104. The fluid 200 leaving the chamber 104 may be
expelled from the processing apparatus 100 or re-circulated,
via the fluid control system 108, back into the chamber 104.
(Spec. 5, 11. 1-14.)
Claim 1 is representative and reads:
A micro channel device processing apparatus, comprising:
a heating/cooling chamber configured to receive at least a
sub-portion of a micro channel device, wherein
the heating/cooling chamber includes multiple sides;
an inlet and an outlet, wherein
the inlet and outlet are located on a same side of the
heating/cooling chamber and
are not part of the heating/cooling chamber; and
a fluid control system that controls a flow of a
heating/cooling fluid in the chamber,
wherein the fluid control system controls the
temperature of the micro channel device by
introducing and circulating a fluid in the
heating/cooling chamber relative to the micro channel
device
such that the fluid enters and exits via a same side
of the multiple sides.
(Claims App., Br. 9-1 O; some indentation, paragraphing, and emphasis
added.)
4
Appeal2015-003820
Application 12/748,782
The Examiner maintains the following ground of rejection6 :
Claims 1-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) in view of
the combined teachings ofYoder7 and Mahjoob.8
B. Discussion
Findings of fact throughout this Opinion are supported by a
preponderance of the evidence of record.
Poulo urges (id. at 5, 11. 8-10) that Yoder seeks circulation of a
heating/cooling fluid that allows "near-instantaneous temperature changes to
be uniformly applied to a large number of samples." (Yoder 10 [0119].)
Moreover, in Poulo's view, Yoder, at [0121], teaches that "non-uniform
fluid flow across the case is undesirable since it results in uneven
temperature gradients across a case." (Br. 5, 11. 10-12.) Poulo urges further
that Mahjoob teaches that the fluid flow geometry shown in Fig. 7a (not
reproduced here) results in reduced heat transfer at the comers of the
conductive plate due to the velocity distribution, and that the larger non-
uniformity in temperature results in a longer cycling time. (Br. 6, 11. 1-9,
citing Mahjoob, section 5.3 at 2119-20.) On this basis, Poulo urges that the
Examiner erred in concluding that it would have been obvious to use the
heating/cooling fluid circulation geometry described by Mahjoob in Fig. 7a
with the thermal cycling head described by Yoder in Figure 19. (Br. 6,
11. 10-15.)
6 Examiner's Answer mailed 12 December 2014 ("Ans.").
7 Karl Yoder et al., Thermal cycler for microjluidic array assays, U.S.
Patent Application Publication 2006/0094108 Al (2006).
8 Shadi Mahjoob et al., Rapid microfluidic thermal cycler for polymerase
chain reaction nucleic acid amplification, 51 Int'l J. Heat and Mass Transfer
2109 (2008).
5
Appeal2015-003820
Application 12/748,782
The weight of the evidence supports Poulo. The Examiner has not
directed our attention to any evidence of an advantage taught by Mahjoob
arising from the dis-favored flow geometry described in Fig. 7a that might
have prompted the artisan to adopt that dis-favored geometry in the device
described in Figure 19 of Yoder, which is reproduced below.
{Yoder Figure 19 is shown below}
1·······t><}«««·rJi~~'"1r' «««<{>--..:;;_--·•----·t,.-'Y,,,J·'"""'""~~ ... ;. ~ ... ":~::-i'~"-
l"""""' i '\ ; . .. , ·'<;,:\\~\;
ll i l '\., ___ ,/' \ : '" •' '"
. 1 PUMP ! : «r i ' ~ t /··- l ";.} l i ~5 ---+--.. . : :
~ ~-.-.,w.•o•l,,.,.._..,"~ ~ ~ '<> ~ ! '~ ...... ~·1"' ~
I! Lf>