Ex Parte Rapaka et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Mar 29, 2018

13780230 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 29, 2018)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
13/780,230 02/28/2013
28524 7590 04/02/2018
SIEMENS CORPORATION
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEPARTMENT
3501 Quadrangle Blvd Ste 230
Orlando, FL 32817
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Saikiran Rapaka
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.
2012P04831US01 1016
EXAMINER
GEBRESILASSIE, KIBROM K
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2128
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
04/02/2018 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):
ipdadmin.us@siemens.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte SAIK.IRAN RAP AKA, TOMMASO MANSI,
BOGDAN GEORGESCU, ALI KAMEN, and DORIN COMANICIU
Appeal2017-007539
Application 13/780,230
Technology Center 2100
Before CAROLYN D. THOMAS, IRVINE. BRANCH, and
JOSEPH P. LENTIVECH, Administrative Patent Judges.
LENTIVECH, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), Appellants 1 appeal from the
Examiner's decision to reject claims 1-3, 6-18, 21-33, and 36-45. The
rejection of claims 4, 5, 19, 20, 34, and 35 has been withdrawn. Ans. 2. We
have jurisdiction over the pending claims under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We reverse.
1 According to Appellants, the real party in interest is Siemens
Aktiengesellschaft. App. Br. 1.
Appeal2017-007539
Application 13/780,230
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellants 'Invention
Appellants' invention generally relates to "a method and system for
patient-specific cardiac electrophysiology simulation." Spec. i-f 5. Claim 1,
which is illustrative of the claimed invention, reads as follows:
1. A method for patient-specific cardiac electrophysiology
computations, comprising:
generating a patient-specific anatomical model of a heart
from medical image data of a patient;
identifying at least one key electrophysiological structures
of interest from the patient-specific anatomical model and
medical image data[;]
generating a level-set representation of the patient-specific
anatomical model of the heart on a Cartesian grid; and
computing the transmembrane action potential on at least
one node of the level-set representation of the patient-specific
anatomical model of the heart, wherein computing the
transmembrane action potential is based at least in part on a
stimulus current input as an initial condition.
Rejections and References
Claims 1-3, 7, 14--18, 22, 29-33, 37, 44, and 45 stand rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over the combination ofY. Zheng
et al., Four-Chamber Heart Modeling and Automatic Segmentation for 3D
Cardiac CT Volumes Using Marginal Space Learning and Steerable
Features, IEEE Transactions on Med. Imaging (2008) ("Zheng") and C.
Mitchell & D. Schaeffer, A Two-Current Model for the Dynamics of Cardiac
Membrane, 65 Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 767-93 (2003)
("Mitchell"). Final Act. 6-11.
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Appeal2017-007539
Application 13/780,230
Claims 6, 8-13, 21, 23-28, 36, and 38--43 stand rejected under 35
U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over the combination of Zheng,
Mitchell, and H. Yoshida and M. Nagaoka, Multiple relaxation time lattice
Boltzmann model for the convection and anisotropic diffusion equation, 229
J. Computational Physics 7774--95 (2010) ("Yoshida"). Final Act. 11-15.
ANALYSIS
Appellants contend the combination of Zheng and Mitchell fails to
teach or suggest "generating a level-set representation of the patient-specific
anatomical model of the heart on a Cartesian grid," as recited in claim 1.
App. Br. 5-8; Reply Br. 2---6. The Examiner relies upon Zheng for teaching
or suggesting the disputed limitation. Final Act. 7; Ans. 2-5 (citing Zheng,
Figs. 7, 8).
Appellants argue "[a]lthough Zheng describes segmenting a four
chamber heart model from a 3D CT volume, there is no description in Zheng
of generating a level-set representation of such a segmented heart model on
a Cartesian grid," as required by claim 1. App. Br. 5. Appellants argue
Zheng, instead, teaches "[ c Jutting a left ventricle mesh with a plane along its
rotation axis and resampling mesh points at the intersection." App. Br. 6.
Appellants further argue:
The RV [right ventricle] mesh shown in FIG. 8 is an extracted
model of the RV, but is not a level-set representation on a
Cartesian grid. FIGS. 7 and 8 of Zheng show techniques for
resampling mesh points to establish point correspondence, but do
not show generation of a level-set representation of a heart
chamber model on a Cartesian grid. Although Zheng describes
extracting 3D models of heart chambers from a 3D volume, there
is no description in Zheng of generating a level-set representation
of such a heart chamber model on a Cartesian grid.
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Appeal2017-007539
Application 13/780,230
App. Br. 7. Appellants argue:
as described in the very Wikipedia page relied on by the
Examiner, a level set is not merely a cross-sectional contour of a
shape in a plane used to cut the shape, but is a representation of
such a curve using a function (level set function) that is positive
inside the curve and negative outside the curve and manipulates
the curve implicitly. That is, although a cross-section contour of
an object can be represented using a level set function, that does
not mean that all cross-section contours are level sets.
Reply Br. 3--4 (citing Wikipedia, https:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Level_set_method).
Appellants' arguments are persuasive. A level set representation is a
representation of a surface using a level set function. See Stanley Osher &
Ronald Fedkiw, Level Set Methods and Dynamic Implicit Surfaces (S.S.
Antman et al. eds., 2003). For example, in three spatial dimensions, for a
closed surface with clearly defined interior and exterior regions, the exterior
portion is represented by the set of values for which the level set function
equates to a positive value, the interior portion is represented by the set of
values for which the level set function equates to a negative value, and the
boundary between the interior and exterior regions is represented by the set
of values for which the level set function equates to zero. See id. at 7.
Figures 7 and 8 of Zheng depict a rotation-axis based resampling method
and a parallel-slice based resampling method, respectively, for resampling a
3D shape to obtain simple shapes, such as a tube or parable, which can be
used to establish point correspondence with a statistical shape model. See
Zheng, Figs. 7, 8; 4--5. The Examiner's findings are insufficient to show
that Zheng's rotation-axis based and parallel-slice based resampling methods
teaches or suggests "generating a level-set representation of the patient-
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Appeal2017-007539
Application 13/780,230
specific anatomical model of the heart on a Cartesian grid," as recited in
claim 1.
Accordingly, we do not sustain the Examiner's rejections of claim 1;
independent claims 16 and 31, which recite corresponding limitations; and
claims 2, 3, 6-15, 17, 18, 21-30, 32, 33, and 36-45, which depend from
claims 1, 16, and 31.
Because we find this issue to be dispositive, we do not reach
Appellants' remaining contentions.
DECISION
We reverse the Examiner's rejections of claims 1-3, 6-18, 21-33, and
36-45 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a).
REVERSED
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