PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16154646
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-10
Publication Date: 2019-02
Patent Classification: ["128", "200240"]

Abstract:
A device and a method for creating and/or maintaining an obstruction free upper respiratory passages. The device is configured to fit under the chin of a subject adjacent to the subject's neck at an external location corresponding approximately with the subject's internal soft tissue associated with the neck's anterior triangle. The device is capable of exerting negative pressure on the surface of a subject's neck, displacing the soft tissue forward and enlarging the airway.

Claim (Index 1):
An apparatus for alleviating obstruction of an airway, comprising:\n (i) a therapy appliance comprising a peripheral surface configured to mate with and thereby enclose an external area of the throat overlying the upper respiratory passage, whereby, when mated, said therapy appliance provides a space-filled chamber lying between the inner surface of the therapy appliance and the throat having an enclosed variable volume of between 8.19 and 196.64 cm 3  (0.5 and 12 in 3 ), wherein said peripheral surface distributes the force load across a sufficient skin area such that pressure along the contact surface with the user's skin does not exceed 60 mm Hg; and (ii) a housing wearably supported on the therapy appliance and comprising: an air pump which mates directly with the chamber and configured to maintain a partial vacuum of about 7.62 to about 60.96 cm H 2 O within said chamber, a vacuum control module comprising a microcontroller operatively coupled to motor control circuitry which controls the in a discontinuous fashion and at a variable pumping rate, wherein the vacuum control module is configured to provide a first pumping profile which provides an initial high pumping rate to generate the partial vacuum, and a second pumping profile which provides a reduced pumping rate to compensate for leakage of air into the chamber, a pressure sensor operably connected to the vacuum control module and configured to determine a differential between the chamber partial vacuum and ambient atmospheric pressure and to detect a drop in vacuum that requires energizing the air pump, and a battery providing power to the air pump and vacuum control module.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 16.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.57692
- Patent Class: 128.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['12993311', '15683616', '12002515', '12838669', '10483634']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.5903909192400522
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5308560943602839
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.5844374367520753
- Mean Citation Score: 248.19508
- Max Citation Score: 380.9283
- Similarity Product: 330.03015005189184

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test