SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SELLING AND DISPLAYING ADVERTISEMENTS OVER A NETWORK

Application No. 13/854,861

• Filed: Apr 01, 2013
• Examiner: POE, KEVIN T
• Art Unit: 3692
• Tech Center: 3600 — Transportation & Electronic Commerce
• Assignee: Yahoo Ad Tech LLC
• OA Round: 21 (Non-Final)

Office Action

DETAILED ACTION

Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions. This office action is in response to applicant's communication of September 11, 2025. The rejections are stated below. Claims 26-45 are pending and have been examined.

Response to Amendment/Arguments
2. Applicant has amended claims 26, 36, and 45. The rejection has been updated to reflect Applicant’s amendment.

Claim Rejections – 35 USC §112
3. The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.

4. Claims 26-45 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a), as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.

5. Claims 26, 36, and 45 require "generating in real-time ... a semantic vector correlation between content of the web page with one or more content topics" determined by "semantic analysis." "Semantic analysis" and "semantic vector correlation" encompass a vast array of possible techniques with vastly different implementations. The claims provide no structural or algorithmic limitations on how this "semantic vector correlation" is generated. In other words, the algorithms or steps/procedures taken to perform the function must be described with sufficient details so that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand how the inventor intended the functions to be performed. (MPEP 2181 IV: MPEP 2161 01 I)

6. Claims 27-35 and 37-44 are rejected as each depends on claims 26 and 36.

7. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.

8. Claims 26-45 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.

9. Claims 26, 36, and 45 each recite "semantic vector correlation”. This term lacks clear meaning. It is unclear what constitutes a "vector correlation" in this context. Does it refer to cosine similarity between vectors or some other correlation metric? The claims and specification provide no definition of the term and provides no objective standard.

13. Claims 27-35 and 37-44 are rejected as each depends on claims 26 and 36.

Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEVIN T POE whose telephone number is [phone]. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9:30am through 6pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ryan Donlon can be reached on 571-270-3602. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/K.T.P/Examiner, Art Unit 3692 /KEVIN T POE/
/RYAN D DONLON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3692
January 26, 2026

Prosecution Timeline

• Apr 01, 2013: Application Filed
• Oct 01, 2013: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Feb 21, 2014: Response Filed
• Jun 12, 2014: Final Rejection — §112
• Sep 16, 2014: Notice of Allowance
• Sep 16, 2014: Response after Non-Final Action
• Nov 17, 2014: Response after Non-Final Action
• Nov 26, 2014: Response after Non-Final Action
• May 23, 2015: Response after Non-Final Action
• Jul 27, 2015: Response after Non-Final Action
• Jul 30, 2015: Response after Non-Final Action
• Aug 03, 2015: Response after Non-Final Action
• Aug 03, 2015: Response after Non-Final Action
• May 09, 2017: Response after Non-Final Action
• Jul 11, 2017: Request for Continued Examination
• Jul 13, 2017: Response after Non-Final Action
• Aug 20, 2017: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Dec 01, 2017: Response Filed
• Mar 06, 2018: Final Rejection — §112
• May 04, 2018: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Jun 08, 2018: Response after Non-Final Action
• Aug 09, 2018: Response after Non-Final Action
• Aug 09, 2018: Notice of Allowance
• Sep 10, 2018: Response after Non-Final Action
• Oct 15, 2018: Request for Continued Examination
• Oct 20, 2018: Response after Non-Final Action
• Nov 25, 2018: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Feb 28, 2019: Response Filed
• May 13, 2019: Final Rejection — §112
• Aug 16, 2019: Response after Non-Final Action
• Sep 23, 2019: Response after Non-Final Action
• Oct 16, 2019: Request for Continued Examination
• Oct 21, 2019: Response after Non-Final Action
• Jan 05, 2020: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Apr 22, 2020: Response Filed
• Jul 26, 2020: Final Rejection — §112
• Oct 30, 2020: Response after Non-Final Action
• Dec 18, 2020: Request for Continued Examination
• Jan 03, 2021: Response after Non-Final Action
• Mar 18, 2021: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Jun 10, 2021: Response Filed
• Aug 15, 2021: Final Rejection — §112
• Oct 25, 2021: Response after Non-Final Action
• Nov 26, 2021: Request for Continued Examination
• Dec 09, 2021: Response after Non-Final Action
• Dec 18, 2021: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Feb 14, 2022: Response Filed
• Mar 02, 2022: Final Rejection — §112
• Apr 07, 2022: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Apr 07, 2022: Examiner Interview Summary
• May 16, 2022: Response after Non-Final Action
• Jul 07, 2022: Request for Continued Examination
• Jul 18, 2022: Response after Non-Final Action
• Jul 26, 2022: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Aug 25, 2022: Examiner Interview Summary
• Aug 25, 2022: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Oct 25, 2022: Response Filed
• Dec 22, 2022: Final Rejection — §112
• Feb 24, 2023: Examiner Interview Summary
• Feb 24, 2023: Response after Non-Final Action
• Feb 24, 2023: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Mar 26, 2023: Response after Non-Final Action
• Apr 13, 2023: Request for Continued Examination
• Apr 19, 2023: Response after Non-Final Action
• May 20, 2023: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Aug 23, 2023: Response Filed
• Nov 27, 2023: Final Rejection — §112
• Jan 31, 2024: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Jan 31, 2024: Response after Non-Final Action
• Feb 01, 2024: Examiner Interview Summary
• Mar 20, 2024: Response after Non-Final Action
• Mar 28, 2024: Request for Continued Examination
• Mar 30, 2024: Response after Non-Final Action
• May 30, 2024: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Aug 15, 2024: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Aug 23, 2024: Response Filed
• Aug 26, 2024: Examiner Interview Summary
• Sep 08, 2024: Final Rejection — §112
• Oct 31, 2024: Response after Non-Final Action
• Dec 02, 2024: Request for Continued Examination
• Dec 03, 2024: Response after Non-Final Action
• Dec 14, 2024: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Feb 04, 2025: Examiner Interview Summary
• Feb 04, 2025: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Mar 10, 2025: Response Filed
• Jun 09, 2025: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Jul 24, 2025: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Jul 24, 2025: Examiner Interview Summary
• Sep 11, 2025: Response Filed
• Dec 13, 2025: Non-Final Rejection — §112
• Mar 05, 2026: Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
• Mar 05, 2026: Examiner Interview Summary