DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Application
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The amendment filed January 29, 2026 has been entered. The following has occurred: Claims 1 and 10 are amended.
Claims 1, 2, 8-11, and 16-18 are pending.
Effective Filling Date: 2/17/2014.
Response to Amendment
35 U.S.C. 112(a) rejection has been withdrawn in light of the amendment.
35 U.S.C. 103 rejection has been maintained in light of the amendment.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 2, 8-11, 16, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Statler et al. (US 2013/0030915 A1), hereinafter “Statler,” in view of Postrel (US 2015/0140982 A1), and further in view of Haskins et al. (US 2015/0074558 A1), hereinafter “Haskins.”
Regarding claims 1 and 10, Statler discloses a computer-implemented method (Para. [0088]) and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied therein that when executed cause a computer system to perform a method prioritizing customer service, the method (Para. [0035], [0050], [0067], [0072] customer priority) comprising:
opting in to said prioritized customer service prior to entering a store location for each of a plurality of customers (para. [0051]-[0052], “customers may check-in to the store either by scanning a QR code placed near the entrance or opting in when passing through a geo-fence or perimeter around the store established using GPS coordinates, loyalty account information that may have been previously entered into the system by customers may be used to present relevant offers to the customer as they navigate the store.” which discloses opting in to said prioritized customer service prior to entering a store location for each of a plurality of customers);
storing personal information on a customer's mobile device for each of said plurality of customers, said personal information accessible by a mobile application operating on said customer's mobile device (par. [0033], [0039], [0051], [0052], and claim 22 discloses, in response to customer’s mobile device enters the perimeter of the merchant store, in communication with the merchant server via beacon (i.e., Bluetooth, NFC, or wireless connection) to retrieve the customer’s loyalty account information (i.e., personal information) provided by mobile application of the customer’s mobile device. See Fig. 8 and para. [0065] disclosing transmitting profile identifier associated with the customer, customer profile and location information to shopping assistant server, via customer device)), said personal information comprising: at least a store visit frequency (para. [0044] and [0067] discloses that the profile stored by customer behavior database 807 includes shopping frequency (i.e., store visit frequency));
communicatively connecting a customer's mobile device with at least one beacon within said store location for each of said plurality of customers (Para. [0050]-[0052] and [0064] disclosing the customers enter store location and the application of the customer’s mobile device communicates with the shopping assistant server of the store. Para. [0037], [0038], [0045], [0048], “Customers may access service provided by technology integration layer 430 via customer interaction layer 410 and customer services layer 420. As described above, customers may access shopping assistant server 110, or execute shopping assistant client 132, using various devices, such as smartphones, tablets, kiosks, point-of-service stations, shelf displays, displays mounted on shopping carts, websites, etc. Technology integration layer 430 may leverage technology provided by the user device, such as, for example, cameras, near field communication (NFC), barcode readers, quick response (QR) code readers, WiFi, GPS, etc. Customers may access the various services provided by customer services layer 420 through shopping assistant client 132, which in an aspect interfaces with customer services layer 420 via one or more client/developer application programming interfaces (APIs).” Disclosing a near field communication (NFC), WiFi, and/or GPS communicating with user device to access with system shopping assistant client, which teaches the limitation: communicatively connecting a customer's mobile device with at least one beacon within said store location for each of said plurality of customers. Note: Both near field communication (NFC) and WiFi communication are wireless communication technologies currently being installed in most of today’s smartphone (See http://zugara.com/beacon-vs-nfc-infographic) and are representative of (performs the same function as) beacon communication for the use of improving in-store customer experience and support. This is consistent with applicant’s specification para. [0016] “For example, beacon 190 transmits a Bluetooth invitation via wireless transceiver 192. If device 110 is in range of the transmitted Bluetooth invitation, then device 110 automatically sends a message back to beacon 190 via wireless transceiver 150 to accept the Bluetooth invitation. Accordingly, there is an automatic Bluetooth connection between device 110 and beacon 190” and [0017], “Beacon 190 is any device that is configured to be communicatively coupled with device 110. For example, beacon 190 is a NFC enabled device.”);
automatically providing by a processor without prompt, and in response to said customer’s mobile device communicatively connecting with said at least one beacon, said personal information for each of said plurality of customers provided by said mobile application operating on said customer’s mobile device (previously stated in PTAB decision (9/27/2023) page 6, “claim 1 recites three automatic actions which, as we explain below, are each met by operations disclosed by Statler.” Page 7, “We find here that Statler discloses the claimed beacon in its disclosure of geo-fence or perimeter around the store triggering account information in the customer service layer 420 (FF.2) at the check-in of the person within the perimeter. Since the triggering occurs automatically/spontaneously upon check-in of the customer through the geo-fence, it is automatic. Statler discloses that among the information which is triggered by the geo-fence or perimeter check-in is loyalty account information (FF. 3), which we find meets the required claim limitation of personal information of the customer.” The examiner asserts the limitation of automatically providing by the system (processor), in response to customer’s mobile device enters the perimeter of the merchant store, in communication with the merchant server via beacon (i.e., Bluetooth, NFC, or wireless connection) to retrieve the customer’s loyalty account information (e.g., personal information) provided by mobile application of the customer’s mobile device, see par. [0033], [0039], [0051], [0052], and claim 22),
automatically prioritizing, via the store’s computing system, each of said plurality of customers into a prioritized customer ranking based on the at least one upcoming important event (Claim 3 and Para. [0035], “customer profile may include information such as, for example, information regarding customer preferences, a customer's priority level, purchase history, income level, the customer's known needs/interests, activities, payment accounts, loyalty accounts, credit score, etc. Using a retrieved customer profile, help dispatch component 112 can determine the type of help to dispatch in response to a help request.” [0050], [0067], [0072] disclosing prioritizing customer based on customer profile, buying habit, customer’s buying power and priority level (e.g., a measure of how valuable the customer may be to the retailer, for example, based on one or more of a credit rating, purchase history, etc.), which is prioritizing, via the store’s computing system, each of said plurality of customers into a prioritized customer ranking based on customer’s profile, which includes information such as activities, interest, and need, suggesting upcoming important event);
automatically providing, from the store’s computing system and to a store employee’s mobile device, the prioritized customer ranking for each customer of said plurality of customers located at said store location, wherein a store employee is to contact the customer to serve and help based on a customer’s location on the prioritized customer ranking (Fig. 2 and Para. [0035]-[0036] disclose the shopping assistance server (e.g., store’s computing system) receives customer information and the system will determine to send help dispatch to the customer based on customer profile of priority level (i.e. the prioritized customer ranking). Further in Abstract and Para. [0030], [0038] disclose that the application is used to enhance customer in-store experience, the information would most like be send to a store employee at the store location. Further note that, in order for the system to dispatch a help assistant to the customer, the assistant (i.e. retailer employee) would have to be able to view the transmitted indication by the system on display to help the customer, see Claim 28, Para. [0072] and Figure 8 reference 802, 822, 846, and 848 for retailer/store employee providing customer help to the customer based on customer information of priority status indication. Claim 29 recites, “determine one or more of a priority of sending help to the customer versus sending help to other customers, a type of expertise of the assistant, a location of the assistant to instruct to provide the help, an identity of the assistant, or an employment level or title of the assistant.” Disclosing prioritizing (i.e. priority) the customer to other customers and providing customer service/help based on location and priority. Para. [0050], “Location information may also be provided via customer services layer 420. For example, the particular locations in the store that a customer has stopped may be tracked as well as the amount of time spent in particular departments or aisles. Location information may be color coded by customer priority. For example, high value customers may be highlighted with particular color code. In some aspects, the look, e.g. color, style, format, behavior, etc., of the application being used by the customer may change based on the customer's location, the brand of store, etc.” Disclosing the receiving and transmitting of customer’s priority (e.g., prioritized customer ranking) and location to the service layer. Para. [0066], “the shopping assistant server 110 interfaces with a plurality of components to enhance a customer shopping experience. Knowing the location of the customer can also be helpful in providing a positive customer service experience. In one aspect, as depicted at 826, a location request may be transmitted to a location service 806 to determine the customer location. The location service 806 may compute the customer location based on a variety of factors such as, for example, planograms/store maps, in-store wireless access points, GPS or other satellite or terrestrial location information obtained from the mobile device of the customer,” disclosing how the system identifies customer’s location for help and service.),
Statler discloses the method and computer product for prioritizing customer service using Beacon communication of NFC, Bluetooth, and wireless communication and providing relevant offers to the customer as they navigate the store based on location of the customer (para. [0052]). While it is disclosed in Statler, one may argue that NFC and WiFi disclosed in Statler are not technologically the same as beacon communication, since Statler does not expressly use the language “Beacon.” For the purpose of expediting compact prosecution, the Examiner will introduce Postrel, which is in the field of wireless beacon communication system, to specifically teach Bluetooth is beacon communication (italic emphasis included):
communicatively connecting a customer's mobile device with at least one beacon within said store location for each of said plurality of customers; automatically providing by a processor without prompt, and in response to said customer's mobile device communicatively connecting with said at least one beacon (Postrel, Abstract and Para. [0006], [0024], “the beacon may have the ability to receive data messages from a user mobile device as well as transmit the wireless beacon data signals as described above. In this manner, the beacon could request information from the user mobile device, which could respond based on information in the user profile or based on real-time interaction with the user. Additionally, the mobile device may be programmed to transmit periodic queries that search for beacons having certain characteristics. In this case, the user may be seeking to obtain purchase coupons for a desire product, and may set a mobile app on his device to transmit beacon search requests that would be received by beacons within range. If a particular beacon is able to provide the requested content, then it would respond to the querying mobile device accordingly.” Specifically disclose beacon can receive data from a user mobile device, request information from the user mobile device, which is based on information in the user profile (e.g., personal information of the client),
wherein said mobile application operating on said customer's mobile device is enabled to look for a transmission from said beacon and, when said transmission is detected, said mobile application operating on said customer's mobile device will notify said customer of location-relevant content (para. [0012], “action that may be initiated is post-processing of data provided by execution of an app triggered by the beacon identifier. For example, the beacon filter manager may allow a beacon identifier to trigger a mobile app associated with an electronics store that the user is entering. The electronics store mobile app may operate to provide a purchase offer for display to the user on the mobile device.” In para. [0014] describes an intelligent beacon that provides beacon content directly to the user, including notifications, purchase incentives (i.e., coupons) and other information), which is definition of location-relevant content in a retail setting, as supported by the Applicant’s specification in para. [0019], “a user's mobile app (e.g., application140) can be enabled to look for the transmission of beacon190 (or any other beacons). When device110 is within physical proximity to the beacon and detects it, the application can notify the customer of location-relevant content, promotions, and offers”. Further in para. [0061] and [0063] provides specific example, that user entering a TARGET store and triggers mobile app to provide information such as purchase incentive of $5 coupon on user mobile device for use in the food department of that TARGET store).
Postrel addresses the similar field of technology for mobile device to automatically receive wireless signal from a beacon upon entering a premises (e.g., retail store) and can trigger an associated mobile application without user intervention. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling of the invention to modify the manual request of help from customer in Statler to include the feature of automatic proximity-based beacon trigger to create a more seamless and proactive customer assistance system as taught by Postrel.
In Statler discloses prioritizing each of said plurality of customers into a prioritizing customer ranking based on customer profile information including priority level and customer’s interest and need (para. [0035 and claim 28), while Statler does not explicitly name “upcoming important events” and “dates,” a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand a “known need” or “interest” to encompass shopping for a specific reason in need/interest includes specific upcoming event, such as birthday or holiday.
The combination of Statler and Postrel fail to expressly teach (italic emphasis):
said personal information comprising: at least one upcoming important event, a date of said at least one upcoming important event; and
prioritized customer ranking based on a date of the at least one upcoming important event.
Nonetheless, Haskins is directed to systems and methods for applying intelligence and prioritization to calendared events, which specifically teaches:
said personal information comprising: at least one upcoming important event, a date of said at least one upcoming important event; and
prioritized customer ranking based on a date of the at least one upcoming important event (para. [0022], “Through the intelligent calendaring platform, various sources of information may provide context to the importance of entries to the user. This information may be analyzed to reprioritize events, calendar invites, and other interactions with a user's calendar. For example, lower priority events may be automatically subordinated to higher priority events based on predetermined metrics. For example, tasks for an opportunity scheduled to close next month may be assigned a lower priority than tasks associated with an opportunity scheduled to close tomorrow. As a result, the calendaring experience is more relevant and important events are prioritized and presented to the user ahead of less relevant and important events, subject to manual override or manual acceptance of the reprioritization,” teaching that calendar event date such as tomorrow has a higher priority over calendar event date for next month. Further in para. [0023], “Various algorithms, machine learning techniques, regression analysis, and heuristics may be used by the intelligent calendaring application to rank or otherwise prioritize events based on contextual information. Alternatively or in addition to automatic prioritization, users may manually categorize events with higher and lower priorities. In one embodiment, the on-demand services environment may categorize events with higher and lower priorities based on past interactions by the user. In one embodiment, certain types of events may be automatically assigned a priority level, such as wedding anniversaries, birthdays of close connections and/or siblings” teaching the prioritizing of different types of (upcoming important) event such as wedding anniversaries and birthdays).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling of the invention to modify the system and method for prioritizing customer service of Statler for the personal information to include prioritizing based on date and upcoming important event as taught by Haskins for the motivation of effectively prioritize and rank calendar entries based on context information (para. [0007]). Also, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to understand that it is to user’s best intention to prioritize or rank events that are more urgent closer to date than events that has more time to plan out further out in the future.
Regarding claims 2 and 11, Statler, Postrel, and Haskins make obvious the method of claim 1 and computer product of claim 10. Statler further discloses:
said processor automatically displaying said personal information for viewing on the store employee’s mobile (Fig.2 and Para. [0029], [0033]-[0036] disclose customer request help or do not disturb message to the shopping assistance server and the system will determine to send help dispatch to the customer based on customer profile. Further in Abstract and Para. [0030], [0038] disclose that the application is used to enhance customer in-store experience, the information would most like be send to a store employee at the store location. Further note that, in order for the system to dispatch a help assistant to the customer, the assistant (i.e. employee) would have to view the request transmitted by the system on display).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, Statler, Postrel, and Haskins make obvious the method of claim 1 and computer product of claim 10. Statler further discloses:
said processor generating a promotion for each of said plurality of customers based on said personal information (Para. [0069] discloses “the shopping assistant server 110 may request offers to be provided to the customer 802, as depicted at 838, from an offer service 812. Offers may provide incentives, such as discounts, to entice a customer to make a purchase. In some aspects, the offer may be based on any of the customer profile, customer shopping history, customer search history, customer movements through the store, etc.”).
Regarding claims 9 and 17, Statler, Postrel, and Haskins make obvious the method of claim 8 and computer product of claim 16. Statler further discloses:
said processor displaying said promotion on the customer’s mobile device while said customer’s mobile device is located at said store location (Para. [0069] discloses “a customer may stand in front of coat display for 10 minutes (as detected by navigation services), and during that time retailer may offers a get $5 off on your next visit offer. The customer may view the offer, but continues browsing. After a period of time, such as 15 minutes have passed, the customer may scan one of the manufacturer's products, and the manufacturer may provide a $20 dollar off if you buy today offer.” The indication of “detected by navigation service” discloses customer is located in store location. “Customer may view the offer” discloses the promotion offer or discount is displayed in customer mobile device. Additionally, see Claim 37-39 and Para. [0046], [0075]).
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Statler et al. (US 2013/0030915 A1), hereinafter “Statler,” in view of Postrel (US 2015/0140982 A1), in view of Haskins et al. (US 2015/0074558 A1), hereinafter “Haskins,” and further in view of Fredlund et al. (US 2008/0306749 A1), hereinafter “Fredlund.”
Regarding claim 18, the combination of Statler, Postrel, and Haskin make obvious of the method of claim 1. Statler further discloses:
wherein said personal information for each of the plurality of customers further comprises: a name (para. [0072], “the customer information may include, for example, the customer name, priority status, a photograph of the customer, information about the product(s) the customer is interested in, the customer position or location information, an indication of whether or not the customer wants help, and/or other customer information that may be helpful in providing shopping assistance.”) and customer activities in said store derived from measurements from said at least one beacon (Statler, para. [0050], discloses that “the particular locations in the store that a customer has stopped may be tracked as well as the amount of the time spent in particular departments or aisles.” and track foot traffic and tracing velocity of movement of customer).
Postrel also teaches, customer activities in said store derived from measurements from said at least one beacon (para. [0041] teaches beacon system provides a ranging function that ascertains how far the device 6 is from the transmitting beacon 4.” “the device 6 can more accurately determine its relative position”). The motivation to modify/combine the teachings of Statler with/and the teachings of Postrel are presented in the examining of independent claim 1 and incorporated herein.
However, the combination does not expressly teach the personal information of each of the plurality of customers comprising an age, an address, a number of children,
Fredlund, which is directed to a system and method of online marketing of image-related materials, which explicitly teaches:
the personal information of each of the plurality of customers comprising: a name, an age, an address, a number of children (Fredlund, para. [0021], “Information obtained about the consumer can be from a number of different sources. This can include information voluntarily provided by the consumer, such as name, birth date, sex, marital status, address, occupation, schooling, number of children, hobbies, interests, etc. Information about the consumer can also include behavioral data, for example, records of Internet shopping patterns, types of products or services purchased, and web sites frequently visited.” The user profile includes information such as name, birth date (i.e. age and upcoming important date), address, number of children, and shopping patterns, types of products or service purchased).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filling of the invention to modify the customer profile information in the shopping service apparatus and method of Statler, to include additional information such as a name, an age, an address, a number of children, a purchase history, and at least one upcoming important date as part of user profile, as taught by Fredlund, for the motivation of more accurately providing personalize incentives and offering product packages that are likely to be of interest based on the profile information (Fredlund, para. [0004]).
Response to Arguments
35 U.S.C. 112 Rejection:
The rejected claims have been amended and corresponding 112(a) rejection has been withdrawn.
35 U.S.C. 103 Rejection:
The applicant’s remarks are fully considered, however are found to be unpersuasive.
In response to applicant's argument that the examiner's conclusion of obviousness is based upon improper hindsight reasoning, it must be recognized that any judgment on obviousness is in a sense necessarily a reconstruction based upon hindsight reasoning. But so long as it takes into account only knowledge which was within the level of ordinary skill at the time the claimed invention was made, and does not include knowledge gleaned only from the applicant's disclosure, such a reconstruction is proper. See In re McLaughlin, 443 F.2d 1392, 170 USPQ 209 (CCPA 1971).
On page 18 of the remarks, the applicant asserts the combination of Statler in view of Postrel and Haskins fail to teach or render obvious the amended claim limitation, "wherein said mobile application operating on said customer's mobile device is enabled to look for a transmission from said beacon and, when said transmission is detected, said mobile application operating on said customer's mobile device will notify said customer of location-relevant content."
The examiner respectfully disagrees. Postrel is directed to a method of system for pre and post processing of beacon id signals (title). The entire purpose of Postrel is to manage the actions that occurs when a mobile device detects a beacon. Claim 16 of Postrel and para. [0012] teaches the primary actions is to notify the user on display of mobile device. In para. [0014] describes an intelligent beacon that provides beacon content directly to the user, including notifications, purchase incentives (i.e., coupons) and other information), which is definition of location-relevant content in a retail setting, as supported by the Applicant’s specification in para. [0019], “a user's mobile app (e.g., application140) can be enabled to look for the transmission of beacon190 (or any other beacons). When device110 is within physical proximity to the beacon and detects it, the application can notify the customer of location-relevant content, promotions, and offers”. Further in para. [0061], [0063], and [0108] provides specific example, that user entering a TARGET store and triggers mobile app to provide information such as purchase incentive of $5 coupon on user mobile device for use in the food department of that TARGET store, teaches the amended claim limitation, "wherein said mobile application operating on said customer's mobile device is enabled to look for a transmission from said beacon and, when said transmission is detected, said mobile application operating on said customer's mobile device will notify said customer of location-relevant content."
Thus, the examiner is not persuaded by the remarks and the 103 rejection is maintained.
Relevant Prior Art Not Relied Upon
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure. The additional cited art, including but not limited to the excerpts below, further establishes the state of the art at the time of Applicant’s invention and shows the following was known:
Hurewitz (US20140365334A1) is directed to a system and method that monitors a customer's movements, locations, product interactions, and purchase behavior within a physical retail store. Emotional reactions to physical items and the virtual display are also tracked. The customer can utilize a mobile device app to request assistance from a retail store clerk. The app determines the position of the customer's mobile device within the store, such as by using Bluetooth beacons, and then transmits this position and a request for assistance to a server computer.
Hanson et al. (US20160012375A1) which is directed to methods and systems for managing customer queues using local positioning technology are presented. In some embodiments, a customer assistance computing platform may receive one or more attributes associated with a beacon signal received by a customer computing device and an identifier associated with the customer computing device. Subsequently, the computing platform may determine an identity of a customer using the customer computing device. The computing platform then may determine a location of the customer using the customer computing device based on the one or more attributes associated with the beacon signal. Thereafter, the computing platform may select at least one queue from one or more maintained queues based on the location of the customer. Then, the computing platform may update the at least one selected queue based on the identity of the customer to add the customer using the customer computing device to the at least one selected queue.
Zhao (US20140058870A1) is directed to consumer shopping, and in particular, to assisting a consumer, via a customer-merchant key coupling, with offline shopping and electronic payment transaction. In Abstract, “when a customer approaches or enters a merchant's store the customer has signed up with, the user device carried by the customer wirelessly broadcasts a signal for the customer key unique to the merchant key. When the merchant server picks up the signal, the service provider communicates to the merchant server information in the user's profile including identifiers, shopping preferences, or the shopping history of the customer, subject to any user-created restrictions contained in the profile so that a sales clerk of the store may approach the customer to give recommendations, suggestions, or other assistance with shopping, based on the information.” which teaches the claimed invention for providing customer service based on user’s profiled retrieve from user’s mobile device when the user enters store location. In paragraph [0018], “the user's shopping profile may consist, not only of the information and restrictions entered by the user through the process 100, but of information from the user's past shopping history. Such information may include the kinds, prices, sizes, colors, brands, manufacturers, sellers/merchants of products the user purchased, and the specific time of the season when the purchases were made” teaches shopping history includes prices which is a suggestion of previous purchase history includes amount of money previously spent at said location.
Hendrickson (US 20120016745A1) is directed to system and method for improving customer wait time, customer service and marketing efficiency in the restaurant industry. On paragraph [0060], “added benefit of this embodiment is that a customer can send and receive gifting opportunities for shopping events via the system of the invention. The approved customer (giftor) can do this by accessing the customer's (giftee's) pre-registered event list (e.g., wedding or birthday) and distribute gift options (e.g., points, dollars, credits, and other gifting options) and specified limit for the customer to spend during the set shopping event or for a period of time designated by the giftor. This eliminates many uncomfortable situations while still offering a personalized gift solution gifting opportunity. The calendared events set by each customer also will let other authorized customers see upcoming events that are important to a particular customer (e.g., wedding shower, baby shower, birthdays, bar mitzvah etc.). Store owners will appreciate the ease of volume control estimation provided by booking future shopping events, as is available to restaurants and other categories using the techniques of the invention.” which teaches/suggest the limitation of providing customer service based on specific date of upcoming important events such as wedding shower, baby shower, birthdays, bar mitzvah etc.
A. Nandwani, R. Edwards and P. Coulton, "Contactless check-ins using implied locations: A NFC solution simplifying business to consumer interaction in location based services," 2012 IEEE International Conference on Electronics Design, Systems and Applications (ICEDSA), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2012, pp. 39-44, doi: 10.1109/ICEDSA.2012.6507812. Which teaches providing customer services based on customer’s personal information and location in store, as discussed, “C. Business Information Modelling The customer service improves with the implementation of such system. Customer's perspective is personal and hands in line with time. Further approached can be applied when the system recognises if the user is a regular customer. In this case staff could be advised what to do; by looking at information from one of the multiple screens set specifically for staff.”
J. Li, I. Ari, J. Jain, A. H. Karp and M. Dekhil, "Mobile In-store Personalized Services," 2009 IEEE International Conference on Web Services, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2009, pp. 727-734, doi: 10.1109/ICWS.2009.107. Which teaches a Mobile Shopping Assistant (MSA) is a mobile application platform to deliver real-time, in-store, and personalized services, such as personalized product offerings and in-store customer advisory support, to improve the shopping experiences of in-store customers.
Siddique et al. (US 20130215116 A1) is directed to system and Method for Collaborative Shopping, Business and Entertainment, which teaches collecting user profile information including preference, interest, purchasing and browsing history. Siddique teaches user mobile device determine position location using GPS to estimate relative locations of other devices.
Leikach et al. (US 20060237532 A1) is directed to a method, includes receiving a customer in a retail establishment; providing a mobile device to the customer; enabling the customer to use the mobile device to selectively enter product identifiers of products in the retail establishment; and enabling the customer to request an associated service in the retail establishment, the associated service using the product identifier. The associated service may be an email service, a point-of-sale service, a design assistant service, a product information service, or a storage service. The product identifier may be a bar code or other wireless protocol.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WENREN CHEN whose telephone number is (571)272-5208. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10AM - 6PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathan C Uber can be reached at (571) 270-3923. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WENREN CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3626