DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to Applicant’s reply filed 2 December 2025 (hereinafter “Reply”). This action is made Final.
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-2 and 12-13 are currently amended.
Claims 3-4 have been canceled.
Claims 1-2 and 5-13 are pending.
Claims 2, 6, 8, 10-11, and 13 are withdrawn.
Notice of AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after 16 March 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(a)
The following is a quotation 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.
Claims 1, 5, 7, 9, and 12 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, at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 1, there does not appear to be adequate support for the following newly amended limitation: “generate a candidate character string to be assigned to document data of interest by putting a character string included in a file name and/or a title of the document data of interest into the specified pattern.”
Applicant has indicated that support for the amendments can be found in original claim 3 and paragraph 32 of published application. However, the referenced portion of the specification does not disclose the above limitation. Rather, the specification discloses “the generator 203 may use, as a character string included in the document data of interest, a character string located at a predetermined position in the document data of interest such as a file name of the document data of interest or a title of the document.” Specification at 7 (emphasis added). As such, the specification supports the generation of a candidate character string comprising a file name of a document or a title of a document. There is no support for the generation of a candidate character string included in (i.e., merely a portion of) a file name and/or title.
Claims 5, 7, and 9 are rejected for substantially the same reason indicated above for claim 1, at least due to their dependence on the claim.
Claim 12 is rejected for substantially the same reasons given above.
Response to Arguments
The prior objection to the title has been withdrawn based on the corresponding amendment to the title.
The prior rejections of claims 1, 5, 7, and 12 under § 101 have been withdrawn based on the corresponding amendments to the claims.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the novelty of the pending claims have been fully considered and are persuasive. Accordingly, the prior rejections of claims 1, 3, 7, 9, and 12 under § 102 have been withdrawn.
Conclusion
Although particular portions of the prior art may have been cited in support of the rejections, the specified citations are merely representative of the teachings. Other passages and figures in the cited prior art may apply. Accordingly, Applicant should consider the entirety of the cited prior art for potentially teaching all or part of the claims.
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
Freed et al., US 8,566,329 B1, discloses a system for suggesting tags for an electronic file.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Asher D Kells whose telephone number is (571)270-7729. The examiner can normally be reached Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. - 4 p.m..
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Asher D. Kells
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2171
/Asher D Kells/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2171