DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments and amendments filed 7/7/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The Applicant argued that acquiring a ECG data and detecting an operation is not a mental process. While acquiring ECG data and detecting operations are not a mental process, it is an extrasolution activity of necessary data gathering (see MPEP 2106.05(g)). The Applicant amended the claims to have a monitoring device “enter into a state where the current reference baseline needs to be confirmed, and repeating the analyzing and the comparing for N consecutive times” to be the additional element. The Examiner respectfully disagrees. The claims are recited in a way such that the computer is merely running an algorithm for confirming a reference baseline, which is purely in software. The abstract idea cannot provide the “inventive concept” (i.e., “significantly more”) required to make the claims patent-eligible. See, Genetic Technologies Limited v. Merial LLC (Fed Cir., 2016), wherein the court stated “[t]he inventive concept necessary at step two of the Mayo/Alice analysis cannot be furnished by the unpatentable law of nature (or natural phenomenon or abstract idea) itself. That is, under the Mayo/Alice framework, a claim directed to a newly discovered law of nature (or natural phenomenon or abstract idea) cannot rely on the novelty of that discovery for the inventive concept necessary for patent eligibility; instead, the application must provide something inventive, beyond mere “well-understood, routine, conventional activity.” Mayo, 132 S. Ct. at 1294; see also Myriad, 133 S. Ct. at 2117; Ariosa, 788 F.3d at 1379.” The Examiner recommends adding more details that are rooted in hardware associated with the state.
Applicant’s arguments and amendments with regards to the 112 and 103 rejections, see pages 15-17, filed 7/7/2025, with respect to claims 1-8, 11-13, 16-22, 25, 28, and 32 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 112 and 103 rejections of claims 1-8, 11-13, 16-22, 25, 28, and 32 have been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-8, 11-13, 16-22, 25, 28, and 31-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because of the following analysis:
Step 1: Do the claims recite one of the statutory categories of matter (i.e. method, apparatus, etc.)? YES, claims 1-8, 11-13, and 31-32 recite an apparatus and claims 16-22, 25, and 28 recite a method.
Step 2A Prong 1: Is there an abstract idea involved? YES, the claim language recites the claims recite a determination of a state of a target object, analyzing physiological information of the target subject, comparing information with a current reference baseline of the monitoring device, determine whether the monitoring device has a system error according to the system information detected, and updating the current reference baseline according to a preset rule when monitoring device has the system error. These limitations, as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in mind or by a person using a pen and paper.
Step 2a Prong 2: Do the claims recite additional elements that integrate the exception into a practical application? NO, the claims recite the use of a state detection apparatus, a signal acquisition apparatus, and a signal processing apparatus, which are recited at a high level of generality and is recited as performing generic computer functions. i.e., data collecting and processing. The elements amount to mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea (see MPEP 2106.04(d) and 2106.05(f)). Accordingly, each of the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limitations on practicing the abstract idea.
Step 2B: Do the additional elements amount to “Significantly More” than the judicial exception? NO, The emphasized elements cited above do not amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because these limitations are simply appending well-understood, routine and conventional activities previously known in the industry, specified at a high level of generality, to the judicial exception, e.g., a claim to an abstract idea requiring no more than a generic computer with sensors to perform generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine and conventional activities previously known in the industry (see Electric Power Group, 830 F.3d 1350 (Fed. Cir. 2016); Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’I, 110 USPQ2d 1976 (2014)).
In view of the above, the additional elements individually do not amount to significantly more than the above-judicial exception (the abstract idea). Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination (that is, as a whole) adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer, for example, or improves any other technology. There is no indication that the combination of elements permits automation of specific tasks that previously could not be automated. There is no indication that the combination of elements includes a particular solution to a computer-based problem or a particular way to achieve a desired computer-based outcome. Rather, the collective functions of the claimed invention merely provide conventional computer implementation, i.e., the computer is simply a tool to perform the process. Simply appending well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known to the industry, specified at a high level of generality, to the judicial exception, e.g., a claim to an abstract idea requiring no more than a generic computer to perform generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine and conventional activities previously known to the industry, as discussed in Alice Corp., 573 U.S. at 225, 110 USPQ2d at 1984 (see MPEP § 2106.05(d)).
Further, dependent Claims 2-8, 11-13, 17-22, 25, 28, and 31-32 merely include limitations that either further define the abstract idea (and thus don’t make the abstract idea any less abstract) or amount to no more than generally linking the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use because they’re merely incidental or token additions to the claims that do not alter or affect how the process steps are performed.
Conclusion
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 MICHAEL J LAU whose telephone number is (571)272-2317. The examiner can normally be reached 8-5:30 PM.
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/MICHAEL J LAU/Examiner, Art Unit 3796