DETAILED ACTION
1. This is a Final Office Action Correspondence in response to amendments/arguments for U.S. Application No. 17/707982 filed on September 29, 2025.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Applicant
3. Applicant is encouraged to contact the Examiner in hopes of reaching a resolution in light of compact prosecution.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement filed on February 21, 2025 was reviewed and accepted by the Examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 16 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 16 depends upon claim 16. Appropriate correction is required.
Response to Arguments
4. Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are not persuasive.
On Pg. 9 of remarks in regards to 35 U.S.C. 103, relating to claim 1, Applicant argues Hao’s “The Office Action has mapped the claimed "data processing apparatus" to the 'donor peer device" of Hao (see Office Actin, page 9, "par. 0042 Hao discloses the donor peer device providing the access to the user content through HTTPS request"). However, Hao's donor peer device is merely a content-serving device; it's function is to provide access to content that it has previously downloaded”.
Examiner replies that Hao does teach this concept. The claim language is not clear that the data is not previously down from the device. Receiving access to content is a type of generating the content. Fig. 1 and Par. 0030 Martinez discloses [see figure 1, in particular the "community server" 102 and paragraph 38, in particular the passage: "The community server 102 may receive a content file uploaded by a user from a computing device 110 through transceiver 108. The community server 102 may store content files in a content file database 130. The community server is seen as the data management apparatus).
On Pg. 9 of remarks in regards to 35 U.S.C. 103, relating to claim 1, Applicant argues “Generating a license key, as in Hao, is an authentication function performed by a separate authentication server to control access; it does not involve extracting text from the content of the document itself. The amended claim language., which specifies the act of "extract[ing] text data", definitively distinguishes the claimed features from the security and access-control functions described in Hao.”
Examiner replies that Hao does teach this concept. In addition to the cited sections, Par. 0043 Hao discloses receive and authenticate the authentication request. The authentication request contains text information that is verified which means the request has to be read.
On Pg. 10 of remarks in regards to 35 U.S.C. 103, relating to claim 1, Applicant argues Moreover, Hao and Martinez provide no discussion or suggestion of second circuitry of the data management apparatus being configured to, in response to receiving a request from the second terminal, transmit a screen including meta data of the document and the URL to the second terminal, as claimed. No device in Hao or Martinez transmits (1) a screen including meta data of a document and (2) a URL to a second terminal.
Examiner replies that Hao does teach this concept. (Fig. 1 and Par. 0030 Martinez discloses [see figure 1, in particular the "community server" 102 and paragraph 38, in particular the passage: "The community server 102 may receive a content file uploaded by a user from a computing device 110 through transceiver 108. The community server 102 may store content files in a content file database 130. The community server is seen as the data management apparatus):
On Pg. 10 of remarks in regards to 35 U.S.C. 103, relating to claim 1, Applicant argues thus, Hao and Martinez do not describe or reasonably suggest first circuitry of the data processing apparatus configured to extract text data in the document data, and second circuitry of the data management apparatus configured to in response to receiving a request from the second terminal, transmit a screen including meta data of the document and the URL to the second terminal, as recited in Claim 1.
Examiner replies that Hao does teach this concept. receive the document data from the data management apparatus (Par. 0045 Hao discloses the home sending the content stream);
extract text data in the document data (Par. 0042 Hao discloses the donor peer device sending a request to receive the personal content);
generate a uniform resource locator (URL) for accessing the text data (Par. 0045 Hao discloses generating a URL to send to the target device. The target device is the data processing apparatus);
store, in a first memory of the data processing apparatus, the text data in association with the URL (Par. 0043 Hao discloses receive and authenticate the authentication request);
transmit the URL to the data management apparatus (Par. 0043 Hao discloses transmitting the authentication server URL to the home network);
and transmit, in response to receiving a request for accessing the URL from a second terminal different from the first terminal, screen information to the second terminal to display the text data, and (Par. 0045 Hao discloses sending one or more URL streaming to the target peer devices).
On Pg. 12 of remarks in regards to 35 U.S.C. 103, relating to claim 1, Applicant argues the specific sequence of interactions between the data management apparatus and the data processing apparatus.
Examiner replies that the specific sequence of interactions is not clear nor claimed. Its not clear which sets of data is received before transmitting other specifics of data. The system of Hao allows the system to authenticate and receive data which is a type of offload of processing the task. Par. 0043 Hao discloses transmitting the authentication server URL to the home network.
and transmit, in response to receiving a request for accessing the URL from a second terminal different from the first terminal, screen information to the second terminal to display the text data, and (Par. 0045 Hao discloses sending one or more URL streaming to the target peer devices);
the second circuitry of the data management apparatus is further configured to:
receive, from the data processing apparatus, the URL for accessing the text data, store the URL in the second memory (Par. 0044 Hao discloses the home network receiving a request to access content);
in response to receiving a request from the second terminal transmit a screen including meta data of the document and the URL from the second terminal (par. 0042 Hao discloses the donor peer device providing the access to the user content through HTTPS request. Par. 0038 Hao discloses sending a donor identifier to the peer device to establish a peer to peer connection. A user receiving modified identifiers from other users. The modified identifiers are the
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
10. 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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
11. 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.
12. Claim(s) 1, 3, 5-7, 8, 9 and 13-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable by Hao et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0066495 (herein as ‘Hao’) and further in view of Martinez at al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0155701 (herein as ‘Martinez’).
As to claim 1 Hao teaches an information processing system comprising:
a data processing apparatus including first circuitry: and a data management apparatus connected to the data processing apparatus via a network, (Fig. 1, Fig. 3 and Par.0034-0038 Hao discloses the content server, donor peer device and target peer device); the data management apparatus including second circuitry configured to:
Hao does not teach but Martinez teaches store the document data in a second memory of the data management apparatus, receive document data uploaded to the data management apparatus from a first terminal by user operation: store, the document data in a second memory of the data management apparatus (Fig. 1 and Par. 0030 Martinez discloses [see figure 1, in particular the "community server" 102 and paragraph 38, in particular the passage: "The community server 102 may receive a content file uploaded by a user from a computing device 110 through transceiver 108. The community server 102 may store content files in a content file database 130. The community server is seen as the data management apparatus):
Hao and Martinez are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, website processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the content distribution of Hao to include the identifier of Martinez, to allow for accessing content that is available to the user (Par. 0002-0003 Martinez);
Hao teaches transmit the document data stored in the second memory to the data processing apparatus via the network (Par. 0045 Hao discloses the home sending the content stream); wherein
The first circuitry of the data processing apparatus is configured:
receive the document data from the data management apparatus (Par. 0045 Hao discloses the home sending the content stream);
extract text data in the document data (Par. 0042 Hao discloses the donor peer device sending a request to receive the personal content);
generate a uniform resource locator (URL) for accessing the text data (Par. 0045 Hao discloses generating a URL to send to the target device. The target device is the data processing apparatus);
store, in a first memory of the data processing apparatus, the text data in association with the URL (Par. 0043 Hao discloses receive and authenticate the authentication request);
transmit the URL to the data management apparatus (Par. 0043 Hao discloses transmitting the authentication server URL to the home network);
and transmit, in response to receiving a request for accessing the URL from a second terminal different from the first terminal, screen information to the second terminal to display the text data, and (Par. 0045 Hao discloses sending one or more URL streaming to the target peer devices);
the second circuitry of the data management apparatus is further configured to:
receive, from the data processing apparatus, the URL for accessing the text data, store the URL in the second memory (Par. 0044 Hao discloses the home network receiving a request to access content);
in response to receiving a request from the second terminal transmit a screen including meta data of the document and the URL from the second terminal (par. 0042 Hao discloses the donor peer device providing the access to the user content through HTTPS request. Par. 0038 Hao discloses sending a donor identifier to the peer device to establish a peer to peer connection. A user receiving modified identifiers from other users. The modified identifiers are the URL. The data accessed by the modified identifiers are seen as the second data).
As to claim 3 Hao in combination with Martinez teach and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Martinez teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to: acquire from the data processing apparatus, identification information for identifying the document data: store the identification information in the first memory: and acquire from the data processing apparatus, the URL corresponding to the identification information stored in the first memory in response to receiving a notification from any of the first and second terminals regarding the first data stored in the second memory (Par. 0042 Martinez discloses is acquired upon receiving a notification from the terminal that the user has entered a new identifier).
As to claim 5 Hao in combination with Martinez teach and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Martinez teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to: store data transmitted from first terminal in the second memory: and store the URL for transmission to the second terminal in the first memory (Par. 0033 and Fig. 1 Martinez discloses the content file database and identifier database").
As to claim 6 Hao teaches a data management apparatus comprising:
Hao teaches circuitry configured to:
Receive document data uploaded to the data management apparatus from a first terminal by user operation (Par. 0045 Hao discloses the home sending the content stream);
Hao does not teach but Martinez teaches store the document data in a first memory, (Fig. 1 and Par. 0030 Martinez discloses [see figure 1, in particular the "community server" 102 and paragraph 38, in particular the passage: "The community server 102 may receive a content file uploaded by a user from a computing device 110 through transceiver 108. The community server 102 may store content files in a content file database 130):
Hao and Martinez are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, website processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the content distribution of Hao to include the identifier of Martinez, to allow for accessing content that is available to the user (Par. 0002-0003 Martinez);
Hao teaches transmit the document data stored in the first memory to a data processing apparatus, connected with the data management apparatus via a network (Par. 0045 Hao discloses the home sending the content stream);
receive from the data processing apparatus, first identification information uniform resource locator (URL) for accessing data (Par. 0045 Hao discloses the home sending the content stream. Par. 0045 Hao discloses generating a URL to send to the target device. The target device is the data processing apparatus);
generated as a result of predetermined processing by the data processing apparatus on the document data (Par. 0060 Hao discloses tracking software to attach to the stored media, tracking software is generating second data based upon the first);
Store the URL in the first memory (Par. 0043 Hao discloses receive and authenticate the authentication request);
and in response to receiving a request from a second terminal, different from the first terminal transmit the URL to the second terminal and wherein in response to receiving a request for accessing the URL from the second terminal, the data processing apparatus transmits screen information to the second terminals to display the text data (Par. 0038 Hao discloses sending a donor identifier to the peer device to establish a peer to peer connection. A user receiving modified identifiers from other users. The modified identifiers are the URL. The data accessed by the modified identifiers are seen as the second data).
As to claim 7 Hao teaches a data management method comprising,
Receiving, by a data management apparatus, document data uploaded to the data management apparatus from a first terminal by user operation (Par. 0045 Hao discloses the home sending the content stream);
Hao does not teach but Martinez teaches storing the document data in a first memory of the data management apparatus, document data (Fig. 1 and Par. 0030 Martinez discloses [see figure 1, in particular the "community server" 102 and paragraph 38, in particular the passage: "The community server 102 may receive a content file uploaded by a user from a computing device 110 through transceiver 108. The community server 102 may store content files in a content file database 130. The community server is seen as the data management apparatus):
Hao and Martinez are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, website processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the content distribution of Hao to include the identifier of Martinez, to allow for accessing content that is available to the user (Par. 0002-0003 Martinez);
Hao teaches transmitting the document data stored in the first memory to a data processing apparatus, connected with the data management apparatus via a network (Par. 0045 Hao discloses the home sending the content stream);
receiving, from the data processing apparatus, a uniform resource locator (URL), for accessing text data (Par. 0043 Hao discloses checking to see if content is available, providing URL to content, the content is the second data. The donor device provides a verification that the URL can access the content);
generated as a result of predetermined processing the data by a data processing apparatus on the document data (Par. 0060 Hao discloses tracking software to attach to the stored media, tracking software is generating second data based upon the first);
Storing the URL in a second memory that stores information to be transmitted to any of the one or more terminals in the first memory (Par. 0060 Hao discloses tracking software to attach to the stored media. The attached tracking data is the second data);
and in response to receiving a request from a second terminal different from the first terminal and transmitting the URL to the terminal which in response to receiving a request for accessing the URL from the second terminal, the data processing apparatus transmits screen information to the second terminal to display the text data (par. 0042 Hao discloses the donor peer device providing the access to the user content through HTTPS request. Par. 0038 Hao discloses sending a donor identifier to the peer device to establish a peer to peer connection. A user receiving modified identifiers from other users. The modified identifiers are the URL. The data accessed by the modified identifiers are seen as the second data).
As to claim 8 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 3.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the identification information is a file identifier (Par. 0033 Martinez discloses unregistered users sending a link to content files hosted on a remote server).
As to claim 9 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 3.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the identification information is a destination identifier (Par. 0033 Martinez discloses unregistered users sending a link to content files hosted on a remote server).
As to claim 13 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the data processing apparatus is an account processing server apparatus and the document data is an invoice (Par. 0060 Martinez discloses the device is used to accounting like depositing royalties into an account owner).
As to claim 14 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the screen information includes the document data the document data and the second terminal, based on the screen information, displays (Par. 0060 Martinez discloses the device is used to accounting like depositing royalties into an account owner that is display to a user).
As to claim 15 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the second circuitry of the data management apparatus is further configured to determine whether a transition condition is satisfied with respect to a workflow being executed (Par. 0047-0048 Martinez discloses a threshold is met in a comparison engine to identify relationships between content files).
As to claim 16 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 15.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein, the second circuitry transmits the document data to the data processing apparatus in response to a determination that the transition condition is satisfied (Par. 0050-51 Martinez discloses a threshold is met in a comparison engine to identify relationships between content files and a set of users are notified about the relationship).
As to claim 17 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 16.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the second circuitry determines that the transition condition is satisfied by the first terminal after retrieval of the document data from the first terminal (Par. 0051-0052 Martinez discloses using a batch job to periodically notify users of content meting a threshold of similarity).
As to claim 18 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 16.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the second circuitry transmits the URL to the second terminal in response to a determination that the transition condition is satisfied (Par. 0045 Martinez discloses linking the document from the search result list. The produced search results list means the document satisfied the similarity condition).
As to claim 19 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 16.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the transition condition is satisfied in a case that an examination task is completed (Par. 0050-51 Martinez discloses a threshold is met in a comparison engine to identify relationships between content files and a set of users are notified about the relationship).
As to claim 20 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 16.
In addition, Martinez teaches wherein the transition condition is satisfied in a case that a processing task is completed (Par. 0050-51 Martinez discloses a threshold is met in a comparison engine to identify relationships between content files and a set of users are notified about the relationship).
13. Claim(s) 10 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0066495 (herein as ‘Hao’) and further in view of Martinez at al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0155701 (herein as ‘Martinez’) and further in view of Kumar et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0182322 (herein as ‘Kumar’).
As to claim 10 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 4.
Martinez does not teach but Kumar teaches wherein the text data indicates is a preview screen including an image of the result of the processing the document data (Par. 0338 Kumar discloses the user uses a display to double an image of the content file they want to access).
Martinez and Kumar are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, website processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the web content of Martinez to include the image preview of Kumar, to allow for efficient retrieval to store only relevant data to keep cost low and retrieval efficient (Par. 0003-0004 Kumar).
As to claim 11 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 10.
Martinez does not teach but Kumar teaches wherein the preview screen is displayed by the second terminal (Par. 0338 Kumar discloses the user uses a display to double an image of the content file they want to access).
Martinez and Kumar are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, website processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the web content of Martinez to include the image preview of Kumar, to allow for efficient retrieval to store only relevant data to keep cost low and retrieval efficient (Par. 0003-0004 Kumar).
14. Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0066495 (herein as ‘Hao’) and further in view of Martinez at al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0155701 (herein as ‘Martinez’) and further in view of Tamanini et al. U.S. Patent No. 10,270,771 (herein as ‘Tamanini’).
As to claim 12 Hao in combination with Martinez teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Hao does not teach but Tamanini teaches wherein first circuity extracts the text data via an optical character recognition (OCR) processing (Col. 21 Lines 52-63 Tamanini discloses the text data is associated with an OCR process).
Hao and Tamanini are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, data processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the data routing of Hao to include the text data of Tamanini, to allow for efficient retrieval to store authentic data (Par. 0003-0004 Tamanini).
Conclusion
15. 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 JERMAINE A MINCEY whose telephone number is (571)270-5010. The examiner can normally be reached 8am EST until 5pm 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, Ann J Lo can be reached on (571) 272-9767. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/J.A.M/ January 08, 2025Examiner, Art Unit 2159
/ANN J LO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2159