Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
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.
1. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
2. The rejected claims satisfy the categorical requirements of Step 1. Regarding Step 2A, under Step 2A, the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea). The claims are directed to the abstract ideas of mental process and a method of organizing human activity.
5. Let us begin by considering the requirements of each independent claim, and taking Claim 1 as exemplary.
The claim language recites a competition that players enter into at different locations wherein the competition is to be played amongst players using sensory equipment that is used to track the player’s progress that is displayed through customized user avatars. However, this is an abstract idea because the invention arranges a competition between players and the MPEP identifies such as an abstract idea under the grouping of method of organizing a human activity (MPEP2106.04 “managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people (including social activities, teaching, and following rules or instructions”). Here, a game administrator can arrange a competition and perform the limitations regarding to keeping track of player’s progress using paper and pencil, without the need for a computer system. Furthermore, the MPEP dictates that when information is collected from various sources, analyzed, and then outputted in a display, such is a mental process and therefore an abstract idea. Here, information is collected from an accelerometer and GPS, analyzed to determine their placement within the race, and finally outputted to a display. Thus, each part stated by the holding of Electric Power Grid, TLI Communications, 823 F.3d at 612-13, 118 USPQ2d at 1747-48, and the MPEP 2106.05(a) is satisfied, and therefore again the claims represent an abstract idea. The claims also state that information is continuously collected and that information simultaneously transmitted in real time, however Examples 40 and 42 of the USPTO Guidelines discuss collecting and transmitting information in real time and both were deemed to be a within the scope of a mental process. While the claims also describe the manner in which the information is displayed, such is not sufficient enough to transform the abstract idea into patent eligible subject matter. Instead such limitations, similarly to the earlier limitation of data gathering from the accelerometer and GPS, are in accordance with Extra-Solutionary Activity as discussed in Step 2B below.
The second prong of Step 2A, ask whether the claims recite additional elements that would integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. Here, no such practical application exists. There is no improvement made to computer technology since the claims focus on facilitating a competition and not actual improvements to a technical environment. Additionally, there is no practical application as there is no particular machine that is used to implement the claim language, but instead and as will be discussed below only a generic computer and sensors are used to perform the invention. Also, there is no transformation of the machine used in the application into a different state or thing. Lastly, the claims do not attempt to apply the abstract idea in a meaningful way beyond simply using the claimed machine. Here, the claimed machine is simply a generic computer that receives information from wireless sensors and displays a result. While, the claims include sub-interfaces, Examiner perceives such as merely being part of a user interface. User interfaces commonly have sub-menus, and sub-windows for displaying information. Thus, there is not a particular machine that is being claimed.
7. Step 2B asks whether a claimed invention which fails Step 2A contains an inventive concepts, i.e. significantly more. Here, only a generic computer, software, a remote server, sensors, a GPS sensor, and a user interface are used for performing the invention. However, sensory equipment is well-known, common, and routine for recording user biometric data. Also, Examiner takes Official Notice that user interfaces, especially those that display sub-interfaces are generic, well understood, and routine as well. This can be seen in graphic user interfaces that open a new menu when an item on a previous menu is selected. While claims further focus on arranging a challenge, players accepting challenges, receiving challenge sensory information, displaying said information, indicating a winner, accepting challenges, determining the scope of a challenge, and where the challenge takes place, all of these limitations do not produce an inventive concept, but instead further the abstract idea. This is supported in 2106.05 of the MPEP which states “an “inventive concept” is furnished by an element or combination of elements that is recited in the claim in addition to (beyond) the judicial exception, and is sufficient to ensure that the claim as a whole, amounts to significantly more than the judicial exception itself.” The MPEP also states that “Extra-solution activity includes both pre-solution and post-solution activity. An example of pre-solution activity is a step of gathering data for use in a claimed process, e.g., a step of obtaining information about credit card transactions, which is recited as part of a claimed process of analyzing and manipulating the gathered information by a series of steps in order to detect whether the transactions were fraudulent.” Here, the step of gathering data from player sensors is considered pre-solution extra-solution activity, and the displaying of such is considered post-solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g): “An example of post-solution activity is an element that is not integrated into the claim as a whole, e.g., a printer that is used to output a report of fraudulent transactions, which is recited in a claim to a computer programmed to analyze and manipulate information about credit card transactions in order to detect whether the transactions were fraudulent.”). Additionally, Examiner takes Official Notice that the combination of an accelerometer and global positioning systems are well understood, routine, and conventional in the art, as said systems have been commercially available in smartwatches such as the Garmin Forerunner 305, cell phones such at the Nokia N95, as well as in pedometers (U.S. Patent No. 7,057,551). Thus, the combination of the two does not represent significantly more. For these reasons, the claims lack teaching significantly more than generic computer components, and the claims are directed to an abstract idea that lacks significantly more and thus is not patent eligible.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/23/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant argues that the claims do not represent a mental process and a method of organizing human activity. Specifically, Applicant contends that the numerous functions and computer elements explicitly directs the claims towards the mind not being capable to performing said functions and elements. However, Applicant is merely programming a generic computer to perform the abstract idea, and then reciting a programmed generic computer as reasons why the claims are patent eligible subject matter. This practice is simply using the computer as a tool for performing the abstract idea. MPEP 2106 states that in situations like these, “merely using a computer as a tool to perform the concept. In these situations, the claim is considered to recite a mental process.” Additionally, Applicant’ amendments to add avatars to demonstrate user progression, however avatars are merely game pieces to signify game progression, which has existed in and out of the computer gaming space for decades including in games such as Monopoly. Additionally, demonstrating user progression in a game using avatars, is also an extension of the displaying a result step of Electric Power Grid, which was mentioned above. Lastly, the fact that the avatar is customized according to user input can merely signify that the user has selected the avatar from a variety of avatars. This is no different to a user, selecting a particular item in Monopoly. Regarding, the practicality of said avatars, the new amendments still don’t improve computer technology as they only further perform the game that is being played. For those reasons, the claims remain rejected.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to REGINALD A RENWICK whose telephone number is (571)270-1913. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 11am-7pm.
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REGINALD A. RENWICK
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3714
/REGINALD A RENWICK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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