DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, 17/784,626, filed 06/10/2022 is a National Stage entry of PCT/US20/64419, International Filing Date: 12/11/2020, which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application 62/947,021, filed 12/12/2019.
The effective filing date is after the AIA date of March 16, 2013, and so the application is being examined under the “first inventor to file” provisions of the AIA .
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.
Status of the Application
This Final Office Action is in response to Applicant’s communication of Aug. 7, 2025.
Claims 1-4, 6, and 7 are pending, of which claim 1 is independent.
In the most recent amendment, claims 1-4, 6, and 7 have been amended, and claim 5 was previously cancelled.
All pending claims have been examined on the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph 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 1-4, 6, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claims 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, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
More specifically, the specification lacks written description for the following features that have been newly added to independent claim 1:
vii) monitor available processing and/or wireless connection bandwidth during the dynamic updates of the interactive graph and adaptively adjust at least one of resolution, bit rate, and frame rate of the displayed interactive graph while performing said recalculating and redisplaying based on the available bandwidth, thereby maintaining real-time responsiveness of the interactive stochastic design tool without reducing the accuracy of the calculated numerical values.
The bottom of page 8 of the specification discloses the following:
The numerical output field 505 may provide calculated values 514 of various design parameters and other characteristics of a stochastic process based on the user input. The output fields may be updated in real time depending upon the calculation requirements of the models for the stochastic process and the speed of computation of the digital processor.
However, the specification fails to provide written description for:
“monitor”, “monitoring”, “wireless”, “connection”, and “bandwidth”.
“monitor available processing”, and “monitor … wireless connection bandwidth”.
“resolution”, “bit rate”, and “frame rate”.
“adaptively adjust at least one of resolution, bit rate, and frame rate of the displayed interactive graph while performing said recalculating and redisplaying based on the available bandwidth”,
“responsive”, “responsiveness”, and
“thereby maintaining real-time responsiveness of the interactive stochastic design tool”.
All of the dependent claims are also rejected, by virtue of dependence on a rejected independent claim.
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 1-4, 6, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea, without “significantly more”.
The abstract idea elements in independent claim 1 and dependent claim 2 are shown in italic font. The “additional elements” and “extra solution steps” are shown in italic and underlined font:
1. (Currently Amended) An interactive stochastic design tool comprising:
a) an input device adapted to receive input from a user;
b) a graphical user interface comprising:
i) a user input field including one or more analog input controls comprising interactive adjustment devices configured for continuous variation of a parameter value, the interactive adjustment devices including slide bar controls for receiving stochastic process parameters;
ii) a numerical output field for displaying calculated values; and
iii) a graphical output field for displaying an interactive graph;
c) a digital processor; and
d) a permanent memory comprising computer readable instructions operable to cause the digital processor to:
i) read in initiation data describing a stochastic process and a threshold boundary via the analog input controls;
ii) determine one or more realizations of the stochastic process using the initiation data by iteratively calculating values for each realization using a random walk model, wherein each subsequent value is computed by multiplying a previous value by a factor equal to e raised to the power of a drift plus a random offset selected from a lognormal distribution;
iii) display, within the graphical output field, the one or more realizations and the threshold boundary as the interactive graph together with the one or more realizations calculated from the initiation data received via the analog input controls comprising interactive adjustment devices;
iv) receive, via the user input field device, an indication to enforce the threshold boundary;
v) redisplay, within the graphical output field, the graph showing the one or more realizations that do not cross the enforced threshold boundary and display corresponding numerical values in the numerical output field; and
vi) continuously perform dynamic updates to the interactive graph in real-time as the input parameters are adjusted via the analog input controls, wherein the updates include recalculating the realizations and redisplaying the interactive graph to show the impact of the adjusted parameters on the stochastic process; and
vii) monitor available processing and/or wireless connection bandwidth during the dynamic updates of the interactive graph and adaptively adjust at least one of resolution, bit rate, and frame rate of the displayed interactive graph while performing said recalculating and redisplaying based on the available bandwidth, thereby maintaining real-time responsiveness of the interactive stochastic design tool without reducing the accuracy of the calculated numerical values.
2. (Currently Amended) The interactive stochastic design tool of claim 1 wherein the stochastic process is one or more of:
a) an agricultural process comprising real-time monitoring and adjustment of physical growth parameters via the analog input controls comprising interactive adjustment devices; or
b) a financial process comprising real-time market data analysis and risk boundary enforcement via the analog input controls comprising interactive adjustment devices.
More specifically, claims 1-4, 6, and 7 recite an abstract idea: “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity", specifically “Fundamental Economic Principles or Practices (including Hedging, Insurance, Mitigating Risk)”, as discussed in MPEP §2106(a)(2) Parts (I) and (II), and in the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance.
The “Fundamental Economic Principles or Practices” elements include:
In dependent claim 1: “determine one or more realizations of the stochastic process using the initiation data by iteratively calculating values for each realization using a random walk model, wherein each subsequent value is computed by multiplying a previous value by a factor equal to e raised to the power of a drift plus a random offset selected from a lognormal distribution”.
In dependent claim 2: “The interactive stochastic design tool of claim 1 wherein said stochastic process is one or more of: a) an agricultural process; or b) a financial process.”
Moreover, claims 1-4, 6, and 7 recite “Mathematical Concepts", specifically “Mathematical Relationships”, “Mathematical Formulas or Equations”, and “Mathematical Calculations”, as discussed in MPEP §2106.04(a)(2) Part (IV), and in the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance.
The mathematic elements include:
“read in initiation data describing a stochastic process and a threshold boundary”.
“determine one or more realizations of the stochastic process using the initiation data by iteratively calculating values for each realization using a random walk model, wherein each subsequent value is computed by multiplying a previous value by a factor equal to e raised to the power of a drift plus a random offset selected from a lognormal distribution”.
“display … said one or more realizations and said threshold boundary as a graph”.
“redisplay … the graph showing the one or more realizations that do not cross the enforced threshold boundary and display corresponding numerical values in the numerical output field”.
The “additional elements” include: “an input device”, “a digital processor”, “a permanent memory”, and the step of “adaptively adjust at least one of resolution, bit rate, and frame rate of the displayed interactive graph while performing said recalculating and redisplaying based on the available bandwidth, thereby maintaining real-time responsiveness of the interactive stochastic design tool”.
The “additional extra-solution elements” include:
“receive input from a user”,
“receiving stochastic process parameters”,
“displaying calculated values”,
“displaying an interactive graph”,
“read in initiation data describing a stochastic process and a threshold boundary”,
“display … said one or more realizations and said threshold boundary as the interactive graph”,
“receive … an indication from said user to enforce said threshold boundary”,
“redisplay … said graph showing said one or more realizations that do not cross said enforced threshold boundary and display corresponding numerical values in the numerical output field”,
“continuously perform dynamic updates to the interactive graph in real-time as the input parameters are adjusted via the analog input controls, wherein the updates include recalculating the realizations and redisplaying the interactive graph to show the impact of the adjusted parameters on the stochastic process”,
“monitor available processing and/or wireless connection bandwidth during the dynamic updates of the interactive graph”.
This abstract idea is not integrated into a practical application, because:
The claim recites an abstract idea with additional generic computer elements. The generically recited computer elements (“an input device”, “a digital processor”, and “a permanent memory”) do not add a meaningful limitation to the abstract idea, because they amount to simply implementing the abstract idea on a computer. The claim amounts to adding the words "apply it" (or an equivalent) with the abstract idea, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea.
The additional element of the step of “adaptively adjust at least one of resolution, bit rate, and frame rate of the displayed interactive graph while performing said recalculating and redisplaying based on the available bandwidth, thereby maintaining real-time responsiveness of the interactive stochastic design tool” is a well-known, routine, conventional step in video processing, and more generally, in internet network control.
See US 2021/0152876 A1 to Feng et al. (Eff. Filed Sep. 14, 2017), para. [0076]: “The network device adjusts the parameters such as the resolution, frame rate, and bit rate of each video stream according to the layout information fed back by the terminal in real time to reduce the bandwidth of the non-focused picture and increase the bandwidth of the focused picture.”
See EP 3188479 A1 to Li (Eff. Filed on Nov. 9, 2015), para. [0031] and [0032]: “Moreover the network bandwidth can be detected while detecting the load of the CPU, and if it is determined that the current network bandwidth is not sufficient to support the current resolution, then the resolution, the bit rate, and/or the frame rate will be adjusted down automatically. With the solution above to adjusting in real time the definition of a video adaptively, the resolution, one or more of the frame rate, and the bit rate of a video can be adjusted automatically according to a detection result to thereby bring better experience of video call for a user, and all of this technical solution can be implemented in an algorithm built in program without requiring the user to adjust manually the respective complex parameters”
See US 10,848,537 B2 to Margolin et al. (Filed on Nov. 15, 2016), col. 3, lines 30-43: “For the example of live video broadcasting from mobile devices, in order to reach an optimum quality video stream, a user device (e.g., client device or broadcasting client device) can adapt to network conditions in real-time and change a video quality of the video stream according to available bandwidth at the user device. Video quality (also referred to as “upload quality” or “upload quality parameter(s)” herein) may be changed by adjusting video format and encoding specifications of the video. The video format and encoding specifications may include, but are not limited to, video bitrate, video resolution, video frame rate, and/or compression parameters of the video, to name a few examples.”
The extra-solution activities (“read in initiation data”, “display/displaying/redisplay”, “receive/receiving”, “continuously perform dynamic updates to the interactive graph in real-time”, and “monitor available processing and/or wireless connection bandwidth during the dynamic updates of the interactive graph”) do not add a meaningful limitation to the method, as they are insignificant extra-solution activity;
The combination of the abstract idea with the additional elements (generically recited computer elements), and/or with the extra-solution activities, does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application.
Also, the claims (see e.g. claim 2) merely generally link the use of the abstract idea to a particular field of use, analogous to electric grid data is not claiming the actual electric grid). See MPEP 2106.05(h), in particular Electric Power Group, LLC v. Alstom S.A., 830 F.3d 1350.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the abstract idea, because:
When considering the elements "alone and in combination" (“an input device”, “a digital processor”, and “a permanent memory”), they do not add significantly more (also known as an "inventive concept") to the exception, because they amount to simply implementing the abstract idea on a computer. Instead, they merely add the words "apply it" (or an equivalent) with the abstract idea, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely use a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea.
In regards to the extra solution activities (“read in initiation data”, “display/displaying/redisplay”, “receive/receiving”, “continuously perform dynamic updates to the interactive graph in real-time”, and “monitor available processing and/or wireless connection bandwidth during the dynamic updates of the interactive graph”), these are well-understood, routine, conventional computer functions recognized by the court decisions listed in MPEP § 2106.05(d).
More specifically, in regards to the “read in” and “receive/receiving” steps, see the court cases OIP Techs., Inc., v. Amazon.com, Inc., 788 F.3d 1359, 1363, 115 USPQ2d 1090, 1093 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (sending messages over a network) and (presenting offers and gathering statistics), OIP Techs., 788 F.3d at 1362-63, 115 USPQ2d at 1092-93; buySAFE, Inc. v. Google, Inc., 765 F.3d 1350, 1355, 112 USPQ2d 1093, 1096 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (computer receives and sends information over a network).
Moreover, in regards to the “display/displaying/redisplay” steps, see Apple, Inc. v. Ameranth, Inc., 842 F.3d 1229, 120 U.S.P.Q.2d 1844 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (Holding that the claimed menu graphic user interface is an abstract idea under 35 USC §101, because claimant "[did] not claim a particular way of programming or designing the software to create menus that have these features, but instead merely claims the resulting systems").
Moreover, in regards to the “continuously perform dynamic updates to the interactive graph in real-time” steps (performing repetitive calculations), see Parker v. Flook, 437 U.S. at 594, 198 USPQ2d at 199 (recomputing or readjusting alarm limit values); Bancorp Services v. Sun Life, 687 F.3d 1266, 1278, 103 USPQ2d 1425, 1433 (Fed. Cir. 2012) ("The computer required by some of Bancorp’s claims is employed only for its most basic function, the performance of repetitive calculations, and as such does not impose meaningful limits on the scope of those claims.")
Moreover, in regards to the “monitor available processing and/or wireless connection bandwidth during the dynamic updates of the interactive graph” (Electronically scanning or extracting data from a physical document) steps, see Content Extraction and Transmission, LLC v. Wells Fargo Bank, 776 F.3d 1343, 1348, 113 USPQ2d 1354, 1358 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (optical character recognition)
The Examiner holds that the independent claims “use a computer or other machinery in its ordinary capacity for economic or other tasks (e.g., to receive, store, or transmit data)” or “simply add a general purpose computer or computer components after the fact to an abstract idea”.
Response to Amendment
Re: Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The 35 U.S.C. 112(a) rejection of claims 1-4, 6, and 7, for failing to comply with the written description requirement, has been amended as necessitated by Applicant’s amendments to the claims.
Re: Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
The 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection of claims 1-4, 6, and 7, because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter, has been amended as necessitated by Applicant’s amendments to the claims.
In response to Applicant’s amendment to claim 1 to recite the following:
b) a graphical user interface comprising:
i) a user input field including one or more analog input controls comprising interactive adjustment devices configured for continuous variation of a parameter value, the interactive adjustment devices including slide bar controls for receiving stochastic process parameters;
The Examiner has withdrawn the portion of the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection of claim 1 pertaining to “a graphical user interface comprising: i) a user input field”, because claim 1 now recites that the “graphical user interface comprising: i) a user input field” comprises “interactive adjustment devices including slide bar controls for receiving stochastic process parameters”.
Re: Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection of claims 1-4, 6, and 7 has been withdrawn, as necessitated by Applicant’s amendments to the claims.
More specifically, in regards to independent claim 1, neither US 2010/0017338 A1 to Gorbatovsky (“Gorbatovsky”, Eff. Filed on Feb. 20, 2005. Published on Jan. 21, 2010) or US 2021/0152876 A1 to Feng et al. (“Feng”, Eff. Filed Sep. 14, 2017) expressly disclose the following features (in combination with all other recited features):
b) a graphical user interface comprising:
i) a user input field including one or more analog input controls comprising interactive adjustment devices configured for continuous variation of a parameter value, the interactive adjustment devices including slide bar controls for receiving stochastic process parameters;
Instead, Gorbatovsky merely discloses:
(See Gorbatovsky, para. [0095]: “Thus the methodologies developed hereinabove can be employed to provide a number of valuable advisory services to professional and individual investors. It should be noted that the present invention further includes an arrangement to provide advisory services to the community of investors over the Internet, via a suitable web interface, including a system to collect the relevant data from each individual investor, such as online questionnaires, and to automatically collect the required data about different investment assets.”)
Moreover, neither Gorbatovsky or Feng expressly disclose the following features (in combination with all other recited features):
d) a permanent memory comprising computer readable instructions operable to cause the digital processor to:
vii) monitor available processing and/or wireless connection bandwidth during the dynamic updates of the interactive graph and adaptively adjust at least one of resolution, bit rate, and frame rate of the displayed interactive graph while performing said recalculating and redisplaying based on the available bandwidth, thereby maintaining real-time responsiveness of the interactive stochastic design tool without reducing the accuracy of the calculated numerical values.
Instead, Feng merely discloses the following, without disclosing the “intended use” recited in claim 1 of “thereby maintaining real-time responsiveness of the interactive stochastic design tool without reducing the accuracy of the calculated numerical values”:
(See Feng, para. [0076]: “The network device adjusts the parameters such as the resolution, frame rate, and bit rate of each video stream according to the layout information fed back by the terminal in real time to reduce the bandwidth of the non-focused picture and increase the bandwidth of the focused picture.”)
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications should be directed to Examiner Ayal Sharon, whose telephone number is (571) 272-5614, and fax number is (571) 273-1794. The Examiner can normally be reached from Monday to Friday between 9 AM and 6 PM. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christine M Behncke can be reached on (571) 272-8103. The fax number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Sincerely,
/Ayal I. Sharon/
Examiner, Art Unit 3695
November 14, 2025