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 .
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.
The USPTO “Interim Guidelines for Examination of Patent Applications for Patent Subject Matter Eligibility” (Official Gazette notice of 22 November 2005), Annex IV, reads as follows:
In contrast, a claimed computer-readable medium encoded with a computer program is a computer element which defines structural and functional interrelationships between the computer program and the rest of the computer which permit the computer program’s functionality to be realized, and is thus statutory See Lowry, 32 F.3d at 1583-84, 32 USPQ2d at 1035.
Claims that recite nothing but the physical characteristics of a form of energy, such as frequency, voltage, or strength of a magnetic field, define energy or magnetism, per se, and as such are nonstatutory natural phenomena. O’Reilly, 56 I.S. (15 How.) at 112-14. Moreover, it does not appear that a claim reciting a signal encoded with functional descriptive material falls within any of the categories of patentable subject matter set forth in Sec. 101.
…a signal does not fall within one of the four statutory classes of Sec 101.
…signal claims are ineligible for patent protection because they do not fall within any of the four statutory classes of Sec. 101.
Claims 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter as follows. Claims 14-20 are drawn to functional descriptive material recorded on one or more computer readable media/ computer program product. A computer readable medium can be defined as encompassing statutory medium, but it also encompasses non-statutory subject matter such as a signal or carrier wave.
A “signal” embodying functional descriptive material is neither a process nor a product (i.e., a tangible “thing”) and therefore does not fall within one of the four statutory classes of §101. Rather, “signal” is a form of energy, in the absence of any physical structure of tangible material.
Because the full scope of the claim encompasses non-statutory subject matter, the claim as a whole is non-statutory. The examiner suggests amending the claim to "a non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program.” Any amendment to the claim should be commensurate with its corresponding disclosure.
It is noted that claims 1-13 are considered eligible subject matter. Even if the claims were considered an abstract idea, the claims provide limitations regarding a practical application, i.e. notifications and data sharing between users.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 7, 8 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 7and 20 recite “those” twice in each claim. IT is unclear as to what “those” refers to.
Claim 8 recites the limitation “the electronic calendar” in line 4. It is unclear as to which electronic calendar the applicant is referring to since the applicant previously claims multiple “a electronic calendar”s.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-6 and 9-13 are allowed. Claims 7, 8, 14-20 would be allowable if they overcome the above rejections.
Claims 1, 9 and 14 contain allowable subject matter regarding the automatic generation of the notification containing the insight corresponding to the user activity in real time, the user activity being listed in an entry of an electronic calendar corresponding to the user on the date the claimed image was captured, from the claimed insight which provides proactive assistance to the user to generate the notification, and the insight identifying a set of interested parties corresponding to the user who are to be notified, the insight generated corresponding to the user activity listed in the electronic calendar, based on the claimed comparison of the context of the current environment of the user captured in the image, (the context being determined based on the claimed analysis of the image, wherein the context is one of the claimed set), against the known information which is contained in a set of previous messages corresponding to the user stored in the knowledge corpus, and wherein the analysis of the image uses a set of machine learning models.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KATHLEEN YUAN DULANEY whose telephone number is (571)272-2902. The examiner can normally be reached M1:9am-5pm, th1:9am-1pm, fri1 9am-3pm, m2: 9am-5pm, t2:9-5 th2:9am-5pm, f2: 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Emily Terrell can be reached at 5712703717. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KATHLEEN Y DULANEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2666 10/21/2025