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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Applicant filed an amendment on 2/2/26. Claims 1-20 were pending. Claims 1, 8,15 are amended. No claims are added or canceled. After careful consideration of applicant arguments and amendments, the examiner finds them to be moot in view of new grounds of rejection. This action is a Final Rejection.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because they are directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claims 1, 8 and 15 are independent claims. Claims 1, 8 and 15 are directed to statutory classes of invention, method, computer program product (medium) and system respectively.
However, the claims under their broadest reasonable interpretation (claim 1 exemplified) cover the performance of the limitation as certain methods of organizing human activity…. Which thus recite a fundamental economic practice.
In this case a method of conducting derived knowledge…. Using a generic computer.
The abstract elements include
“defining, …, a knowledge base by: extracting entities from a plurality of heterogeneous data sources; augmenting the extracted entities; with associated metadata extracted across disparate sources according to relationships and policies of an overall domain ontology and altering the knowledge base according to the relationship of the augmented entities and utilizing an augmented entity to enhance a user activity.”
The technical element includes one or more computer processors.
The application of data by a computer is as claimed essentially an abstract idea.
The recitation of generic computer components in a claim does not necessarily preclude the claim from reciting an abstract idea.
However, the judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular the claims recite additional elements of “a computer processor”
The element is recited at a high level of generality more akin to “apply it” using a generic computing component.
The additional elements when considered separately or as an ordered combination do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea without a practical application.
Step 2A prong 2 (the additional elements are not integrated into a practical application)
There are no elements which amount to significantly more to create an inventive concept. However, in view of the breath of the independent claims it is conceivable that the applicant could incorporate various elements from the specification to create a practical application with inventive concept.
The dependent claims for example 3-5 provide more detail in regards to the invention. However, by themselves they do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application to amount to significantly more. Thus claims 2-7 and 9-14, 16-20 are also rejected by dependency on claims 1, 8 and 15 respectively.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1-5, 8-12, and 14-18, 20 are rejected under 35 USC 103 in view of US Patent Publication 202000118014 to Kasturi. In view of US Patent Publication to Minkin 20180165604
As per claim 1 Kasturi discloses;. A method for deriving augmented knowledge from a plurality of heterogeneous (different) data sources, (preamble has minimal patentable weight)
the method comprising:
defining, by one or more computer processors,
a knowledge base by: extracting entities (topics of interest)from a plurality of heterogeneous data
Kasturi(fig. 9 topic of interest from repair orders)
sources; and augmenting the extracted entities; (0034, 0100)
with associated metadata extracted across disparate sources according to relationships and policies of an overall domain ontology; (fig. 5.2)
and utilizing an augmented entity to enhance a user activity. Kasturi(enhance activity is somewhat broad because how is it enhanced? 0038, enriched results)
Kasturi does not explicitly disclose what Minkin teaches;
and altering the knowledge base according to the relationship of the augmented entities Minkin(00251-2, update knowledge base based on relationships, and meta data, 0268, 0269)
It would therefore have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Kasturi with the learning system of Minkin for the motivation of “assisting in … complex analytical tasks). (0003)
claims 8 and 15 are similar to claim 1.
As per claim 2 Kasturi discloses; The method according to claim 1, the method comprising: defining, by one or more computer processors, a knowledge base by:
extracting a plurality of problem resolutions; Kasturi(0110 plus more, repair outcomes are loaded in the system)
augmenting the problem resolutions with associated metadata;
Kasturi(0111, metadata, related to intent, again, how is it augmented)
ranking the plurality of problem resolutions augmented with the associated metadata; and storing the problem resolutions augmented with the associated metadata and ranked, together with associated problem resolution explanations;
Kasturi(0115, aggregate and normalize, 0116, cause, resolution…. results)
processing, by the one or more computer processors, an input query by: identifying a source of the input query; extracting at least one entity from query language;
identifying context data associated with the input query; retrieving, by the one or more computer processors, results from the knowledge base for the input query and context;
ranking, by the one or more computer processors, the results; and providing, by the one or more computer processors, the results together with an explanation of the ranking.
Kasturi(0115, results, what explanation through 0116,)
Clams 9 and 16 are similar to claim 2
As per claim 3 Kasturi discloses; The method according to claim 2, further comprising defining, by the one or more computer processors, at least one of a data masking policy, an entity type policy, and a context usage policy. Kasturi(0110, it’s noted that only one of the choices is required, in applicant specification 0040, it appears that these limitations are directed to control of the output to hide extraneous data for example)
Claims 10, 17 are similar to claim 3.
As per claim 4 Kasturi discloses; The method according to claim 2, further comprising ranking, by the one or more computer
processors, the results according to at least one of results order, results context, and user feedback.
Kasturi(0116-7, feedback)
Claim 12 is similar to claim 4
As per claim 5 Kasturi discloses; The method according to claim 2, further comprising expanding, by the one or more computer processors, the input query according to a unique problem identifier of the input query.
Kasturi(0149)
As per claim 14 Kasturi discloses; The computer program product according to claim 8, the stored program instructions further comprising program instructions to alter at least one of entity extraction and the domain Kasturi(0011, an expert may be used to help interpret the data, 0034, subject matter expert provides feedback…. )
Claim 20 is similar to claim 14.
As per claim 7 Kasturi discloses; The method according to claim 1, further comprising altering at least one of the entity extraction and the domain knowledge ontology according to system usage.
Kasturi (0034 , experience ontology)
As per claim 11 Kasturi discloses; The computer program product according to claim 9, wherein identifying context comprises at least one of gathering context, predicting context, and identifying context according to a usage scenario.
Kasturi(context 0100)
Claim 18 is similar to claim 11
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 6,13, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
US Patent Publication to Kasturi 20200118014 in view of US Patent Publication 20180165604 to Minkin and further in view of US Patent Publication to Stumpe 20220261668
As per claim 6, Kasturi and Minkin do not explicitly disclose what Stumpe teaches;
the method according to claim 1, further comprising altering at least one of the entity extraction and the domain knowledge ontology using active learning.
Stumpe(0116 “active learning”)
It would therefore have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the machine learning of Kasturi with the active learning of Stumpe for the motivation of creating an interactive loom to improve the quality of the data (0011)
Claims 13 and 19 are similar to claim 6.
Response to Arguments
Applicant filed an amendment on 2/2/26. Claims 1-20 were pending. Claims 1, 8,15 are amended. No claims are added or canceled. After careful consideration of applicant arguments and amendments, the examiner finds them to be moot in view of new grounds of rejection. This action is a Final Rejection.
In regards to 35 USC 101
The examiner has updated the grounds of rejection. The functioning of the computer is still not improved by amendment. In regards to “practical application” that may be in the interpretation of the examiner or the applicant.
In regards to 35 USC 102(a) and USC 103.
In regards to the art of record, the amendment renders the argument moot in view of new grounds of rejection.
Conclusion
Building and Querying an Enterprise Knowledge Graph, IEEE 2019
The Use of Ontology in Retrieval: A Study on Textual, Multilingual, and Multimedia Retrieval, IEEE 2019
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 BRUCE I EBERSMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3442. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Monday-Friday.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael W Anderson can be reached at 571-270-0508. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRUCE I EBERSMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3693