DETAILED ACTION
This action is filed in response to the amendment filed on 11/16/2022.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
Acknowledgement is made of Applicant' s Information Disclosure Statements (IDS) form PTO-1149 filed on 11/16/2022. These IDS has been considered.
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 11-19 are rejected under 35 USC § 101 because they are directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claims 11-19 present "a computer program product". The descriptions or expressions of the programs are not physical “things.” They are neither computer components nor statutory processes, as they are not “acts” being performed. Such claimed computer programs do not define any structural and functional interrelationships between the computer program and other claimed elements of a computer, which permit the computer program’s functionality to be realized. In contrast, a claimed a non-transitory 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. Accordingly, it is important to distinguish claims that define descriptive material per se from claims that define statutory inventions.
As currently claimed, the language a computer program product does not specify if the computer readable medium is "transitory" or "non-transitory" and therefore claims 11-19 are -considered to be non-statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101 (See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter) and Interim Examination Instructions for Evaluating Subject Matter Eligibility Under 35 U.S.C. § 101, Aug. 24, 2009; p. 2).
In order to overcome this rejection, the following language is suggested:
Regarding Independent Claim 11:“ (Currently amended) A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program product for …”
Regarding dependent claims 12-19: “(currently amended) The non-transitory computer readable medium as in claim 11 further includes: …”
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-10, and 20 are allowed. Additionally there are no prior art rejections for Claims 11-19. The following is a statement of reasons for indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claims 1, 11, and 20 Examiner notes the closest prior art to be, Higashi (DE602004007498T2), ANONYMOUS, "Intelligent Maintenance Scheduler Based on Contextual Analysis", IP.com Prior Art Database Technical Disclosure, IP.com Number: IPCOM000266230D, June 24, 2021, 11 pages, Bowman-Amuah (US6256773B1), and Gerber (US7657789B1).
Examiner notes Higashi discloses generating, in response to generating, in response to installing a machine under test (MUT) in a test environment, a MUT data structure in a MUT database that stores machine detail data corresponding to the MUT (e.g. see [pg. 13 paragraph 2] “The pattern generator emulation section 430 emulates the pattern generator of the test module 170 , That is, the pattern generator emulation section 430 receives the test program and test data stored in the machine word database 420 are stored by the control function processing section 410 by, for example, the function call”);
monitoring execution of a testing process of the MUT within the testing environment to detect occurrence of the testing process nearing completion (e.g. see [pg. 17 paragraph 7] “In addition, the scheduler section directs 275 when testing through the majority of test module emulation sections 270 is completed, the timings of each of the operations of the test module emulation sections 270 in chronological order and makes the process.”),
Examiner notes none of the prior art discloses or renders obvious a method, device, or non-transitory computer readable medium as claimed comprising: “a computer-implemented method, executed in a data processing system, for assigning at least one operator to a break team to break a machine from a test environment, the computer-implemented method comprising: process nearing completion; and in response to detecting that the execution of the testing process is nearing completion:
executing a first computer model on the MUT data structure to prioritize breaking of the MUT from the test environment;
executing a second computer model on operator data in an operator database to identify eligibility of one or more operators to be part of a break team to perform a break out operation on the MUT to break the MUT from the test environment; and
generating an output specifying the break team in association with the MUT and a priority for breaking the MUT from the test environment based on results of the execution of the first computer model and the second computer model.”
Examiner notes the prior art is largely silent on the process of breaking a machine under test out of a testing environment. The cited non patent literature teaches intelligent scheduling for patience type activities but does not disclose assembling a team based on availability and expertise.
Claims 2-10 are allowed based on their dependence on Claim 1.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NYLA GAVIA whose telephone number is (703)756-1592. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:30pm.
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/NYLA GAVIA/Examiner, Art Unit 2863
/Catherine T. Rastovski/Supervisory Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2863