Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-8, 10-12 14-16 in the reply filed on 8/19/2015 is of record.
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.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
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 of carrying out his invention.
Claim 1-8,10-12 and 14-16 and 20 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 claim(s) 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.
The following limitations are rejected:
1) an edge server extracts human flow data from raw sensor data by performing data size reduction and format conversion, and the touring data extraction module converts the extracted human flow data into touring data representing customer movement between stores;
The only mention of data size reduction in the specification is in Figure 4:
“[i]n subsequent step S404, before transmitting the original human flow data stored in the original human flow data storage unit 206 to the cloud server 204, the human flow data extraction unit 210 performs human flow data extraction processing of extracting only data necessary for touring data to be described later, reducing a data size, and further performing format conversion.
2) a simulator that searches for a combination of store attributes that maximizes a predicted touring rate by applying the correlation model to candidate store attributes and evaluating combinations subject to physical space constraints; and a user interface configured to present information regarding one or more stores to be opened by extracting actual tenant groups from a tenant database that are most similar to the optimized store attribute combination determined by the simulator,
The only mention of a simulator is in paragraph [0036], it reads [a]s a combination to be displayed by sorting other than the maximum value, the top ten combinations in the score implemented by changing the variable condition in { } in Equation 3 are used.
Response to Arguments
The representative claim 1 overcome the 101 rejection as well as that under 112.
sensor group and touring data extraction module configured to acquire touring of stores by a customer, wherein the sensor group includes one or more sensors installed in store areas for detecting human flow,
an edge server extracts human flow data from raw sensor data by performing data size reduction and format conversion, and the touring data extraction module converts the extracted human flow data into touring data representing customer movement between stores;
a tenant attribute database configured to acquire one or more items of store attribute information for classifying features of the stores;
a processor configured to execute instructions stored in memory to create a correlation model for the touring by the customer and the store attribute information by using the touring of the stores by the customer and the store attribute information as inputs, wherein the processor performs weighting using physical constraint parameters including at least one of distance from a touring source or store area size when creating the correlation model;
a rained model database that stores the created model;
a simulator that searches for a combination of store attributes that maximizes a predicted touring rate by applying the correlation model to candidate store attributes and evaluating combinations subject to physical space constraints; and a user interface configured to present information regarding one or more stores to be opened by extracting actual tenant groups from a tenant database that are most similar to the optimized store attribute combination determined by the simulator,
wherein the user interface recalculates and presents scores based on the extracted actual tenant groups, in such a way as to increase the touring of the stores by the customer based on the model.
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 RICHARD C WEISBERGER whose telephone number is (571)272-6753. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 10AM-8PM PCT.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Anderson can be reached at 571-270-0580. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD C WEISBERGER whose telephone number is (571)272-6753. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 10AM-8PM PCT.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Anderson can be reached at 571-270-0580. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
RICHARD C. WEISBERGER
Examiner
Art Unit 3693