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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/8/2026 has been entered.
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 2-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Claim 2 is directed towards a method, thus meeting the Step 1 eligibility criterion. Claim 2 does recite the abstract concept of a commercial interaction – i.e. advertising/marketing activities or behaviors, business relations/sales activities, which has been identified as an abstract idea by the MPEP. The relevant claimed limitations include: detecting a contextual trigger corresponding to an event associated with a receiving entity, wherein the contextual trigger is detected based on ongoing interactions between a sending entity and the receiving entity through a social media application interface and social media content displayed / updating the social media application interface to display an option to generate a gift for the receiving entity, in response to the contextual trigger, and according to the ongoing interactions and the event / detecting a selection of the option / processing contextual information corresponding to the event, the sending entity, and the receiving entity, to generate a set of product selection options / updating a receiving social media application interface to display the set of product selection options for the gift / detecting a product selection / to display the gift during the ongoing interactions.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. Claim 2 includes the additional elements of a social media application interface / sending entity device / gifting application interface / receiving entity device , wherein the application interfaces are distinct, which represent generic computing elements. The additional elements, alone or in combination, do not improve the functioning of the computing device or another technology/technical field, nor do they apply or use the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking its use to a particular technological environment. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
Claim 2 does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception, because as noted above , the claimed computing elements represent generic computing elements that are recited at a high level of generality. The additional elements do not, alone or in combination, improve the functioning of the computing device or another technology/technical field, nor do they apply or use the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking its use to a particular technological environment. Therefore, Claim 2 does not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. The claim is not patent eligible.
Independent claims 9 and 16 are directed to a system and computer-readable medium for performing the method of claim 2, thus meeting the Step 1 eligibility criterion; they recite the same abstract idea as claim 2. The claims perform the method of claim 2 using only generic components of a networked computer system. Therefore, claims 9 and 16 are directed to an abstract idea without significantly more for the reasons given in the discussion of claim 2.
Remaining dependent claims 3-6, 8, 10-13, 15, 17-20, 22-25 further recite and narrow the abstract ideas of the independent claims themselves. The claims do not include any additional elements. Therefore, the claims do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. The claims are not patent eligible.
The cited prior art of record does not teach neither singly nor in combination the limitations of pending claims 2-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-25. The most relevant prior art identified by the Examiner, Vad (20160063509) in view of McDermott (20150348167) in further view of Shah (20160012491) , teach automatically detecting social media content associated with a receiving entity, the social media content being presented to a sending entity through a social media platform, the content corresponding to a particular event associated with the receiving entity; providing an option to generate a gift for the receiving entity, the option being generated in accordance with the event ; detecting the selection of an option to generate the gift; generating product selection options for the gift based on the receiver and the event; receiving input corresponding to a product selection from the options; generating the gift in response to the selection; presenting the option through the social media platform; providing the selection through the social media platform; presenting the gift to the receiver through the social media platform; updating data associated with previous gifts sent to the receiver. However, the prior art above does not teach the combination of claimed elements of the pending independent claims. When taken as a whole, the pending independent claims and thus their respective dependent claims are not rendered obvious as the available prior art does not suggest or otherwise render obvious the noted features nor does the available prior art suggest or otherwise render obvious further modification of the evidence at hand. Such modifications would require substantial reconstruction relying solely on improper hindsight bias, and thus would not be obvious.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered; Applicant argues with substance:
The pending claims overcome the 35 USC 101 rejection
The pending claims do recite an abstract idea, and the additional elements do not, alone or in combination, integrate the recited judicial exception into a practical application, nor do they represent significantly more than the abstract idea itself. See Office Action above for the detailed, reasoned 35 USC 101 analysis.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Alexandru Cirnu whose telephone number is (571) 272-7775. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM. 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, Ilana Spar can be reached on (571) 270-7537. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Alexandru Cirnu/
Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3622
1/26/2026
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