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 AIA .
Status of Claims
This communication is a Final Office action in response to communications received on 09/26/2025. Claims 1-7, 10-16 and 18-20 have been amended. Claims 8-9 and 17 have been canceled. Therefore, claims 1-7, 10-16 and 18-20 are currently pending and have been addressed below.
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.
Claims 1-7, 10-16 and 18-20 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 claims contain 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 pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Newly amended Claims 1, 11 and 19 recite: “restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of school searchers.” “Restricting” or “restriction” of messages is not in Applicant’s specification, let alone “restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of school searchers”.
The ‘written description’ requirement implements the principle that a patent must describe the technology that is sought to be patented; the requirement serves both to satisfy the inventor’s obligation to disclose the technologic knowledge upon which the patent is based, and to demonstrate that the patentee was in possession of the invention that is claimed." Capon v. Eshhar, 418 F.3d 1349, 1357, 76 USPQ2d 1078, 1084 (Fed. Cir. 2005). Further, the written description requirement promotes the progress of the useful arts by ensuring that patentees adequately describe their inventions in their patent specifications in exchange for the right to exclude others from practicing the invention for the duration of the patent’s term.
To satisfy the written description requirement, a patent specification must describe the claimed invention in sufficient detail that one skilled in the art can reasonably conclude that the inventor had possession of the claimed invention. See, e.g., Moba, B.V. v. Diamond Automation, Inc., 325 F.3d 1306, 1319, 66 USPQ2d 1429, 1438 (Fed. Cir. 2003); Vas-Cath, Inc. v. Mahurkar, 935 F.2d at 1563, 19 USPQ2d at 1116. However, a showing of possession alone does not cure the lack of a written description. Enzo Biochem, Inc. v. Gen-Probe, Inc., 323 F.3d 956, 969-70, 63 USPQ2d 1609, 1617 (Fed. Cir. 2002).
An applicant shows possession of the claimed invention by describing the claimed invention with all of its limitations using such descriptive means as words, structures, figures, diagrams, and formulas that fully set forth the claimed invention. Lockwood v. Amer. Airlines, Inc., 107 F.3d 1565, 1572, 41 USPQ2d 1961, 1966 (Fed. Cir. 1997). The claimed invention as a whole may not be adequately described if the claims require an essential or critical feature which is not adequately described in the specification and which is not conventional in the art or known to one of ordinary skill in the art. (MPEP 2163 I (A)). Dependent claims inherit the deficiencies of the parent claims and thus dependent claims are rejected on the same basis as indicated above for the respective parent claims.
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 1-7, 10-16 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception without a practical application and significantly more.
Step 1: Identifying Statutory Categories
When considering subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101, it must be determined whether the claims are directed to one of the four statutory categories of invention, i.e., process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter (i.e., Step 1). In the instant case, claims 1-7 and 10 are directed to a method (i.e. a process). Claims 11-16 and 18 are directed to a system (i.e. a machine). Claims 19-20 are directed to a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium (i.e. an article of manufacture). Thus, each of these claims fall within one of the four statutory categories. Nevertheless, the claims fall within the judicial exception of an abstract idea.
Step 2A: Prong One: Abstract Ideas
Claims 1-7, 10-16 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention recites an abstract idea. Independent claim 1, analogous to independent claims 11 and 19 recites: A method, comprising: receiving, data representing one or more enrollment criteria from a school; identifies whether the one or more enrollment criteria are satisfied; data representing school searchers registered, attributes of the school searchers, identify the values of the attributes; against the identified values of the attributes;, identifying, a subset of data representing a set of school searchers meeting the one or more enrollment criteria of the particular school from the school searchers registered; tracking one or more activities of the set of school searchers performed, wherein tracking activities of the set of school searchers comprises causing: associated with the particular school, and tracking the one or more activities of at least one of the school searchers; restricting one or more messages associated with a subset of school searchers, comprising: identifying which one or more school searchers in the set of school searchers selected, selection of the one or more specified adds the particular school to a school list or favorites, wherein the identified one or more school searchers constitute the subset of school searchers and transmitting, associated with the subset of school searchers, the one or more messages and causing rendering, one or more visual indicators of a conditional admission offer provided to the subset of school searchers; and outputting one or more visual indicators of conditionally admitting one or more school searchers, among the set of school searchers.
The limitations as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, falls under at least the abstract groupings of:
Certain methods of organizing human activity (commercial or legal interactions (including advertising, marketing or sales activities or behaviors; business relations; (managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people (including social activities, teaching, and following rules or instructions)). As independent claims discuss enrollment criteria from a school; identifying whether the one or more enrollment criteria are satisfied; attributes of school searchers, a set of school searchers meeting the one or more enrollment criteria of the school from the school searchers registered; and rendering, with one or more visual indicators of a conditional admission offer provided to the set of school searchers, wherein the set of school searchers are conditionally admitted school searchers, which is one of certain methods of organizing human activity.
Dependent claims add additional limitations, for example: (claim 2) sending a conditional scholarship offer to one or more qualified inquiries from the subset of school searchers; (claim 3) sending information related to the conditional admission offer and the conditional scholarship offer to the particular school; (claim 4) incorporating the information related to the conditional admission offer and the conditional scholarship offer into a customer relationship management (CRM) system of the particular school; (claim 5) sending information related to the conditional admission offer and the conditional scholarship offer to the particular school; (claim 6) the information related to the conditional admission offer and the conditional scholarship offer of the particular school; (claim 7) sending one or more notifications reminding the one or more conditionally admitted school searchers of one or more actions to be taken associated with enrollment in the particular school; (claim 10) receiving a school report including enrollment data of the particular school; identifying school searchers enrolled in the particular school based on the school report; and excluding the school searchers enrolled in the particular school from receiving a new conditional admission offer from other schools; (claim 12) sending a conditional scholarship offer to the subset of school searchers (claim 13) sending information related to the conditional admission offer and the conditional scholarship offer to the particular school; (claim 14) incorporating the information related to the conditional admission offer and the conditional scholarship offer into a customer relationship management (CRM) system of the particular school; (claim 15) information related to the conditional admission offer and the conditional scholarship offer of the particular school; (claim 16) sending one or more notifications reminding one or more conditionally admitted school searchers of one or more actions to be taken associated with enrollment in the particular school; (claim 18) outputting the one or more visual indicators of canceling the conditional admission offer of one or more school searchers based on no interest expressed from the one or more school searchers among the subset of school searchers; (claim 20) receiving a school report including enrollment data of the particular school; identifying school searchers enrolled in the particular school based on the school report; and excluding the school searchers enrolled in the particular school from receiving a new conditional admission offer from other schools, but these only serve to further limit the abstract idea. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers certain methods of organizing human activity, but for the recitation of generic computer components, the claims recite an abstract idea.
Step 2A: Prong Two
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims merely describe how to generally “apply” the abstract idea. In particular, the claims only recite the additional elements – (claim 1, analogous to claims 11 and 19) a data processing system, a web platform, data structures, executable logic, a hardware storage device, a parser, fields of data structures, a display device, a graphical user interface, link(s), client device(s), URL, tracking pixel, computing device, web page, code (claims 5 and 13) secure file transfer protocol (SFTP); (claims 6 and 15) encrypted data, an SFTP server; (claim 19) a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium. These additional elements are recited at a high-level of generality such that it amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. Simply implementing the abstract idea on generic computer components is not a practical application of the abstract idea, as it adds the words “apply it” (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea, as discussed in MPEP 2106.05(f). The limitations generally link the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use (such as computing, see MPEP 2106.05(h)). Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide generic computer implementation and do not impose a meaningful limit to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application.
Step 2B:
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to discussion of integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements amount to no more than mere instructions to apply an exception and generally link the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use. Furthermore, claims 1-7, 10-16 and 18-20 have been fully analyzed to determine whether there are additional limitations recited that amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. The limitations fail to include an improvement to another technology or technical field, an improvement to the functioning of the computer itself, or meaningful limitations beyond generally linking the use of the abstract idea to a particular technological environment. Thus, nothing in the claim adds significantly more to an abstract idea. Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide conventional computer implementation. The claims are ineligible. Therefore, since there are no limitations in the claim that transform the exception into a patent eligible application such that the claim amounts to significantly more than the exception itself, the claims are rejected under 35 USC 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or non-obviousness.
Claims 1-4, 7, 10-12, 14, 16 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CAINES et al. (US 2017/0140488 A1), hereinafter “Caines”, over O’Malley (US 2019/0392355 A1), hereinafter “O’Malley”, over Mak (US 2020/0219144 A1), hereinafter “Mak”.
Regarding Claim 1, Caines teaches A method, comprising:
receiving, by a data processing system associated with a web platform, one or more first data structures representing one or more enrollment criteria from a particular school; (Caines, para 0022, The present invention is an integrated system and method that allows bi-directional information and communication exchange between a plurality of past, prospective and current students, on the one hand, and a plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), employers, and service providers… the present invention includes a portal database…The portal database includes raw and transformed student data from the plurality of PSEI databases. A plurality of students can interact with the portal database, through an application installed on the student's electronic device. .The plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), can access the portal database as a multi-tenancy tool. Caines, para 0048, the rules universe defines all of the requirements that a college or university can have.);
generating, by the data processing system and based on the one or more first data structures, an executable logic that identifies whether the one or more enrollment criteria are satisfied; (Caines, para 0045, the PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities) portal application is a multi-tenancy tool which is accessible through the PSEI servers. The PSEI portal application can use analytics provided by the portal server to identify ideal students based off of the students' profiles. The profile matching algorithms use AN OVA, MANOVA, and various other analytical techniques to find the student profiles that most nearly match that of an ideal PSEI student; Further, Caines, para 0054, Using the analytics function and the profile analyzer flow, through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current, and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server. The PSEI can use its own internal requirements, such as minimum grade point average, ACT/SAT test scores, demographic information, extracurricular information, and affiliations, to determine desired profile parameters);
reading, by the data processing system and from a hardware storage device, second data structures representing school searchers registered on the web platform, wherein the second data structures are structured with fields, wherein the fields represent attributes of the school searchers and the fields store values of the attributes; (Caines, para 0029, A plurality of PSEI are enabled with an integrated system and method that tracks both current, past and prospective students. The plurality of PSEI can use targeted recruiting to find students that would be most ideal for their institution; Caines, para 0044, A student portal application is loaded on the plurality of student mobile devices, or, alternatively, the student portal application is accessible through a multi-tenancy tool deployable on a student mobile device 91, provided the student has created a student profile or account… a student must complete a student profile, containing, at a minimum, GPA, SAT/ACT test scores, extracurricular activities, community service, geographic location, demographic information, household income, interests, and chosen course of study. The student portal application is designed to data mine, gaining access to the correct repositories to access native and unaltered student data);
parsing, by a parser of the data processing system, the fields of the second data structures to identify the values of the attributes; (Caines, para 0044, the student portal application is accessible through a multi-tenancy tool deployable on a student mobile device... a student must complete a student profile, containing, at a minimum, GPA, SAT/ACT test scores, extracurricular activities, community service, geographic location, demographic information, household income, interests, and chosen course of study. The student portal application is designed to data mine, gaining access to the correct repositories to access native and unaltered student data.);
executing, by the data processing system, the executable logic against the identified values of the attributes; based on the executing, identifying, by the data processing system, a subset of the second data structures representing a set of school searchers meeting the one or more enrollment criteria of the particular school from the school searchers registered on the web platform; (Caines, para 0025, The PSEI portal refers to either an application resident on the student's electronic device or to a multi-tenancy access tool. The PSEI portal allows each of a plurality of PSEI to access all of the students who have entered profiles. The PSEI can assess each student profile and compare it to their current selection criteria. The PSEI portal has analytics, allowing the institution to run analysis of variance (“ANOVA”) comparing a single dependent variable (such as a graduation attribute) to multiple independent variables (such as secondary GPA, ACT/SAT test scores, community service, geographic location, demographic information, household income, and chose course of study). Other analytic tools are also accessible. Through analytics, each participating PSEI quickly identifies which prospective students are most likely to succeed, allowing the institution to pinpoint its recruiting efforts.); tracking one or more activities of the set of school searchers performed on the web platform ..., wherein tracking activities of the set of school searchers comprises causing: (Caines, para 0054, Using the analytics function and the profile analyzer flow, through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current, and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server. The PSEI can use its own internal requirements, such as minimum grade point average, ACT/SAT test scores, demographic information, extracurricular information, and affiliations, to determine desired profile parameters. Using the analytics on the portal server, through the GUI, and the plurality of PSEI servers and PSEI databases the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application; para 0043, The PSEI database repositories store data on students, curriculum, degrees, course, facilities, extracurricular activities, inter alia.); ... school searchers ... particular school (See at least Caines, para 0022, The present invention is an integrated system and method that allows bi-directional information and communication exchange between a plurality of past, prospective and current students, on the one hand, and a plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), employers, and service providers);
causing rendering, by the data processing system, on a display device, of at least one graphical user interface with one or more visual indicators of a … admission offer provided to the subset of school searchers. (Caines, para 0029, PSEI can use targeted recruiting to find students that would be most ideal for their institution; para 0045, The PSEI can then use targeted marketing to recruit those students whom the PSEI believe would be the best fit for the institution. The PSEI can use targeted offers to attract the most desirable students; para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application.) While Caine, para 0054, teaches an analytics function to monitor and determine desired profile parameters and notify a student with a desired profile an offer, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of ... searchers, comprising: identifying, by the loaded tracking ... , which one or more ... searchers in the set of ... searchers selected one or more specified links, selection of the one or more specified links adds the particular school to a school list or favorites, wherein the identified one or more ... searchers constitute the subset of ... searchers and transmitting, to the one or more client devices associated with the subset of .... searchers, the one or more messages (O’Malley teaches restrictions throughout, see at least O’Malley, para 0490, teaching functionality restrictions on a particular Campaign, segment of Applicants, segment of Candidates, a particular Applicant, and/or a particular Candidate. O’Malley, para 0205, teaches tracking cookies (Examiner notes tracking cookies are data files that follow users across multiple websites to collect information about a user’s web usage for targeted advertising.) Further see at least O’Malley, para 0273, 0357, 0957 and para 0583, teaches The “Online Advertisements” content option allows Accounts to target and track participants through online advertisements that can be targeted to appear to a particular person using a particular webpage, mobile device, and/or a particular type of person, based upon know information from previous interactions, web usage, and the like. These Advertisements can, among other options, either contain a call to action (Examiner notes a message) to a particular URL to a specific user and/or the URL to a website) conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of ... searchers, comprising: identifying, by the loaded tracking ... , which one or more ... searchers in the set of ... searchers selected one or more specified links, selection of the one or more specified links adds the particular school to a school list or favorites, wherein the identified one or more ... searchers constitute the subset of ... searchers and transmitting, to the one or more client devices associated with the subset of .... searchers, the one or more messages ... conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022). Yet, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor Mak teaches using a tracking pixel ... accessing a link to a uniform resource locator (URL) of the tracking pixel when a computing device of at least one of the set of (users) ... accesses a web page that comprises a code including the link, wherein the web page is associated with the ... , wherein the URL is a memory location associated with the web platform: loading the tracking pixel by accessing the link to the URL: and tracking the one or more activities of at least one of the ... using the loaded tracking pixel; ... pixel (Mak, para 0009, teaches tracking pixels are used on web pages or email, to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow confirmation that a user has accessed some content. Tracking pixels are throughout Mak, see at least para 0074, Tracking pixels may use HTML IFRAME, style, script, input link, embed, object, and other tags to track. The tracking pixel may include an external link to a tracking pixel server. When the HTML code is processed by the user display/ browser, the user display/browser executes the code of or associated with the tracking pixel. This may be a report to a tracking pixel server or a request for content from the tracking pixel server. The content from the tracking pixel server or the code associated with the tracking pixel may cause tracking pixel data to be transmitted. Tracking pixel data may include the device ID, type of website or email used, time the website was visited, activities on the website during a session, etc.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with using a tracking pixel ... accessing a link to a uniform resource locator (URL) of the tracking pixel when a computing device of at least one of the set of (users) ... accesses a web page that comprises a code including the link, wherein the web page is associated with the ... , wherein the URL is a memory location associated with the web platform: loading the tracking pixel by accessing the link to the URL: and tracking the one or more activities of at least one of the ... using the loaded tracking pixel; ... pixel as taught by Mak with the motivation for confirming that a user has accessed some content (Mak, para 0009). The Caines invention now incorporating the O’Malley and Mak invention, has all the limitations of claim 1.
Regarding Claim 2, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a … scholarship offer to one or more qualified inquiries from the subset of school searchers (Caines, para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as scholarship.) Yet, Caines and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines and Mak with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 3, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The method of claim 2, further comprising sending information related to the … admission offer and the … scholarship offer to the particular school (Caines, para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. Such a targeted method of student recruiting and communication will reduce the overall cost of recruitment for PSEI. The PSEI can monitor the students who have received the communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink. This allows the PSEI to continue communication with interested students.) Yet, Caines and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines and Mak with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 4, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The method of claim 3, further comprising incorporating the information related to the … admission offer and the … scholarship offer into a customer relationship management (CRM) system of the particular school (Caines, para 0054, Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. Such a targeted method of student recruiting and communication will reduce the overall cost of recruitment for PSEI; para 0022, the portal database, accessible through a portal server, is connected to a plurality of PSEI databases, through a combination of secure circuitry and software. The portal database includes raw and transformed student data from the plurality of PSEI databases.) Yet, Caines and Mak not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines and Mak with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 7, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising sending one or more notifications reminding the one or more … admitted school searchers of … associated with enrollment in the particular school (Caines, para 0054, student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. The student could then respond to such PSEI offers.... The PSEI can monitor the students who have received the communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink. This allows the PSEI to continue communication with interested students.)
Yet, Caines and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditionally … one or more actions to be taken (O’Malley, para 0561, could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview; para 0334, the system can send out a notification, say in an email or SMS to the Applicant to fill in the missing information).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines and Mak with conditionally … one or more actions to be taken as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 10, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a school report including enrollment data of the particular school; identifying school searchers enrolled in the particular school based on the school report; (Caines, Figure 2 and para 0046, teaches the portal server includes reports; Figure 8, teaches student data; para 0054, teaches analytics function through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current (Examiner notes enrolled students), and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server)… the school searchers enrolled in the particular school from receiving a new … admission offer from other schools (Caines, para 0054, Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application).
Yet, Caines and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches and excluding (O’Malley, para 0331, teaches setup the opposite criteria, where the system would generate a list Candidates from a list of Applicants who do not fall with the range, as designated by the MATCH MGR for a particular feature (or group of features) each within a designated plus/minus range.) conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines and Mak with and excluding … conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 11, Caines teaches A system comprising: at least one processor associated with a web platform; and a memory storing instructions thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations, comprising: (See at least Caines, Figure 1 and para 0042, teaches the computing environment); receiving one or more first data structures representing one or more enrollment criteria from a particular school; (Caines, para 0022, The present invention is an integrated system and method that allows bi-directional information and communication exchange between a plurality of past, prospective and current students, on the one hand, and a plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), employers, and service providers… the present invention includes a portal database…The portal database includes raw and transformed student data from the plurality of PSEI databases. A plurality of students can interact with the portal database, through an application installed on the student's electronic device. .The plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), can access the portal database as a multi-tenancy tool. Caines, para 0048, the rules universe defines all of the requirements that a college or university can have.);
generating, based on the one or more first data structures, an executable logic that identifies whether the one or more enrollment criteria are satisfied; (Caines, para 0045, the PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities) portal application is a multi-tenancy tool which is accessible through the PSEI servers. The PSEI portal application can use analytics provided by the portal server to identify ideal students based off of the students' profiles. The profile matching algorithms use AN OVA, MANOVA, and various other analytical techniques to find the student profiles that most nearly match that of an ideal PSEI student; Further, Caines, para 0054, Using the analytics function and the profile analyzer flow, through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current, and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server. The PSEI can use its own internal requirements, such as minimum grade point average, ACT/SAT test scores, demographic information, extracurricular information, and affiliations, to determine desired profile parameters);
reading, from a hardware storage device, second data structures representing school searchers registered on the web platform, wherein the second data structures are structured with fields, wherein the fields represent attributes of the school searchers and the fields store values of the attributes; (Caines, para 0029, A plurality of PSEI are enabled with an integrated system and method that tracks both current, past and prospective students. The plurality of PSEI can use targeted recruiting to find students that would be most ideal for their institution; Caines, para 0044, A student portal application is loaded on the plurality of student mobile devices, or, alternatively, the student portal application is accessible through a multi-tenancy tool deployable on a student mobile device 91, provided the student has created a student profile or account… a student must complete a student profile, containing, at a minimum, GPA, SAT/ACT test scores, extracurricular activities, community service, geographic location, demographic information, household income, interests, and chosen course of study. The student portal application is designed to data mine, gaining access to the correct repositories to access native and unaltered student data);
parsing the fields of the second data structures to identify the values of the attributes; executing the executable logic against the identified values of the attributes; (Caines, para 0044, the student portal application is accessible through a multi-tenancy tool deployable on a student mobile device... a student must complete a student profile, containing, at a minimum, GPA, SAT/ACT test scores, extracurricular activities, community service, geographic location, demographic information, household income, interests, and chosen course of study. The student portal application is designed to data mine, gaining access to the correct repositories to access native and unaltered student data.);
based on the executing, identifying, from school searchers registered on the web platform, a subset of second data structures representing a set of school searchers meeting the one or more enrollment criteria of the particular school; (Caines, para 0054, Using the analytics function and the profile analyzer flow, through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current, and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server. The PSEI can use its own internal requirements, such as minimum grade point average, ACT/SAT test scores, demographic information, extracurricular information, and affiliations, to determine desired profile parameters. Using the analytics on the portal server, through the GUI, and the plurality of PSEI servers and PSEI databases the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application; para 0043, The PSEI database repositories store data on students, curriculum, degrees, course, facilities, extracurricular activities, inter alia.);
tracking one or more activities of the set of school searchers performed on the web platform ..., wherein tracking activities of the set of school searchers comprises causing: (Caines, para 0054, Using the analytics function and the profile analyzer flow, through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current, and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server. The PSEI can use its own internal requirements, such as minimum grade point average, ACT/SAT test scores, demographic information, extracurricular information, and affiliations, to determine desired profile parameters. Using the analytics on the portal server, through the GUI, and the plurality of PSEI servers and PSEI databases the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application; para 0043, The PSEI database repositories store data on students, curriculum, degrees, course, facilities, extracurricular activities, inter alia.); ... school searchers ... particular school (See at least Caines, para 0022, The present invention is an integrated system and method that allows bi-directional information and communication exchange between a plurality of past, prospective and current students, on the one hand, and a plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), employers, and service providers);
causing rendering, on a display device, of at least one graphical user interface with one or more visual indicators of a … admission offer provided to the subset of school searchers; and outputting one or more visual indicators of …. admitting one or more school searchers, among the set of school searchers, to the particular school based on an interest expressed from the one or more school searchers (Caines, para 0029, PSEI can use targeted recruiting to find students that would be most ideal for their institution; para 0045, The PSEI can then use targeted marketing to recruit those students whom the PSEI believe would be the best fit for the institution. The PSEI can use targeted offers to attract the most desirable students; para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application.) While Caine, para 0054, teaches an analytics function to monitor and determine desired profile parameters and notify a student with a desired profile an offer, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of ... searchers, comprising: identifying, by the loaded tracking ... , which one or more ... searchers in the set of ... searchers selected one or more specified links, selection of the one or more specified links adds the particular school to a school list or favorites, wherein the identified one or more ... searchers constitute the subset of ... searchers and transmitting, to the one or more client devices associated with the subset of .... searchers, the one or more messages (O’Malley teaches restrictions throughout, see at least O’Malley, para 0490, teaching functionality restrictions on a particular Campaign, segment of Applicants, segment of Candidates, a particular Applicant, and/or a particular Candidate. O’Malley, para 0205, teaches tracking cookies (Examiner notes tracking cookies are data files that follow users across multiple websites to collect information about a user’s web usage for targeted advertising.) Further see at least O’Malley, para 0273, 0357, 0957 and para 0583, teaches The “Online Advertisements” content option allows Accounts to target and track participants through online advertisements that can be targeted to appear to a particular person using a particular webpage, mobile device, and/or a particular type of person, based upon know information from previous interactions, web usage, and the like. These Advertisements can, among other options, either contain a call to action (Examiner notes a message) to a particular URL to a specific user and/or the URL to a website) conditional ... conditionally (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of ... searchers, comprising: identifying, by the loaded tracking ... , which one or more ... searchers in the set of ... searchers selected one or more specified links, selection of the one or more specified links adds the particular school to a school list or favorites, wherein the identified one or more ... searchers constitute the subset of ... searchers and transmitting, to the one or more client devices associated with the subset of .... searchers, the one or more messages ... conditional ... conditionally as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022). Yet, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor Mak teaches using a tracking pixel ... accessing a link to a uniform resource locator (URL) of the tracking pixel when a computing device of at least one of the set of (users) ... accesses a web page that comprises a code including the link, wherein the web page is associated with the ... , wherein the URL is a memory location associated with the web platform: loading the tracking pixel by accessing the link to the URL: and tracking the one or more activities of at least one of the ... using the loaded tracking pixel; ... pixel (Mak, para 0009, teaches tracking pixels are used on web pages or email, to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow confirmation that a user has accessed some content. Tracking pixels are throughout Mak, see at least para 0074, Tracking pixels may use HTML IFRAME, style, script, input link, embed, object, and other tags to track. The tracking pixel may include an external link to a tracking pixel server. When the HTML code is processed by the user display/ browser, the user display/browser executes the code of or associated with the tracking pixel. This may be a report to a tracking pixel server or a request for content from the tracking pixel server. The content from the tracking pixel server or the code associated with the tracking pixel may cause tracking pixel data to be transmitted. Tracking pixel data may include the device ID, type of website or email used, time the website was visited, activities on the website during a session, etc.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with using a tracking pixel ... accessing a link to a uniform resource locator (URL) of the tracking pixel when a computing device of at least one of the set of (users) ... accesses a web page that comprises a code including the link, wherein the web page is associated with the ... , wherein the URL is a memory location associated with the web platform: loading the tracking pixel by accessing the link to the URL: and tracking the one or more activities of at least one of the ... using the loaded tracking pixel; ... pixel as taught by Mak with the motivation for confirming that a user has accessed some content (Mak, para 0009). The Caines invention now incorporating the O’Malley and Mak invention, has all the limitations of claim 11.
Regarding Claim 12, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising sending a … scholarship offer to the subset of school searchers (Caines, para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as scholarship.) Yet, Caines and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines and Mak with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 14, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The system of claim 13, the operations further comprising incorporating the information related to the … admission offer and the … scholarship offer into a customer relationship management (CRM) system of the particular school (Caines, para 0054, Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. Such a targeted method of student recruiting and communication will reduce the overall cost of recruitment for PSEI; para 0022, the portal database, accessible through a portal server, is connected to a plurality of PSEI databases, through a combination of secure circuitry and software. The portal database includes raw and transformed student data from the plurality of PSEI databases.) Yet, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 16, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising sending one or more notifications reminding one or more … admitted school searchers of … associated with enrollment in the particular school (Caines, para 0054, student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. The student could then respond to such PSEI offers.... The PSEI can monitor the students who have received the communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink. This allows the PSEI to continue communication with interested students.)
Yet, Caines and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditionally … one or more actions to be taken (O’Malley, para 0561, could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview; para 0334, the system can send out a notification, say in an email or SMS to the Applicant to fill in the missing information).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines and Mak with conditional … one or more actions to be taken as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 18, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising outputting the one or more visual indicators of … the … admission offer of one or more school searchers based on … from the one or more school searchers among the subset of school searchers (Caines, para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. Such a targeted method of student recruiting and communication will reduce the overall cost of recruitment for PSEI. The PSEI can monitor the students who have received the communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink. This allows the PSEI to continue communication with interested students.)
Yet, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview) canceling, … no interest expressed (O’Malley, Fig 40, teaches no longer interested from user option; para 0672-0673, teaches canceling and no longer interested).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with conditional … canceling, … no interest expressed as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Regarding Claim 19, Caines teaches A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, that when executed by at least one processor associated with a web platform, cause the at least one processor to perform operations, (See at least Caines, Figure 1 and para 0042, teaches the computing environment; claim 1 teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium); comprising: receiving one or more first data structures representing one or more enrollment criteria from a particular school; (Caines, para 0022, The present invention is an integrated system and method that allows bi-directional information and communication exchange between a plurality of past, prospective and current students, on the one hand, and a plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), employers, and service providers… the present invention includes a portal database…The portal database includes raw and transformed student data from the plurality of PSEI databases. A plurality of students can interact with the portal database, through an application installed on the student's electronic device. .The plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), can access the portal database as a multi-tenancy tool. Caines, para 0048, the rules universe defines all of the requirements that a college or university can have.);
generating, based on the one or more first data structures, an executable logic that identifies whether the one or more enrollment criteria are satisfied; (Caines, para 0045, the PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities) portal application is a multi-tenancy tool which is accessible through the PSEI servers. The PSEI portal application can use analytics provided by the portal server to identify ideal students based off of the students' profiles. The profile matching algorithms use AN OVA, MANOVA, and various other analytical techniques to find the student profiles that most nearly match that of an ideal PSEI student; Further, Caines, para 0054, Using the analytics function and the profile analyzer flow, through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current, and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server. The PSEI can use its own internal requirements, such as minimum grade point average, ACT/SAT test scores, demographic information, extracurricular information, and affiliations, to determine desired profile parameters);
reading, from a hardware storage device, second data structures representing school searchers registered on the web platform, wherein the second data structures are structured with fields, wherein the fields represent attributes of the school searchers and the fields store values of the attributes; (Caines, para 0029, A plurality of PSEI are enabled with an integrated system and method that tracks both current, past and prospective students. The plurality of PSEI can use targeted recruiting to find students that would be most ideal for their institution; Caines, para 0044, A student portal application is loaded on the plurality of student mobile devices, or, alternatively, the student portal application is accessible through a multi-tenancy tool deployable on a student mobile device 91, provided the student has created a student profile or account… a student must complete a student profile, containing, at a minimum, GPA, SAT/ACT test scores, extracurricular activities, community service, geographic location, demographic information, household income, interests, and chosen course of study. The student portal application is designed to data mine, gaining access to the correct repositories to access native and unaltered student data);
parsing the fields of the second data structures to identify the values of the attributes; executing the executable logic against the identified values of the attributes; (Caines, para 0044, the student portal application is accessible through a multi-tenancy tool deployable on a student mobile device... a student must complete a student profile, containing, at a minimum, GPA, SAT/ACT test scores, extracurricular activities, community service, geographic location, demographic information, household income, interests, and chosen course of study. The student portal application is designed to data mine, gaining access to the correct repositories to access native and unaltered student data.);
based on the executing, identifying a subset of second data structures representing a set of school searchers meeting the one or more enrollment criteria of the particular school from the school searchers registered on the web platform; (Caines, para 0025, The PSEI portal refers to either an application resident on the student's electronic device or to a multi-tenancy access tool. The PSEI portal allows each of a plurality of PSEI to access all of the students who have entered profiles. The PSEI can assess each student profile and compare it to their current selection criteria. The PSEI portal has analytics, allowing the institution to run analysis of variance (“ANOVA”) comparing a single dependent variable (such as a graduation attribute) to multiple independent variables (such as secondary GPA, ACT/SAT test scores, community service, geographic location, demographic information, household income, and chose course of study). Other analytic tools are also accessible. Through analytics, each participating PSEI quickly identifies which prospective students are most likely to succeed, allowing the institution to pinpoint its recruiting efforts.);
tracking one or more activities of the set of school searchers performed on the web platform ..., wherein tracking activities of the set of school searchers comprises causing: (Caines, para 0054, Using the analytics function and the profile analyzer flow, through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current, and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server. The PSEI can use its own internal requirements, such as minimum grade point average, ACT/SAT test scores, demographic information, extracurricular information, and affiliations, to determine desired profile parameters. Using the analytics on the portal server, through the GUI, and the plurality of PSEI servers and PSEI databases the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application; para 0043, The PSEI database repositories store data on students, curriculum, degrees, course, facilities, extracurricular activities, inter alia.); ... school searchers ... particular school (See at least Caines, para 0022, The present invention is an integrated system and method that allows bi-directional information and communication exchange between a plurality of past, prospective and current students, on the one hand, and a plurality of PSEI (community colleges, colleges and universities), employers, and service providers); causing rendering on a display device, of at least one graphical user interface with one or more visual indicators of a … admission offer provided to the subset of school searchers (Caines, para 0029, PSEI can use targeted recruiting to find students that would be most ideal for their institution; para 0045, The PSEI can then use targeted marketing to recruit those students whom the PSEI believe would be the best fit for the institution. The PSEI can use targeted offers to attract the most desirable students; para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application.) While Caine, para 0054, teaches an analytics function to monitor and determine desired profile parameters and notify a student with a desired profile an offer, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of ... searchers, comprising: identifying, by the loaded tracking ... , which one or more ... searchers in the set of ... searchers selected one or more specified links, selection of the one or more specified links adds the particular school to a school list or favorites, wherein the identified one or more ... searchers constitute the subset of ... searchers and transmitting, to the one or more client devices associated with the subset of .... searchers, the one or more messages (O’Malley teaches restrictions throughout, see at least O’Malley, para 0490, teaching functionality restrictions on a particular Campaign, segment of Applicants, segment of Candidates, a particular Applicant, and/or a particular Candidate. O’Malley, para 0205, teaches tracking cookies (Examiner notes tracking cookies are data files that follow users across multiple websites to collect information about a user’s web usage for targeted advertising.) Further see at least O’Malley, para 0273, 0357, 0957 and para 0583, teaches The “Online Advertisements” content option allows Accounts to target and track participants through online advertisements that can be targeted to appear to a particular person using a particular webpage, mobile device, and/or a particular type of person, based upon know information from previous interactions, web usage, and the like. These Advertisements can, among other options, either contain a call to action (Examiner notes a message) to a particular URL to a specific user and/or the URL to a website) conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of ... searchers, comprising: identifying, by the loaded tracking ... , which one or more ... searchers in the set of ... searchers selected one or more specified links, selection of the one or more specified links adds the particular school to a school list or favorites, wherein the identified one or more ... searchers constitute the subset of ... searchers and transmitting, to the one or more client devices associated with the subset of .... searchers, the one or more messages ... conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022). Yet, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor Mak teaches using a tracking pixel ... accessing a link to a uniform resource locator (URL) of the tracking pixel when a computing device of at least one of the set of (users) ... accesses a web page that comprises a code including the link, wherein the web page is associated with the ... , wherein the URL is a memory location associated with the web platform: loading the tracking pixel by accessing the link to the URL: and tracking the one or more activities of at least one of the ... using the loaded tracking pixel; ... pixel (Mak, para 0009, teaches tracking pixels are used on web pages or email, to unobtrusively (usually invisibly) allow confirmation that a user has accessed some content. Tracking pixels are throughout Mak, see at least para 0074, Tracking pixels may use HTML IFRAME, style, script, input link, embed, object, and other tags to track. The tracking pixel may include an external link to a tracking pixel server. When the HTML code is processed by the user display/ browser, the user display/browser executes the code of or associated with the tracking pixel. This may be a report to a tracking pixel server or a request for content from the tracking pixel server. The content from the tracking pixel server or the code associated with the tracking pixel may cause tracking pixel data to be transmitted. Tracking pixel data may include the device ID, type of website or email used, time the website was visited, activities on the website during a session, etc.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with using a tracking pixel ... accessing a link to a uniform resource locator (URL) of the tracking pixel when a computing device of at least one of the set of (users) ... accesses a web page that comprises a code including the link, wherein the web page is associated with the ... , wherein the URL is a memory location associated with the web platform: loading the tracking pixel by accessing the link to the URL: and tracking the one or more activities of at least one of the ... using the loaded tracking pixel; ... pixel as taught by Mak with the motivation for confirming that a user has accessed some content (Mak, para 0009). The Caines invention now incorporating the O’Malley and Mak invention, has all the limitations of claim 19.
Regarding Claim 20, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, the operations further comprising: receiving a school report including enrollment data of the particular school; identifying school searchers enrolled in the particular school based on the school report; Caines, Figure 2 and para 0046, teaches the portal server includes reports; Figure 8, teaches student data; para 0054, teaches analytics function through the GUI and portal server, the PSEI portal application can assess the profiles of a plurality of prospective, current (Examiner notes enrolled students), and/or former PSEI students using the analytics on the portal server)… the school searchers enrolled in the particular school from receiving a new … admission offer from other schools (Caines, para 0054, Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application).
Yet, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches and excluding (O’Malley, para 0331, teaches setup the opposite criteria, where the system would generate a list Candidates from a list of Applicants who do not fall with the range, as designated by the MATCH MGR for a particular feature (or group of features) each within a designated plus/minus range.) conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with and excluding … conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Claims 5-6, 13 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caines, O’Malley and Mak, and further over Potter et al. (US 2018/0232247 A1), hereinafter “Potter”.
Regarding Claim 5, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The method of claim 2, further comprising sending information related to the … admission offer and the … scholarship offer to the particular school through (Caines, para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. Such a targeted method of student recruiting and communication will reduce the overall cost of recruitment for PSEI. The PSEI can monitor the students who have received the communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink. This allows the PSEI to continue communication with interested students.) Yet, Caines does not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Yet, Caines, O’Malley and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor Potter teaches a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) (Potter, para 0068, teaches security and integration components may implement various security features for data transmission and storage, including Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines, O’Malley and Mak with a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) as taught by Potter with the motivation to deliver content to a user, the content can include at least one of: text; film; audio; or images (Potter, para 0006). The Caines, O’Malley and Mak invention now incorporating the Potter invention, has all the limitations of claim 5.
Regarding Claim 6, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley, Mak and Potter, teaches The method of claim 5, further comprising: … the information related to the … admission offer and the … scholarship offer into … server of the particular school (Caines, para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. Such a targeted method of student recruiting and communication will reduce the overall cost of recruitment for PSEI. The PSEI can monitor the students who have received the communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink. This allows the PSEI to continue communication with interested students.) Yet, Caines, Mak and Potter do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines, Mak and Potter with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Yet, Caines, O’Malley and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor Potter teaches encrypting … encrypted data; and sending the encrypted data to an SFTP (Potter, para 0068, teaches security and integration components may implement various security features for data transmission and storage. In various implementations, security and integration components may provide, for example, a file-based integration scheme or a service-based integration scheme for transmitting data between the various devices in the content distribution network. Security and integration components also may use secure data transmission protocols and/or encryption for data transfers, for example, Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) encryption.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines, O’Malley and Mak with encrypting … encrypted data; and sending the encrypted data to an SFTP as taught by Potter with the motivation to deliver content to a user, the content can include at least one of: text; film; audio; or images (Potter, para 0006).
Regarding Claim 13, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley and Mak, teaches The system of claim 12, the operations further comprising sending information related to the … admission offer and the … scholarship offer to the particular school through (Caines, para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. Such a targeted method of student recruiting and communication will reduce the overall cost of recruitment for PSEI. The PSEI can monitor the students who have received the communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink. This allows the PSEI to continue communication with interested students.) Yet, Caines and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines and Mak with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Yet, Caines, O’Malley and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor Potter teaches a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) (Potter, para 0068, teaches security and integration components may implement various security features for data transmission and storage, including Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines, O’Malley and Mak with a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) as taught by Potter with the motivation to deliver content to a user, the content can include at least one of: text; film; audio; or images (Potter, para 0006). The Caines, O’Malley and Mak invention now incorporating the Potter invention, has all the limitations of claim 13.
Regarding Claim 15, Caines, now incorporating O’Malley, Mak and Potter, teaches The system of claim 13, the operations further comprising: … the information related to the … admission offer and the … scholarship offer into … server of the particular school (Caines, para 0054, the PSEI portal application can target students with the desired profile parameters for recruitment. Students with desired profiles could be given special offers, such as reduced tuitions, scholarship, early admission, inter alia. The student with desired profiles would be notified of such an offer through the student portal application. Such a targeted method of student recruiting and communication will reduce the overall cost of recruitment for PSEI. The PSEI can monitor the students who have received the communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink. This allows the PSEI to continue communication with interested students.) Yet, Caines and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor O’Malley teaches conditional (O’Malley, para 0561, Depending on original terms and rules set … may be able to create unique invitations, unique terms, unique deadlines, etc., per email address and/or per potential Sub-Affiliate… could create invitations that are conditional whereby the recipient can become a Sub-Affiliate, once he/she surpasses a particular threshold, such as takes a survey, a test, participates in an interview).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines, Mak and Potter with conditional as taught by O’Malley with the motivation for an on-going system for assessing such things as, the number of applicants per region of the country that possess, say each necessary software skill, the combination of skills; these software skill measurements, collected per region, over time, can help track the successfulness of quantifiable steps that were taken by specific companies, educational facilities, and/or software companies to both increase and improve the pool of qualified applicants (O’Malley, para 0022).
Yet, Caines, O’Malley and Mak do not appear to explicitly teach and in the same field of endeavor Potter teaches encrypting … encrypted data; and sending the encrypted data to an SFTP (Potter, para 0068, teaches security and integration components may implement various security features for data transmission and storage. In various implementations, security and integration components may provide, for example, a file-based integration scheme or a service-based integration scheme for transmitting data between the various devices in the content distribution network. Security and integration components also may use secure data transmission protocols and/or encryption for data transfers, for example, Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) encryption.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Caines, O’Malley and Mak with encrypting … encrypted data; and sending the encrypted data to an SFTP as taught by Potter with the motivation to deliver content to a user, the content can include at least one of: text; film; audio; or images (Potter, para 0006).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 09/26/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding 35 U.5.C. § 101 rejections: Examiner has updated the 101 rejections in light of the most recent claim amendments. Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered but are found unpersuasive and Examiner maintains the 101 rejection.
With respect to the tracking pixel, as an initial matter, the tracking pixel is merely described once in Applicant’s specification in para 0052, and is described in its ordinary and expected capacity. Further, the claims are not rooted in web tracking technologies, and the claims do not solve a technical problem that only arises in tracking technology. MPEP § 2106.05(a). The generically implemented tracking pixel being referred to does nothing more than generally link the abstract idea to the technological environment and/or merely apply a generic tracking technology, which is not sufficient to integrate the judicial exception into a practical application, or significantly more.
Further, with respect to Applicant’s remarks on giving weight to all elements, the Examiner asserts that each limitation individually and in combination has been considered and when considered as a whole and individually the claims do not recite any additional elements that amount to a practical application or significantly more.
Further, with respect to Applicant’s remarks on “restricting transmission of one or more messages to one or more client devices associated with a subset of school searchers”, Examiner respectfully notes this newly added limitation is not in Applicant’s specification. See above 112 rejection. Further, Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. Each step does no more than require a generic
computer to perform generic computer functions. The claims do not, for example, purport to improve the functioning of the computer itself. In addition, the claims do not affect an improvement in any other
technology or technical field. The specification spells out different generic equipment and parameters that might be applied using the concept and the particular steps such conventional processing would entail based on the concept of information access. Thus, the claims at issue amount to nothing significantly more than instructions to apply the abstract idea using some unspecified, generic computer(s). Therefore, Applicants remarks are found unpersuasive and Examiner maintains the 101 rejection.
Regarding 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejections. With respect to the prior art rejections, Applicants arguments have been fully considered but are found unpersuasive. Examiner has updated the rejections in light of the most recent claim amendments.
With respect to Applicant’s remarks, (remarks, page 12): “The cited references at least fail to disclose the feature "selection of the one or more specified links adds the particular school to a school list or favorites" ...” Examiner respectfully disagrees. See at least Caines, para 0054, teaches monitor students who have received communications, the ones have responded to the communication, and the ones that have clicked on a hyperlink; Examiner notes monitoring students clicking on a hyperlink is monitoring a user’s web usage; a favorites or saved pages is a core part of web usage. Further, see at least O’Malley para 0357, teaching a tracking and save function and para 0583, teaches online advertisements targeted to a particular person using a particular webpage, mobile device, based upon interactions and web usage.
Therefore, Applicants remarks are found unpersuasive and Examiner maintains the 103 rejection with respect to these and all depending claims unless otherwise indicated.
Conclusion
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.
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/R.R.N./Examiner, Art Unit 3629 /LYNDA JASMIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3629
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