DETAILED ACTION
Introduction
This Final Office Action is in response to amendments and remarks filed on March 20, 2026, for the application with serial number 18/192,196.
Claims 1, 12, and 17 are amended.
Claims 1-9, 11-21, and 23 are pending.
Interview
The Examiner acknowledges the interview conducted on February 24, 2026, in which proposed amendments were discussed.
Response to Remarks/Amendments
35 USC §101 Rejections
The Applicant traverses the rejection of the independent claims as being directed to an ineligible abstract idea, contending that the rejection, below, mischaracterizes the invention. Specifically, the Applicant submits that the present claims to not attempt to manage personal relationships or interaction between people. See Remarks pp. 11-12. The Examiner respectfully disagrees. The present claims explicitly manage interactions between people. See, for example, the preamble of exemplary independent claim 1. The word: “interaction” appears in exemplary independent claim 1 approximately 18 times. It is unclear to the Examiner why the Applicant believes the present claims involve a technological activity or improvement to a technology. Employing software and generic computer hardware to implement an abstract idea does not provide a practical application or significantly more than an abstract idea. See MPEP §2106.05(a)[I]. Contrary to the Applicant’s assertions, the present claims attempt to manage commercial interactions. Using rules and logic to model interactions is managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people. The present claims essentially recite a process that is analogous to the way human beings socialize and engage in commerce. However, generic computer hardware is used as a tool to guide the process and make decisions. The claims do not recite any apparent improvement to the performance of a computer.
The rejection for lack of subject matter eligibility is updated and maintained.
35 USC §103 Rejections
In light of the Applicant’s amendments, the prior art rejection of the claims is withdrawn.
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.
The Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) provides detailed rules for determining subject matter eligibility for claims in §2106. Those rules provide a basis for the analysis and finding of ineligibility that follows.
Claims 1-9, 11-21, and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101. The claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter because the claimed invention recites a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more. Although claims(s) 1-9, 11-21, and 23 are all directed to one of the four statutory categories of invention, the claims are directed to providing insights to interactions (as evidenced by exemplary independent claim 1; “provide the retrieved interaction parameters to an enterprise predictive model that outputs an interaction insight result”), an abstract idea. Certain methods of organizing human activity are ineligible abstract ideas, including managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people. See MPEP §2106.04(a). The limitations of exemplary claim 1 include: “an entity interaction data store;” “a risk relationship data store;” “associate [ ] interaction identifiers . . . with [ ] accounts;” “retrieve interaction parameters . . . and risk relationship parameters;” “provide the retrieved interaction parameters to a trained enterprise predive model that outputs an interaction insight result;” “perform further training of the trained enterprise predictive model;” “initiate an action;” “facilitate an exchange of data . . . that include[s] information about the interaction insight result;” “establish communication links with communication addresses and output messages;” “automatically schedule tasks and communications;” and “generate interaction workflows.” The steps are all steps for managing personal behavior related to the abstract idea of providing insights to interactions that, when considered alone and in combination, are part of the abstract idea of providing insights to interactions. The dependent claims further recite steps for managing personal behavior that are part of the abstract idea of providing insights to interactions. These claim elements, when considered alone and in combination, are considered to be abstract ideas because they are directed to a method of organizing human activity which includes modeling data regarding insurance policy claim interactions to gain insights about the interactions.
Under step 2A of the subject matter eligibility analysis, a claim that recites a judicial exception must be evaluated to determine whether the claim provides a practical application of the judicial exception. Additional elements of the independent claims amount to generic computer hardware that does not provide a practical application (a computer server, computer processor, memory, and interface in independent claim 1; a server; computer processor, and interface in independent claim 12; and a computer readable medium executed by a processor; and interface in independent claim 17). See MPEP §2106.04(d)[I]. The various displays and servers that are recited are also generic computer hardware The claims do not recite an improvement to another technology or technical field, nor do they recite an improvement to the functioning of the computer itself. See MPEP §2106.05(a). The claims require no more than a generic computer (a computer server, computer processor, memory, and interface in independent claim 1; a server; computer processor, and interface in independent claim 12; and a computer readable medium executed by a processor; and interface in independent claim 17) to implement the abstract idea, which does not amount to significantly more than an abstract idea. See MPEP §2106.05(f). Because the claims only recite use of a generic computer, they do not apply the judicial exception with a particular machine. See MPEP §2106.05(b). For these reasons, the claims do not provide a practical application of the abstract idea, nor do they amount to significantly more than an abstract idea under step 2B of the subject matter eligibility analysis. Using a generic computer to implement an abstract idea does not provide an inventive concept. Therefore, the claims recite ineligible subject matter under 35 USC §101.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD N SCHEUNEMANN whose telephone number is (571)270-7947. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm EST.
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/RICHARD N SCHEUNEMANN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3624
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