DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because they are directed toward abstract ideas without significantly more.
On January 7, 2019, the USPTO released new examination guidelines for determining whether a claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter (hereinafter referred to as the 2019 PEG). According to the guidelines, a claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter if: (a) it does not fall within one of the four statutory categories of invention or (b) or meets a three-prong test for determining that: (1) the claim recites a judicial exception, e.g. an abstract idea, (2) without integration into a practical application and (3) does not recite additional elements that provide significantly more than the recited judicial exception.
Claims 1-9 are directed toward apparatuses and methods and, therefore, fall within one of the four statutory categories of invention. However, claims 1-9 clearly do not meet the three-prong test for patentability set forth in the 2019 PEG.
With regard to the first prong, whether a claim recites a judicial exception, the guidelines provide three groupings of subject matter that are considered abstract ideas:
Mathematical concepts – mathematical relationships, mathematical formulas or equations, mathematical calculations;
Certain methods of organizing human activity – fundamental economic principles or practices (including hedging, insurance, mitigating risk); commercial or legal interactions (including agreements in the form of contracts; legal obligations; 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); and
Mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind (including an observation, evaluation, judgment, opinion).
Applicant’s independent claims 1, 8-9 are directed toward a method for determining whether a brake operation or a turning level is pressed. Due to the expansively broad nature of the claims, they encompass “mental processes”, i.e. determining whether a condition is satisfied, determining changes in brake pedal and signal lever is operated. There are no limitations regarding what type of information is provided or how it is used. The amended claims add an additional feature of calculating a driving operation score. However, only the providing of the information is claimed. The dependent claims (2-7) merely recite further limitations duration of time and certain threshold values, but do not add anything that removes the claimed subject matter from “mental processes”.
With regard to the second prong, whether the abstract idea is integrated into a practical application, the guidelines provide the following exemplary considerations that are indicative that an additional element (or combination of elements) may have integrated the judicial exception into a practical application:
an additional element reflects an improvement in the functioning of a computer, or an improvement to other technology or technical field;
an additional element that applies or uses a judicial exception to effect a particular treatment or prophylaxis for a disease or medical condition;
an additional element implements a judicial exception with, or uses a judicial exception in conjunction with, a particular machine or manufacture that is integral to the claim;
an additional element effects a transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing; and
an additional element applies or uses the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment, such that the claim as a whole is more than a drafting effort designed to monopolize the exception.
It is clear that Applicant’s claims 1-9 do not comprise any of the above additional elements that, individually or in combination, have integrated the judicial exception into a practical application. Notably, the claims do not provide any limitations regarding a specific application or use, outside of providing a generic information signal (driving operation score). There is no improvement in the functioning of a computer. Nor are the limitations implemented in particular machine or manufacture. Rather, they are implemented using merely a processor and computer readable storage. There is no transformation or reduction of a particular article to a different state or thing. Lastly, there are no additional elements that apply or use the judicial exception in some other meaningful way beyond generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment.
While the guidelines further state that the exemplary considerations are not an exhaustive list and that there may be other examples of integrating the exception into a practical application, the guidelines also list examples in which a judicial exception has not been integrated into a practical application:
an additional element merely recites the words “apply it” (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or merely includes instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea;
an additional element adds insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception; and
an additional element does no more than generally link the use of a judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use.
Since the abstract idea in Applicant’s claims are implemented on a processor, i.e. a computer, and there are no further limitations or structural elements that go beyond the computer, it can clearly be seen that the abstract idea(s) are merely implemented on a computer. In addition, the processor in this case does not link the use of the abstract idea(s) to a particular technological environment or field of use, much less “generally link the use…to a particular technological environment or field of use”. Therefore, with regard to whether the abstract idea has been integrated into a practical application, the answer is clearly no.
With regard to the third prong, whether the claims recite additional elements that provide significantly more than the recited judicial exception, the guidelines specify that the pre-guideline procedure is still in effect. Specifically, that examiners should continue to consider whether an additional element or combination of elements:
adds a specific limitation or combination of limitations that are not well-understood, routine, conventional activity in the field, which is indicative that an inventive concept may be present; or
simply appends well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known to the industry, specified at a high level of generality, to the judicial exception, which is indicative that an inventive concept may not be present.
Applicant’s claims do not recite additional elements that provide significantly more than the recited judicial exception. The use of one or more computers to implement the above recited abstract idea(s), with nothing more, is a well-understood, routine and conventional activity.
Thus, since claims 1-9 are: (a) directed toward an abstract idea, (b) not integrated into a practical application and (c) do not comprise significantly more than the recited abstract idea, they are clearly directed toward non-statutory subject matter.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/20/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Amendment includes obtaining vehicle information and calculating a driving operation score based on vehicle information. Claims 1-9 are rejected over 101 as disclosed above.
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.
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/W.L.L/Examiner, Art Unit 3661
/PETER D NOLAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3661
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