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 1-13 are rejected under 35 USC 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. A subject matter eligibility analysis is set forth below. See MPEP 2106.
Under step 1, claim 1 belongs to a statutory category, namely it is a method claim. Likewise, claim 12 is a device. However, claim 13 does not belong a statutory class since its geared towards a program (i.e. software). Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, claim 10 is found to be directed to ineligible software per se (see MPEP 21.06.03(I)). It is noted that under Step 1, claim 13 is not directed to a statutory category, however, for the purpose of compact prosecution claim 10 will be further evaluated for subject matter eligibility as discussed below.
Under step 2A, prong 1: claims 1, 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e. mathematical relationships or algorithms or mental steps (i.e. predicting)) which the court has identified as abstract without significantly more. Claims 1, 12 and 13 are directed to the abstract idea of a prediction step of predicting pieces of second data which are pieces of data of a second period after the current point in time; and a unit space creation step of creating a unit space which is a base for calculating the Mahalanobis distance based on the pieces of first data and the pieces of second data, wherein, in the prediction step, the pieces of second data are predicted based on pieces of third data which are pieces of data of a third period obtained by shifting the first period to the past by a prescribed length of time, pieces of fourth data which are pieces of data of a fourth period obtained by shifting the second period to the past by the prescribed length of time, and the pieces of first data. These limitations fall under mathematical or mental concepts. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the only additional elements are a step of acquiring pieces of first data which are pieces of data of a past first period up to a current point in time, which is data gathering recited at a high level of generality and an acquisition unit, a prediction unit and a unit space creation unit, which are conventional or generic equipment which do not add anything significant to the judicial exception because these elements are needed in order to create a prediction of the pieces of the second data. The claims as a whole do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself.
The generic data processing are recited so generically (no details whatsoever are provided other than e.g., “the pieces of second data are predicted based on pieces of third data which are pieces of data of a third period obtained by shifting the first period to the past by a prescribed length of time, pieces of fourth data which are pieces of data of a fourth period obtained by shifting the second period to the past by the prescribed length of time, and the pieces of first data.”) that it represents no more than mere instructions to apply the judicial exceptions on a computer. It can also be viewed as nothing more than an attempt to generally link the use of the judicial exceptions to the technological environment of a computer. Noting MPEP 2106.04(d)(I): “It is notable that mere physicality or tangibility of an additional element or elements is not a relevant consideration in Step 2A Prong Two. As the Supreme Court explained in Alice Corp., mere physical or tangible implementation of an exception does not guarantee eligibility. Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208, 224, 110 USPQ2d 1976, 1983-84 (2014) ("The fact that a computer ‘necessarily exist[s] in the physical, rather than purely conceptual, realm,’ is beside the point")”.
Thus, under Step 2A, prong 2 of the analysis, even when viewed in combination, these additional elements do not integrate the recited judicial exception into a practical application and the claims are directed to the judicial exception. No specific practical application is associated with the claimed system. For instance, nothing is done with the predicted pieces of data.
Under Step 2B, the claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements, as described above, merely amount to a general purpose computer system that attempts to apply the abstract idea in a technological environment, limiting the abstract idea to a particular field of use.
Dependent claims 2-11 merely expand upon the abstract idea further defining the abstract steps of claim 1, and therefore stand rejected under 35 USC 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANUEL A RIVERA VARGAS whose telephone number is (571)270-7870. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-6:00.
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/MANUEL A RIVERA VARGAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857
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