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 .
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/281,454 filed on 11 September 2023. This application claims 371 priority to PCT/IB2021/052095 filed on 12 March 2021. The preliminary response filed 11 September 2023 cancels claims 21-30, and presents arguments is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant submit that Inventions I and II are the same. Examiner will withdraw the Election requirement.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claims 1, 10, 19, and 20 recite “obtaining a measurement of a key performance indicator (KPI) of the telecommunication node; upon receiving the measurement of the KPI, updating coefficients of a polynomial function; based on the updated coefficients of the polynomial function, computing an expected measurement of the KPI coefficient; computing a confidence band for the expected measurement of the KPI; and reporting the anomaly when the measurement of the KPI is outside of the confidence band.” The limitations of “obtaining a measurement of a key performance indicator (KPI) of the telecommunication node; upon receiving the measurement of the KPI, updating coefficients of a polynomial function; based on the updated coefficients of the polynomial function, computing an expected measurement of the KPI coefficient; computing a confidence band for the expected measurement of the KPI; and reporting the anomaly when the measurement of the KPI is outside of the confidence band,” as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers “mathematical relationships” but for the recitation of generic computer components. That is, other than reciting “of the telecommunication node,” nothing in the claim element precludes the step from practically being a mathematical relationship. For example, but for the recitation of generic computer components, the context of this claim encompasses using node data for a mathematical relationship. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim only recites one additional element – the telecommunication node. The telecommunication node is recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a device) such that it amounts to no more than a device. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a telecommunication node amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 2 and 11 recite “wherein initial coefficients of the polynomial function are computed based on M initial measurements of the KPI and the coefficients a are computed using: a = polyfit(x[O:M], y[O:M], degree) where polyfit is a function that computes the coefficients using a least square method, x is the time at which is taken the measurement of the KPI, y is the measurement of the KPI and degree is the degree of the polynomial function.” Coefficients of a polynomial function is an additional element of the abstract idea of the mathematical relationship. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 3 and 12 recite “wherein updating the coefficients of the polynomial function comprises, for each of the coefficients of the polynomial function: computing a loss function for the measurement of the KPI; computing a gradient of the loss function; and updating the coefficient as a function of the gradient of the loss function.” Updating coefficients of a polynomial function is an additional element of the abstract idea of the mathematical relationship. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 4 and 13 recite “wherein computing the confidence band comprises: computing an average and a standard deviation for the expected measurement of the KPI based on previous measurements; and setting the confidence band to minus three times the standard deviation from the average to plus three times the standard deviation from the average.” Applying an average and a standard deviation are additional elements of the abstract idea of the mathematical relationship. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 5 and 14 recites “wherein the confidence band is computed for each measurement of the KPI in the time series and includes computing the average and the standard deviation.” Applying an average and a standard deviation are additional elements of the abstract idea of the mathematical relationship. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 6 and 15 recites “wherein computing the average and the standard deviation is based on a predetermined number of most recent previous measurements which does not include all the previous measurements.” Applying an average and a standard deviation are additional elements of the abstract idea of the mathematical relationship. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 7 and 16 recite “wherein the polynomial function is a 7th order polynomial function.” The degree of the polynomial function is an additional element of the abstract idea of the mathematical relationship. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 8 and 17 recite “wherein computing the loss function for the measurement of the KPI is done using: L(a,,xi, yi) = |P(xi)-yi|2, where L is the loss function, a is the coefficient of the polynomial function, yi is the data point, P(a, xi) is the expected measurement of the KPI and i is an index of the measurement of the KPI.” Elements of a polynomial function is an additional element of the abstract idea of the mathematical relationship. The claim is not patent eligible.
Claims 9 and 18 recite “wherein computing the gradient of the loss function is done using: ∇aiL(xi) = 2 (xi) |P(xi) - yi| where L is the loss function, xi is the time at which is taken the measurement of the KPI, yi is the measurement of the KPI, P(xi) is the expected measurement of the KPI and i is an index of the measurement of the KPI.” Calculating a gradient is an additional element of the abstract idea of the mathematical relationship. The claim is not patent eligible.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US PGPUB 2021/0232291 A1 to Abdulaal et al discloses a polynomial regression model coupled with a QLGBT machine learning model.
US PGPUB 2021/0067401 A1 to Abe et al discloses polynomial-time algorithms exist.
US PGPUB 2017/0244777 A1 to Ouyang et al discloses various measure-able network performance parameters.
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/SCHQUITA D GOODWIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459