DETAILED ACTION
1. This communication is in response to the Amendments and Arguments (RCE) filed on 12/18/2025. Claims 1, 3, 5-13, 15, 17-20 are pending and have been examined. Claims 2, 4, 14, 16 are cancelled.
Response to Amendments and Arguments
2. 35 USC 101 rejections are maintained because all processing steps of the amended independent claims 1 and 13 are still considered a mental process performable by a human -- “confirming whether order letters are in an ascending order and serially numbered .. the order letters being extracted from header information .. the units information including the header information and body information .. outputting alert information including a correction candidate which shows the order letters being in the ascending order and serially numbered .. searching the body information .. for a letter corresponding to one of the order letters which is confirmed to be not in the ascending order and serially numbered .. correcting the order letter in the document information or the units information with the correction candidate .. and outputting the document information or the units information in which the order letter is corrected.” The examiner, in the Examiner’s Interview Summary sent on 11/10/2025, had suggested that to overcome the 35 USC 101 abstract idea rejections, the claims further recite limitations such as machine learning models with particular type of neural network with specific training steps or data sets, or other automatic steps that a human by mental process cannot handle.
35 USC 103 rejections are withdrawn because the independent claims recite specific ordered sequence of steps involving the processing of the article header and body portions that although the cited references and further searched references teach the core principles, but not the specific ordered sequence of steps.
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.
3. Independent claims 1, 13 and their dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
The independent claims 1, 13 recite a method and a device for the purpose of detecting, alerting and correcting the order letters to be in the ascending order and serially numbered, thus relating to a statutory category.
In particular, claims 1, 13 recite “confirming whether order letters are in an ascending order and serially numbered .. the order letters being extracted from header information .. the units information including the header information and body information .. outputting alert information including a correction candidate which shows the order letters being in the ascending order and serially numbered .. searching the body information .. for a letter corresponding to one of the order letters which is confirmed to be not in the ascending order and serially numbered .. correcting the order letter in the document information or the units information with the correction candidate .. and outputting the document information or the units information in which the order letter is corrected” where every processing step can be performed by a human as a mental process.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, independent claims 1, 13 recite additional elements of “processor” and “memory” (SPEC [0021] - The control unit 10 may include a processor such as a CPU, and may be electrically connected to the storage unit 11 including a memory) which amount to general purpose computing devices. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
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 the integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a processor is noted as a general computer. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. Further, the additional limitations in the claims noted above are directed towards insignificant solution activity. The claims are not patent eligible. Furthermore, for all dependent claims:
Claims 3, 15: “extracting letters corresponding to the order letters .. outputting the alert ..” can be performed by a human. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claims 5, 17: “sending the alert to .. user terminals via a network ..” can be performed by a human. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claims 6, 18: “reviewing the document information and the alert ..” can be performed by a human. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claims 7, 19: “the document information is contract document ..” can be processed by a human. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claims 8, 20: “the order letter includes at least two levels ..” can be processed by a human. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claim 9: “the document information includes article header ..” can be processed by a human. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claim 10: “whether the order letter is in the ascending order and serially numbered based on the article header information ..” can be performed by a human. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claim 11: “displaying the document information and the alert information in parallel ..” can be performed by a human, with the help of a generic computer. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claim 12: “if a certain order letter is duplicated or missing and all the subsequent order letters need to be moved up or down, a message indicating that subsequent order letters need to be rearranged ..” can be performed by a human, with the help of a generic computer. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Conclusion
4. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FENG-TZER TZENG whose telephone number is 571-272-4609. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F (9:00-5:00). The fax phone number where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-4609.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Paras Shah (SPE) can be reached on 571-270-1650.
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/FENG-TZER TZENG/ 1/23/2026
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2653