DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 1, 2, 9, 11, and 18 are currently amended.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/28/2023 and 06/20/2024 is being considered by the examiner.
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 a judicial exception without significantly more. The claims recite an abstract idea. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Under Step 1 of the eligibility analysis the claims are directed to statutory categories. MPEP 2106.03. Specifically, the method, as claimed in claims 1-16, is directed to the process. Additionally, the device, as claimed in claims 17-20, is directed to a machine.
While the claims fall within statutory categories, under Step 2A, Prong 1 of the eligibility analysis (MPEP 2106.04), the claimed invention recites the abstract idea of managing product inventory. Specifically, representative claim 1 recites the abstract idea of:
Receive from a channel manager user for a first channel of a plurality of channels, data for a new product listing for a first product;
Access product information data, wherein the product information data comprises inventory information for a plurality of products, and wherein each product is associated with one or more channels of the plurality of channels;
Search the product information data for candidate products having associated data that semantically matches the data for the new product listing;
Upon identifying a candidate product having associated data that semantically matches the data for the new product listing, automatically populate one or more fields of the new product listing with data for the candidate product;
Save the new product listing with the data for the candidate product to the product information data, in which the new product listing is associated with channel-specific information for the first channel; and
Upon presenting the new product listing to a user: fi the user is subscribed to the first channel, also presenting the channel-specific information or the first channel to the user, otherwise not providing the user with the channel-specific information for the first channel and instead providing the user with channel-specific information for a different channel to which the user subscribes.
The recited limitations fall within the “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activities” grouping of abstract ideas as it relates to commercial interactions of sales activities or behaviors. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea. See MPEP 2106.
Under Step 2A, Prong 2 of the eligibility analysis, if it is determined that the claims recite a judicial exception, it is then necessary to evaluate whether the claims recite additional elements that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application of that exception. MPEP 2106.04(d). The courts have identified limitations that did not integrate a judicial exception into a practical application include limitations merely reciting the words “apply it” (or an equivalent) with the judicial exception, or merely including instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer, or merely using a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea, as discussed in MPEP 2106.05(f). MPEP 2106.04(d). In this case, representative claim 1 includes additional elements such as a processor, display device, channel manager user interface, and product information data store. Although reciting such additional elements, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they merely amount to no more than an instruction to apply the abstract idea using a generic computer or merely use a computer as a tool to perform the abstract idea. These additional elements are described at a high level in Applicant's specification without any meaningful detail about their structure or configuration. Similar to the limitations of Alice, representative claim 1 merely recites a commonplace business method (i.e., providing item information) being applied on a general-purpose computer. See MPEP 2106.05(f). Thus, the claimed additional elements are merely generic elements and the implementation of the elements merely amounts to no more than an instruction to apply the abstract idea using a generic computer. Since the additional elements merely include instructions to implement the abstract idea on a generic computer or merely use a generic computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea, the abstract idea has not been integrated into a practical application.
Under Step 2B of the eligibility analysis, if it is determined that the claims recite a judicial exception that is not integrated into a practical application of that exception, it is then necessary to evaluate the additional elements individually and in combination to determine whether they provide an inventive concept (i.e., whether the additional elements amount to significantly more than the exception itself). MPEP 2106.05. In this case, as noted above, the additional elements recited in independent claim 1 are recited and described in a generic manner merely amount to no more than an instruction to apply the abstract idea using a generic computer or merely use a generic computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea.
Even when considered as an ordered combination, the additional elements of representative claim 1 do not add anything that is not already present when they are considered individually. In Alice, the court considered the additional elements “as an ordered combination,” and determined that “the computer components...‘ad[d] nothing. ..that is not already present when the steps are considered separately’... [and] [v]iewed as a whole...[the] claims simply recite intermediated settlement as performed by a generic computer.” Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int'l, 573 U.S. 208, 217, (2014) (citing Mayo, 566 U.S. at 79, 101 USPQ2d at 1972). Similarly, when viewed as a whole, representative claim 1 simply conveys the abstract idea itself facilitated by generic computing components. Therefore, under Step 2B of the Alice/Mayo test, there are no meaningful limitations in representative claim 1 that transforms the judicial exception into a patent eligible application such that the claims amount to significantly more than the judicial exception itself.
As such, representative claim 1 is ineligible.
Dependent Claims 2-8 do not aid in the eligibility of independent claim 1. For example, claims 2-8 merely further define the abstract limitations of claim 1.
Furthermore, it is noted that certain dependent claims include additional elements supplemental to those recited in independent claim 1: a recognition model (claim 7). However, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they merely amount to no more than an instruction to apply the abstract idea using a generic computer. These additional elements are merely generic elements and are likewise described in a generic manner in Applicant’s specification. Additionally, the additional elements do not amount to significantly more because they merely amount to no more than an instruction to apply the abstract idea using a generic computer or merely use a generic computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea.
Dependent claims 2-6 and 8 do not recite additional elements supplemental those recited in claim 1. Therefore, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application and do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea for the reasons described above with respect to claim 1.
Thus, dependent claims 2-8 are also ineligible.
Independent claims 9 and 17 recite the same abstract idea represented in representative claim 1. Independent Claim 9 recites the additional elements of a processor, display device, channel manager user interface, and product information data store. Independent Claim 17recites the additional elements of a memory device, a processor, display device, channel manager user interface, and product information data store The additional elements in Independent claims 9 and 17 do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application and do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea for the reasons described above with respect to claim 1.
Similarly, the dependent claims 10-16 and 18-20 do not recite additional elements supplemental those recited in claims 2-8. Therefore, the additional elements to not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application and do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea for the reasons described above with respect to claims 2-8, respectively.
Thus, dependent claims 10-16 and 18-20 are also ineligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1, 6, 8-9, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Racco (US 2011/0161182) in view of Hossain et al. (US 2021/0056567), and further in view of Head et al. (US 11,196,577).
Regarding Claims 1, 9, and 17, Racco discloses (Representative Claim 9) A method of managing a product inventory, the method comprising: (See at least paragraph [0007])
Generate and output, on a display device, a manager user interface via which the system will receive, from a manager user, data for a new product listing for a first product wherein the data includes product indicia for the first product (See at least paragraph [0005] disclosing user interface for listing an item online, [0181] disclosing seller creating listing for vehicle with interface);
Access a product information data store, wherein the product information data store comprises inventory information for a plurality of products, (Racco: see at least paragraph [0125] disclosing ability for people to search through specific sellers’ items and item catalogues from sellers, [0252] disclosing searching through specific seller’s store front)
Use the product indicia and a classifier to search the product information data store to identify an inventoried product with identifying information that is likely to match for the product indicia of the first product (Racco: see at least Abstract, paragraph [0005], [0012], [0113] disclosing how the database is used with product listing and help sellers who can type in a descriptor during the selling process and have the system automatically assign the category and sub category for the seller so they do not have to manually choose them like other systems require, [0119] disclosing databases/tables that store list of keywords, alternate names, spelling variations etc. in order to improve searching for product description information, [0130], search filters include keywords, [0226] disclosing keyword matches, [0391] disclosing keyword database for help in search)
Upon identifying an inventoried product having identifying information that is a likely match for the product indicia of the first product, automatically populate one or more fields of the new product listing with data for the inventoried product (Racco: see at least paragraph [0113] disclosing autofill tool for listings based on information from database and help sellers who can type in a descriptor during the selling process and have the system automatically assign the category and sub category for the seller so they do not have to manually choose them like other systems require, [0118], [0121], [0134], [0147], [0150], [0154], [0158])
Save the new product listing with the data for the inventoried product to the product information store (Racco: see at least paragraph [0157], [0194], [0205], [0257], Claim 15 disclosing saving the product listing to the product information database)
Racco does not expressly provide for by a processor, executing programming instructions, a channel manger user interface that receives item information from a channel manager user for a first channel of a plurality of channels; wherein each product is associated with one or more channels of the plurality of channels; product listing associated with channel-specific information for the first channel.
However, Hossain discloses by a processor, executing programming instructions, a channel manger user interface that receives item information from a channel manager user for a first channel of a plurality of channels; wherein each product is associated with one or more channels of the plurality of channels; product listing associated with channel-specific information for the first channel (Hossain: see at least paragraph [0088], [0083], [0084] disclosing product associated with a channel, [0158] disclosing processor capable of executing program instructions, [0080] disclosing channel used for product listings by merchant, Fig. 3).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have included the channel manager user interface, channel manager user, and first channel as taught by Hossain in the product inventory system of Racco because it would provide for increased synchronization of product information over different marketing channels for sellers. See Hossain paragraph [0002], [0005].
Neither Racco nor Hossain expressly provide for upon presenting the new product listing to a user: if the user is subscribed to the first channel, also presenting the channel- specific information for the first channel to the user, otherwise not providing the user with the channel-specific information for the first channel and instead providing the user with channel-specific information for a different channel to which the user subscribes.
However, Head discloses upon presenting the new product listing to a user: if the user is subscribed to the first channel, also presenting the channel- specific information for the first channel to the user, otherwise not providing the user with the channel-specific information for the first channel and instead providing the user with channel-specific information for a different channel to which the user subscribes (See at least Fig. 8A-8C disclosing transmitting video stream and item information in Realtime to guest devices that have subscribed to channel with associated items, col 1, lines 58-67 & col 2, lns 1-22, col 6, lns 8-35 disclosing registering guest devices to a subscribe channel, col 8 lns 13-37 disclosing upon registering as a guest in a live auction channel, the guest may be able to initially load the live auction event by requesting an receiving information the message broker indica ting the current state of event and establishing real time video, col 45-63, col 9, lns 54-67 disclosing subscribed guests getting item information channel information, col 17, lns 30-40 disclosing deregistering certain guests so device is no longer subscribed and no longer receives the real-time video stream).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have included the subscribed information as taught by Head in the product inventory system of Racco/Hossain because it would help provide timely distribution of information, a level of user interactivity, and scalability among many devices. See Head col 1, lines 15-33.
Regarding Claim 6, Racco, Hossain, and Head teach or suggest all of the limitations of claim 1. Racco does not expressly provide for before associating the new product listing with the channel specific information, obtaining the channel specific information form an external source and not from the product information data store. However, Head before associating the new product listing with the channel specific information, obtaining the channel specific information form an external source and not from the product information data store (See at least Fig. 2A disclosing host device, Fig. 6A- disclosing applying to host and providing products and information for auction etc., col 5, lns 17-45 disclosing host to configured channel and auction etc.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have included the subscribed information as taught by Head in the product inventory system of Racco/Hossain because it would help provide timely distribution of information, a level of user interactivity, and scalability among many devices. See Head col 1, lines 15-33.
Regarding Claim 8, Racco, Hossain, and Head teach or suggest all of the limitations of claim 1. discloses before saving the new product listing to the product information data store: receiving, form a user of the manager user interface, an acceptance or a correction of one of the one or more fields of the new product listing (See at least paragraph [0115] disclosing accepting selection of auto fill results, [0148]).
Racco does not expressly provide for a channel manager user interface. However, Hossain discloses a channel manager user interface (Hossain: see at least paragraph [0088], [0083], [0084] disclosing product associated with a channel, [0158] disclosing processor capable of executing program instructions, [0080] disclosing channel used for product listings by merchant, [0083], Fig. 3).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the system of Racco with the channels, as taught by Hossain. Using the known technique of one or more channels for the products to provide increased synchronization of product information over different marketing channels for sellers would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill. See Hossain paragraph [0002], [0005].
Subject Matter Free from Prior Art
Claims 2-5, 7, 10-16, and 18-20 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of subject matter free from prior art:
The Examiner hereby asserts that the totality of the evidence neither anticipates nor renders obvious the particular combination of elements as claimed. That is, the Examiner emphasizes the claims as a whole and hereby asserts that the totality of the evidence fails to set forth, either explicitly or implicitly, an appropriate rationale for combining or otherwise modifying the available prior art to arrive at the claimed invention. The combination of features as claimed would not be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art because any combination of the evidence at hand to reach the combination of features as claimed would require a substantial reconstruction of Applicant’s claimed invention relying on improper hindsight bias.
One piece of pertinent prior art is Racco (US 2011/0161182) disclosing An inventory management system, the method comprising: a product information data store, wherein the product information data store comprises inventory information for a plurality of products; and programming instructions that are configured to: a computer readable memory device containing a consumer profile data store wherein the consumer profile data holds consumer product purchase records of which comprises consumer product interaction event information for one or more of the products each of which is associated with one of the channels, generate and output, on a display device, a manager user interface via which the system will receive, from a manager user, data for a new product listing for a first consumable item, search the product information data store for candidate products having associated data that semantically matches the data for the new product listing, upon identifying a candidate product having associated data that semantically matches the data for the new product listing, automatically populate one or more fields of the new product listing with data for the candidate product, receive, from a user of the channel manager user interface, an acceptance or a correction of the one or more fields of the new product listing, and save, to the product information data store, the new product listing with the data for the candidate product. Another piece of pertinent prior art is Hossain et al. (US 2021/0056567) disclosing wherein each product is associated with one or more channels, a channel manager user interface that receives item information from a channel manager user for a first channel. No cited prior art teaches, in combination, use semantic analysis to extract, from each data feed, the updated inventory information; use a mapping ID for the supplier to identify product data records for the plurality of products having the updated inventory information; and update the identified product data records in the product information data store to include the updated inventory information. Another piece of pertinent prior art is Head et al. (US 11,196,577) disclosing upon presenting the new product listing to a user: if the user is subscribed to the first channel, also presenting the channel- specific information for the first channel to the user, otherwise not providing the user with the channel-specific information for the first channel and instead providing the user with channel-specific information for a different channel to which the user subscribes.
One piece of pertinent prior art is Dillon et al. (U.S. 20150235136 A1) disclosing an inventory management system, comprising: a processor: a computer readable memory device containing a product information data store, wherein the product information data store comprises inventory information for a plurality of products, and wherein each product is associated with one or more channels; a computer-readable memory device containing a consumer profile data store, wherein the consumer profile data store holds consumer-product interaction records, each of which comprises consumer-product interaction event information and rating information for one or more of the products, and each of which is associated with one of the one or more channels; and a computer-readable memory device containing programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to generate and output, on a display device, a user interface via which the system will: receive, from a user for a first channel, an identifier for a consumer; access the consumer profile data store and retrieve profile data for the consumer; access the product information data store to identify products that are in an inventory of the first channel; use consumer profile data to generate one or more product recommendations for the consumer, wherein the one or more product recommendations are for one or more products in the inventory; and output the one or more product recommendations on the display device. Another piece of pertinent prior art is Perry et al. (U.S. 20200294108 A1) disclosing an inventory management system, comprising: a processor: a computer readable memory device containing a product information data store, wherein the product information data store comprises inventory information for a plurality of products, and wherein each product is associated with one or more channels; a computer-readable memory device containing a consumer profile data store, wherein the consumer profile data store holds consumer-product interaction records, each of which comprises consumer-product interaction event information, and each of which is associated with one of the channels; and a computer-readable memory device containing programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to generate and output, on a display device, a channel manager user interface via which the system will: access the product information data store to identify products that are in an inventory of the first channel; use the consumer profile data to generate one or more product recommendations for the consumer, wherein the one or more product recommendations are for one or more products in the inventory; and output the one or more product recommendations on the display device. Another piece of pertinent prior art is Paquin et al. (U.S. 20210012281 A1) disclosing an inventory management system, comprising: a processor: a computer readable memory device containing a product information data store, wherein the product information data store comprises inventory information for a plurality of products, and wherein each product is associated with one or more channels; a computer-readable memory device containing a consumer profile data store, wherein the consumer profile data store holds consumer-product interaction records, each of which comprises consumer-product interaction event information, and each of which is associated with one of the one or more channels; and a computer-readable memory device containing programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to generate and output, on a display device, a channel manager user interface via which the system will: access the product information data store to identify products that are in an inventory of the first channel. No cited prior art teaches, in combination, a computer-readable memory device containing programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to generate and output, on a display device, a channel manager user interface via which the system will: receive, from a channel manager user for a first channel, an identifier for a consumer; access the consumer profile data store and retrieve secure profile data for the consumer, wherein the retrieving accesses only consumer-product interaction records that are associated with a token for the first channel and excludes any consumer-product interaction records that are associated with tokens for any other channel; and use the consumer profile data, including both the secure profile data and profile data that is associated with tokens for one or more other channels, to generate one or more product recommendations for the consumer.
Another piece of pertinent prior art is NPL (Rayid Ghani, Katharina Probst, Yan Liu, Marko Krema, and Andrew Fano, Text mining for product attribute extraction, June 2006, SIGKDD Explor. Newsl. 8, 1, pp. 41–48.) disclosing determining both attributes and their values from regular text product descriptions which may help in assortment comparison across retailers and manufacturers.
The examiner further emphasizes the claims as a whole and hereby asserts that the totality of the evidence fails to set forth, either explicitly or implicitly, an appropriate rationale for further modification of the evidence at hand to arrive at the claimed invention. The combination of features as claimed would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art as combining various references from the totality of the evidence to reach the combination of features as claimed would require a substantial reconstruction of the Applicant's claimed invention relying on improper hindsight bias.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRITTANY E BARGEON whose telephone number is (571)272-2861. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey A Smith can be reached at (571) 272-6763. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/B.E.B/Examiner, Art Unit 3688
/Jeffrey A. Smith/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3688