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.
Claim 1 is directed to a device, which would fall into a statutory category of invention.
However, the claim is directed to generic modules for acquiring data, storing data, calculating a difference and evaluating a matching rate. Specifically, these steps are no more than collecting information and analyzing it, similar to the limitations of Electrical Power Group and Classen Immunotherapies and are therefore a mental process. Further, these could also be interpreted as implementation of a mathematical relationship, similar to Parker v. Flook which was computing an alarm limit, and therefore are an abstract idea of math. Under step 2a prong two the claim is not taken to be integrated into a practical application because the implementation of these steps in a generic computer system does not tie them to any particular application. (The examiner notes that the October 2019 guidance specifically addresses that “a claim that requires a computer may still recite a mental process” in section C, II.) The preamble discussion of a “shoe fit” does not tie to any particular application as the body of the claim does not relate the mathematical computation to a fitting step. Further, under step 2b the claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because implementation of any abstract idea in a computer, and the type of computer data storage have long been considered to be routine computer implementation and therefore not significantly more than the idea itself. The examiner further notes that the output is routine in any computer implementation.
Dependent claims 2-17 fail to incorporate limitations amounting to more than the abstract
idea of claim 1, as they further define the analysis used and are therefore abstract themselves and are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claim 18 recites the method of the device as described in claim 1, therefore, is directed to the same abstract ideas of claim 1 and fails to incorporate significantly more.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to G. BRADLEY BENNETT whose telephone number is 571.272.2237. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH, 8:00-6:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Peter Macchiarolo can be reached at 571.272.2375. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571.273.8300.
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/GEORGE B BENNETT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2855
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30 DEC 2025