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.
Claims 1-25 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.
Claims 1-22 recites “obtaining, mapping, allocating, synthesizing….”. These claimed steps are collecting and analyzing information which are similar to the concepts identified by the courts as abstract ideas, such as collecting information, analyzing it, and displaying certain results of the collection and analysis (Elec. Power Grp., LLL v. Alstom S.A, 119 USPQ2d 1739 (Fed. Cir. 2016)).
The claim does not include significant element that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception.
Claims 23-25 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim recites series of steps of “obtaining, mapping, allocating, synthesizing…” related to concepts performed in the human mind (including an observation, evaluation, judgment, opinion).
The claim recites “obtaining, mapping, allocating, synthesizing…”. The limitation of “obtaining, mapping, allocating, synthesizing…” are a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components. That is, other than reciting “a processor and memory” nothing in the claim element precludes the step from practically being performed in the mind.
For example, but for the “by a processor or memory” language, “obtaining, mapping, allocating, synthesizing…” in the context of this claim encompasses the user manually calculating or processing the amount of use of each data, as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components.
For example, but for the “by the processor or memory” language, “obtaining, mapping, allocating, synthesizing…” in the context of this claim encompasses the user thinking that using the most important input data in resulting output predicted data. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind but for the recitation of generic computer components, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim only recites additional elements – using a computer system or computer components to perform the obtaining, mapping, allocating, synthesizing…steps. The “computer system or computer components” in the steps are recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a generic “computer system” performing a generic computer function of or computer components based on a determined amount of use) such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Accordingly, this additional element does 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 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 computer system for processor or storing” to perform both the generating and obtaining, mapping, allocating, synthesizing steps 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.
Claim 25 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Computer programs claimed as computer listings per se, i.e., the descriptions or expressions of the programs, are not physical “things.” They are neither computer components nor statutory processes, as they are not “acts” being performed. Such claimed computer programs do not define any structural and functional interrelationships between the computer program and other claimed elements of a computer which permit the computer program’s functionality to be realized. See Lowry, 32 F.3d at 1583-84, 32 USPQ2d at 1035.
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Litinski US 2024/0171889 A1
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL T TEKLE whose telephone number is (571)270-1117. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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/DANIEL T TEKLE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2481
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