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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) were submitted on 12/30/2023, and 6/23/2025. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 4 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 4, “filtering (112) the one or more test …; and/or filtering (112) …” may read “filtering the one or more test …; and/or filtering …” (emphasis added).
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
The current 35 USC 101 analysis is based on the current guidance (Federal Register vol. 79, No. 241. pp. 74618-74633). The analysis follows several steps. Step 1 determines whether the claim belongs to a valid statutory class. Step 2A prong 1 identifies whether an abstract idea is claimed. Step 2A prong 2 determines whether any abstract idea is integrated into a practical application. If the abstract idea is integrated into a practical application the claim is patent eligible under 35 USC 101. Last, step 2B determines whether the claims contain something significantly more than the abstract idea. In most cases the existence of a practical application predicates the existence of an additional element that is significantly more.
The 35 USC 101 analysis between each element of claims and its combination is presented in the table below
Claim number and elements
Judicial exception (Step 2A Prong one)
Practical application (Step 2A Prong two)/ Significantly more (Step 2B)
Claim 1
Step 1: Yes, statutory class
Step 2A Prong two: No / Step 2B: No
A computer implemented method for testing a system, the method comprising the following steps carried out by computer hardware components:
Step2A Prong one: Yes
“computer hardware components” are high level of generalities to perform a generic computer function of a generic computer component.
determining one or more test cases for testing the system, each of the one or more test cases comprising at least one test step;
abstract idea
mental process or mathematical concept
“determining one or more test cases …” is a math or mental process.
for each of the one or more test cases, carrying out the steps of:
executing each of the at least one test step of the respective test case;
collecting data generated during and/or after the execution of the at least one test step of the respective test case; and
abstract idea
mental process or mathematical concept
“executing each of the at least one test step … collecting data” is a math or mental process by a software computer program or mathematical algorithm.
“collecting data …” is insignificant extra solution activity to collect routine data (i.e., data related to at least one test step).
based on a characteristic of the respective test step:
evaluating the collected data and setting a status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to passed or failed based on the collected data, or recording the collected data and setting the status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to postponed.
abstract idea
mental process or mathematical concept
“evaluating the collected data and setting a status … to passed or failed based on the collected data … recording the collected data and setting the status” is math or mental process.
“recording the collected data … and setting the state …” may be an insignificant extra-solution activity to merely record the data which is performed by a generic computer.
1. Claims 1-15 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 1-15 are directed to an abstract idea. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception as addressed below and presented in the above table.
Step 2A: Prong One
Regarding Claim 1, the limitations recited in Claim 1, as drafted, are processes that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, cover performance of the limitation in the mathematical calculations and/or the mind, as presented in the above table. Nothing in the claim elements precludes the step from practically being performed in the mind and/or the mathematical calculations. For example, “determining one or more test cases for testing the system, each of the one or more test cases” in the context of this claim may encompass manually selecting or determining what kinds of test cases (characteristics) are applied to a system, which is indicative of mental processes related to concepts performed by using a computer program/mathematical algorithm to execute mathematical calculations and/or in the human mind or by organizing human activities. (MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)). Similarly, “executing each of the at least one test step of the respective test case; collecting data generated during and/or after the execution of the at least one test step of the respective test case” in the context of this claim may encompass performing the test step and collecting the data, which is indicative of mathematical concepts and/or mental processes related to concepts performed in the human mind and executed by a computer program or a mathematical algorithm. (MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)). For example, “evaluating the collected data and setting a status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to passed or failed based on the collected data, … setting the status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to postponed” in the context of this claim may encompass manually evaluating or inferring the collected data and setting the pass/ failed/postponed status, which is indicative of mathematical concepts and/or mental processes related to concepts performed in the human mind and executed by a computer program or a mathematical algorithm. (MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)).
Step 2A: Prong Two
This judicial exception is abstract ideal itself and not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the specification details use of a computer system to perform mathematical calculations or mental processes of “determining one or more test cases for testing the system, each of the one or more test cases”, “executing each of the at least one test step of the respective test case; collecting data generated during and/or after the execution of the at least one test step of the respective test case” and “evaluating the collected data and setting a status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to passed or failed based on the collected data, … setting the status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to postponed”. Claim 1 does not present tangible or physical elements/components and/or integration of improvements to be indicative of specific features/structure/acts how and or with what to test a system for executing each test step of each test case, evaluating the data and setting the fail/pass/postpone status of test step(s) of each test case. (See MPEP 2106.04(d)). Further, claim 1 does not present a technical solution to a technical problem by providing an improvement to the functioning of computer, or to any other technology or technical field related to executing each test step of each test case, evaluating the data and setting the fail/pass/postpone status of test step(s) of each test case. (See MPEP 2106.04(d)). The limitations of “collecting data generated during and/or after the execution of the at least one test step of the respective test case” and “recording the collected data” are insignificant extra-solution activities necessary to merely gather and record data, which are performed by a generic computer function of a generic computer component. See MPEP 2106.05(g). The computer hardware components are recited at a high-level of generality to perform a generic computer function of calculating, evaluating and setting the data related to test steps of a system such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component, as presented in the table above. Therefore, there is no showing of integration into a practical application such as an improvement to the functioning of a computer, or to any other technology or technical field, or use of a particular machine.
Step 2B:
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. The limitations of “collecting data generated during and/or after the execution of the at least one test step of the respective test case” and “recording the collected data” are insignificant extra-solution activities necessary to merely gather and record data, which are performed by a generic computer function of a generic computer component. See MPEP 2106.05(g). As discussed above, with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, using the computer system to perform “determining one or more test cases for testing the system, each of the one or more test cases”, “executing each of the at least one test step of the respective test case; collecting data generated during and/or after the execution of the at least one test step of the respective test case” and “evaluating the collected data and setting a status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to passed or failed based on the collected data, … setting the status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to postponed” 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 cannot provide statutory eligibility. Claim 1 is not patent eligible.
Regarding Claims 2-15, the limitations are further directed to an abstract idea, as described in claim 1. For the reasons described above with respect to Claim 1, the judicial exceptions are not meaningfully integrated into a practical application, or amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. The limitation of “if the status of the respective test step is set to postponed: retrieving the respective recorded collected data …” in Claim 2 and “presenting the filtered one or more test cases to a human operator for evaluation; and/or presenting the filtered one or more test steps to a human operator for evaluation” in Claim 8 are insignificant extra-solution activities to merely load/retrieve data and present/display data (test cases) which is executed by a generic computer function of a generic computer component. The limitations of “setting the status for the respective test step to passed or failed based on the retrieved recorded collected data” recited in Claim 2, “setting the status for the one or more test cases to postponed if the status of one or more test steps of the one or more test cases is set to postponed” recited in Claim 3, and “filtering the one or more test cases for which the status is set to postponed; and/or filtering the one or more test steps of the one or more test cases for which the status is set to postponed” in Claim 4 in the context of this claim may encompass manually setting the pass/ failed/postponed status, which is indicative of mathematical concepts and/or mental processes related to concepts performed in the human mind and executed by a computer program or a mathematical algorithm. (MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)).
2. Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention of “a test arrangement” recited in claim 14 is directed to nonstatutory subject matter. The claims do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter. (MPEP 2106.03. I).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-9 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Frohlich et al. (US 20130019126 A1, hereinafter referred to as “Frohlich”) (US family application of EP 2546749 A1 cited in IDS dated 12/30/2023).
Regarding Claim 1, Frohlich teaches a computer implemented method for testing a system, the method comprising the following steps carried out by computer hardware components (abstract, “Methods and systems are provided for computer software testing using test suite data”):
determining one or more test cases for testing the system, each of the one or more test cases comprising at least one test step (at least paragraphs 0079-0080 teach selecting the test cases type to execute);
for each of the one or more test cases, carrying out the steps of:
executing each of the at least one test step of the respective test case (at least paragraph 0082 teaches executing the test);
collecting data (outcome) during and/or after the execution of the at least one test step of the respective test case (at least paragraphs 0083-0084 teach presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps … stores the test results in report files); and
based on a characteristic of the respective test step (at least paragraph 0083 teaches defining a plurality of testing goals and a testing strategy):
evaluating the collected data and setting a status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to passed or failed based on the collected data (at least paragraph 0083 teaches presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps), or recording the collected data and setting the status for the at least one test step of the respective test case to postponed (at least paragraphs 0083-0085 teach “presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps … stores the test results in report files … presents the test results as raw data, presents the test results in a processed format (Statistics)”).
Regarding Claim 2, Frohlich teaches further comprising the following steps carried out by the computer hardware components:
for each of the one or more test cases, carrying out the steps of:
for each of the at least one test step of the respective test case, if the status of the respective test step is set to postponed:
retrieving the respective recorded collected data (at least paragraphs 0081-0082 teach loading stored test specification or data from a file); and
setting the status for the respective test step to passed or failed based on the retrieved recorded collected data (at least paragraphs 0082-0083 teach “executes the test … presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps”).
Regarding Claim 3, Frohlich teaches further comprising the following step carried out by the computer hardware components:
setting the status for the one or more test cases to postponed if the status of one or more test steps of the one or more test cases is set to postponed (at least paragraphs 0082-0083 teach “executes the test … abort the tests… presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps”).
Regarding Claim 4, Frohlich teaches further comprising the following steps carried out by the computer hardware components:
filtering the one or more test cases for which the status is set to postponed; and/or
filtering the one or more test steps of the one or more test cases for which the status is set to postponed (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI), this claimed limitations are indicative of executing the tests and selecting/presenting the test result to set as “postpone”, taught by at least paragraphs 0082-0083 and 0088 teach “executes the test … abort the tests… presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps” and continuing or stopping (i.e., postponing) test execution, “defining 212 whether a test execution sequence shall continue or stop after the occurrence of at least one of an error in a test object and a fail event in the test system, based on the results obtained in all the previous steps”).
Regarding Claim 5, Frohlich teaches wherein the characteristic of the respective test step indicates an availability of a human operator to provide input for evaluating the collected data (at least paragraphs 0082-0083 teach “executes the test …, shows the tests progress and accepts control from the operator … presents the outcome”).
Regarding Claim 6, Frohlich teaches wherein the step of evaluating the collected data and setting the status for the at least one respective test step to passed or failed based on the collected data is carried out if the characteristic of the respective test step indicates that the human operator is available to provide input for evaluating the collected data (at least paragraphs 0082-0083 teach “executes the test … shows the tests progress and accepts control from the operator … … presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps”).
Regarding Claim 7, Frohlich teaches wherein the step of recording the collected data and setting the status for the at least one respective test step to postponed is carried out if the characteristic of the respective test step indicates that the human operator is not available to provide input for evaluating the collected data (Under the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI), at least paragraphs 0082-0083 and 0088 teach “executes the test … shows the tests progress and accepts control from the operator … … presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps”).
Regarding Claim 8, Frohlich teaches further comprising the following steps carried out by the computer hardware components:
presenting the filtered one or more test cases to a human operator for evaluation (at least paragraphs 0082-0083 teach “executes the test … shows the tests progress and accepts control from the operator … … presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps”); and/or
presenting the filtered one or more test steps to a human operator for evaluation (at least paragraphs 0082-0083 and 0088 teach “executes the test … shows the tests progress and accepts control from the operator … … presents the outcome (such as Passed, Failed or Aborted) of test steps”).
Regarding Claim 9, Frohlich teaches wherein the characteristic of the respective test step indicates a computational effort for evaluating the collected data of the at least one respective test step (at least paragraph 0086 teaches “designing a plurality of test cases, and a plurality of test suites for said defined testing strategy … parametrizing the a test automation framework with the test suites, running the test automation framework on said code of a software application, and analyzing the results obtained”).
Regarding Claim 12, Frohlich teaches wherein the collected data is a state of the system (at least paragraph 0086 teaches “designing a plurality of test cases, and a plurality of test suites for said defined testing strategy … parametrizing the a test automation framework with the test suites, running the test automation framework on said code of a software application, and analyzing the results obtained”).
Regarding Claim 13, it is a system type claim dependent on claim 1, and has same limitations as of claim 1 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale as of claim 1 above.
Regarding Claim 14, it recites a test arrangement and is dependent on claim 13 and has same limitations as of claim 1 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale as of claim 1 above.
Regarding Claim 15, it is a non-transitory storage medium claim depending on claim 1 and has same limitations as of claim 1 above. Therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale as of claim 1 above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Frohlich in view of Vanderwall et al. (US 10747651 B1, hereinafter referred to as “Vanderwall” cited in IDS dated 6/23/2025).
Regarding Claim 10, Frohlich fails to explicitly disclose, but Vanderwall teaches wherein the step of evaluating the collected data and setting the status for the at least one respective test step to passed or failed based on the collected data is carried out if the characteristic of the respective test step indicates that the computational effort for evaluating the collected data of the at least one respective test step is lower than or equal to a first threshold (Col. 56, lines 29-34, “hypothesis tests having a test runtime that is less (or greater, and/or equal) to a threshold may be selected for execution, while the others may be skipped. As another example, hypothesis tests having a test quality that is greater (or less, and/or equal) to a threshold may be selected for execution”).
Frohlich and Vanderwall are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of a computer software testing using test suite control data and testing technologies. Under the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI), this claimed limitations are indicative of evaluating the tested data (i.e., executed test quality) based on a predefined threshold. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Frohlich to incorporate the teachings of Vanderwall by providing operations for evaluating a test quality of each test step based on the threshold, taught by Vanderwall at least at Col. 56, lines 29-34.
Regarding Claim 11, Frohlich fails to explicitly disclose, but Vanderwall teaches wherein the step of recording the collected data and setting the status for the at least one respective test step to postponed is carried out if the characteristic of the respective test step indicates that the computational effort for evaluating the collected data of the at least one respective test step is higher than a second threshold (Col. 56, lines 29-34, “hypothesis tests having a test runtime that is less (or greater, and/or equal) to a threshold may be selected for execution, while the others may be skipped. As another example, hypothesis tests having a test quality that is greater (or less, and/or equal) to a threshold may be selected for execution”).
Under the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI), this claimed limitations are indicative of evaluating the tested data (i.e., executed test quality) based on a predefined threshold. Therefore, it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Frohlich to incorporate the teachings of Vanderwall by providing operations for evaluating a test quality of each test step based on the threshold, taught by Vanderwall at least at Col. 56, lines 29-34.
Citation of Pertinent Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Moreaux et al. (US 20020091968 A1) teaches automated testing of an graphical user interface (GUI) of a software application includes creating a test file of a plurality of test steps in a text file format, where the test file may be created using any variety of text editor, the test file is used as input to a test harness, in execution, the test harness opens the test file and begins using each line of the test file as a test step.
Arieli et al. (US 20090254885 A1) teaches managing and organizing the set of configurations of tests independently of the definition and execution of scenario suit of the tests, and managing the setups and teardown configurations for any type of test of any type of tested item, recovery protocol for defining the needed configurations when tests fail, and hierarchic configuration tree is designated for a group of tests.
Yuan et al. (US 20210232491 A1) teaches a software code testing system includes sub-engines and a test case database storing test cases.
Conclusion
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/BYUNG RO LEE/Examiner, Art Unit 2858
/LEE E RODAK/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2858