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 (IDS) submitted on 04/14/2026 have been 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 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The broadest reasonable interpretation of the claimed “machine readable medium” in claim 17, consistent with a conclusion reached by one of ordinary skill in the art based on both the specification disclosure and the state-of-the-art, is that the full scope covers transitory “signals”. The state-of-the-art at the time the invention was made included signals, carrier waves and other wireless communication modalities (e.g., RF, infrared, etc.) as media on which executable code was recorded and from which computers acquired such code. Thus, the full scope of the claim covers "signals" and their equivalents, which are non-statutory per se. (In re Nuijten). The examiner suggests clarifying the claim to exclude non-statutory signal embodiments, such as (but not limited to) by reciting a "non-transitory machine readable medium”.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-3, 7-11, and 15-16 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding claims 1-3, 7-11, and 15-16, these claims are allowed for the reasons disclosed in the NOA dated 01/30/206. Claims 17-19 will also be allowable after the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection is overcome.
Additionally, the IDS filed on 04/14/2026 do not raise any new issues regarding allowability.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID PERLMAN whose telephone number is (571) 270-1417.
The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday; 10:00am -6:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chineyere Wills-Burns can be reached at (571) 272-9752. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is
(571) 273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at (866) 217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call (800) 786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or (571) 272-1000.
/DAVID PERLMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2673
Prosecution Insights