Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/545,832

ON-DEVICE JOURNEY EXECUTION

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Dec 19, 2023
Examiner
SWIFT, CHARLES M
Art Unit
2196
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
Adobe Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
81%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 2m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 81% — above average
81%
Career Allow Rate
706 granted / 872 resolved
+26.0% vs TC avg
Strong +22% interview lift
Without
With
+22.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 2m
Avg Prosecution
52 currently pending
Career history
924
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
10.0%
-30.0% vs TC avg
§103
55.7%
+15.7% vs TC avg
§102
17.0%
-23.0% vs TC avg
§112
6.1%
-33.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 872 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION This office action is in response to application filed on 12/19/2023. Claims 1 – 20 are pending. 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 Objections Claims 9 – 14 are objected to because of the following informalities: As per claims 9 – 14, they each claim “the media of”, which is a plural form. However, independent claim 8 only recited “a… medium”, which is a singular form, applicants are advised to amend the term “media” into “medium” in claims 9 – 14 to overcome this informality. Appropriate correction is required. 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. Claim (s) 1 – 6 and 8 – 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sethi et al (US 20210133770, hereinafter Sethi) , in view of Alvarez et al (US 20180040256) . As per claim 1, Sethi discloses: A computing system comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that when executed by the processor (Sethi figure 1) , cause the processor to perform operations including: receiving, a selection to publish a journey on a device; (Sethi [0030]: “Method 800 begins at block 801, which is a customer entry point. As an example, block 801 can occur when access to an application has been requested with respect to a customer's IHS.”) communicating, via a journey publishing engine, a representation of the journey from a server to the device over a network to store the journey locally on the device; and causing execution, via an application executing on the device, of at least a portion of the journey on the device using the journey stored locally on the device. (Sethi [0047]: “As identified in the schema, if the customer journey is mapping to *new_user*, downloading will begin with the downloading of a startup module. If there is more than one startup module, the startup module defined with the highest weight will be downloaded first (which, in that case, is the welcome page). Once the download is complete, the application will install and start the startup module. While the customer onboarding is being presented, the application will look at the runner module in the schema with the highest weight and download and install the runner module locally on the IHS.”. Examiner notes that the startup module is mapped to the claimed “a representation of the journey”.) Sethi did not explicitly disclose: wherein the selection is received via a journey design engine; However, Alvarez teaches: wherein the selection is received via a journey design engine; (Alvarez [0037] – [0039]: journey profile manager.) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Alvarez into that of Sethi in order to receive the selection via a journey design engine. Sethi [0030] and figure 8, step 801 teaches customer begins the process on an IHS requesting access to an application. Alvarez teaches using a journey profile manager to provide user more options to customize the desired journey, and one of ordinary skill in the art can easily recognize that the combination of references would result in an obvious result of providing the user with ability to customize journeys and is therefore rejected under 35 USC 103. As per claim 2, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: identifying a user based on the device; and only communicating the representation of the journey upon determining that the journey corresponds to the user. (Sethi [0051]) As per claim 3, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: subsequent to causing execution of the at least the portion of the journey on the device, communicating the at least the portion of the journey to the server over the network. (Sethi [0047]) As per claim 4, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: causing monitoring of an event by the device, the event corresponding to an interaction between a user and the application executing on the device; and causing execution of the at least the portion of the journey on the device based on the event. (Sethi [0030]: “Method 800 begins at block 801, which is a customer entry point. As an example, block 801 can occur when access to an application has been requested with respect to a customer's IHS.”) As per claim 5, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: causing execution of the at least the portion of the journey on the device based on a condition of the journey. (Sethi [0047]) As per claim 6, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: storing a state machine on the device, the state machine persisting a state of the journey on the device. (Alvarez [0034]: journey state.) As per claim 8, Sethi discloses: A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions (Sethi [0067] – [0070]) , which when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising: triggering an event of a journey, based on interactions with the application on the device; (Sethi [0030]: “Method 800 begins at block 801, which is a customer entry point. As an example, block 801 can occur when access to an application has been requested with respect to a customer's IHS.”) and prior to communicating the event of the journey to a server over a network, causing execution of an action of the journey on the device. (Sethi [0047]: “As identified in the schema, if the customer journey is mapping to *new_user*, downloading will begin with the downloading of a startup module. If there is more than one startup module, the startup module defined with the highest weight will be downloaded first (which, in that case, is the welcome page). Once the download is complete, the application will install and start the startup module. While the customer onboarding is being presented, the application will look at the runner module in the schema with the highest weight and download and install the runner module locally on the IHS.”. Examiner notes that the startup module is mapped to the claimed “a representation of the journey”.) Sethi did not explicitly disclose: wherein triggering is performed via a software development kit (“SDK”) stored on a device in communication with an application stored on the device; However, Alvarez teaches: wherein triggering is performed via a software development kit (“SDK”) stored on a device in communication with an application stored on the device; (Alvarez [0037] – [0039]: journey profile manager.) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Alvarez into that of Sethi in order to trigger is performed via a software development kit (“SDK”) stored on a device in communication with an application stored on the device. Sethi [0030] and figure 8, step 801 teaches customer begins the process on an IHS requesting access to an application. Alvarez teaches using a journey profile manager to provide user more options to customize the desired journey, and one of ordinary skill in the art can easily recognize that the combination of references would result in an obvious result of providing the user with ability to customize journeys and is therefore rejected under 35 USC 103. As per claim 9, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The media of claim 8, the instructions, which when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to perform the operations further comprising: receiving, via a journey design engine, a selection to publish the journey on the device; and communicating, via a journey publishing engine, a representation of the journey from the server to the device over the network to store the journey on the device. (Sethi [0030]: “Method 800 begins at block 801, which is a customer entry point. As an example, block 801 can occur when access to an application has been requested with respect to a customer's IHS.”; [0047]: “As identified in the schema, if the customer journey is mapping to *new_user*, downloading will begin with the downloading of a startup module. If there is more than one startup module, the startup module defined with the highest weight will be downloaded first (which, in that case, is the welcome page). Once the download is complete, the application will install and start the startup module. While the customer onboarding is being presented, the application will look at the runner module in the schema with the highest weight and download and install the runner module locally on the IHS.”. Examiner notes that the startup module is mapped to the claimed “a representation of the journey”.) As per claim 10, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The media of claim 9, the instructions, which when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to perform the operations further comprising: identifying a user based on the device; and only communicating the representation of the journey upon determining that the journey corresponds to the user. (Sethi [0051]) As per claim 11, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The media of claim 8, the instructions, which when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to perform the operations further comprising: subsequent to causing execution of the action of the journey on the device via the SDK, communicating a state of the journey to the server over the network. (Alvarez [0034]: journey state.) As per claim 12, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The media of claim 8, the instructions, which when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to perform the operations further comprising: monitoring, via the SDK, a plurality of interactions between the user and the application executing on the device; and triggering the event of the journey based on at least one of the plurality of interactions. (Sethi [0030]: “Method 800 begins at block 801, which is a customer entry point. As an example, block 801 can occur when access to an application has been requested with respect to a customer's IHS.”; [0047]: “As identified in the schema, if the customer journey is mapping to *new_user*, downloading will begin with the downloading of a startup module. If there is more than one startup module, the startup module defined with the highest weight will be downloaded first (which, in that case, is the welcome page). Once the download is complete, the application will install and start the startup module. While the customer onboarding is being presented, the application will look at the runner module in the schema with the highest weight and download and install the runner module locally on the IHS.”. Examiner notes that the startup module is mapped to the claimed “a representation of the journey”.) As per claim 13, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The media of claim 8, the instructions, which when executed by the processing device, cause the processing device to perform the operations further comprising: storing a state machine on the device, the state machine persisting a state of the journey on the device. (Alvarez [0034]: journey state.) As per claim 14, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez further teach: The media of claim 8, wherein the event is triggered further based on a condition of the journey stored on the device. (Sethi [0047]: “As identified in the schema, if the customer journey is mapping to *new_user*, downloading will begin with the downloading of a startup module. If there is more than one startup module, the startup module defined with the highest weight will be downloaded first (which, in that case, is the welcome page). Once the download is complete, the application will install and start the startup module. While the customer onboarding is being presented, the application will look at the runner module in the schema with the highest weight and download and install the runner module locally on the IHS.”. Examiner notes that the startup module is mapped to the claimed “a representation of the journey”.) Claim (s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sethi and Alvarez , and further in view of Jajara et al (US 20160110718, hereinafter Jajara) . As per claim 7, the combination of Sethi and Alvarez did not explicitly teach: The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: causing execution, via the application executing on the device, of the at least the portion of the journey on the device without communicating a command to execute the at least the portion of the journey from the server over the network, wherein the at least the portion of the journey corresponds to an action of the journey executed by the application on the device. However, Jajara teaches: The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: causing execution, via the application executing on the device, of the at least the portion of the journey on the device without communicating a command to execute the at least the portion of the journey from the server over the network, wherein the at least the portion of the journey corresponds to an action of the journey executed by the application on the device. (Jajara [0016]: “A system for secure offline payments may include a mobile device having various offline payment modules that accumulate, encrypt, and/or store information to be used for securing a payment with the mobile device without accessing a network… The offline payment modules of the mobile device may cooperate to process and store offline payments that, when the mobile device is later connected to a network, are provided to a payment provider server over the network for funding of the offline payments.”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Jajara into that of Sethi and Alvarez execute the at least the portion of the journey on the device without communicating a command to execute the at least the portion of the journey from the server over the network, wherein the at least the portion of the journey corresponds to an action of the journey executed by the application on the device. Sethi [0003] teaches the modules of customer journey can be acquired and executed by the IHS in a sequential manner. Jajara [0016] teaches in the event of offline transaction, the transaction may be completed at a later time when the device/IHS is connected to the network, the combination of references would allow the individual modules of the customer journey local on the IHS to be executed locally, and the output be saved and to be sent to the server to resume processing at a later time when the IHS go back to online status, and would improve the processing efficiency and accuracy of the system and is therefore rejected under 35 USC 103. Claim (s) 15 – 18 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sethi , in view of Jajara . As per claim 15, Sethi discloses: A computer-implemented method comprising: communicating, via a journey publishing engine, a representation of a journey to a device over a network to store the journey on the device; (Sethi [0047]: “As identified in the schema, if the customer journey is mapping to *new_user*, downloading will begin with the downloading of a startup module. If there is more than one startup module, the startup module defined with the highest weight will be downloaded first (which, in that case, is the welcome page). Once the download is complete, the application will install and start the startup module. While the customer onboarding is being presented, the application will look at the runner module in the schema with the highest weight and download and install the runner module locally on the IHS.”. Examiner notes that the startup module is mapped to the claimed “a representation of the journey”.) Sethi did not explicitly disclose: and receiving, via a journey management platform, a communication comprising at least a portion of the journey previously executed on the device, wherein the at least the portion of the journey previously executed on the device was executed while the device was disconnected from the network and communicated by the device after the device reconnected to the network. However, Jajara teaches: and receiving, via a journey management platform, a communication comprising at least a portion of the journey previously executed on the device, wherein the at least the portion of the journey previously executed on the device was executed while the device was disconnected from the network and communicated by the device after the device reconnected to the network. (Jajara [0016]: “A system for secure offline payments may include a mobile device having various offline payment modules that accumulate, encrypt, and/or store information to be used for securing a payment with the mobile device without accessing a network… The offline payment modules of the mobile device may cooperate to process and store offline payments that, when the mobile device is later connected to a network, are provided to a payment provider server over the network for funding of the offline payments.”) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Jajara into that of Sethi in order to receive, via a journey management platform, a communication comprising at least a portion of the journey previously executed on the device, wherein the at least the portion of the journey previously executed on the device was executed while the device was disconnected from the network and communicated by the device after the device reconnected to the network. Sethi [0003] teaches the modules of customer journey can be acquired and executed by the IHS in a sequential manner. Jajara [0016] teaches in the event of offline transaction, the transaction may be completed at a later time when the device/IHS is connected to the network, the combination of references would allow the individual modules of the customer journey local on the IHS to be executed locally, and the output be saved and to be sent to the server to resume processing at a later time when the IHS go back to online status, and would improve the processing efficiency and accuracy of the system and is therefore rejected under 35 USC 103. As per claim 16, the combination of Sethi and Jajara further teach: The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: identifying a user based on the device; and only communicating the representation of the journey upon determining that the journey corresponds to the user. (Sethi [0051]) As per claim 17, the combination of Sethi and Jajara further teach: The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: causing monitoring of an event by the device, the event corresponding to an interaction between a user and the application executing on the device; and causing execution of the at least the portion of the journey on the device based on the event. (Sethi [0030]: “Method 800 begins at block 801, which is a customer entry point. As an example, block 801 can occur when access to an application has been requested with respect to a customer's IHS.”; [0047]: “As identified in the schema, if the customer journey is mapping to *new_user*, downloading will begin with the downloading of a startup module. If there is more than one startup module, the startup module defined with the highest weight will be downloaded first (which, in that case, is the welcome page). Once the download is complete, the application will install and start the startup module. While the customer onboarding is being presented, the application will look at the runner module in the schema with the highest weight and download and install the runner module locally on the IHS.”. Examiner notes that the startup module is mapped to the claimed “a representation of the journey”.) As per claim 18, the combination of Sethi and Jajara further teach: The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: causing execution of the at least the portion of the journey on the device based on a condition of the journey. (Jajara [0016]: “A system for secure offline payments may include a mobile device having various offline payment modules that accumulate, encrypt, and/or store information to be used for securing a payment with the mobile device without accessing a network… The offline payment modules of the mobile device may cooperate to process and store offline payments that, when the mobile device is later connected to a network, are provided to a payment provider server over the network for funding of the offline payments.”) As per claim 20, the combination of Sethi and Jajara further teach: The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the at least the portion of the journey corresponds to an action of the journey executed by the application on the device. (Sethi [0047]: “As identified in the schema, if the customer journey is mapping to *new_user*, downloading will begin with the downloading of a startup module. If there is more than one startup module, the startup module defined with the highest weight will be downloaded first (which, in that case, is the welcome page). Once the download is complete, the application will install and start the startup module. While the customer onboarding is being presented, the application will look at the runner module in the schema with the highest weight and download and install the runner module locally on the IHS.”. Examiner notes that the startup module is mapped to the claimed “a representation of the journey”.) Claim (s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sethi and Jajara , and further in view of Alvarez . As per claim 19, the combination of Sethi and Jajara did not explicitly teach: The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: storing a state machine on the device, the state machine persisting a state of the journey on the device. However, Alvarez teaches: The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations further including: storing a state machine on the device, the state machine persisting a state of the journey on the device. (Alvarez [0034]: journey state.) It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Alvarez into that of Sethi and Jajara in order to cause the processor to perform operations further including: storing a state machine on the device, the state machine persisting a state of the journey on the device. Sethi [0030] and figure 8, step 801 teaches customer begins the process on an IHS requesting access to an application. Alvarez teaches using a journey profile manager to provide user more options to customize the desired journey, and having the journey state persistently stored can give user more information about particular saved journey they wish to utilize. One of ordinary skill in the art can easily recognize that the combination of references would result in an obvious result of providing the user with ability to customize journeys and is therefore rejected under 35 USC 103. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Khan et al (US 20240257141) teaches “The present disclosure discloses a system (100) and method (200) for facilitating registered users to perform rule-based partially online and offline payment transactions. A PSP tool (20), installed in an electronic device (10) associated with a registered user, executes a trusted application (104) in a secured storage area of the device (10). The trusted application (104), the PSP tool (20), and the PSP server (30) are enabled to communicate with an authentication engine (108) and a plurality of banking system servers (40,50) via an electronic switch (106) to facilitate the registered user to enroll and create (204 a ) a Unified-payments-Interface (UPI) lite account; load money (204 b ) into the created account from a registered financial account, wherein the money is stored as a balance value in the secured storage area; and utilize the balance value (204 c ) for performing the partially online and offline payment transactions without hitting the banking system servers (40,50).”; AthuluruTlrumala (US 20160335686) teaches “ A real-time experience management method, system, and mobile device include checking in a person with an associated mobile device at a site comprising a wireless infrastructure, location tracking, and sensors; communicating data associated with the person to a cloud service; receiving personalization information about the person from the cloud service; monitoring and updating an experience associated with the person at the site during a duration the person is at the site; and communicating data associated with the experience to the cloud service. ”. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT CHARLES M SWIFT whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)270-7756 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT Monday - Friday: 9:30 AM - 7PM . Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, 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, FILLIN "SPE Name?" \* MERGEFORMAT April Blair can be reached at FILLIN "SPE Phone?" \* MERGEFORMAT 5712701014 . 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. /CHARLES M SWIFT/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2196
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Prosecution Timeline

Dec 19, 2023
Application Filed
Mar 19, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
81%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+22.3%)
3y 2m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 872 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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