DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Amendments and response received 11/21/2025 have been entered. Claims 1 and 4-15 are currently pending in this application. Claims 1, and 4-8 have been amended and claims 2, 3, 16 and 17 canceled. Amendments and response are addressed hereinbelow.
Specification
In light of the amendment to the title of the invention the examiner hereby withdraws the previous grounds of objection as the new title is more indicative of the invention as claimed.
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 and 4-15 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. The claims recite acquiring a target image showing a target foreground and background, acquiring a reference image showing a reference background, and estimating fraud relating to the target foreground based on the target background and the reference background without significantly more. Further, the invention discloses acquiring a first and second score related to the fraud and estimating fraud based on the first and second scores using different evaluation methods for obtaining the scores. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because there is no meaningful limitations beyond generally linking the use of an abstract idea to a particular technical environment. Furthermore, the process or method steps performed are not enough to qualify as “significantly more” than the abstract idea itself as the steps may be performed in the human mind as a human visually determine similarities between an acquired image and stored reference images to make a determination. Furthermore, determinations can be made by human activity with evaluation parameters including patterns and colors as both evaluation parameters can be used in visually distinguishing or likening images.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements when considered both individually and as an ordered combination do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. The claims recite an image processing system comprising at least one processor and a user terminal to display a guide to causing the target background to be shown in the target image. The aforementioned additional elements amount to merely using generic computer components to display an image to a user while the user makes desired determinations. Generic computer components recited as performing generic functions that are well-understood, routine and conventional amount to no more than implementing the abstract idea with a computerized system. Thus, taken alone, the additional elements do not amount to significantly more than the above-identified abstract idea. There is no indication that the elements improve the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Identity Document and Banknote Security Forensics: A Survey (Albert B. Centeno et al; Oct. 22 2019)
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/JAMARES Q WASHINGTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2681
January 28, 2026
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