Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 23, 2026
Application No. 18/569,193

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECOGNISING CHORDS IN MUSIC

Non-Final OA §102§112
Filed
Dec 11, 2023
Priority
Oct 18, 2021 — GR 20210100711 +2 more
Examiner
DONELS, JEFFREY
Art Unit
2837
Tech Center
2800 — Semiconductors & Electrical Systems
Assignee
Lemon Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
86%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
97%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 86% — above average
86%
Career Allowance Rate
1131 granted / 1317 resolved
+17.9% vs TC avg
Moderate +11% lift
Without
With
+11.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 5m
Avg Prosecution
20 currently pending
Career history
1347
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
6.5%
-33.5% vs TC avg
§103
23.8%
-16.2% vs TC avg
§102
35.5%
-4.5% vs TC avg
§112
30.0%
-10.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1317 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §112
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 § 112 Claims 2,8-12,16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Regarding Claims 2,8,10-12,16, the term “optionally” is vague and indefinite, as the metes and bounds are not clearly set forth. Correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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. (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 1,4,6,14,15,18,20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully met by Sun et al (SUN C. E. ET AL., Melody Harmonization using Orderless NADE, Chord Balancing, and Blocked Gibbs Sampling. ICASSP 2021 - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 13 May 2021, pages 1-5, cited by Applicant). Regarding Claims 1,14,15, Sun discloses a computer-implemented method of recognising chords in music, the method comprising: receiving music data for a time interval (3.1, Hooktheory Lead Sheet Dataset); processing the music data in a machine learning model to output chord data corresponding to the time interval, the chord data comprising a set of chord features (2.3, Fig. 1, (1)); wherein the processing in the machine learning model comprises: predicting a value of a chord feature from a set of chord features using an Autoregressive Distribution Estimator (ADE) (Introduction, “our model can predict 96 chords”); modifying the ADE using the predicted value for the chord feature (2.2 Loss Function: “chord weighting”); using the modified ADE to predict a value for a different feature of the chord from the set of chord features (2.3 Inference: Algorithm 1); repeating the modifying and predicting until a value for each of the features in the set of chord features have been predicted (2.3 Inference: Algorithm 1 is iterated). Regarding Claims 4,18, Sun discloses the set of chord features comprises chord root (Fig. 1), Regarding Claims 6,20, Sun discloses the ADE is a Neural Autoregressive Distribution Estimator (NADE) (Abstract). Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2,8-12,16 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claims 3,5,7,13,17,19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The references cited show related teachings in the art. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEFFREY DONELS whose telephone number is (571)272-2061. The examiner can normally be reached M-F. 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, Dedei Hammond can be reached at (571) 270-7938. 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. JEFFREY . DONELS Examiner Art Unit 2837 /JEFFREY DONELS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Dec 11, 2023
Application Filed
Sep 29, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §112 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
86%
Grant Probability
97%
With Interview (+11.1%)
2y 5m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1317 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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