DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
Applicant’s submission of an Information Disclosure Statement on 2/23/2024 has been received and considered.
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 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to abstract idea without significantly more.
2019 PEG Analysis
Step 1: Are the claims directed to a statutory category (e.g., a process, machine, etc.)
Claims 1-9 and 11 are directed to an apparatus (including a non-transitory recording medium in claim 11). Claim 10 is directed to a process.
Step 2A (Prong 1): Does the claim recite an abstract idea, law of nature or natural phenomenon?
Yes, the claims recite an abstract idea. The following specific limitations in the claims under examination recite an abstract idea:
Determining whether an answer to a question is correct (e.g., see claims 1, 4, 10, and 11)
Determining if a question should be manually or automatically graded (e.g., see claim 6)
The above listed identified limitations fall within at least one of the groupings of abstract ideas enumerated in the 2019 PEG:
Mental Processes: concepts preformed in the human mind (including on observation, evaluation, judgement, opinion).
Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity: managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions or relationships of interaction between people (including social activities, teaching, and following rules or instructions.
Claims 1-11 are primarily directed to manually grading a question by a person, wherein the grading process is mental processes of observation and evaluation and certain methods of organizing human activity, including teaching and following rules or instructions. With regard to claim 6, teachers make the mental determination that some exam types can be automatically graded (e.g., multiple choice tests with scantron answers) and that other exams or question types should be manually graded (e.g., essays, and other open-ended answers).
Step 2A (Prong 2): Does the claim recite additional elements that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application?
Overall, the following additional claim limitations appear to merely implement the abstract idea, add insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception, or generally link the judicial exception to a particular environment or field of use, as outlined below:
Displaying question/answer/grade results information including simultaneous displaying (e.g., see at least claims 1-3, 7, and 9-11, insignificant extra-solution activity);
Storing a determination result (e.g., see claim 1, 4, 10, and 11),
Entering a determination result (e.g., see claim 2)
Selecting between a multiple-choice question (with 3 or more choices) and a writing/voice question (e.g., see claims 5 and 8, field of use)
Step 2B: Does the claim recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception?
With regard to claims 1-11, the claims as a whole do not amount to significantly more than the exception itself. The above listed additional claim limitations display and process game data in a well-understood, routine, and conventional way. Further, the computer hardware of claims 1-11 (e.g., a control unit and memory) are well-understood, routine, and conventional in the art.
In order to satisfy the Berkheimer factual determination of conventional elements in the art, U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/0190505 to Hugonnard-Bruyere is cited for disclosing the conventional features of educational systems including processors (e.g., see at least paragraph 32) and memory (e.g., see at least paragraph 32). Therefore, claims 1-11 are not patent eligible under 101.
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.
Claims 1-8, 10, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0046239 to Allen (Fig. 7 shown below for convenience).
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With regard to claim 1, Allen discloses information processing apparatus (e.g., see Fig. 2 for a hardware diagram of an activity tracking system; see also paragraphs 35-44 for discussion of an information processing system) comprising a control unit that performs the processes of: displaying a determination screen (e.g., see Fig. 7, which shows an instructor interface for entering grades for student answered questions) for having a person who determines make a determination on an answer made by a person who answers (e.g., see at least Fig. 7 that shows student answers 104; see also paragraph 59 that discusses student answers 104) on a display device in a case where it is specified that a person determines whether the answer is good or not for a question answered by the person who answers (e.g., see Fig. 7 that shows key indicator 106 that indicates whether a student answers a question correctly; see also paragraph 59 for discussion of grading; see also paragraph 58 that discusses a teacher assigning a grade); and storing a result of the determination by the person who determines entered on the determination screen in association with the question into a memory (e.g., see at least paragraphs 31 and 44 for discussion of storing data; see also Fig. 7 that shows results are stored as shown on the GUI);
[claim 2] wherein the determination screen has a first area for displaying a model answer (e.g., see at least Fig 7 that shows a correct exam answer 108 area; see also paragraph 59 that discusses the teacher’s correct answer), a second area for displaying the user’s answer (e.g., see at least Fig. 7 that shows a student’s answer 104 area; see also paragraph 59 that discusses a student’s answer), and a third area for entering the determination result (e.g., see at least Fig. 7 that shows a points awarded value 110 area; see also paragraphs 59 and 60 for discussion of an area for entering the determination result);
[claim 3] wherein the control unit displays the determination screen in such a way that the person who determines is able to enter the determination result in the third area with the model answer and the answer by the person who answers being simultaneously displayed in the first and second areas in the determination screen, in a comparable state for the person who determines (e.g., see Fig. 7 that shows that the first, second, and third areas of 104, 108, and 110 are all different areas of the screen);
[claim 4] selecting either of a first process of performing a determination process of determining whether the answer is correct or incorrect for the question answered by the person who answers, using the pre-stored data for determining a correct or incorrect answer (e.g., see at least paragraph 61 that discusses multiple choice type questions where answers are pre-stored) and a second process of entering a determination result obtained by the person who determines by determining whether the answer is good or not without performing the determination process using the data for the determination (e.g., see at least paragraph 62 that discusses that the teacher may provide additional notes regarding a particular question); storing the determination result, obtained by performing the determination process in association with the question, into the memory in the case where the first process is selected (e.g., see at least paragraphs 31 and 44 for discussion of storing data; see also Fig. 7 that shows results are stored as shown on the GUI); and storing the entered determination result in association with the question into the memory in the case where the second process is selected (e.g., see at least paragraphs 31 and 44 for discussion of storing data; see also Fig. 7 that shows results are stored as shown on the GUI);
[claim 5] wherein the control unit performs a process of selecting the first process in the case where the question answered by the person who answers is a choice type question (e.g., see at least paragraph 61 that discusses multiple choice type questions where answers are pre-stored) and selecting the second process in the case where the question answered by the person who answers is a question to be answered by writing or by voice (e.g., see at least paragraph 43 that discusses that the content can be a term paper; see also paragraph 50 for discussion of grading text journal entries);
[claim 6] wherein the control unit performs the processes of: determining whether it is more appropriate that the person who determines makes a determination of whether the answer is good or not than that whether the answer is correct is automatically determined (e.g., see at least paragraph 60 that discusses autograding and manually grading); and selecting the second process in the case of determining that it is more appropriate that the person who determines makes a determination of whether the answer is good or not (e.g., see at least paragraphs 60-61 that discuss enabling/overriding autograding);
[claim 7] wherein the control unit switches between displaying the model answer and displaying the question in the first area (e.g., Fig. 7 shows areas for both the model answer 108 and the question, which above the student answer 104; the control unit displays both, but the locations would vary dependent on the number and length of each question); and
[claim 8] wherein the determination result contains at least three choices of determination result (e.g., see at least paragraph 61 that discusses multiple-choice questions including A, B, and D choices, which is at least three).
With regard to claims 10 and 11, Allen anticipates the method and non-transitory recording medium as set forth above in detail for claim 1, which is similar in claim scope.
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 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Allen in view of European Patent Application No. EP 1,582,995A2 to Shimizu.
With regard to claim 9, Allen discloses all of the recited features but is silent regarding the control unit places an electronic sticky note in a predetermined display area of the display device according to the user’s operation and displaying the question and/or the determination screen within the electronic sticky note.
From the same field of endeavor, Shimizu teaches a control unit places an electronic sticky note in a predetermined display area of the display device according to the user’s operation and displaying the question and/or the determination screen within the electronic sticky note (e.g., see at least Fig. 6 that shows a GUI with a sticky note; see also paragraph 111+ for discussion of using electronic sticky notes in an educational setting with questions).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the current invention to modify Allen with electronic sticky notes as taught by Shimizu in order to use a known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way. In this case, the use of electronic sticky notes allows for important information including the student’s question to presented to the user in a familiar fashion that is aesthetically pleasing.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure, includes:
U.S. Patent No. 11,450,225 to Kilari discusses machine grading for short answer that include a model answer (e.g., see at least Fig. 4).
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0162615 to Pineiro Caballero discusses an educational system that provides a teacher interface for grading and providing feedback (e.g., see Fig. 10).
U.S. Patent No. 12,125,411 to Hoffman discusses a system for evaluating responses to open-ended questions (e.g., see at least Fig. 4).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES S MCCLELLAN whose telephone number is (571)272-7167. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (8:30AM-5:00PM).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kang Hu can be reached at 571-270-1344. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/James S. McClellan/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715