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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 23 February 2024, 09 August 2024, 11 February 2025 and 05 February 2026 were filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claim 15 recites “A state detection method for detecting a state of a facility in which a workpiece is moved in a flow, the state detection method comprising: collecting, in chronological order, collected data that indicates a plurality of signal values of a plurality of signals that react in sequence according to the flow of the workpiece; dividing a set of the plurality of signal values included in the collected data in chronological order into a plurality of signal groups that depend on a position of the workpiece, so as to generate, for each group, collected divided data that indicates one or more signal values in each group in chronological order; performing machine learning for each group, using the collected divided data as learning data, so as to generate a normal model, which is a learned model, for each group; and detecting a state of the facility, using the normal model of each group.”
Claim 15, in view of the claim limitations, recites the abstract idea of “collecting, in chronological order, collected data that indicates a plurality of signal values of a plurality of signals that react in sequence according to the flow of the workpiece; dividing a set of the plurality of signal values included in the collected data in chronological order into a plurality of signal groups that depend on a position of the workpiece, so as to generate, for each group, collected divided data that indicates one or more signal values in each group in chronological order; performing machine learning for each group, using the collected divided data as learning data, so as to generate a normal model, which is a learned model, for each group; and detecting a state of the facility, using the normal model of each group.”
As a whole, in view of the claim limitations, but for the computer components and systems performing the claimed functions, the broadest reasonable interpretation of the recited “collecting, in chronological order, collected data that indicates a plurality of signal values of a plurality of signals that react in sequence according to the flow of the workpiece; dividing a set of the plurality of signal values included in the collected data in chronological order into a plurality of signal groups that depend on a position of the workpiece, so as to generate, for each group, collected divided data that indicates one or more signal values in each group in chronological order; performing machine learning for each group, using the collected divided data as learning data, so as to generate a normal model, which is a learned model, for each group; and detecting a state of the facility, using the normal model of each group.”; therefore, the claim recites mental processes and mathematical concepts. Accordingly, the claim recites a mental process and mathematical concept, and thus, the claim recites an abstract idea under the first prong of Step 2A.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application under the second prong of Step 2A. In particular, the claims recite the additional elements beyond the recited abstract idea of“[a] computer- implemented method” and “the method is carried out by one or more physical processors configured by machine-readable instructions” as recited in claims 1 and 16, individually and when viewed as an ordered combination, and pursuant to the broadest reasonable interpretation, each of the additional elements are computing elements recited at high level of generality implementing the abstract idea on a computer (i.e. apply it), and thus, are no more than applying the abstract idea with generic computer components. Moreover, aside from the aforementioned additional elements, the remaining elements of dependent claims 2-14 do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because these claims merely recite further limitations that provide no more than simply narrowing the recited abstract idea.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception under Step 2B. As noted above, the aforementioned additional elements beyond the recited abstract idea, as an order combination, are no more than mere instructions to implement the idea using generic computer components (i.e. apply it), and further, generally link the abstract idea to a field of use, which is not sufficient to amount to significantly more than an abstract idea; therefore, the additional elements are not sufficient to amount to significantly more than an abstract idea. Additionally, these recitations as an ordered combination, simply append the abstract idea to recitations of generic computer structure performing generic computer functions that are well-understood, routine, and conventional in the field as evinced by Applicant’s Specification at [0303] (describing that the disclosure is not limited to the disclosed implementations, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover modifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the appended claims). Furthermore, as an ordered combination, these elements amount to generic computer components performing repetitive calculations, receiving or transmitting data over a network, which, as held by the courts, are well-understood, routine, and conventional. See MPEP 2106.05(d); July 2015 Update, p. 7. Moreover, aside from the aforementioned additional elements, the remaining elements of dependent claims 2-14 do not transform the recited abstract idea into a patent eligible invention because these claims merely recite further limitations that provide no more than simply narrowing the recited abstract idea. Looking at these limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing additional that is sufficient to amount to significantly more than the recited abstract idea because they simply provide instructions to use a generic arrangement of generic computer components and recitations of generic computer structure that perform well-understood, routine, and conventional computer functions that are used to “apply” the recited abstract idea. Thus, the elements of the claims, considered both individually and as an ordered combination, are not sufficient to ensure that the claim as a whole amounts to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. Since there are no limitations in these claims that transform the exception into a patent eligible application such that these claims amount to significantly more than the exception itself, claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Shibata et al (US 11,493,912) disclose an unsteadiness detection device that includes: a model generation unit to generate a normal model for determining operation states of a plurality of facilities on the basis of operation data which are binary digital signals obtained from the facilities in their steady operation states; an expectation value calculation unit to calculate an expectation value of operation data by applying the normal model to past operation data of the facilities; and an unsteadiness detection unit to detect whether or not an operation state of one of the facilities is unsteady by comparing the expectation value of the operation data and a measured value of the operation data. Hattori et al (US 10,858,135) disclose a control apparatus that includes: a physical quantity acquirer that acquires a physical quantity representing a state of processing in a unit subjected to monitoring for each cycle, the cycle being defined as unit processing time of processing performed by each unit; an abnormality determiner that determines occurrence of an abnormality in the unit, based on the physical quantity or a feature value extracted from the physical quantity; and a control instructor that specifies, when it is determined that an abnormality occurs in the unit, a cycle during which a downstream unit performs processing on an item to be produced that is affected by the abnormality, and perform control so that abnormality handling processing is performed as processing in the specified cycle by the downstream unit.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AN H DO whose telephone number is (571)272-2143. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7:00am-4:00pm.
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/AN H DO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
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