DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to the request for continued examination filed 19 February 2026.
Claims 1, 9, and 17 have been amended.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Claims 1-20 are rejected.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 22 January 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment/Remarks
Regarding 35 USC § 101, Applicant’s remarks have been fully considered but are not persuasive. Applicant argues that “the actual performance of commercial interactions is not recited in the claims and the claims do not actually recite the performance of sales activities or behaviors.” Remarks at 9. Examiner respectfully disagrees. Claim 1, for example, recites requesting website content, receiving an ad call in response to that request, performing a number of intermediate steps which ultimately results in transmitting content for display on a user device. According to the specification, the electronic content is an web and/or ad content. Recitation of an ad call indicates that the claims do recite advertising and marketing activities. The requesting of a website that triggers an ad call indicates the claims do recite advertising and marketing activities, which falls under the commercial interactions subgrouping within the certain methods of organizing human activity grouping of abstract ideas. Applicant’s argument is not persuasive.
Applicant argues that “if a claim is based on or involves an abstract idea, but does not recite it, then the claim is not directed to an abstract idea.” Remarks at 9. As indicated above, advertising activities, including an ad call are recited in the claims. The ad call is not merely involved, it is recited. Applicant’s argument is not persuasive.
Applicant argue that the “claims recite a technical solution to a technical problem,” said solution being described in paragraph [024] of the specification. Remarks at 10. While is appears that a technical solution to a technical problem is present in the specification, this is not yet reflected in the claims. There are a number of steps that are present in the solution found in [024] that are not in the claims. These include, but are not limited to: “an advertiser … may update its DNS record to include a subdomain that redirects to a server associated with an ad network,” “the ad pixel tag may be redirected by the advertiser’s DNS update to an ad network server for receipt of a cookie that matches the subdomain,” “an ad call that checks for the presence of any first party domain cookies set via the second stage.” These are example limitations and Examiner is not indicating that inclusion of these limitations alone would make the claims allowable. At present, the claims do not recite a technical solution to a technical problem and Applicant’s argument is not persuasive. Also note that the claims at this time contain a significant OR clause wherein “sending … a pixel image and a leadback cookie” is an optional step wherein the other option is “receiving a broken image.”
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 1-20 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.
Step 1
The claims recite a series of steps and, therefore, is a process.
Step 2A-Prong One
(Claims 1, 9, and 17) These claims recite the concept of providing targeted advertisements to users via the use of cookies (see “requesting […] website content from an online publisher server; receiving an ad call in response to the request for website content, the ad call including instructions for the user device to request a subdomain; requesting, […] from a content network server, a subdomain based on the request for website content and the ad call; sending […] a pixel image and a leadback cookie defining the requested subdomain based on the user device storing an Internet cookie of the requested subdomain, the pixel image granting the ad network pixel server access to the internet cookie of the requested subdomain, or receiving a broken image based on the user device not storing the Internet cookie for the requested subdomain; and transmitting […] an electronic content for display on the user device based on the user device receiving the leadback cookie” in claim 1, for example). This concept falls into the certain methods of organizing human activity grouping of abstract ideas including advertising activities. Thus, claims 1, 9, and 17 recite an abstract idea.
The dependent claims 2-8, 10-16, and 18-20 have been analyzed and they further limit the abstract idea recited in the independent claims but do not recite limitations that take these claims out of the identified abstract idea grouping. Thus, claims 2-8, 10-16, and 18-20 also recite an abstract idea that falls into the certain methods of organizing human activity grouping.
The mere nominal recitation of a generic computer component does not take the claim limitations out of the abstract idea grouping. Thus, the claims recite an abstract idea
Step 2A-Prong Two
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claims recite the additional element of a content network server and user device (claims 1-8), a system including at least one data storage device, a processor, a content network server, and user device (claims 9-16), or a non-transitory computer readable medium, a content network server, and user device (claims 17-20) and includes no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. The content network server, user device, system, or computer readable medium does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea.
Step 2B
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed previously with respect to Step 2A-Prong Two, the additional element in the claim amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. The same analysis applies here in Step 2B, i.e., mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot integrate a judicial exception into a practical application at Step 2A or provide an inventive concept in Step 2B. See MPEP 2106.05(f). The claims do not provide an inventive concept (significantly more than the abstract idea). The claims are ineligible.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEREDITH A LONG whose telephone number is (571)272-3196. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 9:30 - 6.
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/MEREDITH A LONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3622