DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Applicant’s filing dated 04/29/2024 has been received and made of record.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending in Application 18/649,201.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Konig (US 2021/0201327 A1) in view of Miranda (US 2021/0168096 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Konig discloses A system and A method for responding to user messages during an online chat conversation (Konig: Paragraph [0041], “the contact center system 200 may be used to engage and manage chat conversations in which automated chat robots or bots and/or human agents communicate with customers”), the system comprising:
a computing system including a processor and a non-transitory storage device, wherein the processor executes computer-readable instructions stored in the storage device to operate a chatbot and an artificial intelligence server (Konig: Paragraph [0079], “The chat server 240 may also run on a separate computer equipped with a processor, which executes program instructions and interacts with other system components to perform various methods and operations according to embodiments of the present invention. The chat server 240 may also run on the cloud or serverless architecture. The chat server 240 may include a memory, which operates as an addressable memory unit for storing software instructions to be executed by the processor. The memory may be implemented using any suitable memory device, such as a random access memory (RAM), and may additionally operate as a computer readable storage medium having non-transitory computer readable instructions stored therein that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to control and manage an automated chat communication between the chat server 240, the customer device 205, and/or the agent device 230”, Paragraph [0091], “the customer automation system 300 may be implemented as a software program or application running on a mobile device or other computing device, cloud computing devices (e.g., computer servers connected to the customer device 205 over a network)”, and Paragraph [0127], “the personal bot may have a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) engine”; ergo, the computer system as a whole can be mapped to the cloud system of Konig that includes both “server-side” and “client-side” elements);
a network connection operatively connecting a user device having a display screen to the computing system (Konig: Paragraph [0086], “the chat feature 282 includes an interface generated on a screen of the customer device, such as customer device 205”, and Paragraph [0091], “the customer automation system 300 may be implemented as a software program or application running on a mobile device or other computing device, cloud computing devices (e.g., computer servers connected to the customer device 205 over a network)”);
and wherein, upon execution of the computer-readable instructions, the computing system performs steps (Konig: Paragraph [0079], “The chat server 240 may also run on a separate computer equipped with a processor, which executes program instructions and interacts with other system components to perform various methods and operations”) comprising:
establishing a chat conversation between the chatbot and the user device (Konig: Paragraph [0041], “the contact center system 200 may be used to engage and manage chat conversations in which automated chat robots or bots and/or human agents communicate with customers”);
receiving by the chatbot a message in the chat conversation from the user device, the chatbot responding to the message by sending contextual data about a chat history in the conversation to the artificial intelligence server and requesting quick replies from the artificial intelligence server (Konig: Paragraph [0111], “the customer automation system 300 may present automatically generated “quick actions” to the customer based on the customer's inferred intent and other data associated with the ongoing interaction”);
the artificial intelligence server responding to the request by sending to the chatbot at least one of the quick replies, each of the quick replies sent including a matching intent (Konig: Paragraph [0113], “ the agent or customer may share screens, documents (contracts, warranties, etc.), photos, and other files with each other. Other files may also be shared, such as screenshots of content captured by one of the parties during the conversation, a current view from a camera, links, photographs of broken or failed products, screenshots of error messages, copies of documents, proofs of purchase, or any other supporting file. The customer automation system 300, thus, may provide functionality that facilitates the customer supplying or sharing additional or augmenting material to an agent of the contact center that is relevant to an ongoing interaction. To do this, for example, a supplemental communication channels (e.g., a data channel) is established in parallel to the primary communication channel (e.g., a voice communication channel or a text communication channel) to transfer the augmenting information between the customer and the contact center agent. In certain embodiments, these documents may be provided along with an automatically generated “quick actions” message.”); and
the chatbot sending to the user device the quick replies received from the artificial intelligence server, the quick replies being displayed on the display screen (Konig: Paragraph [0111], “the customer automation system 300 may present automatically generated “quick actions” to the customer based on the customer's inferred intent and other data associated with the ongoing interaction”).
Konig does not explicitly disclose that the quick actions/quick replies are displayed in a visual representation of a portion of the chat conversation.
However, Miranda teaches this feature (Miranda: Figure 3 and Paragraphs [0029]-[0030], “the dialogue item set (from which one or more dialogue items may be selected for presentation to the user) may be determined based on account information (e.g., account type, credit limit, features available via the account, etc.) or other context information associated with the user (e.g., a date/time of a chat initiation request of the user, an operating system used by the user to access the chat session, latest activities of the user, etc.). As an example, as shown in FIG. 3, the selectable questions presented on chat interfaces 302a and 302b to first and second customers”).
Konig and Miranda are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as both are drawn to AI augmented chat experiences. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Miranda’s display of quick actions within the chat region of an interface into the system of Konig to allow for improved system ease of use.
Konig-Miranda teaches 2/12. The system according to claim 1/method according to claim 11 wherein the chatbot requesting the quick replies includes specifying constraints (Konig: Paragraph [0066], “an optimizer may be used to minimize a “cost function” subject to a set of constraints”, Miranda: Paragraph [0044], “ the recommendation engine may run a machine learning model with the customer activity information (e.g., pre-chat customer activity information) to obtain one or more predicted intents of the customer (e.g., a predetermined number of predicted intents)”).
Konig-Miranda teaches 3/13. The system according the claim 2/method according to claim 12 wherein the constraints include at least one of a predetermined maximum number of the quick replies to be sent to the chatbot and a maximum length of a title of each of the quick replies (Konig: Paragraph [0066], “an optimizer may be used to minimize a “cost function” subject to a set of constraints”, Miranda: Paragraph [0044], “ the recommendation engine may run a machine learning model with the customer activity information (e.g., pre-chat customer activity information) to obtain one or more predicted intents of the customer (e.g., a predetermined number of predicted intents)”).
Konig-Miranda teaches 4/14. The system according to claim 1/method according to claim 12 wherein when the message includes text that the artificial intelligence server recognizes as referring to a specific document, and the artificial intelligence server sends a document request quick reply to the chatbot as the at least one of the quick replies (Konig: Paragraph [0113], “ the agent or customer may share screens, documents (contracts, warranties, etc.), photos, and other files with each other. Other files may also be shared, such as screenshots of content captured by one of the parties during the conversation, a current view from a camera, links, photographs of broken or failed products, screenshots of error messages, copies of documents, proofs of purchase, or any other supporting file. The customer automation system 300, thus, may provide functionality that facilitates the customer supplying or sharing additional or augmenting material to an agent of the contact center that is relevant to an ongoing interaction. To do this, for example, a supplemental communication channels (e.g., a data channel) is established in parallel to the primary communication channel (e.g., a voice communication channel or a text communication channel) to transfer the augmenting information between the customer and the contact center agent. In certain embodiments, these documents may be provided along with an automatically generated “quick actions” message.”); .
Konig-Miranda teaches 5/15. The system according to claim 4/method according to claim 14 wherein the processor executes the computer-readable instructions stored in the storage device to operate a document server, the chatbot responding to a selection of the document request quick reply from the user device by using the matching intent to request the specific document from the document server, the document server responds to the document request from the chatbot by sending a digital copy of the specific document to the chatbot, and the chatbot sends the digital copy to the user device (Konig: Paragraph [0113], “ the agent or customer may share screens, documents (contracts, warranties, etc.), photos, and other files with each other. Other files may also be shared, such as screenshots of content captured by one of the parties during the conversation, a current view from a camera, links, photographs of broken or failed products, screenshots of error messages, copies of documents, proofs of purchase, or any other supporting file. The customer automation system 300, thus, may provide functionality that facilitates the customer supplying or sharing additional or augmenting material to an agent of the contact center that is relevant to an ongoing interaction. To do this, for example, a supplemental communication channels (e.g., a data channel) is established in parallel to the primary communication channel (e.g., a voice communication channel or a text communication channel) to transfer the augmenting information between the customer and the contact center agent. In certain embodiments, these documents may be provided along with an automatically generated “quick actions” message.”; it is understood the documents may be stored on a server, as cloud infrastructure).
Konig-Miranda teaches 6/16. The system according to claim 1/method according to claim 11 wherein when the message includes text that the artificial intelligence server recognizes as referring to a specific document, and the artificial intelligence server sends a summarize document quick reply to the chatbot as the at least one of the quick replies (Konig: Paragraph [0113], “ the agent or customer may share screens, documents (contracts, warranties, etc.), photos, and other files with each other. Other files may also be shared, such as screenshots of content captured by one of the parties during the conversation, a current view from a camera, links, photographs of broken or failed products, screenshots of error messages, copies of documents, proofs of purchase, or any other supporting file. The customer automation system 300, thus, may provide functionality that facilitates the customer supplying or sharing additional or augmenting material to an agent of the contact center that is relevant to an ongoing interaction. To do this, for example, a supplemental communication channels (e.g., a data channel) is established in parallel to the primary communication channel (e.g., a voice communication channel or a text communication channel) to transfer the augmenting information between the customer and the contact center agent. In certain embodiments, these documents may be provided along with an automatically generated “quick actions” message.”; Examiner takes official notice that summarizing documents was a common feature of AI systems and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date to have incorporated this feature in providing documents with augmented information to include summaries of said documents in the combination of Konig-Miranda).
Konig-Miranda teaches 7/17. The system according to claim 6/method according to claim 16 wherein the artificial intelligence server is a first server and including another artificial intelligence server as a second server, the chatbot responding to a selection of the summarize document quick reply from the user device by using the matching intent to request a summary of the specific document from the second server, wherein the second server responds to the summary request from the chatbot by sending a summary of the specific document to the chatbot, and the chatbot sends the summary to the user device (Konig: Paragraph [0113], “ the agent or customer may share screens, documents (contracts, warranties, etc.), photos, and other files with each other. Other files may also be shared, such as screenshots of content captured by one of the parties during the conversation, a current view from a camera, links, photographs of broken or failed products, screenshots of error messages, copies of documents, proofs of purchase, or any other supporting file. The customer automation system 300, thus, may provide functionality that facilitates the customer supplying or sharing additional or augmenting material to an agent of the contact center that is relevant to an ongoing interaction. To do this, for example, a supplemental communication channels (e.g., a data channel) is established in parallel to the primary communication channel (e.g., a voice communication channel or a text communication channel) to transfer the augmenting information between the customer and the contact center agent. In certain embodiments, these documents may be provided along with an automatically generated “quick actions” message.”; Examiner takes official notice that summarizing documents and passing summaries among systems was a common feature of AI systems and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date to have incorporated this feature in providing documents with augmented information to include summaries of said documents in the combination of Konig-Miranda).
Konig-Miranda teaches 8/18. The system according to claim 1/method according to claim 11 wherein the chatbot responds to a selection of one of the quick replies from the user device by sending current contextual data about the chat history in the conversation to the artificial intelligence server and requesting additional quick replies from the artificial intelligence server, the artificial intelligence server responding to the request by sending to the chatbot at least one additional quick reply that is different from the quick replies previously sent, each of the additional quick replies sent including a matching intent, the chatbot sending to the user device the additional quick replies received from the artificial intelligence server, the additional quick replies being displayed on the display screen in a visual representation of a portion of the chat conversation (Miranda: Figure 7 and Paragraph [0065], “In one use case, upon being presented with the candidate questions, the customer may select a “More Options” mechanism, thereby indicating that the candidate questions do not match the customer's current intent”).
Konig-Miranda teaches 9/19. The system according to claim 1/method according to claim 11 wherein the chatbot responds to a selection of a go to document center quick reply from the user device by using the matching intent to navigate the user device to an associated document center web page adapted to enter requests for documents from the user device (Konig: Paragraph [0113], “ the agent or customer may share screens, documents (contracts, warranties, etc.), photos, and other files with each other. Other files may also be shared, such as screenshots of content captured by one of the parties during the conversation, a current view from a camera, links, photographs of broken or failed products, screenshots of error messages, copies of documents, proofs of purchase, or any other supporting file. The customer automation system 300, thus, may provide functionality that facilitates the customer supplying or sharing additional or augmenting material to an agent of the contact center that is relevant to an ongoing interaction. To do this, for example, a supplemental communication channels (e.g., a data channel) is established in parallel to the primary communication channel (e.g., a voice communication channel or a text communication channel) to transfer the augmenting information between the customer and the contact center agent. In certain embodiments, these documents may be provided along with an automatically generated “quick actions” message.”, and Paragraph [0177], “The customer may also upload files to the personal bot 405 or provide the personal bot 405 with access to pre-existing databases or other files”; it is understood that these elements would involve using a file selector, which is commonly implemented as a web page for compatibility).
Konig-Miranda teaches 10/20. The system according to claim 9/method according to claim 19 wherein the chatbot responds to the selection of the go to document center quick reply from the user device by sending current contextual data about the chat history in the conversation to the artificial intelligence server and requesting additional quick replies from the artificial intelligence server, the artificial intelligence server responding to the request by sending to the chatbot at least one additional quick reply that is different from the quick replies previously sent, each of the additional quick replies sent including a matching intent, the chatbot sending to the user device the additional quick replies received from the artificial intelligence server, the additional quick replies being displayed on the display screen in a visual representation of a portion of the chat conversation (Konig: Paragraph [0113], “ the agent or customer may share screens, documents (contracts, warranties, etc.), photos, and other files with each other. Other files may also be shared, such as screenshots of content captured by one of the parties during the conversation, a current view from a camera, links, photographs of broken or failed products, screenshots of error messages, copies of documents, proofs of purchase, or any other supporting file. The customer automation system 300, thus, may provide functionality that facilitates the customer supplying or sharing additional or augmenting material to an agent of the contact center that is relevant to an ongoing interaction. To do this, for example, a supplemental communication channels (e.g., a data channel) is established in parallel to the primary communication channel (e.g., a voice communication channel or a text communication channel) to transfer the augmenting information between the customer and the contact center agent. In certain embodiments, these documents may be provided along with an automatically generated “quick actions” message.”; Miranda: Paragraphs [0065]-[0066], “In one use case, upon being presented with the candidate questions, the customer may select a “More Options” mechanism, thereby indicating that the candidate questions do not match the customer's current intent… for each intent of a second set of predicted intents, an additional candidate question may be selected from a question set based on the additional candidate question matching the intent. As an example, the candidate questions that are initially presented to the customer may have been initially selected for presentation to the customer based on the initial candidate questions matching the intents of a first set of predicted intents”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Choudhary (US 2021/0224818 A1) describes a system for providing intent-based suggestions to a user in a chat using machine learning models.
Sekar (US 2021/0201238 A1) describes a system for customer service automation using AI to generate workflows using contextual chat data.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IMAD HUSSAIN whose telephone number is (571)270-3628. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 0900-1700 ET.
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/IMAD HUSSAIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2453
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