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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1 is(are) rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter without significantly more. The claim as a whole, considering all claim elements both individually and in combination, do not amount to significantly more than an abstract idea.
Independent claims 1 recites A method comprising: * during a first time period, for each entity in a population of entities: o accessing sets of entity data corresponding to the entity and published by a set of sources; o aggregating the sets of entity data into a data container, in a set of data containers, associated with the entity; o defining a set of attributes representing the entity based on the sets of entity data; and o classifying the entity into a cluster of entities in a set of clusters of entities based on the set of attributes; * during a second time period succeeding the first time period, for a first organization characterized by a first organization type: o accessing a first data container in the set of data containers, the first data container associated with a first entity in the population of entities and defining a first set of attributes representing the first entity, the first entity classified in a first cluster of entities in the set of clusters of entities; o accessing a first model correlating concepts, related to entities in the first cluster of entities and organizations characterized by the first organization type, with responses predicted most likely to improve sentiment associated with the concepts; based on the first set of attributes and the first model, identifying a first set of concepts related to the first entity and associated with initial sentiment values falling within a first range; and based on the first set of attributes and the first model, generating a first set of responses, corresponding to the first set of concepts, predicted to result in subsequent sentiment values falling within a second range; and * during a third time period succeeding the second time period, during a telecommunication session between a first device associated with the first organization and a second device associated with the first entity: accessing a first set of audio data in an audio data stream of the telecommunication session; detecting a first set of language signals based on the first set of audio data; accessing a second model correlating language signals with concepts, in the first set of concepts, and sentiment values associated with concepts; based on the second model, correlating the first set of language signals with a first concept, in the first set of concepts, and a third sentiment value associated with the first concept; based on the first concept and the third sentiment value, identifying a first subset of responses, in the first set of responses, predicted to result in a fourth sentiment value associated with the first concept, the fourth sentiment value exceeding the third sentiment value; generating a notification specifying the first concept and the first subset of responses; and serving the notification at the first device.
The limitations of accessing, aggregating, defining, classifying, accessing, accessing, identifying, generating, accessing, detecting, accessing, identifying, generating, as drafted cover a mental process when a human receives written documents and organized each entity information in a table that lists attributes including customer concerns of each entity and then clustering each of the entities in a cluster named as ‘type’. For a new organization , the human looks at entity number 1 table and finds concerns in the range of negative for the first entity and determines that the cluster corresponding to that entity has other organizations that have the concerns resolved to positive. The human listens to a conversation between the agent from an organization and an entity and writes on a piece of paper “customer issues are very distressing.”
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The additional element s of first/second model are mapped to generic computer hardware because of lack of specificity. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claims are directed to an abstract idea., The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to the integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a computer is noted as a general computer. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. The claims are not patent eligible.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 1 would be allowable pending resolution of 35 USC 101 rejections. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance. The independent claim 1 recites A method comprising: * during a first time period, for each entity in a population of entities: o accessing sets of entity data corresponding to the entity and published by a set of sources; o aggregating the sets of entity data into a data container, in a set of data containers, associated with the entity; o defining a set of attributes representing the entity based on the sets of entity data; and o classifying the entity into a cluster of entities in a set of clusters of entities based on the set of attributes; * during a second time period succeeding the first time period, for a first organization characterized by a first organization type: o accessing a first data container in the set of data containers, the first data container associated with a first entity in the population of entities and defining a first set of attributes representing the first entity, the first entity classified in a first cluster of entities in the set of clusters of entities; o accessing a first model correlating concepts, related to entities in the first cluster of entities and organizations characterized by the first organization type, with responses predicted most likely to improve sentiment associated with the concepts; based on the first set of attributes and the first model, identifying a first set of concepts related to the first entity and associated with initial sentiment values falling within a first range; and based on the first set of attributes and the first model, generating a first set of responses, corresponding to the first set of concepts, predicted to result in subsequent sentiment values falling within a second range; and * during a third time period succeeding the second time period, during a telecommunication session between a first device associated with the first organization and a second device associated with the first entity: accessing a first set of audio data in an audio data stream of the telecommunication session; detecting a first set of language signals based on the first set of audio data; accessing a second model correlating language signals with concepts, in the first set of concepts, and sentiment values associated with concepts; based on the second model, correlating the first set of language signals with a first concept, in the first set of concepts, and a third sentiment value associated with the first concept; based on the first concept and the third sentiment value, identifying a first subset of responses, in the first set of responses, predicted to result in a fourth sentiment value associated with the first concept, the fourth sentiment value exceeding the third sentiment value; generating a notification specifying the first concept and the first subset of responses; and serving the notification at the first device.
The closest teaching comes from Akselrod (US 20150046493 A1) who teaches “¶ [0004] in response to receiving a request for content related to a specified entity from the repository associated with at least the user's account, identifying, in a content of a file in the repository, an entity container of at least one entity container associated with the specified entity; and communicating the entity container that is associated with the specific entity to a source of the request, ¶[0005] Content may be captured into the notebook application and stored in a defined structure--based on recognized entities--through a capture service that includes or communicates with an augmentation service. The structure can be an entity container, providing an object and one or more attributes of the object”);
Tandy (US 20240202754 A1) teaches Ҧ [0004] and grouping neighboring data containers, in the set of data containers, in the multi-dimensional feature space into a set of data container groups in Block S120, the set of data container groups including a first data container group representing a first combination of features of an entity predicted to yield closed-won opportunities with the organization.)
Jezewski teaches (US 20210374569 A1) teaches “¶[0177] where specifically/partially false statements are falsely categorized as completely false, which triggers increase in distorted view of the group making the miscategorization error [0178] saying a specifically/partially false negative thing about a group often has a partially true sentiment backing it (most people in any group do negative behaviors enough to trigger negative sentiments), so even if the specific negative thing is wrong, the sentiment might not be [0179] the lack of acknowledgement of their own negative behaviors by the group saying the specifically/partially false statement also triggers the same response in the group making the miscategorization error (the group saying the specifically/partially false statement is doing a negative behavior, so the miscategorizing group has a negative sentiment about them, and often says specifically/partially false negative things about the group) conflating stereotype (‘false statement about a group’) with ‘a statement about a group that is more true of a higher ratio of that group than it is of other groups’
However none of Tandy, Akselrod and Jezewski teach the underlined limitations shown above. Furthermore, it would not have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the prior art in order to arrive at the claimed invention.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ATHAR N PASHA whose telephone number is (408)918-7675. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday Alternate Fridays, 7:30-4:30 PT.
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, Daniel Washburn can be reached on (571)272-5551. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see https://ppair-my.uspto.gov/pair/PrivatePair. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ATHAR N PASHA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2657