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 .
Status of the Claims
Claims 1, 2, 4-20 are all the claims pending in the application.
Claims 1, 17, and 19 are amended.
Claims 1, 2, 4-20 are rejected.
The following is a Final Office Action in response to amendments and remarks filed Dec. 9, 2025.
Response to Arguments
Regarding the 103 rejections, the rejections are withdrawn at least because the cited rejections do not teach the newly amended limitation of ranking the predicted teaching methods based on the weighted predictions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1, 2, 4-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. The independent claims recite the newly amended limitation “weighting predictions of the plurality of machine learning models according to one or more factors comprising accuracy of past predictions, demographic similarity of training data, and alignment with survey responses, and ranking the predicted teaching methods according to the weighted predictions” however there is no discussion, throughout the entirety of the specification and drawings, of weighting the predictions or ranking the predicted teaching methods according to the weighted predictions. Examiner notes the Specification as filed discusses generating a list of teaching methods, ¶[0038], and using different machine learning models, ¶[0040] but neither of these disclosures discusses the claimed weighting or ranking based on the weighting. As such, the Examiner asserts this as evidence that the newly amended claims are new matter.
Accordingly, claims 1, 17, and 19 are rejected under 112(a). Claims 2, 4-16, 18, and 20 do not overcome this issue and accordingly are rejected due to their dependencies.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/BRENDAN S O'SHEA/Examiner, Art Unit 3626