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
Claims 1-5 are pending.
Information Disclosure statement
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 06/21/2024 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
4. claim 3 is objected to because of the following informalities: the term “ API “ acronym needs to be spelled out in the first occurrence “Application program interface”. Appropriate correction is required.
5. claim 4 is objected to because of the following informalities: the term “ NLU “ acronym needs to be spelled out in the first occurrence “Natural Language
Understanding”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
6. 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.
7. Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
The representative Claim 1 recites:
A system for enabling a user to interact with a plurality of chatbots and a plurality of resources using a chatbot browser, comprising:
a global open chatbot registry configured for registering and managing chatbots;
an open chatbot browser configured for finding and browsing the plurality of chatbots and configured for talking to the plurality of chatbots; and
a chatbot protocol configured for facilitating communication between the chatbot browser and the plurality of chatbots.
The limitations of “enabling a user to interact with a plurality of chatbots and a plurality of resources using a chatbot browser, comprising: a global open chatbot registry configured for registering and managing chatbots; an open chatbot browser configured for finding and browsing the plurality of chatbots and configured for talking to the plurality of chatbots; and a chatbot protocol configured for facilitating communication between the chatbot browser and the plurality of chatbots” as drafted, are processes, under their broadest reasonable interpretation, covers mental processes.
As stated in the October 19 Update: Subject Matter Eligibility: In contrast, claims do recite a mental process when they contain limitations that can practically be performed in the human mind, including for example, observations, evaluations, judgments, prediction and opinions.
Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim recites “a global open chatbot registry configured for registering and managing chatbots; an open chatbot browser configured for finding and browsing the plurality of chatbots and configured for talking to the plurality of chatbots; and a chatbot protocol configured for facilitating communication between the chatbot browser and the plurality of chatbots”
The limitations precludes the recited steps being performed in the human mind or using pen and paper.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the additional elements in the claim are “a global open chatbot registry configured for registering and managing chatbots; an open chatbot browser configured for finding and browsing the plurality of chatbots and configured for talking to the plurality of chatbots; and a chatbot protocol configured for facilitating communication between the chatbot browser and the plurality of chatbots”,
These additional elements are recited at a high level of generality (i.e., as a generic computer structures performing a generic computer function of sending and receiving information) such that they amount no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer components. The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements are merely amount to a general-purpose computer system that attempts to apply the abstract idea in a technological environment, limiting the abstract idea to a particular field of use, and/or merely insignificant extra-solution activity. Such insignificant extra-solution activity, e.g. data obtaining or gathering, sending, and receiving are further found to be well-understood, routine, and conventional as evidenced by MPEP 2106.05(d)(II) (describing conventional activities that include transmitting and receiving data over a network, electronic recordkeeping, storing and retrieving information from memory, electronically scanning or extracting data from a physical document, and/or Performing repetitive calculations). The combination of elements, when considered individually and as an ordered combination, do not amount to “significantly more” than the identified abstract idea.
Independent claim 5, the claim is rejected with the same rationale as in claim 1.
Dependent claims 2-4, the claims are rejected with the same rationale as in claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
8. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AlA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AlA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis 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.
9. 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 of this title, 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.
10. Claims 1-2 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liang et al. (US 20210144107 A1) hereinafter Laing in view of Smullen et al. (US 20170180284 A1) hereinafter Smullen
Regarding claims 1 and 5, Liang discloses a system for enabling a user to interact with a plurality of chatbots and a plurality of resources using a chatbot browser(see figs 2-3 and 5-6), comprising:
a global open chatbot registry configured for registering and managing chatbots (para. [0018] Chatbot owners may register one or more chatbots with an orchestrated chat service. During the registration process, the chatbot owners can provide descriptions of the chatbot being registered, along with one or more intents and entities associated with the chatbot to the chat service's natural language classifier. An “intent” may refer to a representation of the purpose of a user's input. [0107] During the registration process, the owners or operators may provide the chatbot's name, endpoint location, one or more intents or entities associated with the chatbot 241, the name of the owner or provider of the chatbot 241 and a description of the chatbot 241, assign a chatbot ID and generate one or more classifications assigned to the chatbot 241. Registration information may be stored by the data repository 227 as chatbot registration 231. [0101],[0081] the chatbot info manager 209 may track and store relevant associations between the identified chatbot 241 being accessed live during a chat session and the intents or entities associated with the user input resulting in the selection of the particular chatbot 241 responding to the user's input during the chat service 225 session. Chatbot info manager 209 may relay the chatbot 241 selection, node location and/or intents and/or entities associated with the chatbot 241 selection to the session manager 207, wherein the chatbot 241 and/or associated intents and entities can be logged with the session manager 207, including the user profile, for future use by the chatbot orchestrator system 201).
Liang may not explicitly disclose an open chatbot browser configured for finding and browsing the plurality of chatbots and configured for talking to the plurality of chatbots and a chatbot protocol configured for facilitating communication between the chatbot browser and the plurality of chatbots.
However, Smullen discloses an open chatbot browser configured for finding and browsing the plurality of chatbots and configured for talking to the plurality of chatbots (para [0182] the multimedia bot can operate at the sub-channel level 212 level, as illustrated in FIG. 22, parallel to various other bots assigned to the sub-channel 212. For example, a given sub-channel 212 may have five bots 2202, each such bot handling a set of conversations, and further the given sub-channel 212 may have one or more multimedia bots 2232 that listen in on the conversations within the sub-channel and provide multimedia objects to these conversations when there is a match between the tags to objects accessible to the multimedia bot 2232 and content in the conversations (e.g., messages from the users associated with end user devices 104); and
a chatbot protocol configured for facilitating communication between the chatbot browser and the plurality of chatbots (para. [0165] the client-side communication
204-C (FIG. 4) invokes a first API call within a conversation. In response to this API call, the communications module-enterprise source side 204-E (FIG. 3) receives the API call and makes another API call to a back-end system associated with the corresponding enterprise data source 102 and gets a result. The query result is processed into another format by the communications module-enterprise source side 204-E and this result is returned to the client-side communication module 204-C (FIG. 4) for display in the conversation. [0493]… providing multi-channel support which enables chatbot 2202 integration into multi-channel end points; e.g. SMS, Facebook Messenger, etc., via a transformation layer 317 that automatically translates the default chatbot 2202 outputs to the appropriate format required for a specific channel. The chatbot platform detects the channel at the start of a conversation 2220 and applies the correct channel transformation protocol. [0499] the combination of a channel/communications module 204-C detection mechanism that detects the type of communication protocol being used to support a conversation 2220 in a sub-channel 212 and/or the type communications module 204-C being used to support the conversation. If the type of communication protocol and/or the type of communications module 204-C is other than default, a transformation layer 317 is imposed on the conversation to provide translated instructions to facilitate the conversation 2220 with the end user using the alternative communication protocol).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Laing and include wherein an open chatbot browser configured for finding and browsing the plurality of chatbots and configured for talking to the plurality of chatbots and a chatbot protocol configured for facilitating communication between the chatbot browser and the plurality of chatbots using the teaching of Smullen. One would have been motivated to do so in order to facilitate secure bidirectional communication and transactions with consumers in real time.
Regarding claim 2, claim 1 is incorporated, Laing further discloses wherein the chatbot browser can be installed on any computer, mobile phone, wearable devices, or any suitable voice first devices (para. [0041] user system 235, chatbot 241 or other data processing systems 100 may represent data processing systems 100 utilizing clustered computers and components see Fig. 2a. [0032] personal desktop computer systems, laptops, notebooks, tablets, servers, client systems, network devices, network terminals, thin clients, thick clients, kiosks, mobile communication devices (e.g., smartphones), multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, minicomputer systems, mainframe computer systems, smart devices, or Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. The data processing systems 100 can operate in a networked computing environment 200, 600, and a distributed cloud computing environment 300, which can include any of the systems or devices described herein and/or additional computing devices or systems known or used by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
11. Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liang et al. (US 20210144107 A1) hereinafter Laing in view of Smullen et al. (US 20170180284 A1) hereinafter Smullen and further in view of Mumick et al. ( US 20230007449 A1) hereinafter Mumick.
Laing in view of Smullen may not explicitly disclose the chatbot communication protocol supports a plurality of chatbot APIs; and the chatbot communication protocol adapts to new APIs as they are developed. However, Mumick discloses the chatbot communication protocol supports a plurality of chatbot APIs; and the chatbot communication protocol adapts to new APIs as they are developed (para. [0062] …Google Business Messages, where the user has linked their user profile to their mobile number, by providing a validated mobile number while interacting with a chatbot... [0064] the API is a new API configured for sending SMS messages. For example, a new API for sending SMS messages comprises an attribute to select a specific template to use for creating a rich message from an SMS message… the protocol for sending SMS messages is a new protocol).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Laing in view of Smullen and include the chatbot communication protocol supports a plurality of chatbot APIs; and the chatbot communication protocol adapts to new APIs as they are developed using the teaching of Mumick. One would have been motivated to do so in order to effectively creates and transmits the rich short message service (SMS) message.
12. Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liang et al. (US 20210144107 A1) hereinafter Laing in view of Smullen et al. (US 20170180284 A1) hereinafter Smullen and further in view of Mehrotra et al. (US 20240143945 A1) hereinafter Mehrotra.
Laing in view of Smullen may not explicitly disclose wherein a semantic module uses NLU to analyze a chatbot of the plurality of chatbots to which to redirect the user.
However Mehrotra discloses wherein a semantic module uses NLU to analyze a chatbot of the plurality of chatbots to which to redirect the user (para. [0016] machine learning systems have been widely used in automatic conversational systems such as an intelligent chatbot in customer service, online learning, and/or the like. Intent classification generates an intent label for a user utterance so as to provide natural language understanding (NLU) to enable the intelligent chatbot to redirect the conversation flow as desired based on the identified user intent).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Laing in view of Smullen and include wherein a semantic module uses NLU to analyze a chatbot of the plurality of chatbots to which to redirect the user using the teaching of Smullen. One would have been motivated to do so in order to efficiently provide service in multiple languages across different domains.
Conclusion
13. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kidest Mendaye whose telephone number is (571)272-2603. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday 7:00 am-5:00pm EST. 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, Ario Etienne can be reached on (571) 272-4001. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
09/28/2025
/KIDEST MENDAYE/
Examiner, Art Unit 2457
/ARIO ETIENNE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2457