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 .
Status of Claims
This Office Action is in response to the communication filed on 09/18/2025.
Claims 1-13 have been cancelled.
New claims 14-22 have been added.
5. Claims 14-22 are currently pending and are considered below.
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 14-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. Representative claim 14, recites a signage system (machine) which is a statutory class, the system comprising:
an imaging device placed in a charging station which has an energy supply source for suppling an energy to a vehicle, and a stop area; and
a display device placed in the charging station, the display device being communicatively connected to the imaging device,
wherein the imaging device comprises:
an imaging unit configured to image at least an imaging area that is an area inside the stop area, and
a control unit configured to detect whether a vehicle has entered the stop area, on the basis of an image captured by the imaging unit, the control unit being configured to transmit, if it is detected that a vehicle has entered the stop area, to the display device, image data of the image captured by the imaging unit at a time that the control unit detected that the vehicle entered the stop area,
wherein the display device comprises:
a display unit including a display screen;
an image analysis unit configured to detect the vehicle that has entered the stop area of the charging station, on the basis of the image data that has been transmitted from the
control unit of the imaging device, and the image analysis unit being configured to estimate an attribute of the vehicle, on the basis of at least one of the vehicle that has entered the target area, an accessory attached to the vehicle, and a face of a passenger of the vehicle;
a calculation unit configured to allocate contents, which accord to the attribute estimated
start time to an end time, wherein the start time is a time when a vehicle has stopped, and wherein the end time is a time when the vehicle starts to move; and
an image processing unit configured to cause the display unit including the display screen, which is placed in the stop area in the charging station, to display the contents that have been allocated to the vehicle stop period of time, by the calculation unit.
The steps of
an imaging device placed in a charging station which has an energy supply source for suppling an energy to a vehicle, and a stop area; and
a display device placed in the charging station, the display device being communicatively connected to the imaging device,
wherein the imaging device comprises:
an imaging unit configured to image at least an imaging area that is an area inside the stop area, and
a control unit configured to detect whether a vehicle has entered the stop area, on the basis of an image captured by the imaging unit, the control unit being configured to transmit, if it is detected that a vehicle has entered the stop area, to the display device, image data of the image captured by the imaging unit at a time that the control unit detected that the vehicle entered the stop area,
wherein the display device comprises:
a display unit including a display screen;
an image analysis unit configured to detect the vehicle that has entered the stop area of the charging station, on the basis of the image data that has been transmitted from the
control unit of the imaging device, and the image analysis unit being configured to estimate an attribute of the vehicle, on the basis of at least one of the vehicle that has entered the target area, an accessory attached to the vehicle, and a face of a passenger of the vehicle;
a calculation unit configured to allocate contents, which accord to the attribute estimated
start time to an end time, wherein the start time is a time when a vehicle has stopped, and wherein the end time is a time when the vehicle starts to move; and
an image processing unit configured to cause the display unit including the display screen, which is placed in the stop area in the charging station, to display the contents that have been allocated to the vehicle stop period of time, by the calculation unit,
as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers a method of organizing human activity. Given the broadest reasonable interpretation, the claim recites an apparatus to detect whether a vehicle has entered the stop area, capture a time that the control unit detected that the vehicle entered the stop area, estimate an attribute of the vehicle; allocate contents; and display the contents. The above identified method steps recite commercial interactions such as sales activities and/or tailored personalized marketing relating to providing data associated with the person.
If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers commercial interaction such as tailored personalized marketing, then it falls within the “certain methods of organizing human activity” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim recites the additional elements of an imaging device, a display device, an imaging unit, a control unit, a display unit, an image analysis unit, a calculation unit, an image processing unit and a determination unit. The imaging and display device are recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a generic processor performing a generic computer functions of a vehicle has entered the stop area, capture a time that the control unit detected that the vehicle entered the stop area, estimate an attribute of the vehicle; allocate contents; and display the contents) such that they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. 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 claim is directed to an abstract idea.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of
an imaging device, a display device, an imaging unit, a control unit, a display unit, an image analysis unit, a calculation unit, an image processing unit and a determination unit, amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components. The additional elements are similar to the additional elements found by courts to be mere instructions to apply an exception because they do no more than merely invoke computers or machinery to perform an existing process such as: a common business method or mathematical algorithm being applied on a general purpose computer (Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. V. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 US 208, 223; Versata Dev. Group, Inc. v. SAP Am., Inc., 793 F.3d 1306, 1334); providing a user with tailored information like advertisements based on information known about the user such as a location, address, or personal characteristics and a time of day is a fundamental practice long prevalent in our system); In re Morsa, 809 F. App’x 913, 917 (Fed. Cir. 2020). Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Thus, considered as an ordered combination, the additional elements add nothing that is not already present when the steps are considered separately. That is, an imaging device, a display device, an imaging unit, a control unit, a display unit, an image analysis unit, a calculation unit, an image processing unit and a determination unit, performing commercial interactions including: a vehicle has entered the stop area, capture a time that the control unit detected that the vehicle entered the stop area, estimate an attribute of the vehicle; allocate contents; and display the contents, amount to mere instructions to apply the steps to a computer comprising of a processor.
Thus, claim 14 is not eligible.
As for dependent claims 15-22, these claims recite limitations that further define the same abstract idea noted in claim 14. Therefore, they are considered patent ineligible for the reasons given above. The additional limitations of the dependent claims, when considered individually and as an ordered combination, do not amount to significantly more than the abstract idea itself.
Claims 14-22 are therefore not drawn to eligible subject matter as they are directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Response to Arguments
8. Applicant’s arguments, filed 09/18/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 14-22 under 35 U.S.C. 101 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of amended claims under 35 U.S.C. 101. See new rejection above.
Conclusion
9. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
10. Jourdy (U.S. Patent No. 12,030,466) discloses a method for communicating regarding supply of hydrogen of a moving vehicle to one or more distribution stations begins by collecting at least two parameters relating to the vehicle during its movement by two or more sensors onboard the vehicle. The parameters include at least the current location of the vehicle. Next, the parameters are transmitted to a control module. At least one parameter relating to hydrogen available in the one or more distribution stations is then collected by another sensor, which then transmits the hydron availability parameters to the control module. A hydrogen distribution station is then identified while the vehicle is moving, and a user of the vehicle is informed of available hydrogen distribution stations and of hydrogen supply conditions in the identified distribution stations (see at least the Abstract).
11. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARILYN G MACASIANO whose telephone number is (571)270-5205. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 12:00-9:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, llana Spar can be reached at 571)270-7537. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARILYN G MACASIANO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3622 01/13/2026