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
The Action is responsive to the Amendments and Remarks filed on 11/24/2025. Claims 1-20 are pending claims. Claims 1 and 2 are written in independent form.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of a claim for priority as a continuation of application 18/353,209 (filed 7/17/2023), which is a continuation of application 17/452960 (filed 10/29/2021), which is a continuation of application 15/566977 (filed 10/16/2017), which is a National Stage entry of PCT/US2016/028080 (filed 4/18/2016), which claims for benefit of prior-filed provisional applications 62/149,125 (filed 4/17/2015), 62/150,010 (filed 4/20/2015), and 62/150,650 (filed 4/21/2015) under 35. U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c).
Claim Interpretation
Claims 1 and 2 recite the phrase “enables a user to filter” which is being understood as the having the ability to filter, but is not actively performing any filtering step/limitation. Examiner suggests to amend the claim limitations to recite all of the steps in a positive manner.
Claims 1 and 2 recite the limitation “display a user interface element that enables a user to filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location” which is being interpreted to have a scope of “display a user interface element”. However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, the limitation is being addressed herein as if all of the steps are recited in a positive manner.
Claims 1 and 2 recite the phrase “allows the user to filter” and “allow the user to order” which is being understood as the having the ability to filter or order, but is not actively performing any filtering or ordering step/limitation. Examiner suggests to amend the claim limitations to recite all of the steps in a positive manner.
Claims 1 and 2 recite the limitation “wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more sources or source characteristics” which is being interpreted as not furthering the scope of the claims. However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, the limitation is being addressed herein as if all of the steps are recited in a positive manner.
Claims 1 and 2 recite the limitation “wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more commercial content types or commercial content characteristics, or by one or more reference types or reference characteristics” which is being interpreted as not furthering the scope of the claims. However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, the limitation is being addressed herein as if all of the steps are recited in a positive manner.
Claims 1 and 2 recite the limitation “display one or more user interface elements that allow the user to order multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective commercial content based on the price from each respective source for the respective commercial content, or based on the distance to each source from the user's current location” which is being interpreted to have a scope of “display one or more user interface elements”. However, for the purpose of compact prosecution, the limitation is being addressed herein as if all of the steps are recited in a positive manner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding Claims 1 and 2, the limitations “ wherein the system is configured to display a user interface element that enables a user to filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location” followed by “wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more sources or source characteristics” and “wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more content types or content characteristics, or by one or more reference types or reference characteristics;” render the claims indefinite because it is unclear if there is only a single interface element in the configured display enabling/allowing a user to filter, or if there are multiple, “one” enabling filtering sources within a certain distance, “at least one” allowing for filtering by one or more sources or source characteristics, and “at least one” allowing for filtering by one or more content types or content characteristics, or by one or more reference types or reference characteristics.
For purposes of compact prosecution, the system is understood as being configured to display a plurality of user interface elements that each separately are able to perform the different filtering abilities.
Dependent Claims 3-20 inherit the deficiencies of their parent claims and are therefore being rejected based upon the same reason(s) stated for their parent claims.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-patentable subject matter. The claimed invention is directed to one or more abstract ideas without significantly more. The judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than judicial exception. The eligibility analysis in support of these findings is provided below.
As per Independent Claims 1 and 2,
STEP 1:In accordance with Step 1 of the eligibility inquiry (as explained in MPEP 2106), the claimed system (claims 1, 3, 5-15, and 17-20) and system (claims 2, 4, and 16) are directed to one of the eligible categories of subject matter and therefore satisfies Step 1.
STEP 2A Prong One:The independent claims 1 and 2 recites the following limitations directed to an abstract idea:
Identify a plurality of content from the content database in response to receiving a search query;
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating content from a content database and a received search query and based on the observation and evaluation, making a judgement and/or opinion of a plurality of content in response to receiving the search query.
Identify a number of times each content of the plurality of content has been referenced by sources of a set of at least one designated source;
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating references by sources of a set of at least one designated source to each content of the plurality of content, and based on the observation and evaluation, determining a number of times each content has been referenced by sources.
Generate a search result of the plurality of content that is in a ranked order based on the number of times each content has been referenced; and
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating the plurality of content and the number of times each content has been referenced, and based on the observation and evaluation, making a judgement and/or opinion of an order to place the plurality of content to form a ranked order for a search result of the plurality of content.
Wherein multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content are in an order that is based on a price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on a distance to each source from the user’s current location,
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating a price from each respective source for the respective content, or a distance to each source from the user’s current location, and based on the observation and evaluation, making a judgement and/or opinion to order the respective content based on the price, or based on the distance.
The independent claim 2 further recites the following limitations directed to an abstract idea:
wherein each source only contributes a maximum of one rank point for each commercial content, even if a source has multiple references for a commercial content;
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating each source and the references for a commercial content, and based on the observation and evaluation, making a judgement and/or opinion that each source only contributes a maximum of one rank point for each commercial content, no matter if the source has multiple references for a commercial content.
wherein identifying the number of times each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content has been referenced comprises identifying the number of sources that are currently referencing the commercial content, or identifying the number of sources that have referenced the commercial content, or identifying the number of times each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content has been referenced, or any combination thereof;
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating references by sources of a set of at least one designated source to each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content, and based on the observation and evaluation, determining a number of sources that are currently referenced the commercial content, the number of sources that have referenced the commercial content, or the number of times each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content has been referenced.
STEP 2A Prong Two:Independent Claims 1 and 2 recite that the steps are performed using “one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media”, a “content database…stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media” and a “content search and ranking engine…executed by one or more processors”, which is a high-level recitation of generic computer components and represents mere instructions to apply on a computer as in MPEP 2106.05(f), which does not provide integration into a practical application.
The Independent Claims 1 and 2 recite the following additional elements:
Display the search result of the plurality of content;
The limitation recites an additional element that does not amount to significantly more because it
merely recites selecting information, analyzing it, and displaying it as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein the display of the search result of the plurality of content comprises each respective content of the plurality of content having horizontal to it at least one respective source indicator for each respective source that referenced the respective content;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data and data structure being used to represent the search results in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein each source only has a maximum of one source indicator for each content, even if a source has multiple references for a content;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the source in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one source indicator comprises a name of the respective source;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the source indicator in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein a plurality of source indicators is horizontal to a highest ranked content, and a plurality of source indicators is horizontal to a second highest ranked content;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data and data structure being used to represent the search results in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data structure being used to represent the source indicator in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein receiving a search query comprises receiving a natural language query;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the data in the search query as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein the system is configured to display a user interface element that enables a user to filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location;
The limitation recites an additional element that does not amount to significantly more because it
merely recites selecting information, analyzing it, and displaying at least a subset of the information as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more sources or source characteristics;
The limitation recites an additional element that does not amount to significantly more because it
merely recites selecting information, analyzing it, and displaying at least a subset of the information as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more content types or content characteristics, or by one or more reference types or reference characteristics;
The limitation recites an additional element that does not amount to significantly more because it
merely recites selecting information, analyzing it, and displaying at least a subset of the information as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein the system is configured to display one or more interface elements that allow the user to order multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content based on the price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on the distance to each source from the user’s current location.
The limitation recites an additional element that does not amount to significantly more because it
merely recites selecting information, analyzing it, and displaying at least a subset of the information as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The Independent Claim 1 recites the following additional elements:
Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises at least one school, teacher, college, university, professor, healthcare provider, medical facility, healthcare professional, hospital, doctor, dentist, animal hospital, veterinarian, library, App, home, structure, vehicle, product, object, building, automobile dealership, dispensary, pharmacy, restaurant, business, individual, seller, vendor, store, brick-and-mortar source, website, builder, electrician, roofer, worker, plumber, mechanic, shop, grower, farmer, professional, service, greenhouse, engineer, botanist, contractor, repairperson, handyperson facility, professional, service, or business entity, or any combination thereof;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the set of at least one designated source as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one content of the search result of the plurality of content comprises at least one product, service, good, item, book, video commercial content, part content, library content, medical content, or educational content; and
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the at least one content of the search result as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein the search result of the plurality of content comprises at least one content
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the search result as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
wherein at least one first-type source indicator is a part source indicator, library source indicator, medical source indicator, or educational source indicator;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the first-type source indicator as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one first-type source indicator is to the right of the respective content, and wherein at least one commercial source indicator is to the left of each respective content;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data and data structure being used to represent the search results in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein the respective source for the at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content comprises a healthcare provider, school, college, university, teacher, professor, library, vehicle, structure, building, or product;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the first-type source indicator as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein the respective source for the at least one commercial source indicator to the left of each respective content comprises a store, shop individual, seller, vendor, professional, website, App, or other commercial source;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the commercial source indicator as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein there are multiple first-type source indicators to the right of at least one respective content of the plurality of content, and at least three commercial source indicators to the left of the same respective content, wherein the at least three commercial source indicators to the left of said same respective content are horizontal to said same respective content wherein at least one source indicator comprises a name of the respective source;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data and data structure being used to represent the search results in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The Independent Claim 2 recites the following additional elements:
wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises at least one store, seller, website, App, brick-and-mortar source, dispensary, pharmacy, shop, restaurant, automobile dealership, individual, professional, vendor, business, or any combination thereof;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the set of at least one designated source as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
wherein at least one commercial content of the plurality of commercial content was referenced by at least one source of the set of at least one designated source by the respective source having sold, leased, rented, licensed, or assigned, the commercial content, or by the respective source currently selling, leasing, renting, licensing, or assigning, the commercial content;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the source’s reference to the commercial content as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Viewing the additional limitations together and the claim as a whole, nothing provides integration into a practical application.
STEP 2B:
The conclusions for the mere implementation using a computer are carried over and does not provide significantly more.
With respect to “Display the search result of the plurality of content;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein the display of the search result of the plurality of content comprises each respective content of the plurality of content having horizontal to it at least one respective source indicator for each respective source that referenced the respective content;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein each source only has a maximum of one source indicator for each content, even if a source has multiple references for a content;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein at least one source indicator comprises a name of the respective source;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein a plurality of source indicators is horizontal to a highest ranked content, and a plurality of source indicators is horizontal to a second highest ranked content;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein the system is configured to display a user interface element that enables a user to filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more sources or source characteristics;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more content types or content characteristics, or by one or more reference types or reference characteristics;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to “Wherein the system is configured to display one or more interface elements that allow the user to order multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content based on the price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on the distance to each source from the user’s current location.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 1 reciting “Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises at least one school, teacher, college, university, professor, healthcare provider, medical facility, healthcare professional, hospital, doctor, dentist, animal hospital, veterinarian, library, App, home, structure, vehicle, product, object, building, automobile dealership, dispensary, pharmacy, restaurant, business, individual, seller, vendor, store, brick-and-mortar source, website, builder, electrician, roofer, worker, plumber, mechanic, shop, grower, farmer, professional, service, greenhouse, engineer, botanist, contractor, repairperson, handyperson facility, professional, service, or business entity, or any combination thereof;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 1 reciting “Wherein at least one content of the search result of the plurality of content comprises at least one product, service, good, item, book, video commercial content, part content, library content, medical content, or educational content;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 1 reciting “Wherein the search result of the plurality of content comprises at least one content” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 1 reciting “wherein at least one first-type source indicator is a part source indicator, library source indicator, medical source indicator, or educational source indicator;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 1 reciting “Wherein at least one first-type source indicator is to the right of the respective content, and wherein at least one commercial source indicator is to the left of each respective content;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 1 reciting “Wherein the respective source for the at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content comprises a healthcare provider, school, college, university, teacher, professor, library, vehicle, structure, building, or product;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 1 reciting “Wherein the respective source for the at least one commercial source indicator to the left of each respective content comprises a store, shop individual, seller, vendor, professional, website, App, or other commercial source;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 1 reciting “Wherein there are multiple first-type source indicators to the right of at least one respective content of the plurality of content, and at least three commercial source indicators to the left of the same respective content, wherein the at least three commercial source indicators to the left of said same respective content are horizontal to said same respective content wherein at least one source indicator comprises a name of the respective source;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 2 reciting “wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises at least one store, seller, website, App, brick-and-mortar source, dispensary, pharmacy, shop, restaurant, automobile dealership, individual, professional, vendor, business, or any combination thereof;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 2 reciting “wherein at least one commercial content of the plurality of commercial content was referenced by at least one source of the set of at least one designated source by the respective source having sold, leased, rented, licensed, or assigned, the commercial content, or by the respective source currently selling, leasing, renting, licensing, or assigning, the commercial content;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
Looking at the claim as a whole does not change this conclusion and the claim is ineligible.
As per Dependent Claims 3-20,
STEP 1:In accordance with Step 1 of the eligibility inquiry (as explained in MPEP 2106), the claimed system (claims 1, 3, 5-15, and 17-20) and system (claims 2, 4, and 16) are directed to one of the eligible categories of subject matter and therefore satisfies Step 1.
STEP 2A Prong One:The dependent claims 3-20 recite the following limitations directed to an abstract idea:
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 5 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein identifying a plurality of content comprises identifying at least one content because it has been referenced by a class name that matches the user’s search query;
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating the user’s search query and a class name referencing a content, and based on the observation and evaluation, making a judgement and/or opinion to identify content referenced by class names that match the user’s search query.
Wherein identifying a plurality of content comprises identifying at least one content because its content name matches the user’s search query;
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating the user’s search query and a content name, and based on the observation and evaluation, making a judgement and/or opinion to identify content with a content name that match the user’s search query.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claims 14 and 16 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein identifying the number of times each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content has been referenced comprises identifying the number of sources that currently have the commercial content available for purchase.
The limitation recites a mental process of observation, evaluation, judgement, and/or opinion capable of being performed by the human mind by observing and evaluating the sources and the commercial content available for purchase, and based on the observation and evaluation, making a judgement and/or opinion of the number of sources that currently have the commercial content available for purchase.
STEP 2A Prong Two:The claim(s) recite the following additional elements:
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 3 includes the step(s) of:
wherein an AI service is also displayed.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data or service to be represented in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claims 4, 7, and 12 includes the step(s) of:
wherein IBM’s Watson or another service is also displayed.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data or service to be represented in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 5 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein the plurality of content is a plurality of books;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the plurality of content as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein the respective source for at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content is a school, college, or university;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the first-type source indicator as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one source references at least one respective content by assigning, requiring, or recommending the respective content for a course;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the source reference to respective content as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display one or more class names of a respective school
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the source indicator popup as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
wherein the one or more class names that are configured to display are one or more class names that referenced the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds, and
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the references to the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein another source indicator popup is configured to display one or more class names of a different respective school
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the source indicator popup as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
wherein the one or more class names that are configured to display are one or more class names that referenced the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the references to the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 6 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein at least one within-content preview is configured to display.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data structure being used to represent the content in the display as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 8 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein the plurality of content comprises a medical procedure, drug, medical device, medical test, or any combination thereof; and
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the plurality of content as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein the respective source for the at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content is a healthcare provider.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the respective source for the first-type source indicator as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 9 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein at least one source references at least one respective content by prescribing, recommending, or using the respective content for a human patient or subject, or a dog patient or subject, or a cat patient or subject.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the source reference to respective content as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 10 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein data from a biometric sensor is received by the system.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra solution activity as retrieval of data (ie. Mere data gathering) such as ‘obtaining information’ as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 11 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein the search query comprises data from a sensor.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the data in the search query as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 13 includes the step(s) of:
wherein the plurality of commercial content is a plurality of vehicles;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of commercial content being used to represent the plurality of commercial content as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
wherein at least one source from the set of at least one designated source is an automobile dealership; and
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of source being used to represent the at least one source as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
wherein at least one source indicator comprises an image of the respective commercial content.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the at least one source indicator as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claim 15 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein the plurality of commercial content is a plurality of menu items;
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of commercial content being used to represent the plurality of commercial content as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one source from the set of at least one designated source is a restaurant; and
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of source being used to represent the at least one source as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Wherein at least one source indicator comprises an image of the respective commercial content.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the at least one source indicator as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claims 17-18 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises an AI service or system.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the set of at least one designated source as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
The limitation(s) of Dependent Claims 19-20 includes the step(s) of:
Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises IBM’s Watson or another service.
The limitation recites an insignificant extra-solution activity as selecting a particular type of data being used to represent the set of at least one designated source as identified in MPEP 2106.05(g) and does not provide integration into a practical application.
Viewing the additional limitations together and the claim as a whole, nothing provides integration into a practical application.
STEP 2B:
The conclusions for the mere implementation using a computer are carried over and does not provide significantly more.
With respect to Claim 3 reciting “wherein an AI service is also displayed.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claims 4, 7, and 12 reciting “wherein IBM’s Watson or another service is also displayed.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 5 reciting “Wherein the plurality of content is a plurality of books;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 5 reciting “Wherein the respective source for at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content is a school, college, or university;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 5 reciting “Wherein at least one source references at least one respective content by assigning, requiring, or recommending the respective content for a course;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 5 reciting “Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display one or more class names of a respective school” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 5 reciting “wherein the one or more class names that are configured to display are one or more class names that referenced the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds,” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 5 reciting “Wherein another source indicator popup is configured to display one or more class names of a different respective school” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 5 reciting “wherein the one or more class names that are configured to display are one or more class names that referenced the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 6 reciting “Wherein at least one within-content preview is configured to display.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 8 reciting “Wherein the plurality of content comprises a medical procedure, drug, medical device, medical test, or any combination thereof;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 8 reciting “Wherein the respective source for the at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content is a healthcare provider.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 9 reciting “Wherein at least one source references at least one respective content by prescribing, recommending, or using the respective content for a human patient or subject, or a dog patient or subject, or a cat patient or subject.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 10 reciting “Wherein data from a biometric sensor is received by the system.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(i).
With respect to Claim 11 reciting “Wherein the search query comprises data from a sensor.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 13 reciting “wherein the plurality of commercial content is a plurality of vehicles;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 13 reciting “wherein at least one source from the set of at least one designated source is an automobile dealership;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 13 reciting “wherein at least one source indicator comprises an image of the respective commercial content.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 15 reciting “Wherein the plurality of commercial content is a plurality of menu items;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 15 reciting “Wherein at least one source from the set of at least one designated source is a restaurant;” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claim 15 reciting “Wherein at least one source indicator comprises an image of the respective commercial content.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claims 17-18 reciting “Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises an AI service or system.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
With respect to Claims 19-20 reciting “Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises IBM’s Watson or another service.” identified as insignificant extra-solution activity above this is also WURC when claimed in a merely generic manner as court-identified see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv).
Looking at the claim as a whole does not change this conclusion and the claim is ineligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olejniczak et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2012/0221442, hereinafter referred to as Olejniczak) and further in view of Chandra et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2013/0173639, hereinafter referred to as Chandra), McGee (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2009/0138371), Davis et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2013/0246415, hereinafter referred to as Davis), and Raines (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2011/0246468).
Regarding Claim 1:
Olejniczak teaches a content search and ranking system, the system comprising:
One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media (Para.[0018]);
A content database stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media; and
Olejniczak teaches a system implemented using a computer readable storage media (Para. [0018]) and on the system a product database 160 that stores product data (Paras. [0019] & [0025]).
A content search and ranking engine, that, when executed by one or more processors, directs the one or more processors to:
Olejniczak teaches a product rank analysis and score generation component 280 access the analysis data store 270 to calculate a score that represents a multivariable rank that is used by the UX component 280 to generate a list of popular products” (Para. [0038]) and the UX component 290 may format the list such that “the HTML format of the list allows a user to receive the list in response to a request for the current list of popular items” (Para. [0039]) thereby teaching a content search and ranking engine.
Identify a plurality of content from the content database in response to receiving a search query;
Olejniczak teaches providing to a user a list of popular items “in response to a request” (Para. [0039])
Identify a number of times each content of the plurality of content has been referenced by sources of a set of at least one designated source;
Olejniczak teaches “the ranking system retrieves counts associated with each product from disparate data sources” (Para. [0042])
Generate a search result of the plurality of content that is in a ranked order based on the number of times each content has been referenced; and
Olejniczak teaches the UX component 290 may format the list such that “the HTML format of the list allows a user to receive the list in response to a request for the current list of popular items” (Para. [0039]) where “the ranking system assigns an ordered rank to each product based on a score calculated from the normalized counts” (Para. [0042]).
Display the search result of the plurality of content;
Olejniczak teaches “The presentation component generates a ranked product list for display on client devices in response to requests for a list of popular products.” (Abstract) and “a method that displays products” and “generating a graphical user interface to display the product and the multivariable score;” (Claim 1).
Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises at least one school, teacher, college, university, professor, healthcare provider, medical facility, healthcare professional, hospital, doctor, dentist, animal hospital, veterinarian, library, App, home, structure, vehicle, product, object, building, automobile dealership, dispensary, pharmacy, restaurant, business, individual, seller, vendor, store, brick-and-mortar source, website, builder, electrician, roofer, worker, plumber, mechanic, shop, grower, farmer, professional, service, greenhouse, engineer, botanist, contractor, repairperson, handyperson facility, professional, service, or business entity, or any combination thereof;
Olejniczak teaches “the computerized ranking system 200 includes a revenue data source 210, a search data source 220, a page view data source 230, a clicks data source 240, a product details data source 50, a category data source 260…” (Para. [0028]) where “the revenue data source provides revenue earned by a vendor” (Para. [0029]). Therefore, Olejniczak teaches wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises at least a vendor in the markush group listed in the claims.
Wherein at least one content of the search result of the plurality of content comprises at least one product, service, good, item, book, video commercial content, part content, library content, medical content, or educational content; and
Olejniczak teaches “the products in the product database 160 include goods or services provided by vendors” where “the products may include electronics, books, movies, insurance, etc.” (Para. [0025]).
Wherein the respective source for the at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content comprises a healthcare provider, school, college, university, teacher, professor, library, vehicle, structure, building, or product;
Olejniczak teaches “the computerized ranking system 200 includes a revenue data source 210, a search data source 220, a page view data source 230, a clicks data source 240, a product details data source 50, a category data source 260…” (Para. [0028]) where “the revenue data source provides revenue earned by a vendor” (Para. [0029]).
Wherein the respective source for the at least one commercial source indicator to the left of each respective content comprises a store, shop individual, seller, vendor, professional, website, App, or other commercial source;
Olejniczak teaches “the computerized ranking system 200 includes a revenue data source 210, a search data source 220, a page view data source 230, a clicks data source 240, a product details data source 50, a category data source 260…” (Para. [0028]) where “the revenue data source provides revenue earned by a vendor” (Para. [0029]).
Olejniczak explicitly teaches all of the elements of the claimed invention as recited above except:
Wherein the display of the search result of the plurality of content comprises each respective content of the plurality of content having horizontal to it at least one respective source indicator for each respective source that referenced the respective content;
Wherein each source only has a maximum of one source indicator for each content, even if a source has multiple references for a content;
Wherein at least one source indicator comprises a name of the respective source;
Wherein a plurality of source indicators is horizontal to a highest ranked content, and a plurality of source indicators is horizontal to a second highest ranked content;
Wherein the search result of the plurality of content comprises at least one content wherein at least one first-type source indicator is a part source indicator, library source indicator, medical source indicator, or educational source indicator;
Wherein at least one first-type source indicator is to the right of the respective content, and wherein at least one commercial source indicator is to the left of each respective content;
Wherein there are multiple first-type source indicators to the right of at least one respective content of the plurality of content, and at least three commercial source indicators to the left of the same respective content, wherein the at least three commercial source indicators to the left of said same respective content are horizontal to said same respective content wherein at least one source indicator comprises a name of the respective source; and
Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display.
Wherein receiving a search query comprises receiving a natural language query;
Wherein the system is configured to display a user interface element that enables a user to filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location;
Wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more sources or source characteristics;
Wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more content types or content characteristics, or by one or more reference types or reference characteristics;
Wherein multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content are in an order that is based on a price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on a distance to each source from the user’s current location, and
Wherein the system is configured to display one or more interface elements that allow the user to order multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content based on the price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on the distance to each source from the user’s current location.
However, in the related field of processing data, Chandra teaches:
Wherein the display of the search result of the plurality of content comprises each respective content of the plurality of content having horizontal to it at least one respective source indicator for each respective source that referenced the respective content;
Chandra teaches generating search results that comprises each respective content of the plurality of content having horizontal to it “one or more indicators corresponding to at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources from which the information associated with the at least one search result is derived” (Claim 7, Figs. 5-7, and Paras. [0059]-[0061]).
Wherein each source only has a maximum of one source indicator for each content, even if a source has multiple references for a content;
Olejniczak teaches “the log database 150 receives the counts for each variable from a number of data sources” (Para. [0024]) where each data source only contributes a single count (Figure 2 Elements 210-260). Olejniczak further teaches associating each of the variables received from each data source with a time element by teaching “a ranking algorithm that generates a multivariable rank that represents a popularity of a product across discrete periods of time and multiple variables” (Para. [0027]).
Chandra teaches “the rank value assigned to consolidated entities are aggregate rank values computed from individual rank values provided for the entity from the different sources” (Para. [0004]).
Chandra teaches each source having a single source indicator by teaching “one or more indicators corresponding to at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources from which the information associated with the at least one search result is derived” (Claim 7, Figs. 5-7, and Paras. [0059]-[0061]).
Therefore, Chandra in combination with Olejniczak teaches each source only having a maximum of one source indicator for each content (Chandraw), even if a source has multiple references for content (Olejniczak).
Wherein at least one source indicator comprises a name of the respective source;
Chandra teaches the source indicator comprising a name of the respective source by teaching “movie sources specific to the US market could include IMDB, ROVI/AMG, NETFLIX, HULU, YAHOO! REVIEWS, FLIXTER, and METACRITIC” (Para. [0039]) and displaying the source indicators such as in Figure 6.
Wherein a plurality of source indicators is horizontal to a highest ranked content, and a plurality of source indicators is horizontal to a second highest ranked content;
Chandra teaches generating search results that comprises each respective content of the plurality of content having horizontal to it “one or more indicators corresponding to at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources from which the information associated with the at least one search result is derived” (Claim 7, Figs. 5-7, and Paras. [0059]-[0061]). Chandra specifically teaches “highest confidence results” (Figs. 5-7) thereby teaching the top and second results as the highest and second highest ranked content, both of which, horizontally located, have the “one or more indicators corresponding to at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources from which the information associated with the at least one search result is derived”.
Wherein the search result of the plurality of content comprises at least one content wherein at least one first-type source indicator is a part source indicator, library source indicator, medical source indicator, or educational source indicator;
Chandra teaches generating search results that comprises each respective content of the plurality of content having horizontal to it “one or more indicators corresponding to at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources from which the information associated with the at least one search result is derived” (Claim 7, Figs. 5-7, and Paras. [0059]-[0061]). Chandra further teaches a source indicator as an educational source indicator by teaching exemplary source indicators of at least NETFLIX, YAHOO!, MSN, and IMDB (Figs. 5-7 and Paras. [0059]-[0061]). The broadest reasonable interpretation of an “educational source indicator” is any source indicator for a source that can provide educational information.
Wherein at least one first-type source indicator is to the right of the respective content;
Chandra teaches “to the right of the surfaced movie entities is a plurality of selectable icons representing authoritative sources” (Para. [0059]) thereby teaching the respective source indicators horizontally ordered to the right of the respective commercial content.
Wherein there are multiple first-type source indicators to the right of at least one respective content of the plurality of content, wherein at least one source indicator comprises a name of the respective source; and
Chandra teaches generating search results that comprises each respective content of the plurality of content having horizontal to it “one or more indicators corresponding to at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources from which the information associated with the at least one search result is derived” (Claim 7, Figs. 5-7, and Paras. [0059]-[0061]). Chandra further teaches displaying three or more source indicators on the same side of the search result with the respective name of the source, such as NETFLIX, YAHOO!, MSN, and IMDB (Figs. 5-7 and Paras. [0059]-[0061]).
Wherein receiving a search query comprises receiving a natural language query;
Chandra teaches “The query receiving component 222 of the search engine 212 is configured to receive requests for presentation of search results that satisfy an input search query” where “a search query may also be implicitly invoked and received by the query receiving component 222, for instance, by a user pointing to something (e.g., on a screen, a television set, or in the physical world); moving a mouse pointer to an icon/text; speaking with someone on the phone” (Para. [0036]).
Wherein the system is configured to display a user interface element that enables a user to filter for sources;
Chandra teaches “wherein at least a portion of the one or more indicators corresponding to the at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources are selectable” (Claim 8) where “the user is able to select a facet and narrow the nature of the displayed entities by doing so” (Para. [0062]) thereby teaching a user controlled environment for filtering the search by designating a set of sources.
Wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more sources or source characteristics;
Chandra teaches “wherein at least a portion of the one or more indicators corresponding to the at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources are selectable” (Claim 8) where “the user is able to select a facet and narrow the nature of the displayed entities by doing so” (Para. [0062]) thereby teaching a user controlled environment for filtering the search by one or more sources or source characteristics.
Chandra further teaches “an interface for faceted search can be presented, in which the user can narrow the search down to suggested entity type(s); effectively filtering out the results of some of the subsequent entity searches from the final results” (Para. [0038]).
Wherein at least one user interface element allows the user to filter by one or more content types or content characteristics, or by one or more reference types or reference characteristics;
Chandra teaches “wherein at least a portion of the one or more indicators corresponding to the at least a portion of the multiple ones of the plurality of sources are selectable” (Claim 8) where “the user is able to select a facet and narrow the nature of the displayed entities by doing so” (Para. [0062]) thereby teaching a user controlled environment for filtering the search by one or more sources or source characteristics.
Chandra further teaches “an interface for faceted search can be presented, in which the user can narrow the search down to suggested entity type(s); effectively filtering out the results of some of the subsequent entity searches from the final results” (Para. [0038]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Chandra and Olejniczak at the time that the claimed invention was effectively filed, to have combined the entity-relevant source searching, as taught by Chandra, with the systems and methods for ranking products using multiple data sources, as taught by Olejniczak.
One would have been motivated to make such combination because Chandra teaches reducing the amount of data being queried by identifying relevant authoritative sources for a query and only querying the identified authoritative sources (Paras. [0038]-[0041]) and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art that limiting a search to a determined relative subset of information would increase the speed of a search and the quality of the results.
Olejniczak and Chandra explicitly teach all of the elements of the claimed invention as recited above except:
wherein at least one commercial source indicator is to the left of each respective content;
at least three commercial source indicators to the left of the same respective content, wherein the at least three commercial source indicators to the left of said same respective content are horizontal to said same respective content; and
Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display.
filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location;
Wherein multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content are in an order that is based on a price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on a distance to each source from the user’s current location, and
Wherein the system is configured to display one or more interface elements that allow the user to order multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content based on the price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on the distance to each source from the user’s current location.
However, in the related field of searching multiple sources, McGee teaches:
wherein at least one commercial source indicator is to the left of each respective content;
McGee teaches at least one part number indicator placed on the opposite side of the supplier indicator (Figure 4). Since there are only two sides to the search results, it would have been obvious to have tried to place indicators on both sides, the left and right, when the different results are stacked vertically.
at least three commercial source indicators to the left of the same respective content, wherein the at least three commercial source indicators to the left of said same respective content are horizontal to said same respective content; and
McGee teaches at least one part number indicator placed on the opposite side of the supplier indicator (Figure 4). Since there are only two sides to the search results, it would have been obvious to have tried to place a plurality of indicators on both sides, the left and right, when the different results are stacked vertically. It is noted that Chandra teaches multiple of the same type of indicator on one side, and so it would have been obvious to have tried placing multiple of the same type of supplier indicator on the same side of the search result.
Wherein multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content are in an order that is based on a price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on a distance to each source from the user’s current location, and
McGee teaches “the corresponding results grouped and ranked by supplier based on which supplier has inventory with respect to the greatest number of queried items. If more than one supplier has similar amounts of inventory with respect to all of the queried items, the suppliers could be further ranked based on which one has the greatest quantity of inventory of each item, or other ranking criteria” (Para. [0031]) where “the search results can be customized further to categorize suppliers by geographic location, pricing, or other criteria” (Para. [0017]). Therefore, McGee teaches ordering the suppliers based on criteria including the amount of inventory, geographic location of the supplier, pricing, or any other criteria.
Wherein the system is configured to display one or more interface elements that allow the user to order multiple source indicators that correspond to a respective content based on the price from each respective source for the respective content, or based on the distance to each source from the user’s current location.
McGee teaches “the corresponding results grouped and ranked by supplier based on which supplier has inventory with respect to the greatest number of queried items. If more than one supplier has similar amounts of inventory with respect to all of the queried items, the suppliers could be further ranked based on which one has the greatest quantity of inventory of each item, or other ranking criteria” (Para. [0031]) where “the search results can be customized further to categorize suppliers by geographic location, pricing, or other criteria” (Para. [0017]). Therefore, McGee teaches a customization to allow the user to order the suppliers based criteria including the amount of inventory, geographic location of the supplier, pricing, or any other criteria.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak at the time that the claimed invention was effectively filed, to have combined the multi-step ranking approach for ordering suppliers based on a tiered list of features relating the supplier to the product, as taught by McGee, with the entity-relevant source searching, as taught by Chandra, and the systems and methods for ranking products using multiple data sources, as taught by Olejniczak.
One would have been motivated to make such combination because McGee teaches an advantage of allowing “users to have more practical information in order to make multiple product and/or service purchases and to maximize potential savings from discounts obtained by dealing with certain vendors” by listing multiple different products from overlapping list of suppliers on the same search result display (Para. [0015]).
McGee, Olejniczak, and Chandra explicitly teach all of the elements of the claimed invention as recited above except:
Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display.
filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location;
However, in the related field of searching based on multiple sources, Davis teaches:
Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display.
Davis teaches “FIG. 13 illustrates an example (similar to the example shown in FIG. 3) of a browser window 1300 in which, by hovering a cursor over the preferred source icon 1302, a view 1304 identifying the persona (or personas) corresponding to the preferred source is displayed.” (Para. [0062]) thereby teaching a source indicator popup configured to be displayed.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak at the time that the claimed invention was effectively filed, to have combined the display when hovering a cursor over a source icon, as taught by Davis, with the multi-step ranking approach for ordering suppliers based on a tiered list of features relating the supplier to the product, as taught by McGee, the entity-relevant source searching, as taught by Chandra, and the systems and methods for ranking products using multiple data sources, as taught by Olejniczak.
One would have been motivated to make such combination because Davis teaches a view being triggered via a cursor hover action that enables a user to see additional information about the source icon without occupying screen space initially or navigating away to see the additional information (Para. [0062]), and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art that providing additional information via a cursor hover trigger without occupying initial screen space would benefit the versatility of how the user can navigate the display.
Davis, McGee, Olejniczak, and Chandra explicitly teach all of the elements of the claimed invention as recited above except:
filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location;
However, in the related field of product searching and displaying results, Raines teaches:
filter for sources within a certain distance from the user’s current location;
Raines teaches filtering based on “according to the make or model of the car, the car classification, year of the car, cars within a particular radial distance of a location specified by the customer 24, or within certain zip codes or other area classifications such as cities, states, etc.” (Para. [0027]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak at the time that the claimed invention was effectively filed, to have combined the product search for vehicles, as taught by Raines, with the display when hovering a cursor over a source icon, as taught by Davis, the multi-step ranking approach for ordering suppliers based on a tiered list of features relating the supplier to the product, as taught by McGee, the entity-relevant source searching, as taught by Chandra, and the systems and methods for ranking products using multiple data sources, as taught by Olejniczak.
One would have been motivated to make such combination because Raines teaches searching for cars as a product and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art that expanding the product search to vehicles would create a more dynamic system covering a wider range of products that the search and display system can handle.
Regarding Claim 2:
Some of the limitations herein are similar to some or all of the limitations of Claim 1.
Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
the content is commercial content;
Olejniczak teaches commercial content by teaching “as utilized here in the term ‘product’ refers to goods or services provided by a vendor” (Para. [0014]).
wherein each source only contributes a maximum of one rank point for each commercial content, even if a source has multiple references for a commercial content;
Olejniczak teaches “the log database 150 receives the counts for each variable from a number of data sources” (Para. [0024]) where each data source only contributes a single count (Figure 2 Elements 210-260).
Olejniczak teaches associating each of the variables received from each data source with a time element by teaching “a ranking algorithm that generates a multivariable rank that represents a popularity of a product across discrete periods of time and multiple variables” (Para. [0027]).
Chandra teaches “the rank value assigned to consolidated entities are aggregate rank values computed from individual rank values provided for the entity from the different sources” (Para. [0004]).
wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises at least one store, seller, website, App, brick-and-mortar source, dispensary, pharmacy, shop, restaurant, automobile dealership, individual, professional, vendor, business, or any combination thereof;
Olejniczak teaches “the computerized ranking system 200 includes a revenue data source 210, a search data source 220, a page view data source 230, a clicks data source 240, a product details data source 50, a category data source 260…” (Para. [0028]) where “the revenue data source provides revenue earned by a vendor” (Para. [0029]). Therefore, Olejniczak teaches wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises at least a seller (vendor) in the markush group listed in the claims.
wherein identifying the number of times each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content has been referenced comprises identifying the number of sources that are currently referencing the commercial content, or identifying the number of sources that have referenced the commercial content, or identifying the number of times each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content has been referenced, or any combination thereof;
Olejniczak teaches “the ranking system retrieves counts associated with each product from disparate data sources” (Para. [0042]) thereby teaching identifying the number of times each product of the plurality of products has been referenced.
wherein at least one commercial content of the plurality of commercial content was referenced by at least one source of the set of at least one designated source by the respective source having sold, leased, rented, licensed, or assigned, the commercial content, or by the respective source currently selling, leasing, renting, licensing, or assigning, the commercial content;
Olejniczak teaches “The dimensions used to measure the popularity of a product may include views, clicks, or sales. For instance, a shopping site may determine popularity of a book based on the number of sales for the book” (Para. [0002]) and “The multivariable rank is used to provide a summary of the product's popularity across multiple variables, including, but not limited to, sales, views, clicks, search, revenue, etc.” (Para. [0017]).
Regarding Claim 3:
Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
wherein an AI service is also displayed.
Chandra teaches “the searching component 228 is configured to perform a Web search on each authoritative source site by using a Web search engine (for instance, the commonly known commercial search engine BING provided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.) to execute a source-specific search against the input search query.” (Para. [0041] & Fig. 3) and Bing/Microsoft’s Search Engine has been known to be using machine learning, a subset of AI, since at least the early 2010s.
Regarding Claim 4:
Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
wherein IBM’s Watson or another service is also displayed.
Chandra teaches a “a plurality of selectable icons representing authoritative sources and/or entity actions (for instance, buying tickets, streaming, renting, and the like). The user may select, for instance, the NETFLIX icon and be navigated to the NETFLIX version of the corresponding James Bond movie in accordance with the exemplary intent.” (Para.[0059] and further indicators of at least YAHOO!, MSN, and IMDB which are understood as displaying a service to the viewer (Figs. 5-7 and Paras. [0059]-[0061]).
Claim(s) 5-7, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olejniczak, Chandra, McGee, Davis, and Raines, and further in view of Schramm-Apple et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2004/0078224, hereinafter referred to as Schramm).
Regarding Claim 5:
Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein the plurality of content is a plurality of books;
Olejniczak teaches “the products may include electronics, books, movies, insurance, etc.” (Para. [0025]).
Wherein identifying a plurality of content comprises identifying at least one content because it has been referenced by a class name that matches the user’s search query;
Chandra teaches using the search query to “determine at least one entity type relevant to a received search query” (Para. [0037]) and using the determined at least one entity type to search for content (Para. [0041]) wherein features and attributes of an entity type movie includes “title, release year, director(s), cast, runtime, studio, genre(s), and the like” (Para. [0050]). Chandra further teaches “embodiments of the present invention seek to match an entity or real world item (tangible or non-tangible) to the query” (Para. [0017]). Therefore, Chanrda teaches identifying entities referenced for a class with a matching class name to the search query and identifying entities with a matching content title to the term, such as the title of a book/movie entity.
Wherein identifying a plurality of content comprises identifying at least one content because its content name matches the user’s search query;
Chandra teaches using the search query to “determine at least one entity type relevant to a received search query” (Para. [0037]) and using the determined at least one entity type to search for content (Para. [0041]) wherein features and attributes of an entity type movie includes “title, release year, director(s), cast, runtime, studio, genre(s), and the like” (Para. [0050]). Chandra further teaches “embodiments of the present invention seek to match an entity or real world item (tangible or non-tangible) to the query” (Para. [0017]). Therefore, Chanrda teaches identifying entities referenced for a class with a matching class name to the search query and identifying entities with a matching content title to the term, such as the title of a book/movie entity.
Wherein the respective source for at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content is a school, college, or university;
Davis teaches “Preferred source personas are associated with an entity (such as an individual/user, a business, an organization, a group of experts of a particular topic, a school, and the like)” (Para. [0056])
Raines, Davis, McGee, Olejniczak, and Chandra explicitly teach all of the elements of the claimed invention as recited above except:
Wherein at least one source references at least one respective content by assigning, requiring, or recommending the respective content for a course;
Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display one or more class names of a respective school wherein the one or more class names that are configured to display are one or more class names that referenced the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds, and
Wherein another source indicator popup is configured to display one or more class names of a different respective school wherein the one or more class names that are configured to display are one or more class names that referenced the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds.
However, in the related field of searching and displaying results, Schramm teaches:
Wherein at least one source references at least one respective content by assigning, requiring, or recommending the respective content for a course;
Schramm teaches “The inventors have determined that physicians refer to medical information sites primarily to find news and reference materials. In one study by the inventors in responding to a question about the three most important factors a physician uses in determining which medical information sites to use, the following responses were provided:…continuing education online courses” (Para. [0017]) and “another example of medical information resources includes professional development resources and tools, e.g., continuing medical education (CME) information, online CME, a medical meeting calendar with a list of at least major professional conferences, information and/or review modules regarding board review for various therapeutic areas for Board certification and re-certification, links to professional societies, links to government web sites, links to medical schools, and/or access to clinical trials information.” (Para. [0089]). Therfore, Schramm teaches continuing education sources with continuing education content such as online courses.
Wherein at least one source indicator popup is configured to display one or more class names of a respective school wherein the one or more class names that are configured to display are one or more class names that referenced the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds, and
Davis teaches “FIG. 13 illustrates an example (similar to the example shown in FIG. 3) of a browser window 1300 in which, by hovering a cursor over the preferred source icon 1302, a view 1304 identifying the persona (or personas) corresponding to the preferred source is displayed.” (Para. [0062]) thereby teaching a source indicator popup configured to be displayed.
Schramm teaches the searchable information being continuing education information, online CME, and online courses through particular sources (Paras. [0017] & [0089]) where “the invention optionally provides that at least one set of search results has, for each of its returned electronic resources, a second indication of at least one of: category, source, location, title and summary.” (Para. [0047]).Therefore Schramm in combination with Davis teach the popup indicator configured to display class names/titles referenced by a respective source or school providing the continuing education information.
Wherein another source indicator popup is configured to display one or more class names of a different respective school wherein the one or more class names that are configured to display are one or more class names that referenced the respective content to which the respective source indicator corresponds.
Davis teaches “FIG. 13 illustrates an example (similar to the example shown in FIG. 3) of a browser window 1300 in which, by hovering a cursor over the preferred source icon 1302, a view 1304 identifying the persona (or personas) corresponding to the preferred source is displayed.” (Para. [0062]) thereby teaching a source indicator popup configured to be displayed.
Schramm teaches the searchable information being continuing education information, online CME, and online courses through particular sources (Paras. [0017] & [0089]) where “the invention optionally provides that at least one set of search results has, for each of its returned electronic resources, a second indication of at least one of: category, source, location, title and summary.” (Para. [0047]).Schramm further teaches “links to medical schools” (Para. [0089]) thereby teaching displaying content related to multiple different schools
Therefore Schramm in combination with Davis teach the popup indicator configured to display class names/titles from different respective schools referenced by the respective sources or schools providing the continuing education information/courses.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Schramm, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak at the time that the claimed invention was effectively filed, to have combined the search for continuing education information and courses, as taught by Schramm, with the product search for vehicles, as taught by Raines, the display when hovering a cursor over a source icon, as taught by Davis, the multi-step ranking approach for ordering suppliers based on a tiered list of features relating the supplier to the product, as taught by McGee, the entity-relevant source searching, as taught by Chandra, and the systems and methods for ranking products using multiple data sources, as taught by Olejniczak.
One would have been motivated to make such combination because Schramm teaches professional development resources and tools that can be searched online (Paras. [0017]) & [0089]) and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art that expanding the product search to professional development resources and tools, such as continuing education information, online courses, and schools, would create a more dynamic system covering a wider range of content that the search and display system can handle.
Regarding Claim 6:
Schramm, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein at least one within-content preview is configured to display.
Chandra teaches a preview of the search result from a particular source configured to be displayed (Figure 3).
Regarding Claim 7:
All of the limitations herein are similar to some or all of the limitations of Claim 4.
Regarding Claim 17:
Schramm, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises an AI service or system.
Davis teaches sources including Amazon.com (Figure 5) which is understood as comprising an AI service that uses machine learning for at least the category of shopping and music.
Regarding Claim 19:
Schramm, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein the set of at least one designated source comprises IBM’s Watson or another service.
Chandra teaches a “a plurality of selectable icons representing authoritative sources and/or entity actions (for instance, buying tickets, streaming, renting, and the like). The user may select, for instance, the NETFLIX icon and be navigated to the NETFLIX version of the corresponding James Bond movie in accordance with the exemplary intent.” (Para.[0059] and further indicators of at least YAHOO!, MSN, and IMDB which are understood as displaying a service to the viewer (Figs. 5-7 and Paras. [0059]-[0061]).
Claim(s) 8-16, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olejniczak, Chandra, McGee, Davis, and Raines, and further in view of Lovelace et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2010/0286993, hereinafter referred to as Lovelace).
Regarding Claim 8:
Raines, Davis, McGee, Olejniczak, and Chandra explicitly teach all of the elements of the claimed invention as recited above except:
Wherein the plurality of content comprises a medical procedure, drug, medical device, medical test, or any combination thereof; and
Wherein the respective source for the at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content is a healthcare provider.
However, in the related field of product searching and displaying results, Lovelace teaches:
Wherein the plurality of content comprises a medical procedure, drug, medical device, medical test, or any combination thereof; and
Lovelace teaches “a method and/or system provides a marketplace for legal medical marijuana accessible over a network in which users are able to search for legal marijuana by criteria such as type, price, location and rating” (Para. [0050]).
Wherein the respective source for the at least one first-type source indicator to the right of each content is a healthcare provider.
Lovelace teaches “According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, a method and/or system provides for delivery of legal marijuana (for example, medical marijuana) for example by a medical doctor or government worker and/or using an armored automobile.” (Para. [0050]) thereby teaching a source being a healthcare provider such as a medical doctor or the government, both of which provide healthcare services.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Lovelace, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak at the time that the claimed invention was effectively filed, to have combined the marketplace for searching for legal marijuana by criteria, as taught by Lovelace, with the product search for vehicles, as taught by Raines, the display when hovering a cursor over a source icon, as taught by Davis, the multi-step ranking approach for ordering suppliers based on a tiered list of features relating the supplier to the product, as taught by McGee, the entity-relevant source searching, as taught by Chandra, and the systems and methods for ranking products using multiple data sources, as taught by Olejniczak.
One would have been motivated to make such combination because Lovelace teaches marijuana content that can be searched and bought as a product over an online marketplace (Para. [0050]) and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art that expanding the product search to marijuana and enforcing legality parameters would create a more dynamic system covering a wider range of products that the search and display system can handle.
Regarding Claim 9:
Lovelace, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein at least one source references at least one respective content by prescribing, recommending, or using the respective content for a human patient or subject, or a dog patient or subject, or a cat patient or subject.
Lovelace teaches “According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, a method and/or system provides for delivery of legal marijuana (for example, medical marijuana) for example by a medical doctor or government worker and/or using an armored automobile.” (Para. [0050]) thereby teaching prescribing, recommending, or using the content for a human patient of subject.
Regarding Claim 10:
Lovelace, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein data from a biometric sensor is received by the system.
Lovelace teaches “a biometric scanner for receiving different types of biometric information from an individual” (Para. [0024])
Regarding Claim 11:
Lovelace, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein the search query comprises data from a sensor.
Chandra teaches “The query receiving component 222 of the search engine 212 is configured to receive requests for presentation of search results that satisfy an input search query” where “a search query may also be implicitly invoked and received by the query receiving component 222, for instance, by a user pointing to something (e.g., on a screen, a television set, or in the physical world); moving a mouse pointer to an icon/text; speaking with someone on the phone” (Para. [0036]) and “The I/O ports 118 allow the computing device 100 to be logically coupled to other devices including the I/O components 120, some of which may be built in. Illustrative components include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, printer, wireless device, and the like.” (Para. [0027]) thereby teaching a search query comprising data from at least a microphone sensor.
Regarding Claim 12:
All of the limitations herein are similar to some or all of the limitations of Claim 4.
Regarding Claim 13:
Lovelace, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
wherein the plurality of commercial content is a plurality of vehicles;
Raines teaches a vehicle search result wherein each vehicle is a commercial content that is different from all other resulting commercial content in at least one of the following columns of a vehicle make, model, and year (Paras. [0048]-[0050] & Figures 12 and 14).
wherein at least one source from the set of at least one designated source is an automobile dealership; and
Raines teaches “A dealer information section can also be provided to include, for example, the dealer name, address, phone, web, e-mail, and a map to the dealer. In some cases, a hyperlink can be used to display the information on a different page or to allow the potential customer to go directly to the dealer's website, or e-mail the dealer. In one form, a hyperlink is used to go to a form for requesting that the dealer contact the potential car buyer.” (Para. [0052]_
wherein at least one source indicator comprises an image of the respective commercial content.
Lovelace teaches enabling “legal marijuana suppliers and/or sellers to create a profile via a network, and utilize a shopping cart e-commerce system that allows the supplier and/or seller to sell their legal marijuana products via a legal marijuana specific marketplace over a network. According to a specific embodiment of the present embodiment of the present invention a network based interface allowing merchants to enter many different legal marijuana products, photos, product descriptions, inventory amounts, their location, business and biographical information” (Para. [0067]). Therefore, Lovelace in combination with Raines, Chandra, and Olejniczak teaches providing photos for each product that can be displayed with other information of a set of search results.
Regarding Claim 14:
Lovelace, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein identifying the number of times each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content has been referenced comprises identifying the number of sources that currently have the commercial content available for purchase.
Olejniczak teaches “the ranking system retrieves counts associated with each product from disparate data sources” (Para. [0042]) where Raines teaches “This subroutine controls the information that is provided to the potential car buyer and allows them the opportunity to purchase a vehicle report and visit the dealer's website or e-mail the dealer regarding a vehicle listed in the search results” (Para. [0049]). Therefore, Loejniczak in combination with Raines teaches identifying the number of sources (Olejniczak) that currently have the commercial content available for purchase (Raines).
Regarding Claim 15:
Lovelace, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein the plurality of commercial content is a plurality of menu items;
Chandra teaches multiple different types of content as commercial content being movies, TV series, and music albums for the same search (Para. [0062]) as well as food items by teaching the source being restaurants: “if multiple entity types are surfaced in an integrated search results page, the user may be offered a choice to deselect types (e.g., keeping restaurants but removing cafes from results).” (Para. [0058])
Wherein at least one source from the set of at least one designated source is a restaurant; and
Chandra teaches “ if multiple entity types are surfaced in an integrated search results page, the user may be offered a choice to deselect types (e.g., keeping restaurants but removing cafes from results).” (Para. [0058]) thereby teaching at least one designated source as being a restaurant.
Wherein at least one source indicator comprises an image of the respective commercial content.
Lovelace teaches enabling “legal marijuana suppliers and/or sellers to create a profile via a network, and utilize a shopping cart e-commerce system that allows the supplier and/or seller to sell their legal marijuana products via a legal marijuana specific marketplace over a network. According to a specific embodiment of the present embodiment of the present invention a network based interface allowing merchants to enter many different legal marijuana products, photos, product descriptions, inventory amounts, their location, business and biographical information” (Para. [0067]). Therefore, Lovelace in combination with Raines, Chandra, and Olejniczak teaches providing photos for each product that can be displayed with other information of a set of search results.
Regarding Claim 16:
Lovelace, Raines, Davis, McGee, Chandra, and Olejniczak further teach:
Wherein identifying the number of times each commercial content of the plurality of commercial content has been referenced comprises identifying the number of sources that currently have the commercial content available for purchase.
Olejniczak teaches “the ranking system retrieves counts associated with each product from disparate data sources” (Para. [0042]) where Chandra teaches “search will converge to a point where indexing and retrieval of information is performed not only with respect to Web pages but also with respect to abstract entities such as applications (for instance, from application marketplaces), movies, television shows, people, celebrities, events, cities, restaurants, theaters, companies, and the like.” (Para. [0001]) and “ if multiple entity types are surfaced in an integrated search results page, the user may be offered a choice to deselect types (e.g., keeping restaurants but removing cafes from results).” (Para.[0058]). Therefore, Loejniczak in combination with Raines teaches identifying the number of sources (Olejniczak) that currently have the commercial content available for purchase (Raines).
Regarding Claim 18:
All of the limitations herein are similar to some or all of the limitations of Claim 17.
Regarding Claim 20:
All of the limitations herein are similar to some or all of the limitations of Claim 19.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s Amendments, filed on 11/24/2025, are acknowledged and accepted.
In light of the Amendments filed on 11/24/2025, the 112(b) rejections of Claims 1, 3, 5-15, and 17-20 have been withdrawn.
In light of the Amendments filed on 11/24/2025, the double patenting rejection of Claims 1-4, 6-7, and 12 have been withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
On page 9 of the Remarks filed on 11/24/2025, Applicant requests reconsideration of the 101 rejection of the claimed invention as being directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.Upon further review, the amended claims were not found to overcome the 101 rejection and have been addressed in further detail in the rejection above.
On page 10 of the Remarks filed on 11/24/2025, Applicant states that the amended claimed invention is not obvious over the cited references Olejniczak, Chandra, McGee, Davis, and Lovelace. Upon further review, Applicant’s statement is convincing and thus necessitates the new grounds of rejection presented above to address the amended limitations.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Adler et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2003/0040976) teaches a method of selling products and/or services, the method including the steps of obtaining product or service data, seller’s data, and Web site choices for each seller of a proposed marketplace, generating a marketplace including selected products or services of each seller based on the seller’s product or service data, and generating for each seller of a number of sellers, a business-to-business Web site or a business-to-consumer Website or both.
Cohen et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2010/0211564, hereinafter referred to as Cohen) teaches “a graphical user interface control based on metadata associated with the search hits [of a search request] is constructed and displayed with the search results in a standard view” (Abstract) where the results show multiple sets of metadata for each result in a row by row manner (Fig. 7).
Dutta (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2002/0078045) teaches search results ranked by associating user category weights with each file indexed in a search database, where the user can adjust the category weights.
Fokoue et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2012/0066167) teaches collecting information from one or more information sources, detecting one or more inconsistencies in one or more statements from the information collected from the one or more sources, assigning a penalty to each information source involved in an inconsistency and a reward for each statement not involved in any inconsistencies, and using each assigned penalty and reward to perform an aggregation to assess trust in the collected information.
Govani et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2009/0182725) teaches receiving a group of Internet search records and assigning a popularity ranking based on the number of times an entity descriptor associated with an entity occurs within the group of Internet search records created over a designated time period.
Jones (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2005/0228593) teaches searching a plurality of sources of information on prescription drugs such as a plurality of medical practitioners and pharmacists to find information on drugs.
Mock et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2002/0161757) teaches indexing, searching, and retrieving data from data sets that reside in the same database or distributed across different databases.
Morita et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2008/0208624) teaches aggregating data relating to a patient from a plurality of information systems to form an aggregated electronic patient record; a filter focusing the aggregated data based on one or more criteria; and an output providing the focused data to a user.
Siamwalla et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2013/0097144) teaches displaying search results including “a title, a caption, a source, and a thumbnail image related to the…search result presented to the left of the text” (Para. [0079]).
Smith et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2005/0065959) teaches forming search results clustered by a common feature or identifier such as an address where the clusters are represented to a user as ranked individual search results in a list of search results.
Thomsen et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2008/0270451) teaches generating a metadata model for use in classifying and searching for information objects maintained in heterogeneous data stores.
Yoo (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2009/0281988) teaches search results as information based on relationship-based recommendations or preferences specified by related people in one or more social networks or affinity groups.
Zijlstra et al. (U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2006/0112085) teaches searching user-specified subject areas and receiving results comprising a tabular display of results that enables the user to sort results according to date, relevance, author, source title, and number of citations to each publication, and further comprising a list of publication titles, with each title having one or more adjacent selectable links to an aspect of the publication corresponding to the title.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT F MAY whose telephone number is (571)272-3195. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:30am to 6pm.
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/ROBERT F MAY/Examiner, Art Unit 2154 1/7/2026
/SYED H HASAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2154