DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 7, 8, filed 07/27/26, with respect to claims 1 – 21 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claims 1 – 21 under 35 U.S.C 101 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed 07/27/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that Carr does not disclose for each sub-task: transmitting a second prompt to the LLM, the second prompt comprising a description of the respective sub-task and the descriptions of the available services; receiving, from the LLM in response to the respective second prompt, an identification of one or more available services; invoking, for the respective sub-task and via a respective interface, the one or more identified available services (Amendment, pages 8, 9).
The examiner disagrees since Carr discloses “Processing at least a portion of the diction to identify at least one task to be performed within a medical management system may include one or more of: processing at least a portion of the diction using natural language processing; processing at least a portion of the diction to identify one or more task-indicative trigger words; and processing at least a portion of the diction to identify one or more task-indicative conversational structures. Processing at least a portion of the diction to identify at least one task to be performed within a medical management system may include: processing at least a portion of the diction on a cloud-based computing resource to identify at least one task to be performed within a medical management system. The medical management system may include one or more of: a medical office management system; a medical office billing system; and a pharmacy management system. Effectuating the at least one task on the medical management system may include: parsing the at least one task into a plurality of subtasks; and effectuating the plurality of subtasks on the medical management system” (paragraphs 6 – 9, see also 143, 164).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 – 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Carr (US PAP 2023/0033607).
As per claims 1, 8, and 15, Carr teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by a virtual assistant executed by a server, a task from a remote client device (“monitoring the diction of a data processing specialist using the virtual assistant”; paragraph 6);
transmitting a first prompt to a large language model (“LLM”), the first prompt comprising the task and a request to process the task("monitoring the diction of a medical specialist using a virtual assistant…processing at least a portion of the diction using natural language processing; processing at least a portion of the diction to identify one or more task-indicative trigger words, "par 63 "When processing 406 at least a portion of the diction to identify at least one communication request (e.g., placing a food/beverage order; requesting medication; contacting the nurse's station; and calling for emergency assistance) within the hospital room (e.g., hospital room 300), communication process 10 may process at least a portion of the diction using natural language processing. As discussed above, natural language processing is a subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to process and analyze large amounts of natural language data."; paragraphs 6, 9);
receiving, from the LLM in response to the first prompt, a plurality of sub-tasks and an ordering of the plurality of sub-tasks (“processing at least a portion of the diction to identify at least one task to be performed within a medical management system", paragraph 7 "parsing the at least one task into a plurality of subtasks; and effectuating the plurality of subtasks", paragraph 142 parse 918 the at least one task (e.g., task 66) into a plurality of subtasks (e.g., subtasks 68)"; paragraphs 6 – 9);
obtaining descriptions of a plurality of available services; for each sub-task: transmitting a second prompt to the LLM, the second prompt comprising a description of the respective sub-task and the descriptions of the available services (“the subtasks are identified and effectuated, this implies the identification of software or hardware components which correspond to claimed services, to perform the sub-task execution”; paragraphs 6 - 9);
receiving, from the LLM in response to the respective second prompt, an identification of one or more available services; invoking, for the respective sub-task and via a respective interface, the one or more identified available services (“processing at least a portion of the diction on a cloud-based computing resource to identify at least one task to be performed within a medical management system. The medical management system may include one or more of: a medical office management system; a medical office billing system; and a pharmacy management system. Effectuating the at least one task on the medical management system may include: parsing the at least one task into a plurality of subtasks; and effectuating the plurality of subtasks on the medical management system”; paragraphs 7, 10); and
after completion of the plurality of sub-tasks, generating and providing a response to the task to the remote client device ("in order to accomplish task 66, communication process 10 may effectuate a plurality of discrete subtasks (e.g., subtasks 68), examples of which may include but are not limited to identifying any outstanding balance owed by Patient Mary Jones, incrementing that amount by a $100 copay for the ordered CAT Scan, generating an invoice for that incremented amount, and submitting that invoice to Patient Mary Jones."; paragraphs 77, 170).
As per claims 2, 9, and 16, Carr further discloses receiving from the LLM, in response to the first prompt, an indication of a need to request additional information from the remote client device (“authenticate 620 the identity of the prescription recipient (e.g., user 40); ask 622 the prescription recipient (e.g., user 40) to define the specific medication to be refilled, thus defining a desired medication; and determine 624 if the desired medication is currently refillable. For example, communication process 10 may authenticate 620 the identity of the prescription recipient (e.g., user 40) using a voice print or via a PIN #/passcode”; paragraph 125).
As per claims 3, 10, and 17, Carr further discloses transmitting a request for additional information to the remote client device, the request based on the indication of the need to request additional information from the remote client device; receiving supplemental information from the remote client device in response to the request; and transmitting a supplemental first prompt to the LLM based on the supplemental information (“one or more applications (e.g., application 314) may be installed/executed on the virtual assistant (e.g., virtual assistant 32) to enable communication with the remote location (e.g., nurse's station 310) via communication process 10…authenticate 620 the identity of the prescription recipient (e.g., user 40); ask 622 the prescription recipient (e.g., user 40) to define the specific medication to be refilled, thus defining a desired medication; and determine 624 if the desired medication is currently refillable. For example, communication process 10 may authenticate 620 the identity of the prescription recipient (e.g., user 40) using a voice print or via a PIN #/passcode”; paragraphs 88 – 90, 125, 126).
As per claims 4, 11, and 18, Carr further discloses the task comprises a natural-language description of an action to perform (“processing at least a portion of the diction using natural language processing; processing at least a portion of the diction to identify one or more task-indicative trigger words”; paragraphs 6, 8).
As per claims 5, 12, and 19, Carr further discloses each sub-task comprises a natural-language description of an action to perform (“processing at least a portion of the diction using natural language processing; processing at least a portion of the diction to identify one or more task-indicative trigger words…parsing the at least one task into a plurality of subtasks; and effectuating the plurality of subtasks on the medical management system”; paragraphs 6, 8).
As per claims 6, 13, and 20, Carr further discloses the available services comprise a database management system, a calendar, a LLM, a video conferencing system, a telephone system, or a search engine (“effectuate 920 the plurality of subtasks (e.g., subtasks 68) on the medical management system (e.g., medical management system 70). For example, in order to accomplish task 66, communication process 10 may effectuate a plurality of discrete subtasks (e.g., subtasks 68), examples of which may include but are not limited to identifying any outstanding balance owed by Patient Mary Jones, incrementing that amount by a $100 copay for the ordered CAT Scan, generating an invoice for that incremented amount, and submitting that invoice to Patient Mary Jones.”; paragraphs 169 – 173, 193).
As per claims 7, 14, and 21, Carr further discloses providing the plurality of sub-tasks and the ordering to a coordinator process; and wherein the coordinator process is configured to perform the plurality of sub-tasks according to the ordering (“monitoring the diction of a data processing specialist using the virtual assistant; and monitoring the diction of an ordering specialist using the virtual assistant…effectuating the plurality of subtasks on the medical management system.”; paragraphs 6 – 10).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LEONARD SAINT-CYR whose telephone number is (571)272-4247. The examiner can normally be reached Monday- Friday.
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/LEONARD SAINT-CYR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2658
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