DETAILED ACTION
Remarks
The instant application having Application Number 18/833,078 filed on July 25, 2024 has a total of 6 claims pending in the application; there are 2 independent claims and 4 dependent claims, all of which are presented for examination by the examiner.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Examiner Notes
Examiner cites particular columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner.
The examiner requests, in response to this Office action, supports are shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line no(s) in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the examiner in prosecuting the application.
When responding to this office action, Applicant is advised to clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present, in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. He or she must also show how the amendments avoid such references or objections See 37 CFR 1.111(c).
Information Disclosure Statement
As required by M.P.E.P. 609(C), the applicant’s submissions of the Information Disclosure Statements dated 07/25/2024 and 01/13/2026 are acknowledged by the examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending. As required by M.P.E.P 609 C (2), a copy of the PTOL-1449 initialed and dated by the examiner is attached to the instant office action.
Drawings
The applicant’s drawings submitted are acceptable for examination purposes.
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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Claim 1 lacks the necessary physical articles or objects to constitute a machine or a manufacture within the meaning of 35 USC 101.
Claim 1 is directed towards software per se because it is merely software modules (i.e., units) without any physical components (such as memory, processor etc.) to represent the Device. Software per se, which is not patent eligible subject matter since it does not contain any structure that would allow it to be either a manufacture, machine, or composition of matter.
All claims dependent thereon, namely claims 2-5, fail to remedy these deficiencies, and are rejected for at least the same reasons.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ozaki et al. (US Patent Publication No. 2021/0377390 A1, ‘Ozaki’, hereafter).
Regarding claim 1. Ozaki teaches a response control device applied to a response system in which, after responding to an inquiry from a user with a chatbot, an operator is capable of continuously responding using information collected by the chatbot (Ozaki [0025]), the device characterized by comprising:
an evaluation information storage unit storing in advance evaluation information relevant to a response capability of the operator for each operator (Ozaki [0011], [0027], [0038]);
an operational status management unit sequentially updating and managing operational status information indicating an operational status of the operator for each operator (Ozaki [0028], [0038]); and
a response method determination unit, when there is the inquiry from the user, on the basis of contents of the inquiry, the evaluation information of the operator, and the operational status information of the operator, determining a response method including a scenario to be applied to the chatbot and an operator planned to respond after the response by the chatbot (Ozaki [0025], [0027], [0034], [0038]).
Regarding claim 2. Ozaki teaches the response control device according to claim 1, characterized in that
the response method determination unit includes an operator search unit, when there is the inquiry from the user, on the basis of the operational status information of the operator, searching for a response- available operator as the operator planned to respond (Ozaki [0007-0008], [0012-0013], [0035], [0047]), and
a scenario specifying unit, on the basis of the contents of the inquiry and the evaluation information of the operator planned to respond searched by the operator search unit, specifying the scenario to be applied to the chatbot (Ozaki [0007-0008], [0012-0013], [0035], [0047]).
Regarding claim 3. Ozaki teaches the response control device according to claim 2, characterized in that
the scenario specifying unit determines whether the operator planned to respond is capable of responding to the contents of the inquiry, on the basis of the evaluation information of the operator planned to respond, specifies a superficial scenario for collecting superficial information regarding the inquiry from the user when it is determined that the operator is capable of responding, and specifies an in-depth scenario for collecting in-depth information regarding the inquiry from the user when it is determined that the operator is not capable of responding (Ozaki [0007-0008], [0012-0013], [0035], [0047]).
Regarding claim 4. Ozaki teaches the response control device according to claim 2, characterized in that
the scenario specifying unit determines whether the operator planned to respond is capable of responding to the contents of the inquiry, on the basis of the evaluation information of the operator planned to respond, specifies a scenario with few responses when it is determined that the operator is capable of responding, and specifies a scenario with more responses when it is determined that the operator is not capable of responding (Ozaki [0008-0009], [0011], [0037-0038]), and
when the scenario specifying unit determines that the operator is not capable of responding, on the basis of the evaluation information of the operator stored by the evaluation information storage unit, the operator search unit re-searches for an operator capable of responding to the contents of the inquiry as the operator planned to respond (Ozaki [0008-0009], [0011], [0037-0038]).
Regarding claim 5. Ozaki teaches the response control device according to claim 1, characterized in that
the response method determination unit includes an operator search unit, when there is the inquiry from the user, on the basis of the contents of the inquiry and the evaluation information of the operator, searching for an operator capable of responding to the contents of the inquiry (Ozaki [0008-0009], [0011], [0037-0038]),
a first response method specifying unit, when the operator capable of responding is searched by the operator search unit, on the basis of the operational status information of the searched operator, determining whether a response is available within a predetermined time, specifying the searched operator as the operator planned to respond when the response is available, and specifying a scenario with few responses (Ozaki [0008-0009], [0011], [0037-0038]); and
a second response method specifying unit, when the operator capable of responding is not searched by the operator search unit or when it is determined that the operator capable of responding searched by the operator search unit is not available for responding within a predetermined time, on the basis of the operational status information of the operator, searching for another response- available operator as the operator planned to respond and specifying an in-depth scenario for collecting in-depth information regarding the inquiry from the user or a scenario with more responses (Ozaki [0007-0008], [0012-0013], [0035], [0047]).
Regarding claim 6, although claim 6 directed to a method, it is similar in scope to claim 1. The device steps of claim 1 substantially encompass the method recited in claim 6. Therefore; claim 6 is rejected for at least the same reason as claim 1 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record, listed on form PTO-892, and not relied upon, if any, is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Inoue (US Patent Publication No. 2017/0163696 A1) discloses a transmission control system includes a transmission controller to control transmission of content data in a session for transmitting the content data between communications terminals. When the transmission controller controls the transmission not to transmit image data from the first terminal to the second terminal, but to transmit image data from the first terminal to the third terminal while transmitting image data from the second terminal to the first terminal, and transmitting image data from the third terminal to the first terminal, the transmission controller controls the transmission to transmit, based on a request transmitted from the second terminal, image data from the first terminal to the second terminal, but not to transmit image data from the first terminal to the third terminal while transmitting image data from the second terminal to the first terminal, and transmitting image data from the third terminal to the first terminal.
Sakuyama et al. (Japanese Patent Publication No. JP 2002057801 A) discloses a network device which can easily connect communication to the equipment of a responder who can make an appropriate response. SOLUTION: This network device is provided with an inputting means which inputs the signal from the equipment (1) of a signal dispatcher, a control means which controls equipment (17) connected to an internal network, an equipment (5) of a responder connected to an external network, or the equipment of one of a plurality of responders connected to the external network so that the equipment (17) or (5) may communicate with the equipment (1) of the dispatcher of the signal inputted to the inputting means.
Moore et al. (US Patent Publication No. 2004/0030750 A1) discloses a messaging response system is disclosed wherein a service providing system provides services to users via messaging communications. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, multiple respondents servicing users through messaging communications may appear to simultaneously use a common "screen name" identifier.
Kakiuchi et al. (US Patent Publication No. 2019/0222545 A1) discloses an information processing method performed by a server includes receiving a request to initiate communication over an instant messaging system based on a connected voice call of a terminal, the request including a telephone number of the terminal, determining whether a particular user identifier of a user of the terminal is stored in a memory of the server based on the telephone number, the memory of the server storing one or more user identifiers in association with one or more telephone numbers, the one or more user identifiers being associated with the instant messaging system, and sending a message to the terminal based on the particular user identifier in response to determining the particular user identifier is stored in the memory.
Bhatt et al. (US Patent No. 10,212,104 B1) discloses a system includes one or more memory devices storing instructions, and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to perform steps of a method for automatic communication failure recovery. The system may receive customer data associated with a customer and generate a message based on the customer data. The system may transmit the message to the customer and upon determining that the customer has failed to engage the message within a predetermined amount of time, the system may monitor an application service to detect when the customer logs in and then generate a communication link between a CSR terminal and the customer's device and cause a communication interface within the application to launch on the customer's device.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HASANUL MOBIN whose telephone number is (571)270-1289. The examiner can normally be reached on 9AM to 6:00PM EST M-F.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Rones can be reached at 571-272-4085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/HASANUL MOBIN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2168
Prosecution Insights