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 Amendment
This action is in response to the amendments filed on 7/24/2026 wherein the examiner acknowledges that claims 1, 3, 7-8 & 11 have been amended, additional claims 14-16 have been added and claims 2 & 4 have been canceled. Consequently, claims 1, 3, 5-16 are currently pending.
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, 3, 5-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
When considering subject matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. 101, it must be determined whether the claim is directed to one of the four statutory categories of invention, i.e., process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter. If the claim does fall within one of the statutory categories, it must then be determined whether the claim is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., law of nature, natural phenomenon, and abstract idea), and if so, it must additionally be determined whether the claim is a patent-eligible application of the exception. If an abstract idea is present in the claim, any element or combination of elements in the claim must be sufficient to ensure that the claim amounts to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. Examples of abstract ideas include fundamental economic practices; certain methods of organizing human activities; an idea itself; and mathematical relationships/formulas. Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et al., 573 U.S.___(2014).
Claims 1, 3, 5-6 & 14 are directed to a device; claims 7 & 15 are directed to a method of sport play and claims 8-13 & 16 directed to non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions of a sport play situation determination program; hence, all the claims recite steps of presenting a virtual scene on computing device. As such, the claims are directed to statutory subject matter under Step 1 of the Alice flowchart and are directed to a judicial exception (i.e. an abstract idea).
Addressing the claims under Step 2A, the claims are held to be directed to concepts similar to those found to be abstract, either as outlined in the 2014 lEG/July 2015 Update to Subject matter eligibility, or, as compared to certain decisions rendered by the courts. The claims describe the steps of data visualization by presenting a virtual scene on a display, as recited by the claim language “a positional relationship extraction unit, implemented using one or more processors, configured to extract a positional relationship of a plurality of sport players by using a determination expression for determining whether a predetermined sport play situation has been achieved on [[the]]a basis of a position of each of the plurality of sport players, wherein the positional relationship extraction unit uses (i) a region determination expression for determining whether or not a first sport player is located at a specific position from a position of the first sport player, and (ii) a cornering determination expression for determining whether or not the first sport player located at the specific position is cornering a second sport player from the position of the first sport player and a position of the second sport player to determine a situation in which the first sport player is cornering the second sport player against the specific position; a positional relationship aggregation unit, implemented using one or more processors, configured to aggregate the positional relationship of the plurality of sport players extracted by the positional relationship extraction unit and create a sport play situation display representing the aggregated positional relationship, wherein the positional relationship aggregation unit creates a heat map by dividing a region where the sport is performed into a plurality of sectioned regions for each of the plurality of sport players as the sport play situation display, and the heat map of the first sport player performing the cornering explicitly indicates the sectioned region where the sport player is located; and an output unit, implemented using one or more processors, configured to present the sport play situation display created by the positional relationship aggregation unit.” The addition of the limitations that narrow the idea merely aide in the description of the abstract idea and therefore do not render the claims any less abstract.
The concept of identifying and adjusting visibility of information on a display device, further represents ‘an idea itself’ (see July 2015 Update: Section III (C)) inasmuch as it is related to processes of identifying, comparing, processing, and presenting data. Several precedential cases have found concepts relating to processes of identifying, comparing, processing, and presenting data to be mere ideas in themselves. One example includes selecting/identifying displayed data, manipulating the data through encoding and decoding processes, and generating new outputs/displays (Recognicorp, LLC, v. Nintendo Co., Ltd., Nintendo of America, Inc., No. 2:12-cv-01873-RAJ (2017)). The courts have addressed other computerized processes for of identifying, comparing, processing, and presenting data including data collecting and comparing known information (Classen Immunotherapies Inc. v. Biogen IDEC 659 F.3d 1057(Fed. Cir. 2011)), collecting information, analyzing it, and displaying certain results of the collection and analysis (Electric Power Group, LLC v. Alstom 830 F.3d 1350, 119 U.S.P.Q.2d 1739 (Fed. Cir. 2016))] extracting, organizing, storing and transmitting data (Content Extraction and Transmission LLC v. Wells Fargo Bank, National Ass'n. 776 F.3d 1343 (Fed. Cir. 2014)) and obtaining and comparing intangible data (Cybersource Corp v. Retail Decisions, Inc. 654 F.3d 1366, 99 U.S.P.Q. 2d 1690 (Fed. Cir. 2011)) (see July 2015 Update: Section III (C)).
Therefore, while it is understood that the claims in the current application are not verbatim recitations of the guidelines or case law, the detailed analysis provided above shows how the current claim limitations at issue closely parallel the concepts provided by the guidelines and the precedential case law, and are therefore considered to be directed to an abstract idea (Step 2A: YES).
Step 2A, Prong Two: Claims 1 & 7-8 do not contain additional elements that integrate the abstract idea exception into a practical application because the additional elements are mere instructions to apply the abstract idea exception; MPEP §2106.05(f). (2) generally link the judicial exception to a particular technological environment; MPEP § 2106.05(h); (3) are insignificant extra solution activity; MPEP § 2106.05(g). The additional elements are limited to generic computer components. The additional elements present in the claims are: “processors”, “display device” and “memory storage”, “storage medium” and “computer”. Thus, the independent claims as a whole, including the additional elements individually and in combination, do not include elements more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer/computer components and is not a practical application; See MPEP §2106.05(f). The additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea exception into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on the abstract idea exception. Accordingly, Claims 1, 3, 5-16 are directed to an abstract idea.
Under Step 2B, the examiner acknowledges the additional limitations (i.e. “processors”, “display device” and “memory storage”, “storage medium” and “computer”). Additionally, Under Step 2B, no element or combination of elements is sufficient to ensure the claim as a whole amounts to significantly more that the abstract idea itself. For example, the computer components generically claimed to enable the management of the game by performing the basic functions of: (i) receiving, processing, and storing data, or (ii) receiving or transmitting data over a network, e.g., using the Internet to gather data. The courts have recognized these functions to be well-understood, routine, and conventional functions when claimed in a merely generic manner. Particularly, In re TLI Communications LLC (Fed Cir, 2016) held that adding hardware that performs “‘well understood, routine, conventional activit[ies]’ previously known to the industry” will not make claims patent-eligible. As such, the recitation of the computer limitations in Claims 1, 3 & 5-16 amounts to mere instructions to implement the abstract idea of rendering graphics on a computing device, without integrating the abstract idea exception into a practical application.
These limitations however are used for data gathering and presentation and as such merely represents insignificant pre and post solution activity. Even assuming arguendo that the claims are not insignificant pre and post solution activities or mental activities, each of the functions performed by the machinery are well-understood, routine, and conventional (i.e. receiving and processing data, and receiving or transmitting data over a network, e.g., using the Internet to gather data (see July 2015 Update: Section IV)).
Additionally, these limitations are merely generic recitations of computers and networks performing basic functions and the claims amount to nothing more than implementing the abstract idea on a computer. The limitations taken as a whole amount to nothing more than implementing the concept of data visualization and information management with routine, conventional activity specified at a high level of generality in a particular technological environment. When viewed either as individual limitations or as an ordered combination, the claims as a whole do not add significantly more to the abstract idea of object visibility on a display device.
Ultimately, the claimed machine/device function solely as an obvious mechanism to achieve the claimed result, failing to impart a meaningful limit on the claim scope [see SiRF Tech., Inc. v. ITC (Fed. Cir. 2010)]. The claims at issue here do not rise to overriding the routine and conventional sequence of events ordinarily performed by the computer, nor do they set forth with any specificity the interactions of the machine itself. Conversely, the claims are only specific in how the computer is used to facilitate the abstract idea itself, using routine and conventional operations of the generic machinery, and are silent as to any detail or property that would transform the otherwise generic machinery into a specialized or special purpose machine. Even when considered as an ordered combination, the computer components of applicant's method add nothing that is not already present when they are considered individually. Viewed as a whole, the claims simply convey the idea itself facilitated by generic computing components.
Thus, under Step 2B, the Examiner concludes that there are no meaningful limitations in the claim that transform the judicial exception into a patent eligible application such that the claim amounts to significantly more than the judicial exception itself (Step 2B: NO).
Dependent claims when analyzed as a whole are held to be patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the additional recited limitations fail to establish that the claims are not directed to an abstract idea. The claims provide minimal technical structure or components for further consideration either individually or as ordered combinations with the independent claims. As such, additional recited limitations in the dependent claims only refine the identified abstract idea further. Further refinement of an abstract idea does not convert an abstract idea into something concrete.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 7/24/2026, with respect to 35 USC 102(a)(1) rejection of claims 1 & 7-8 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of 5/14/2026 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed 7/24/2026, with respect to 35 USC 101 rejection have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
With regard to applicant argument that amendments to the independent claim 1 integrates the abstract idea into a practical application because the claimed region and cornering determinations allegedly solve a technical rendering problem in sports-position visualization systems, and that the heat map enables a computer to render complex interactive player states. However, these arguments are not persuasive.
The claimed invention is directed to collecting player-position data, determining positional relationships between players, identifying a cornering situation based on those relationships, aggregating the data by regions, and displaying the results in a heat map. These limitations recite analysis, comparison, categorization, and presentation of information. The “region determination expression” and “cornering determination expression” is utilized as guideline for evaluating the significance of player-location information; they do not provide improvement as to how a computer, tracking device, display device, or graphics processor operates. Similarly, the claimed heat map merely presents the results of the abstract analysis. The claim does not recite a particular graphics-rendering technique, display architecture, coordinate-transformation method, data structure, processing improvement, or other technological mechanism that improves rendering speed, accuracy, efficiency, or operation of the system. Rather, generic computing components are used as tools to determine what player-position information is displayed and to display that information. The claims do not solve a technological problem in the generation or rendering of graphical displays; they apply rules to sports data and present the resulting information in a selected visual format.
Accordingly, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application under Step 2A, Prong Two. The claims merely apply the abstract idea in the field of sports analysis and visualization using generic computer functionality. Consequently, the rejection of claims 1, 3, 5-16 under 35 U.S.C. 101 is maintained.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUNIT PANDYA whose telephone number is (571)272-2823. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-6:30PM.
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/SUNIT PANDYA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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