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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 9/24/2026 has been entered.
This communication is in response to the remarks and amendments dated 9/24/2026. Claims 1-3, 5, 6, 8 and 9, as amended on 9/24/2025, are currently pending and have been fully considered below.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 9/24/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-9 under 35 USC 102 and 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Robason (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2025/0037181).
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.
Claims 1, 3, 6, 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ahn (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2023/0244309) in view of Robason (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2025/0037181).
As per claims 1, 8 and 9. (Currently Amended) Ahn discloses a product search device comprising:
a memory configured to store instructions (see fig. 1); and
a processor (see fig. 1) configured to execute the instructions to:
acquire an image of products and user gaze information captured by a terminal device of a user for a product
([0036] A device for providing customized content based on gaze recognition according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may recognize a user’s gaze by automatically adjusting the angle of a camera attached to the device in real time based on a captured image of the user and provide customized content based on gaze recognition, which is content including product information on an item that the user is gazing at.
[0188] Specifically, the content providing device 100 in the embodiment may output product information on the detected item based on the product information database 111 to the content display 171-1 as content.);
extract, from the image of products, an area including a target product based on the user gaze information, and generate a target image of the target product based on the extracted area
([0011] Furthermore, the present disclosure provides a device and method for providing customized content based on gaze recognition which output content for a product that a user is gazing at.)
recognize, using a trained product recognition model, the target product based on the target image and obtain a product identifier of the target product
(see fig. 3 and [0179] Here, the detected item may include product information corresponding to an advertisement and additional information with respect to the item. To this end, the content providing device 100 in the embodiment may individually match product information included in each item sold to the user 1 using the content providing device 100 with each item and store the same in the product information database 111 in advance.);
acquire, from a product database based on the product identifier, product information associated with the product identifier and including ingredient names of the target product;
acquire user information including one or more ingredients harmful to health of the user or health of the user’s pet
(see fig. 3 and [0187] Then, the content providing device 100 in the embodiment may output content with respect to the detected item (S113).).
However, Ahn does not appear to explicitly disclose the highlight, in the product information, an ingredient name matching at least one of the one or more harmful ingredients; and output, to the terminal device, the product information with the matching ingredient name highlighted to cause the terminal device to display the product information to the user and notify the user of the presence of the harmful ingredient.
Robason teaches an ingredient insight device with the features of:
highlight, in the product information, an ingredient name matching at least one of the one or more harmful ingredients;
([0010] The device is designed to identify ingredients that might impact a user, such as a mother or unborn child either during gestation or after birth by highlighting products with known negative health impacts.
output, to the terminal device, the product information with the matching ingredient name highlighted to cause the terminal device to display the product information to the user and notify the user of the presence of the harmful ingredient
([0057] As shown in FIG. 5, an audible and/or visible alert 126 may be sent to the user 112 whenever a potentially hazardous ingredient 122 is identified.)
The reference describes sending an alert to the user device, which is a form of outputting information. The reference describes sending an alert to the user, which notifies them of the presence of harmful ingredients.
From this teaching of Robason, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system and method of Ahn to include the highlighting, taught by Robason, to protect against hazards.
As per claim 2, (Currently Amended) Robason discloses wherein the user information further includes one or more ingredients useful for the health of the user or the health of the user’s pet and wherein the processor highlights, in the product information, useful ingredients included in the target product that are useful for the health of the user or the health of the user's pet based on the user information, and outputs, to the terminal device, the product information highlighting the useful ingredients included in the target product that are useful for the health of the user or the health of the user's pet to cause the terminal device to display the product information to the user with the useful ingredients highlighted
([0057] As shown in FIG. 5, an audible and/or visible alert 126 may be sent to the user 112 whenever a potentially hazardous ingredient 122 is identified. This could be detected and sent from the server-side processes to the client-side processes. The audible and/or visible alert 126 can be any suitable alert, such as, but not limited to, an alarm, a beep, a ringtone, a text, a flashing light, a vibration, etc.
The combination is made by the same rationale as above.
As per claim 3, (Currently Amended) Robason discloses the product search device according to claim 2, wherein the processor outputs information of a recommended product which includes the useful ingredients and is different from the target product ([0059] The server is configured to collect the product information that is of interest to the user and using said information to provide recommendations to the user regarding other items that may be of interest and/or to provide discount or promotional information for the item or other items.).
The combination is made by the same rationale as above.
As per claim 6, (Currently Amended) Ahn discloses the product search device according to claim 3, wherein the image of products is an image of the products in a store, wherein the processor selects the recommended product from the products in the store (see fig. 2).
Claims 2 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ahn (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2023/0244309) in view of Wilkinson (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2017/0301001).
As per claim 2, (Currently Amended) Ahn discloses the claimed invention does not appear to explicitly disclose the features of claim 2.
Wilkinson teaches systems and methods for providing content-based product recommendations with the feature of the user information further includes one or more ingredients useful for the health of the user or the health of the user’s pet and wherein the processor highlights, in the product information, useful ingredients included in the target product that are useful for the health of the user or the health of the user's pet based on the user information, and outputs, to the terminal device, the product information highlighting the useful ingredients included in the target product that are useful for the health of the user or the health of the user's pet to cause the terminal device to display the product information to the user with the useful ingredients highlighted
([0116] These teachings will accommodate a wide variety of information sources and types including both objective characterizing and/or subjective characterizing information for the aforementioned products.
[0117] Examples of objective characterizing information include, but are not limited to, ingredients information (i.e., specific components/materials from which the product is made), manufacturing locale information (such as country of origin, state of origin, municipality of origin, region of origin, and so forth),).
From this teaching of Wilkinson, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the system and method of Ahn to include the ingredient information, taught by Wilkinson, on order to provide curated recommendations.
As per claim 5, Ahn discloses the claimed invention but does not appear to disclose the limitations in claim 5.
Wilkinson teaches the product search device according to claim 1, wherein the processor outputs information of a recommended product which is an alternative to the target product and does not include the harmful ingredients for health
([0004] Increasing efforts are being made to present a given consumer with one or more purchasing options that are selected based upon some preference of the consumer. When done properly, this approach can help to avoid presenting the consumer with things that they might not wish to consider.
[0048] These teachings will accommodate a variety of differing bases for such partialities including, for example, a person's values, affinities, aspirations, and preferences.
The “preferences” are construed as including health information).
From this teaching of Wilkinson, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the system and method of Ahn to include the ingredient information, taught by Wilkinson, on order to provide curated recommendations.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See Notice of References Cited form attached.
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/OLUSEYE IWARERE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2834
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