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 .
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 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter (abstract idea without significantly more). Claims are eligible for patent protection under § 101 if they are in one of the four statutory categories and not directed to a judicial exception to patentability. Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int'l, 573 U.S. 208 (2014). Claims 1-6, each considered as a whole and as an ordered combination, are directed to a judicial exception (i.e., an abstract idea) without significantly more.
MPEP 2106 Step 2A – Prong 1:
The claims recite an abstract idea reflected in the representative functions of the independent claims—including:
identifying a cell within a range based on a venue location of an event for which a ticket enables participation therein, the range corresponding to a time from a current time until a time of the event;
acquiring the number of user terminals currently connected to the identified cell;
determining whether or not the acquired number of user terminals is equal to or greater than the number of sellable tickets; and
when it is determined that the acquired number of user terminals is equal to or greater than the number of sellable tickets, announcing to the users that ticket purchase is possible.
These limitations taken together qualify as a certain method of organizing human activities because they recite collecting, analyzing, and outputting information for commercially promoting tickets to people within a certain area of an event venue under certain inventory and potential demand conditions (i.e., in the terminology of the 2019 Revised Guidance, commercial interactions (including advertising, marketing or sales activities or behaviors; business relations). Additionally, it recites processes that can be performed mentally (e.g., a person observing the number of terminals connected to an identified cell on a display at a certain time, evaluating them to determine if they are equal or greater than the number of sellable tickets, and making a judgment on whether or not to announce that ticket purchase is possible). Finally, it also recites certain mathematical relationships (determining whether or not the acquired number of user terminals is equal to or greater than the number of sellable tickets).
It shares similarities with other abstract ideas held to be non-statutory by the courts (see Sanderling Management Ltd. v. Snap Inc., 65 F.4th 698 (Fed. Cir. 2023)—distributing information based upon matching GPS location, similar because at another level of abstraction the claims could be characterized as distributing ticketing information based upon time and location; Customedia Technologies, LLC v. Dish Network Corp., 951 F.3d 1359 (Fed. Cir. 2020)—delivery of targeted advertisements to users, which also characterizes the invention). See also Electric Power Grp., LLC v. Alstom S.A., 830 F.3d 1350, 1355 (Fed. Cir. 2016) ("But merely selecting information, by content or source, for collection, analysis, and display does nothing significant to differentiate a process from ordinary mental processes, whose implicit exclusion from § 101 undergirds the information-based category of abstract ideas.").
These cases describe significantly similar aspects of the claimed invention, albeit at another level of abstraction. See Apple, Inc. v. Ameranth, Inc., 842 F.3d 1229, 1240-41 (Fed. Cir. 2016) ("An abstract idea can generally be described at different levels of abstraction. As the Board has done, the claimed abstract idea could be described as generating menus on a computer, or generating a second menu from a first menu and sending the second menu to another location. It could be described in other ways, including, as indicated in the specification, taking orders from restaurant customers on a computer.").
MPEP 2106 Step 2A – Prong 2:
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because there are no meaningful limitations that transform the exception into a patent eligible application. The elements merely serve to provide a general link to a technological environment (e.g., computers and the Internet) in which to carry out the judicial exception (processor, user terminals connected to cell, wireless communications—all recited at a high level of generality). Although they have and execute instructions to perform the abstract idea itself (e.g., modules, program code, etc. to automate the abstract idea), this also does not serve to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application as it merely amounts to instructions to "apply it."
Aside from such instructions to implement the abstract idea, they are solely used for generic computer operations (e.g., receiving, storing, retrieving, transmitting data), employing the computer as a tool. See FairWarning IP, LLC v. Iatric Sys., Inc., 839 F.3d 1089, 1096 (Fed. Cir. 2016) ("[T]he use of generic computer elements like a microprocessor or user interface do not alone transform an otherwise abstract idea into patent-eligible subject matter.") (citing DDR Holdings, LLC v. Hotels.com, L.P., 773 F.3d 1245,1256 (Fed. Cir. 2014)) (emphasis added).
The claims only manipulate abstract data elements into another form. They do not set forth improvements to another technological field or the functioning of the computer itself and instead use computer elements as tools to improve the functioning of the abstract idea identified above. Looking at the additional limitations and abstract idea as an ordered combination and as a whole adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Rather than any meaningful limits, their collective functions merely provide generic computer implementation of the abstract idea identified in Prong One. None of the additional elements recited "offers a meaningful limitation beyond generally linking 'the use of the [method] to a particular technological environment,' that is, implementation via computers." Alice Corp., slip op. at 16 (citing Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. 610, 611 (U.S. 2010)).
At the levels of abstraction described above, the claims do not readily lend themselves to a finding that they are directed to a nonabstract idea. Therefore, the analysis proceeds to step 2B. See BASCOM Global Internet v. AT&T Mobility LLC, 827 F.3d 1341, 1349 (Fed. Cir. 2016) ("The Enfish claims, understood in light of their specific limitations, were unambiguously directed to an improvement in computer capabilities. Here, in contrast, the claims and their specific limitations do not readily lend themselves to a step-one finding that they are directed to a nonabstract idea. We therefore defer our consideration of the specific claim limitations’ narrowing effect for step two.") (citations omitted).
MPEP 2106 Step 2B:
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception for the same reasons as presented in Step 2A Prong 2 (i.e., they amount to nothing more than a general link to a particular technological environment and instructions to apply it there). Moreover, the additional elements recited are known and conventional computing elements (processor, user terminals connected to cell, wireless communications—see published Specification ¶¶ 0019, 46, 56 describing these at a high level of generality and in a manner that indicates that the additional elements are sufficiently well-known that the specification does not need to describe the particulars of such additional elements to satisfy the statutory disclosure requirements).
The Federal Circuit has recognized that "an invocation of already-available computers that are not themselves plausibly asserted to be an advance, for use in carrying out improved mathematical calculations, amounts to a recitation of what is 'well-understood, routine, [and] conventional.'" SAP Am., Inc. v. InvestPic, LLC, 890 F.3d 1016, 1023 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (alteration in original) (citing Mayo v. Prometheus, 566 U.S. 66, 73 (2012)). Apart from the instructions to implement the abstract idea, they only serve to perform well-understood functions (e.g., receiving, storing, retrieving, transmitting data—see Specification above as well as Alice Corp.; Intellectual Ventures I LLC v. Symantec Corp., 838 F.3d 1307 (Fed. Cir. 2016); and Versata Dev. Group, Inc. v. SAP Am., Inc., 793 F.3d 1306, 1334 (Fed. Cir. 2015) covering the well-known nature of these basic computer functions).
"The use and arrangement of conventional and generic computer components recited in the claims—such as a database, user terminal, and server— do not transform the claim, as a whole, into 'significantly more' than a claim to the abstract idea itself. We have repeatedly held that such invocations of computers and networks that are not even arguably inventive are insufficient to pass the test of an inventive concept in the application of an abstract idea." Credit Acceptance Corp. v. Westlake Services, 859 F.3d 1044, 1056 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (citations and quotation marks omitted). Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide conventional computer implementation.
Dependent Claims Step 2A:
The limitations of the dependent claims but for those addressed below merely set forth further refinements of the abstract idea without changing the analysis already presented (i.e., they merely narrow the same abstract idea identified above without adding any new additional elements beyond it). Specifically, claims 2-5 recite more certain methods of organizing human activities and mental steps, and claim 4 also recites mathematical calculations. Additionally, for the same reasons as above, the limitations fail to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they use the same general link to a technological environment and instructions to implement the abstract idea as the independent claims (i.e., processor, user terminals connected to cell, wireless communications).
Claim 3 recites a base station forming the identified cell and claim 5 recites an edge apparatus which manages the identified cell. However, these are recited at a high level of generality and are part of the generic cellular communication infrastructure in which the abstract idea is applied. Moreover, they are merely used in pre-solution data gathering steps (i.e., they are solely used as a data source by which to determine how many user terminals are connected to the cell, which is the data operated on to determine whether or not to announce ticket sales as part of the abstract idea). See MPEP 2106.05(g).
Dependent Claims Step 2B:
The dependent claims merely use the same general technological environment and instructions to implement the abstract idea. Although they add the elements identified in 2A above (a base station forming the identified cell and claim 5 recites an edge apparatus which manages the identified cell), these do not amount to significantly more for the same reasons they fail to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. Moreover, the Specification also indicates this is the routine use of known components for the same reasons presented with respect to the elements in the independent claims above (see ¶¶ 0015, 20, 53 describing these at a high level of generality and without any appreciable technical specifics). Accordingly, they are not directed to significantly more than the exception itself, and are not eligible subject matter under § 101.
Novel and Non-Obvious Subject Matter
The claims recite "identifying a cell within a range based on a venue location of an event for which a ticket enables participation therein, the range corresponding to a time from a current time until a time of the event; acquiring the number of user terminals currently connected to the identified cell; determining whether or not the acquired number of user terminals is equal to or greater than the number of sellable tickets; and when it is determined that the acquired number of user terminals is equal to or greater than the number of sellable tickets, announcing to the user terminals currently connected to the cell that ticket purchase is possible."
Sennett (cited below) is the closest prior art available. Sennett teaches identifying a cell within a range based on a venue location of an event for which a ticket enables participation therein, the range corresponding to a time from a current time until a time of the event, and announcing to the user terminals currently connected to the cell that ticket purchase is possible" (see ¶ 0053). The other references cited below also teach or relate to similar aspects of promoting of tickets and other goods and services to nearby mobile users.
However, none of the references teach acquiring the number of user terminals currently connected to the identified cell; determining whether or not the acquired number of user terminals is equal to or greater than the number of sellable tickets; and when it is determined that the acquired number of user terminals is equal to or greater than the number of sellable tickets, announcing to the user terminals currently connected to the cell that ticket purchase is possible in any reasonable combination.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Grady, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 7,599,858 (Reference A of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Barnes, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2008/0227467 (Reference B of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Barnes, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 8,595,070 (Reference C of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Shinozaki, U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2011/0173074 (Reference D of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Sennett, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2014/0195355 (Reference E of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Oren, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2016/0127872 (Reference F of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Grimault, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017/0286873 (Reference G of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Shiffert, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2016/0203522 (Reference H of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Byrne, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017/0300836 (Reference I of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
DeWitt, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2016/0343032 (Reference J of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Yan, et al., U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2022/0383349 (Reference K of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Bernstein, Managing Location, Capacity, and Ticketing Systems, Standing Room Only: Marketing Insights for Engaging Performing Arts Audiences, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, Ch. 9, pgs. 187-199 (Reference U of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
Mamei, et al., Estimating attendance from cellular network data, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, Vol. 30, No. 7, 2016, pgs. 1281-1301 (Reference V of the attached PTO-892) relates to promotion of tickets for an event.
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/DANIEL VETTER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3628
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