DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to an application filed on November 19, 2024, in which claims 1 through 11 are pending, and ready for examination.
Acknowledgement is made of Applicant’s claim for benefit as a 371 National Stage Application of PCT/JP2023/012842, filed on March 29, 2023.
Acknowledgement is made of Applicant’s preliminary amendment filed on November 19, 2024.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on November 19, 2024 and December 20, 2024 were filed before the mailing date of a first Office Action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority based on applications filed in Japan on or about May 23, 2022.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites, “the basis of [the collation identifiers]”.
There is insufficient antecedent basis for this element in the claim(s).
Claims 2-11 are each dependent upon claim 1 and are therefore rejected under the same rationale as claim 1 based upon that dependency.
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 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea (mental process) without significantly more.
Claim 1 is directed to a device; however, said device is merely collating and aggregating data. Correlation of the data is achieved using collation identifiers. Thus, the claim simply recites a mental process of collating and aggregating data, which can be “can be performed in the human mind, or by a human using a pen and paper”. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the only other claim limitation with patentable weight is the preamble’s “processing circuitry”. The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the claimed “processing circuitry” is/are generically-recited computer element(s) that does/do not add any meaningful limitation to the aforesaid abstract idea, because it/they amount(s) to simply implementing the abstract idea on a computer.
Claim 2-11 fail to remedy the aforesaid deficiency of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. §101, and are therefore rejected under the same rationale.
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 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Perkins, et al., U.S. Pub. No. 2018/0218173 (hereinafter referred to as Perkins).
With regard to claim 1, Perkins discloses a data aggregation device that collates and aggregates data which is possessed by each of two or more organizations and which is correlated with individuals and groups, the data aggregation device comprising processing circuitry configured to (Perkins, [0017]; 0025]-[0031]; Fig. 3): collate and aggregate the data, which is correlated with collation identifiers which are identifiers for identifying the individuals and the groups, for each group on the basis of the collation identifiers (Perkins, [0025]-[0031]; Fig. 3).
With regard to claim 2, Perkins further discloses wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform a predetermined calculation on an aggregation result for each group (Perkins, [0028]; Fig. 3, Refs. 305-311).
With regard to claim 3, Perkins further discloses wherein the predetermined calculation is a calculation which is designed in advanced by a user (Perkins, [0022]-[0023]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-11 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims, and if Applicant should overcome the claim rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112 and 35 U.S.C. 101 set forth herein, supra.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: See PTO-892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to J. Brant Murphy whose telephone number is (571)272-6433. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8am - 4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amir Mehrmanesh can be reached at 571-270-3351. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/J. BRANT MURPHY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2435
February 7, 2026
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