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 a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Independent claim 5 and representative claims 1, 4 and 6 , in part is directed toward a statutory category of invention, the claim appears to be directed toward a judicial exception namely an abstract idea. Claim 5 recites invention directed to
Acquiring setting information on allocation including information on a target value; and determining based on the setting information, information indicating a correspondence relationship between each advertisement space and a brand to be allocated to each advertisement space, with respect to which brand advertisement material among a plurality of brands is to be allocated to each advertisement space,
These limitations describe marketing/sales/advertising activities directed to determining brand determination based on acquired setting information on a target value and allotting brand advertising to advertising space would be part of marketing research. Identifying brand advertisements based upon targeting criteria and allotting the identified brand advertising to advertising space would be the marketing team (or person) providing, identifying such as a visual brand related advertising and allotting it the advertising space for presentation to users.
In addition, the claimed invention determines information indicating a first correspondence relationship that maximizes a minimum value for all brands among achievement rates regarding a target rating point (TRP) for each brand under a condition that satisfies a first rule including a constraint that a gross rating point (GRP) or an individual GRP is equal to or greater than the target value, and determining, based on the information indicating the first correspondence relationship, information indicating a second correspondence relationship that minimizes a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of the achievement rates for all brands under a condition that satisfies a second rule.
These limitations describe marketing/sales/advertising activities directed to performing mathematical calculations to maximize a minimum value for all brands that satisfies a first rule, and performing mathematical calculations to minimize a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of the achievement rates for all brands under a condition that satisfies a second rule would be the marketing team (or person) providing, performing mathematical calculations to determination which brand advertising should be allotted to which advertising space for presentation to users.
Represented claims 1, 4 and 6, which do recite statutory categories (machine, product of manufacture, for example), the same analysis as above applies to these claims since the method steps are the same. However, the judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. These claims add the generic computer components (additional elements) of a system an advertisement material allocation system to perform the method addressed above (claim 1). An advertisement material allocation device to perform the method addressed above (claim 4). a transitory computer-readable medium comprising a computer executable advertisement material allocation program to perform the method addressed above (claim 6). One or more hardware processors are not positively claimed in the invention.
The transitory machine-readable medium are recited at a high-level of generality such that they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Accordingly, these additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claims are directed to an abstract idea.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of the processor, memory, and non-transitory machine-readable medium amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. The claims are not patent eligible.
When taken as an ordered combination, nothing is added that is not already present when the elements are taken individually. When viewed as a whole, the marketing activities amount to instructions applied using generic computer components.
As for dependent claims 2 – 3, these claims recite limitations that further define the same abstract idea of defining contents of the second rule, and defining minimum value and maximum will be determined for management of advertising space allotments
Accordingly, the claims recites an abstract idea.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 – 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ketchum et al. US Publication 2011/0161162.
Regarding claim 5 and representative claims 1, 4 and 6, Ketchum teaches system and method receiving an advertising goal for a broadcast advertising campaign; translating the advertising goal into one or more rules; and automatically calculating campaign settings based on the one or more rules [Ketchum. 0005]. Ketchum further teaches allocating advertising spots in a broadcast advertising market based on the calculated campaign settings. Further, the advertising goal includes one or more of brand maintenance, brand building, or a time sensitive promotion. Additionally, the advertising goal includes a marketing objective and a target audience [Ketchum. 0005] comprising:
acquiring, by an advertisement material allocation device, setting information on allocation including information on a target value (Ketchum, the advertiser wants to market the advertised product in particular regions, states, or markets. So, the advertiser would select narrowing criteria that match the geographic scope of the target advertising campaign …. Once the advertiser selects the narrowing criteria, the IMS filters the markets and displays only those that match this narrowing criteria. In another example, the advertiser wants to minimize costs.) [Ketchum, 0058]; and
determining, by the advertisement material allocation device, based on the setting information, information indicating a correspondence relationship between each advertisement space and a brand to be allocated to each advertisement space, with respect to which brand advertisement material among a plurality of brands is to be allocated to each advertisement space (Ketchum, the process receives from an advertiser of a brand that is well-established among a particular demographic and psychographic a selection of a brand maintenance market objective that targets the particular demographic and psychographic. Ketchum further teaches, an add-booking module configured to allocate advertisements based on the calculated campaign settings to advertising slots in the selected markets.) [Ketchum, 0044, 0014],
wherein the determining includes
a step of determining, by the advertisement material allocation device, information indicating a first correspondence relationship that maximizes a minimum value for all brands among achievement rates regarding a target rating point (TRP) for each brand under a condition that satisfies a first rule [Ketchum, the advertiser wants to market the advertised product in particular regions, states, or markets. So, the advertiser would select narrowing criteria that match the geographic scope of the target advertising campaign.) [Ketchum, 0058] including a constraint that a gross rating point (GRP) or an individual GRP is equal to or greater than the target value (Ketchum, The advertiser is interested in maintaining awareness amongst the particular target demographic and target psychographic. As a result, the system calculates campaign settings that focus on increasing reach at the best price. For this campaign, the process sets a high target reach, low target frequency, and low tier distribution. In many cases, the higher ranked broadcasters demand a premium for advertising slots.) [Ketchum, 0044], and
determining, by the advertisement material allocation device, based on the information indicating the first correspondence relationship, information indicating a second correspondence relationship that minimizes a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of the achievement rates for all brands under a condition that satisfies a second rule (Ketchum, if the advertiser is targeting people who are interested in sports, one of the narrowing criteria could be the top three markets for people who have consumed sports media in last 30 days. Once the advertiser selects the narrowing criteria, the IMS filters the markets and displays only those that match this narrowing criteria. In another example, the advertiser wants to minimize costs.) [Ketchum, 0058].
Regarding claim 2, as combined and under the same rationale as above, Ketchum teaches the advertisement material allocation system and method, wherein the second rule includes a constraint that the minimum value of the achievement rates for all brands in the information indicating the second correspondence relationship is equal to or greater than the minimum value of the achievement rates for all brands in the information indicating the first correspondence relationship (Ketchum, At 441, the advertiser selects the target advertising markets for the campaign. At 444, the IMS calculates the total minimum effective budget for all of the selected markets. The total minimum effective budget is the budget necessary to achieve the advertising goals for all of the target advertising markets.) [Ketchum, 0059].
Regarding claim 3, as combined and under the same rationale as above, Ketchum teaches the advertisement material allocation system and method, wherein the control unit determines, based on the information indicating the second correspondence relationship, information for a specific brand indicating a third correspondence relationship that minimizes at least one of a variation in the number of allocated advertisement spaces per day and the number of consecutive allocation spaces to a temporally adjacent program under a condition that satisfies a third rule (Ketchum, the process sets a tier distribution to allocate a lower percentage of advertisements among high ranked tiers and a higher percentage of advertisements among lower ranked tiers of broadcasters. The process also calculates campaign settings to decrease frequency.) [Ketchum, 0044].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Haberman et al. US Publication 2013/0205339 teaches system and method for dynamic content allocation and optimization.
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/NARESH VIG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3622
July 9, 2026
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