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.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. A program does not fall within any of the four categories of invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Claims 1-13 recite subject matter falling within one of the four categories of invention (Step 1). Claim 14 does not (see above).
Claims 1-14 recite:
[Claim 1] A supply chain network creation apparatus, comprising: a bill of materials creation unit that creates a bill of materials based on a transaction history including information on an order-placing company, an order-accepting company, and items traded between the order-placing company and the order-accepting company; and a supply chain network creation unit that creates a supply chain network representing a transaction relationship between the order-placing company and the order-accepting company based on the bill of materials.
[Claim 2] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bill of materials creation unit creates the bill of materials for items procured commonly by the order-placing company from the order-accepting company based on the transaction history.
[Claim 3] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising: an item categorization unit that, based on an item classification table in which items are defined in two or more classification tiers, estimates tiers in the item classification table and classifications for each tier for items being traded from the transaction history, wherein the bill of materials creation unit creates the bill of materials based on classification items estimated by the item categorization unit.
[Claim 4] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the item categorization unit determines a similarity between an item name of a first tier, which is a most detailed tier in the item classification table, and an item being traded, and classifies the item being traded under an item name of a second tier, which contains a largest number of similar items of the first tier and which is one level above the first tier.
[Claim 5] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the item categorization unit, when there is no item that is similar to the first tier, classifies the item being traded by successively increasing the tier.
[Claim 6] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates supply chain network information representing a relationship among the order-placing company, the order-accepting company, and the items handled by the order-accepting company based on the transaction history, and creates the supply chain network based on the supply chain network information.
[Claim 7] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates the supply chain network information in addition to transaction relationship information including buyer companies and supplier companies.
[Claim 8] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates the supply chain network by deleting companies not included in the bill of materials.
[Claim 9] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates the supply chain network by deleting companies not included in the bill of materials for each tier when considering the tier relationship of the order-placing company and the order-accepting company.
[Claim 10] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates display information representing a supply chain network in which the order-placing company is a parent node, the order-accepting company is a child node, and the transaction relationship is an arc.
[Claim 11] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates the display information by changing a method of displaying at least one of either the arc or the node depending on at least one of either accuracy of the transaction relationship or newness at a time when the transaction history was created.
[Claim 12] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bill of materials creation unit creates a character string inquiring about materials to be used in producing the item, and creates the bill of materials using generative AI or a search engine based on the character string.
[Claim 13] A supply chain network creation method, wherein a processor executes a program recorded in a memory to: create a bill of materials based on a transaction history including information on an order-placing company, an order-accepting company, and items traded between the order-placing company and the order-accepting company; and create a supply chain network representing a transaction relationship between the order-placing company and the order-accepting company based on the bill of materials.
[Claim 14] A program that causes a computer to realize: a function of creating a bill of materials based on a transaction history including information on an order-placing company, an order-accepting company, and items traded between the order-placing company and the order-accepting company; and a function of creating a supply chain network representing a transaction relationship between the order-placing company and the order-accepting company based on the bill of materials.
Claims 1-14, but for the recitation of the underlined additional elements, claims 1-14 recite steps that can be performed mentally. Specifically the claims recite steps whereby transaction history is analyzed and used to create bill of material information and supply chain network information. A person is mentally capable of performing the claimed analysis and identifying bills of material and supply chain relationships.
Thus claims 1-14 recite a mental process (Step 2A_1).
The recited additional elements include:
1) Computer-related implementation
A) supply chain network creation apparatus (Claim 1+)
B) various units (Claim 1+)
C) Processor, program, memory (Claim 13, 14).
2) Use of generative AI or search engine (Claim 12)
The elements related to a computer-related implementation are recited at a high degree of generality such that they amount to mere instructions to implement an abstract idea which per MPEP 2106.05(f) means they do not provide a practical application or significantly more.
Regarding the use of generative AI and/or search engines, these limitations amount to extra-solution activity because they perform necessary data gathering/output, which per MPEP 2106.05(g) means they do not provide a practical application or significantly more. They additionally do not provide significantly more because search engines and generative AI are conventional technologies (see Hu US 20250111162 A1 paragraph 12).
Per the above the additional elements do not provide a practical application or significantly more (Step 2A_2 and Step 2B) and claims 1-14 are ineligible.
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 2-5 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 2 uses the term “commonly” which is a term of degree that renders the claim indefinite. See MPEP 2173.05(b). Claims 3-5 are indefinite based on depending from claim 2.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 12-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Leidner (US 20140278706 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Leidner discloses:
[Claim 1] A supply chain network creation apparatus, comprising: a bill of materials creation unit that creates a bill of materials (fig. 6 600) based on a transaction history (paragraph 38) including information on an order-placing company, an order-accepting company, and items traded between the order-placing company and the order-accepting company (fig. 6 600 shows supplier, customer and commodity) ; and a supply chain network creation unit that creates a supply chain network representing a transaction relationship between the order-placing company and the order-accepting company based on the bill of materials (fig. 7, [0060] With reference now to FIG. 7, a first embodiment of a supply chain graph 700 is depicted. The supply chain graph 700 shows the interrelationship of a set of supplying entities 710, commodity types 720, and customer entities 730).
Regarding claim 2, Leidner discloses:
[Claim 2] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bill of materials creation unit creates the bill of materials for items procured commonly by the order-placing company from the order-accepting company based on the transaction history (paragraph 38)
Regarding claim 6, Leidner discloses:
[Claim 6] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates supply chain network information representing a relationship among the order-placing company, the order-accepting company (paragraph 60 supplier, customer), and the items handled by the order-accepting company based on the transaction history (paragraph 60 item type, paragraph 38 relationships identified based on transaction history), and creates the supply chain network based on the supply chain network information (paragraph 60).
Regarding claim 7, Leidner discloses:
[Claim 7] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates the supply chain network information in addition to transaction relationship information including buyer companies and supplier companies (paragraph 60, fig. 7).
Regarding claim 10, Leidner discloses:
[Claim 10] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates display information representing a supply chain network in which the order-placing company is a parent node, the order-accepting company is a child node, and the transaction relationship is an arc (see fig. 7 hierarchical nodes, see also paragraph 60).
Regarding claim 12, Leidner discloses:
[Claim 12] The supply chain network creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bill of materials creation unit creates a character string inquiring about materials to be used in producing the item, and creates the bill of materials using generative AI or a search engine based on the character string ([0030] In one implementation, the process of generating a supply chain graph begins with receiving as input a list of companies, which may be represented as C={"Petrol S.A."; "BP plc."; "Cargill"; "Nestle"; "Gazprom"; . . . }. For each of these companies (c.sup.1, c.sup.2, . . . ) the present invention will determine which other company (supplier) from the list of companies supplies the company (customer) with a given commodity, good, or service, or other thing supplied by a supplier to a customer (interchangeably as a "commodity") for any given commodity type T={"oil"; "gas"; "beef"; "wheat"; "palm oil"; "crude" . . . }. Determining which companies supply a company with a given commodity type can be done by instantiating a query template q, for example: q="* supplies {Commodity} to {Company2}". In the preceding example the "*" serves as a wildcard placeholder for all potential companies that supply the Commodity to Company2. The placeholder is substituted, one company at a time, for all possible placeholders (companies and commodities) in the lists C (list of companies) and T (list of commodities) for all possible q (queries) in Q (the set of queries).).
Claims 13 and 14 are rejected for the same reasons as claim 1 and see paragraph 16 regarding software/processor implementation.
Prior Art Status
Regarding claims 3-5, the prior art of record fails to disclose in combination with claim 2, an item categorization unit that, based on an item classification table in which items are defined in two or more classification tiers, estimates tiers in the item classification table and classifications for each tier for items being traded from the transaction history, wherein the bill of materials creation unit creates the bill of materials based on classification items estimated by the item categorization unit.
Regarding claims 8 and 9, the prior art of record fails to disclose in combination with claim 1, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates the supply chain network by deleting companies not included in the bill of materials.
Regarding claim 11, the prior art of record fails to disclose in combination with claim 10, wherein the supply chain network creation unit creates the display information by changing a method of displaying at least one of either the arc or the node depending on at least one of either accuracy of the transaction relationship or newness at a time when the transaction history was created.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. LI (CN 115760280 A) discloses a system for determination supply chain information. Hertz (US 20180082183 A1) discloses a system to identify supply chain relationships. Yuan (US 20150178645 A1) discloses a system to identify business relationships.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHAN A MITCHELL whose telephone number is (571)270-3117. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ryan Zeender can be reached at 571-272-6790. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NATHAN A MITCHELL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3627