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 .
The amendment filed on 03/03/2026 has been entered. Applicant amended claims 1-20 in the amendment.
Claims 1-20 remain pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 filed on 03/03/2026 have been considered but they are deemed to be moot in view of new grounds of rejection.
Claim Objections
Claim 19 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 19, line 16, “each respective data element” should read “each respective data element from among the plurality of the data elements”;
Claim 19, line 21, “the respective data element” should read “each respective data element”;
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-20 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the assigned metadata" in line 16. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Same rejection applies to claims 10 and 19.
Regarding claim 12, claim limitation recite “the data element” in line 3, which renders the claim vague and indefinite. It is unclear whether “the data element” is referring to “each respective data element” in claim 10, line 9, or to “at least a first data element” in claim 12, line 1-2, or to different/distinct data element.
Claim 19 recites the limitation “the assigned metadata” in line 19. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 19 recites the limitation “the metadata” in line 20. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
All dependent claims are rejected as having the same deficiencies as the claims they depend from.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Prakash et al. (US 11,620,407 B2). Classifying data as PII or SPI; user may enter data into a computing system, the data may be used to build contextual information from the data; the contextual information may include information relating to location, information relating to data ownership, and/or use characteristics, which may all be collected and assembled into information relating to data classification (e.g., PII, SPI, confidential, governmental “top secret”, classified, unclassified, etc.).
Kacker et al. (US 2024/0265130 A1). Receive data access event relates to a data element, determine whether the data element is a personally identifiable information (PII) data element, predict a PII protection policy using a machine learning model, and apply the PII protection policy to the PII data element.
McCluskey et al. (US 11,393,046 B1). Store data related to a plurality of individuals, data related to any particular individual can include a user identification number of the individual, a name of the individual, a Social Security number of the individual, a home address of the individual, a birth date of the individual, an income of the individual, an employer of the individual, and many other kinds of data; the data management system organizes the data in data groups, each data group can be a data column or can include multiple data columns.
Scully et al. (US 2021/0201429 A1). Store data in Data Lake; identify a corresponding confidence level for mappings, confidence levels may be determined by predetermined thresholds; mappings of high confidence may be forwarded to Resulting Mappings and Classifications.
Rajanna et al. (US 2023/0385266 A1). Enforce data classifications such as Public, Internal only, Confidential, Restricted, Sensitive, and data subcategories such as PCI data, GDPR controls, financial data controls, or healthcare data controls.
Tutuianu et al. (US 2023/0153462 A1). Obtain an indication of a first type of sensitive data and a sensitive data presence probability threshold.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAYLEE J HUANG whose telephone number is (571)272-0080. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joon H Hwang can be reached at 571-272-4036. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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Kaylee Huang
06/23/2026
/KAYLEE J HUANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447
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